The Verge

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge The Steam Deck OLED, the best version of Valve's gaming handheld with additional battery life, a slight increase to performance, and an eye-popping screen, can now be purchased refurbished for $110 less than it costs brand-new.Valve has just begun selling certified refurbished Steam Deck OLED models starting at $439 in the US, UK, Canada, and EU. That buys you the 512GB model with a glossy screen, while the 1TB anti-glare model can be had for $519 - less than the $549 you'd pay to get even the 512GB model brand-new. (The 1TB model normally costs $649.)Like my colleague Jay Peters just told me in Verge Slack, $439 is a steal for the OLED." Valve doesn't currently have stock of refurbished LCD models, though they can be as cheap as $279.

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge YouTube says it has expanded its AI-powered auto-dubbing to hundreds of thousands of channels" in the YouTube Partner Program that are focused on knowledge and information." YouTube says it will bring the feature to other types of content soon."What the dubs consist of depends on the language used in the original video. If it was in English to start, it'll be translated into French, German, Hindi, Italian, Spanish, Indonesian, Japanese, and Portuguese. If the starting video was made in one of those languages, YouTube will only produce an English dub.For channels that have it, AI-dubbed videos are created automatically when the original video is uploaded, but creators can opt to preview them before they're published. YouTube also provides options to unpublish or delete dubs, according to a support document for the feature.The dubs aren't very natural-sounding now, but YouTube promises they'll get better at emulating tone, emotion, and even the ambiance of the surroundings" with later updates. Here's an English dub example of a French video about making potatoes au gratin:However, YouTube cautions that this technology is still pretty new, and it won't always be perfect." The company says it's working hard to make it as accurate as possible, but there might be times when the translation isn't quite right or the dubbed voice doesn't accurately represent the original speaker."YouTube initially announced its tests of auto-dubbing with hundreds" of creators in June 2023.

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The YouTube Kids mobile app is getting a redesign that both makes it look and behave more like the standard YouTube app and lets kids browse through videos in portrait mode for the first time. It's rolling out over the next few weeks on iOS and Android, while the web and smart TV experiences stay the same.YouTube Kids launched nearly a decade ago, and its look hasn't changed much since its last major redesign in 2017. As the company said last year, this is a hefty visual and functional refresh that looks less toy-like, with elements from the recent design changes in the main YouTube app. Screenshot: Google The YouTube Kids update looks a bit more like the main YouTube app. At the top, you'll notice a newly designed carousel for familiar content filters. They're clearly labeled by topic, whether you're looking for gaming, shows, music, or the educationally inclined Explore" tab. Those buttons will occupy less horizontal space. Screenshot: The Verge Here's how the YouTube Kids app looks now, before the new update rolls out. Some of the other shortcuts that used to live at the top - such as Home, Search, and Profile - will be moved to a new navigation bar at the bottom. A new Your Stuff" page will also live in that bar and serve as a dedicated portal to find content that you've downloaded, shared, or previously watched. Parental controls and other settings will remain in dedicated views, with shortcuts for those always accessible in the upper right corner, next to the Cast button.

Illustration: The Verge In what it's calling a first-of-its-kind partnership," Google will collaborate with developers to build data centers powered by renewable energy generated on-site.It's partnering with energy company Intersect Power and investment firm TPG Rise Climate on a $20 billion initiative to develop an unspecified number of industrial parks" across the US this decade. The first one is supposed to be partially operational by 2026 and completed by 2027.If successful, it would be a big change to how data centers are typically built and operated. Google and its competitors are racing to find clean sources of electricity for energy-hungry AI data centers. But the US electricity mix is still dominated by fossil fuels; connecting new data centers to the power grid leads to more pollution as a result. With this new partnership, Google can bypass that problem by connecting directly to solar and wind farms and batteries for renewable energy.The scale of AI presents an opportunity to completely rethink data center development."To realize AI's potential, the growth in electricity demand must be met with new, clean power sources. The scale of AI presents an opportunity to completely rethink... Read the full story at The Verge.

Photo by Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images General Motors said it would no longer fund its Cruise robotaxi service as it seeks to focus its spending on autonomous vehicle development specifically for personally owned vehicles. Now Cruise employees will be combined with GM's internal teams working on advanced driver assist systems, like Super Cruise, as well as its project to develop autonomous vehicles to sell to customers for personal use.Ultimately, the project became too expensive for GM to justify the huge amounts of money spent to prop it up. And the automaker found it increasingly difficult to convince its shareholders that the money-losing operation would eventually pay off. The robotaxi subsidiary lost a staggering $3.48 billion in 2023 and has been seen by some as an albatross for the automaker, sucking up cash and lacking a clear path to profits.Given the considerable time and expense required to scale a robotaxi business in an increasingly competitive market, combining forces would be more efficient and therefore consistent with our capital allocation priorities," GM CEO Mary Barra said in a call with investors Tuesday evening.It's likely that GM's move will result in layoffs at Cruise, though none are being announced right now. What is clear is that Cruise's testing in Arizona and Texas will pause as the company decides its next move. GM will need to repurchase its remaining shares of Cruise (the automaker owns 90 percent of the company), and then Cruise's board will determine the next steps, which include restructuring, layoffs, or simply shutting down.The shutdown of Cruise's robotaxi service comes amid a turbulent time for autonomous vehicles. Tesla has said it plans to launch its own robotaxi service in 2025, though questions remain about the company's approach to the technology. While Alphabet's Waymo continues to eye new markets, other ventures have faltered. The most notable was Argo AI, which shut down in 2022 after Ford and Volkswagen pulled funding.It's likely that GM's move will result in layoffs at CruiseGM's decision to scrap its robotaxi business comes after years of profligate spending in the hopes of creating a new mobility division that could bring in new revenues for the company. The automaker has invested approximately $10 billion in Cruise since first acquiring it in 2016, Barra said.You've got to really understand: the cost of running a robotaxi fleet, which is is fairly significant, [is] not our core business," she added.Cruise's commercial robotaxi service has been on hiatus since October 2023, when one of its driverless vehicles in San Francisco struck and then dragged a pedestrian over 20 feet, severely injuring her. The company has since resumed autonomous testing with safety drivers in Arizona and Texas and had planned to relaunch in California as well.But even as other automakers cut their losses, Barra doubled down. In 2022, she took the stage at the annual Consumer Electronics Show and boldly declared that GM would sell fully autonomous vehicles to regular people by the middle of the decade. (It seems unlikely the company will meet that deadline.) And while investors have encouraged GM to cut their losses with Cruise, she has stuck by the project. This past year, Barra has directed a reorganization at Cruise, ousting its founders and replacing them with auto and tech industry veterans.When it finishes acquiring the remaining shares, GM anticipates achieving cost savings of $1 billion annually, GM chief financial officer Paul Jacobson said.

Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge Even with the abundance of streaming services we're using now, Windows PC storage can still fill up quickly. Games, photos, movies, and apps can take up significant chunks of room, and before you know it, that SSD is starting to run low on free space. And a cluttered PC drive can impact performance as well as Windows updates.You don't have to accept the slow decline of available storage space on Windows, though - there's plenty you can do about it, whether that's using built-in tools provided by Microsoft or keeping your files and folders better organized.Managing files and folders Screenshot: Microsoft Windows can get you started with file organization - but there's much more you can do. If you've never given much thought to how your files and folders are organized, now might be the time to change that. Whether it's a physical filing cabinet, a fridge freezer, or a Windows PC, having a system in place makes it quicker to get to what you want. It also means you can more easily identify data you're done with and can safely delete.The organizational structure you use is completely up to you. Windows itself gets you started with default folders for... Read the full story at The Verge.

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Google Docs is rolling out 40 new templates to make your documents more visually appealing. The new pageless templates cover a wider range of scenarios, whether you're writing a blog post, creating a project roadmap, or making an interview guide.Google says its high-quality, visually modern" templates come with preset layouts and styles. They also make use of some of the newer features within Google Docs, such as tabs to better organize documents and placeholder chips that let others know the information they need to fill in. GIF: Google I'm not seeing the new templates just yet, but Google notes that the full rollout could take up to 15 days. Still, I'm glad to see Google adding more designs, as I've always felt Docs fell short in terms of template variety and quality when compared to Microsoft Word and even Canva.You can access templates in Docs by selecting the Templates" button at the top of a new document or by heading to File > New > From template gallery. The new templates will be available to everyone with a personal Google account, as well as Google Workspace customers and Workspace Individual subscribers.Google plans on rolling out even more high-quality Docs template options in the coming months."

The company closes out a difficult year with this terrific soundbar that proves Sonos still knows how to do hardware. Software, though... Read the full story at The Verge.

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge A new California bill could require social media platforms to display warning labels about the potential risk to kids and teens. The bill (AB 56), introduced by Assembly member Rebecca Bauer-Kahan and California Attorney General Rob Bonta, is meant to help address the growing mental health crisis" among young people.If passed, social networks would have to show a black box warning" to all users, regardless of age, during their first time using the platform. The warning, which platforms must display for 90 seconds or more, would then show up at least once a week following its initial appearance.After issuing a public advisory about social media platforms last year, US Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy proposed putting tobacco-like warning labels on social networks in response to studies that link social platforms to mental health issues in young people. Nearly 40 US states announced their support of the proposal in September.Social media companies have demonstrated an unwillingness to tackle the mental health crisis, instead digging in deeper into harnessing addictive features and harmful content for the sake of profits," Attorney General Bonta said in the press release. Warning labels alone are not a panacea, they are another tool in the toolbox to address the growing mental health crisis and protect future generations of children."In October, Bonta and several other state attorneys general filed a lawsuit against TikTok over claims it hurts the mental health of children by designing addicting features and promoting things like beauty filters. Meta is also facing a lawsuit from dozens of states, alleging the company misled users about the safety of its products.While some states have moved forward with their own laws regulating the use of social media, state attorneys general are urging Congress to pass the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA).

Genki's Moonbase charger can delivery up to 140W of power through one of its USB-C ports. | Image: Genki Genki has announced its first power strip, capable of charging up to seven devices simultaneously using three AC outlets and four USB-C ports. The Moonbase can deliver up to 240W of power through its USB-C ports - maxing out at 140W to a single device - and will be available with custom USB-C cables featuring built-in lighting, making it easier to plug devices in when it's dark.The Moonbase is available for preorder now through an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign with delivery expected in April 2025. Full retail pricing for the power strip alone is expected to be $120, but it's discounted to $88 for those who preorder early, or $129 if you also want a set of four of Genki's Moonlink USB-C cables.Genki might not be a household name, but since 2019 the company has successfully crowdfunded several products including portable Nintendo Switch docks and smaller USB-C chargers.Measuring about 7.7 inches in length, the Moonbase features three AC outlets on top that are generously spaced to accommodate chunkier AC adapters and multi-port chargers. The AC outlets feature a transparent design with LEDs that change color at the push of a button. Below the outlets, the power strip incorporates an energy efficient GaN (Gallium Nitride) charger delivering a total of 240W of power through its four side USB-C ports.The maximum power output of an individual USB-C port is limited to 140W, and that's when just two of them are in use. With devices plugged into all four of the Moonbase's USB-C ports, two can deliver a maximum of 100W, while the other two top out at just 20W. Image: Genki One of the four Moonlink cables includes a built-in display and the ability to handle 240W of power. Not every USB-C cable can handle over 100W of power, so Genki created an optional set of upgraded USB-C Moonlink cables to go along with the Moonbase. Three of the cables support 100W charging and come in small (1-foot), medium (3.3-feet), and large (6-foot) lengths, while the Moonlink+ can handle 240W and includes a built-in LED display showing the current power draw.With one end plugged in, all of the Moonlink cables glow on their other end to help illuminate the USB-C port on the device you want to power - the lighting turns off once both ends are plugged in. Although the Moonlink cables are available as part of a bundle with the Moonbase power strip, you only get one of each of the four versions - unfortunately, you can't pick and choose which of the cables will work best for your setup.

Image: Solos Solos' camera-equipped smart glasses have arrived to provide some much-needed competition against Meta's Ray-Bans. The AirGo Vision is available now starting at $299 - the same price as the Ray-Ban Meta eyewear tech - and features integration with OpenAI's GPT-4o AI model to identify and answer questions about the people, objects, and text seen by the camera.That allows the AirGo Vision to do things like translate text into different languages, provide directions to nearby locations or landmarks, and give the wearer more information about what they're looking at. Solos says the glasses can also be integrated with other AI models like Google Gemini and Anthropic's Claude, something the company previously teased when it announced the AirGo Vision in June.Like the Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses, the AirGo Vision camera can capture photos on demand. A swappable frame system means that you can wear the glasses with or without the camera - the battery and touch sensors used to control the device are housed in the frame's USB-C chargeable hinges, providing an audio-only option when paired with the standard, no-camera-included AirGo frames.One thing we promised to deliver on was allowing consumers to have control of their experience with AI and smart technology, particularly with privacy options in mind," Solos co-founder Kenneth Fan said in the announcement. That's why we developed frames that can easily be changed to decide when and where a camera may be appropriate without sacrificing any of the fun features." Image: Solos Here's a frontal view of the Krypton 1 frame style... Image: Solos ...compared to the slimmer Krypton 2 design. Solos says the Vision comes with the option to purchase the frame only for $149 or bundle a camera frame with a regular frame for enhanced privacy, priced at $349." It's available in seven colors and two frame styles: Krypton 1, which sports a large square design with prominent nose pads, and the slimmer Krypton 2.

Image: Epic Games Fortnite players have finally started receiving refunds as part of a settlement Epic Games reached with the Federal Trade Commission, which claimed the developer tricked players into making in-game purchases. So far, the FTC says it sent out more than 600,000 payments totaling $72 million, and many players, including some of us here at The Verge, have already reported receiving payments.In 2022, Epic Games agreed to pay $245 million to compensate players affected by Fortnite's alleged counterintuitive, inconsistent, and confusing button configuration" that the FTC said led to unwanted purchases. The FTC is currently sending payments to players who submitted valid claims before October 8th, 2024, but it's reviewing the claims it received after that date.There's still time to file a claim for a Fortnite refund if you haven't yet, as the FTC is giving players until January 10th, 2025 to submit a claim. You can find more information about the refunds on the FTC's website.

Image: Alex Parkin / The Verge Every once in a while, we turn The Vergecast inward. Not only are we constantly covering and discussing what's happening in the tech and media worlds, we're also living it ourselves. We're trying to navigate changes in platforms and economies, and figure out the best ways to do our work and share it with you. And it's complicated! So, once a year or so, we get into the weeds of how it all works for us here at The Verge.On this episode of The Vergecast, it's all inside baseball, all the time. Helen Havlak, our publisher (and everybody's boss), joins the show to talk about our new subscription: why we're doing it now, how we decided on a price, why we're not getting rid of all the ads, and what we're thinking about going forward.After that, Nilay Patel, our editor-in-chief and your Vergecast co-host and friend, joins to talk about everything else you've been wondering. We talk about host-read ads, what we do during ad breaks, how The Verge is like a Montessori, what he thinks about our redesign two years later, and more. We got so many good questions - thanks to everyone who called and emailed! - and we couldn't get to them all, but we tried to answer as many as we could.If you want to know more about what The Verge is up to, and where we think (gestures widely) all this is headed, here are a few links to get you started:

Image: Yelp Yelp is introducing some new AI features that aim to help users discover new establishments and narrow down customer reviews. The AI-powered Review Insights," announced today as part of Yelp's end-of-year product release, quickly summarize how customers feel about certain aspects of a business, such as food quality, service, ambiance, and wait times.Review insights are aggregated sentiment scores that provide a quick overview of topics using facial icons - positive, neutral, and critical - displayed above a business's reviews. Yelp users can click specific topics to read related reviews that focus on those aspects of the business, such as what customers are saying about the food or service.Yelp says the feature is available on iOS for restaurant, food, and nightlife businesses, and will be expanded to services categories next year." Review insights builds on the AI-powered review summaries feature that Yelp introduced in January.When searching for a local restaurant, you might have a specific aspect in mind that matters most to you - be it the vibe of the space, how long it takes to get a table, or the quality of the food," said Yelp's Chief Product Officer Craig Saldanha in the announcement blog. Even when a review doesn't explicitly mention one of the topics, the LLM understands the context in the review to identify and surface the relevant topic and sentiment." Image: Yelp Heads up - Yelp will autoplay and unmute the full-screen user videos on the iOS app homepage. The home feed search bar on iOS now features a trending drop-down that highlights the most popular terms other local users are looking for, which will be coming to Android early next year." The iOS app home page has also been expanded to include new reviews, photos, and full-screen video spotlights uploaded by other users that surface recent experiences. Yelp says it's rolling out an AI-powered update that better tailors the home feed to your preferences" in the coming weeks.

Image: Google Google's quantum computing lab just achieved a major milestone. On Monday, the company revealed that its new quantum computing chip, Willow, is capable of performing a computing challenge in less than five minutes - a process Google says would take one of the world's fastest supercomputers 10 septillion years, or longer than the age of the universe.That's a big jump from 2019 when Google announced its quantum processor could complete a mathematical equation in three minutes, as opposed to 10,000 years on a supercomputer. IBM disputed the claim at the time.Along with more powerful performance, researchers also found a way to reduce errors, something Google calls one of the greatest challenges in quantum computing." Instead of bits, which represent either 1 or 0, quantum computing uses qubits, a unit that can exist in multiple states at the same time, such as 1, 0, and anything in between.As noted by Google, qubits are prone to errors because they have a tendency to rapidly exchange information with their environment." However, Google's researchers discovered a way to reduce errors by introducing more qubits to a system and were able to correct them in real time. Their findings were published in Nature.This historic accomplishment is known in the field as below threshold' - being able to drive errors down while scaling up the number of qubits," Google Quantum AI founder Hartmut Neven writes on Google's blog. You must demonstrate being below threshold to show real progress on error correction, and this has been an outstanding challenge since quantum error correction was introduced by Peter Shor in 1995."

Photo by Ashley Carman / The Verge Spotify has officially shut down its Car Thing accessory that offered simple and slick control over music and playlists while driving, and it's giving owners just over a month (January 14th) to reach out to the company and get a refund. The device started to display its final words early today as enthusiasts mourn the loss of the device on its dedicated subreddit.The final message on the Car Thing reads:

Photo: David Pierce / The Verge Meta has announced the v72 Quest update, and it's packed with features like faster hand tracking, an easier way to pair your headset with a Windows 11 PC, and better support for showing your keyboard while you're in full virtual reality. The update is rolling out gradually, which also goes for certain features so you may not be able to use them immediately.Meta says you can now connect to a paired PC with the Quest's Remote Desktop feature simply by looking at it and tapping the Connect" button that appears above your keyboard. That's similar to how it works on the Vision Pro, but here, you'll need the Mixed Reality Link app installed on your computer before you can pair the devices together from within your Quest headset's Settings app. The feature requires Windows 11 22H2 and newer. Image: Meta Now you can connect to your PC just by looking at it. Also, in Quest v72, the company says it's rolling out a more general keyboard tracking system" that should detect and let any keyboard around you appear through a passthrough window" while you're in a virtual environment, similar to the Vision Pro. Quest headsets have had a feature that shows a virtual version of your keyboard where your real one is since 2021, but that has only ever worked with specific keyboards.Meta also says it has made the hand cursor more stable when navigating, pinching to select things, and pinching and dragging windows. The company also says it's now easier to use your hands while in confined spaces and that it added a hand ray visualization" to help find and target things with the cursor.There is a little bit more in the update, too, including new live captions for calls from the People app and the addition of direct messaging in the Instagram app. Meta also added a Media Gallery app for viewing your images, videos (spatial included), and screenshots.

A thin layer of ice thaws on a puddle in the sunshine in Bavaria, Marktoberdorf. | Photo: Getty Images Scientific advisers to the European Commission are calling for a moratorium across the EU on efforts to artificially cool Earth through solar geoengineering. That includes controversial technologies used to reflect sunlight back into space, primarily by sending reflective particles into the atmosphere or by brightening clouds.Proponents argue that this can help in the fight against climate change, especially as planet-heating greenhouse gas emissions continue to climb. But small-scale experiments have triggered backlash over concerns that these technologies could do more harm than good.The European Commission asked its Group of Chief Scientific Advisors (GCSA) and European Group on Ethics in Science and New Technologies (EGE) to write up their opinions on solar geoengineering, which were published today alongside a report synthesizing what little we know about how these technologies might work.Experiments have triggered backlash over concerns that these technologies could do more harm than goodThere's insufficient scientific evidence" to show that solar geoengineering can actually prevent climate change, says the opinion written by the GCSA.Given the currently very high... Read the full story at The Verge.

Will Manchester City's next uniform feature AI-generated cats? | Screenshot: Puma AI Creator Manchester City is holding a competition that asks fans to generate its future kit design with AI. Players will wear the winning design during the 2026-2027 season as City's official third kit, and it will even be sold to fans.The club partnered with Puma to launch a text-to-image uniform generator powered by the AI company DeepObjects. To use the tool, you'll have to create an account and enter a prompt that describes the look you're going for. You then have to choose a style the AI will use when generating your design, such as abstract," emotive brushstrokes," or dream visions." Screenshot: Puma AI Creator This wasn't quite what I was envisioning when I entered a prompt for soccerballs shooting through space like stars on a galaxy background." The Puma AI Creator will then generate four different design options that appear on a virtual uniform, allowing you to customize the collars, trim colors, and badges.You get 15 credits to create designs (generating one design costs one credit), but you can only enter two of your creations in the contest, which ends December 20th. Fan ratings, along with experts from Manchester City and Puma will help determine the winner. Image: Manchester City City players designed this goalkeeper kit with AI. Manchester City says its players, Ederson, Stefan Ortega, and Rico Lewis first used the Puma AI Creator to design a goalkeeper kit creatively inspired by the net of a football goal." It will be the first AI-generated soccer uniform to be worn on the pitch, according to the club.The announcement comes at an awkward time for City, which is mired in a poor run of form and awaiting the verdict of an investigation into breaching Premier League financial rules.

Donald Trump speaks with Kristen Welker on Meet the Press. | Photo: Peter Kramer / NBC via Getty Images President-elect Donald Trump gave a murky answer when NBC's Kristen Welker asked whether he would protect TikTok from its impending ban during a Meet the Press interview on Sunday. He didn't say he would save the app from its ban but did seem to imply that ByteDance should sell it.After its argument that the ban is unconstitutional came up short in the DC Circuit Court of Appeals last week, ByteDance is requesting an injunction to stop the ban from taking effect until the Supreme Court can hear its appeal, and it now faces an uphill legal battle. If ByteDance's motion isn't granted, it has to sell TikTok by January 19th or face its expulsion from the US.Welker asked Trump what he would do after ByteDance's failed appeal of the ban:

This meat-handed mess was generated using DaVinci AI with the prompt a photorealistic person looking at their phone with a disgusted expression." | Image: DaVinci AI / The Verge Many high-ranking AI apps feel like an attempted cash grab, and it's not easy to spot the trash from the treasure. Read the full story at The Verge.

The NYPD released this photo of the person of interest in the case. | Image: NYPD Police have arrested Luigi Mangione, a 26-year-old software developer, in connection with the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. Mangione, of Maryland, was detained at a McDonald's in Altoona, Pennsylvania on Monday morning.Mangione was taken into custody on local firearm charges, New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch told reporters. He has not been charged in connection with the shooting but is believed to be our person of interest," Tisch said.Police have been searching for Thompson's killer for nearly a week, despite the shooting taking place in public outside a Manhattan hotel. The manhunt has thus far relied on just a few grainy images of a man whose face is largely obscured by a mask and hoodie. Investigators have reportedly been looking for more surveillance images of the suspect to load into facial recognition software.Police were led to Mangione via a combination of old-school detective work and new age technology," Tisch said. We deployed drones, K9 units, and scuba divers. We leveraged the domain awareness system, argos cameras, and conducted aviation canvases."Despite scant visual evidence, a McDonald's employee recognized Mangione on Monday morning and called police, the New York Times reports. He was just sitting there eating," Joseph Kenny, the New York Police Department's chief of detectives, said at a press briefing Monday.Mangione reportedly had a gun, a silencer, and four fake IDs in his possession. The gun appeared to be a 3D-printed ghost gun," Kenny told reporters. After being apprehended, Mangione showed police a fake New Jersey ID, Kenny said. The ID was the same one used to check into a hostel in Manhattan on November 24th, eight days before the shooting. Sources also tell the New York Post that he was carrying a manifesto" criticizing the US healthcare industry.Three bullets recovered from the scene of the shooting had deny," defend," and depose" written on them in permanent marker, two police officials told the Associated Press last week. Police later clarified that one of the bullets had delay" written on it, not defend." The words are reminiscent of Delay, Deny, Defend: What Insurance Companies Don't Pay Claims and What You Can Do About It, the title of a 2010 book by Rutgers Law professor Jay M. Feinman.The shooting's apparent anti-insurance motivation has led to expressions of support across the political spectrum for the assailant. Online sleuths have identified several online profiles that appear to be linked to Mangione, including a Goodreads account on which he left a favorable review of Industrial Society and Its Future, the manifesto written by Ted Kaczynski.

Image: Rivian When I first started testing electric vehicles, finding a charging station was the means to an end. I didn't care what it looked like or what neighborhood it was in - it was a minor miracle that I found a charger, any charger, to juice up. But now consumers want more. Heck, I want more, and I don't even own an EV. After all, this is a place where you'll spend at least 20 minutes to shove some electrons into your vehicle. Is a bathroom too much to ask for?Rivian has heard the call and has answered with its own chain of outpost charging stations. The first one opened up in Yosemite, California, this past summer, and now one is right in my own backyard in Joshua Tree, just six miles away from the town's national park entrance. Charge upFirst, let's talk about charging. There are 12 900-volt 300kW CCS chargers, and the outpost is open to any EV, although Teslas will need an adapter. There is one pullthrough spot for folks with a trailer, but if others are charging across the lot from that space, it might be a tight turn for longer rigs. Rivian owners can pay through the app or tap their credit cards at the charger at 46 cents per kWh, while non-Rivian cars can tap... Read the full story at The Verge.

Image: Netflix Ustwo returns with a sequel that looks to evolve the puzzle franchise, all while continuing to offer a sanctuary in your pocket. Read the full story at The Verge.

Free users can still browse a feed of AI-generated videos created by the community. | Screenshot: OpenAI OpenAI launched Sora, its text-to-video AI model, on Monday as part of its 12-day ship-mas" product release series, as The Verge previously reported it would. It's available today on Sora.com for ChatGPT subscribers in the US and most other countries," and a new model, Sora Turbo. This updated model adds features like generating video from text, animating images, and remixing videos.With a ChatGPT Plus subscription, OpenAI says you can generate up to 50 priority videos (1,000 credits) at resolutions up to 720p with 5-second durations. The $200 per month ChatGPT Pro subscription that launched last week comes with unlimited generations" and up to 500 priority videos while bumping the resolution to 1080p and the duration to 20 seconds. The more expensive plan also allows subscribers to download videos without a watermark and perform up to five generations simultaneously.OpenAI first teased its text-to-video AI model, Sora, in February, and earlier today, Marques Brownlee, aka MKBHD, confirmed the launch with a preview based on his experiences testing Sora so far.During the livestream, OpenAI showed off Sora's new explore page with a feed of AI-generated videos created by other community members. The company highlighted a feature called storyboards" that let you generate videos based on a sequence of prompts, as well as the ability to turn photos into videos. OpenAI also demonstrated a remix" tool that lets you tweak Sora's output with a text prompt, along with a way to blend" two scenes together with AI.OpenAI says videos generated with Sora will have visible watermarks and C2PA metadata to indicate they're made with AI. Before uploading an image or video to Sora, OpenAI prompts you to check off an agreement that says what you're uploading doesn't contain people under 18, explicit or violent content, and copyrighted material. It says the misuse of media uploads" could result in an account ban or suspension.We obviously have a big target on our back as OpenAI," OpenAI vice president of research Aditya Ramesh said during the livestream. We want to prevent illegal activity of Sora, but we also want to balance that with creative expression. We know that... will be an ongoing challenge, we might not get it perfect on day one. We're starting a little conservative, and so if our moderation doesn't quite get it right, just give us that feedback."If you don't have a ChatGPT subscription, you'll still be able to browse through the feed of AI-generated videos created by other people using Sora. While the model will become available in the US and many other countries today, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said that it may be a while" for a launch in most of Europe and the UK."The release of Sora comes just a week after a group of artists, who claimed to be part of the company's alpha testing program, leaked the product in protest of being used by OpenAI for what they claim was unpaid R&D and PR."

Image: The Verge OpenAI's highly-anticipated AI text-to-video generator, Sora, will become available to everyone today. In a video posted on Monday, Marques Brownlee confirmed its imminent release and detailed his experience using Sora over the past few weeks, calling the results horrifying and inspiring at the same time."OpenAI first revealed Sora in February but only made the tool available to a select number of visual artists, designers, and filmmakers to start.Brownlee shows how Sora can convert your text prompt into a video, which you can then customize with additional text prompts as part of its remix" tool. You can also use Sora to transform a photo into a video, as well as use its storyboard feature to string together" several text prompts that Sora will attempt to blend into cohesive scenes.During his video, Brownlee points out that Sora currently struggles with generating realistic physics and often shows objects that disappear or pass through each other. He also found that Sora often rejects prompts that include public figures and copyrighted characters.Sora will launch today, and will most likely be announced during the 12 days of ship-mas" video OpenAI plans on releasing at 1PM ET. Last Thursday, OpenAI announced a $200 / month ChatGPT Pro subscription and the full release of its o1 reasoning model.

Cath Virginia / The Verge China is investigating Nvidia over antitrust violations, reportedly over claims the chipmaker failed to follow conditions set during China's approval for its $6.9 billion acquisition of Israeli network hardware company Mellanox in 2020.While announcing the DGX A100 GPU after acquiring Mellanox, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said this while explaining its importance to his company:

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge Friend just raised another $5.4 million to bring AI friends into the real world. Read the full story at The Verge.

Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photos from Getty Images A court rejected arguments against forcing a sale of the massive Chinese-owned social network. Read the full story at The Verge.

Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman at the UK AI Safety Summit in November 2023. | Photo by Leon Neal / Getty Images Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman disagrees with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman's recent claim in a Reddit AMA that artificial general intelligence, or AGI, is possible on today's hardware. While AGI is plausible," he tells The Verge's Nilay Patel in the latest Decoder episode that it could take as long as 10 years to achieve.With current hardware defined by Nilay as within one or two generations of what we have now, I would say," Suleyman replied, explaining why he thinks that's unlikely:

The Raspberry Pi 500 computer keyboard starts at $90, but you'll need to add your own mouse, power supply, and screen for that price. | Image: Raspberry Pi Raspberry Pi has announced an upgraded version of its compact computer-in-a-keyboard, adding the new features and performance improvements of the Raspberry Pi 5 microcomputer it introduced last September.The Raspberry Pi 500, which is available now starting for $90, is $20 more expensive than the Raspberry Pi 400 that debuted in late 2020. That extra cost gets you a 2.4GHz 64-bit quad-core Arm Cortex-A76 processor and 8GB of RAM. If you want more than just the computer keyboard, a $120 Desktop Kit includes it plus a matching mouse, a 27W USB-C power supply, a single micro HDMI cable, and a printed copy of the Raspberry Pi Beginner's Guide book. Image: Raspbery Pi The Raspberry Pi Monitor features a 15.6-inch full HD IPS panel and built-in speakers. The company is also introducing a display for those looking to buy a $220 all-in-one desktop solution. The $100 Raspberry Pi Monitor features a 15.6-inch full HD IPS panel with a built-in pair of 1.2W speakers and a folding stand. The display can be powered directly from a Raspberry Pi microcomputer with a USB port that outputs 1.5A at 5V, which includes the new Raspberry Pi 500 computer and its predecessor. But brightness will be limited to 60 percent while volume maxes out at 50 percent. With its own power supply -which you'll need to buy separately - you'll get full volume and brightness. Image: Raspberry Pi The Raspberry Pi 500's keyboard features a compact tenkeyless design with its various ports accessible on the back. Other features of the Raspberry Pi 500 computer keyboard include an 800MHz VideoCore VII GPU, a 40-pin Raspberry Pi GPIO connector for attaching peripherals, support for 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 5.0, two USB 3.0 ports, one USB 2.0 port, a gigabit ethernet port, and a single USB-C port that's only used for power. There are also a pair of micro HDMI ports that can drive two 4K displays at 60Hz each, and a microSD card slot that comes with a 32GB card preloaded with the Debian-based Raspberry Pi operating system.The new Raspberry Pi 500 won't entirely replace the older Raspberry Pi 400, which is being kept around with a price drop from $70 to $60. The Raspberry Pi 400 Personal Computer Kit, which includes additional accessories like a mouse and power supply, is also getting a price cut from $100 to $80.

Illustration: The Verge Reddit is launching a new AI-powered search tool called Reddit Answers to help you more easily find information on the platform. The tool, similar to other AI search products, responds to queries by generating well-formatted responses and showing links to its sources.But the distinction with Reddit Answers is that it sources things directly from Reddit, which means it could be a way to skip Google and get information directly from the source. Reddit has already been cracking down on where you can search for things from Reddit, and Google is the only major search engine that shows recent Reddit results. But Reddit probably would prefer if you did searches right on its platform, and Reddit Answers might prove to be a good way to do so.Reddit Answers will initially roll out to a limited number of users" in the US and in English, and it will be available on the web (not on Old Reddit) and iOS. (We're working on Android as we speak," Serkan Piantino, Reddit's VP of product, said in an interview.) Reddit plans to bring the tool to more languages and locations in the future," according to a blog post.Reddit gave me access to a test version of Reddit Answers, and while I haven't been able to mess around with it very much, I've liked what I've seen. There's a big box to ask a query, but the initial Reddit Answers page also floats a bunch of suggested searches you can click on, like favorite Nintendo character of all time," best mystery novels of 2025," and tips for flying with a baby for the first time."I clicked that last one, and the tool quickly pulled together a list and some bulleted suggestions with hyperlinks on the text and an arrow to click to see the source of the information. When you click either, a sidebar pops up showing the exact post where the information comes from. Screenshot by Jay Peters / The Verge This is from a test version of Reddit Answers, so things might look a tad different when you try it. But you can get the gist. A Reddit site search for the same query on Google, on the other hand, just gave me a standard long list of links to evaluate and click through. On its face, Google's version, which doesn't have the summaries or bullet points, isn't as immediately informative as Reddit Answers. But personally, I'm pretty skeptical of AI summaries anyway - they can make some pretty bad errors! - so for me, the Google results are still perfectly fine as a way to explore some potentially useful posts on Reddit. Screenshot by Jay Peters / The Verge My Reddit site search on Google. Reddit Answers can also pick up on things happening on Reddit within minutes, according to spokesperson Tim Rathschmidt, so there's also a chance responses to your queries will have timely results. I haven't had much luck with that; on Friday, for example, I asked who won yesterday's NFL game," and instead of pulling up answers about Thursday's Packers-Lions game, it included details on the Eagles-Ravens game that happened on December 1st.That might have just been a quirk of the product not being fully ready yet. In my testing, though, Reddit Answers has been much more useful as a jumping off point to dig into a more general topic on Reddit rather than an up-to-the-minute search tool. And while Reddit Answers is useful, I'm not sure yet if it's good enough for me to change my habits around using Google to search for things on Reddit.

Image: Epic Games Indie game storefront Itch.io went offline early Monday morning after what it described as a bogus phishing report. While the game store's servers were still online during the outage, the domain for the website pointed towards IP addresses that itch.io doesn't own - making it inaccessible for most people.After going offline at around 2AM ET, the site seemed to come back at around 7AM ET. Itch.io blames pop culture collectibles company Funko for the issues in a post on X, because they use some trash AI-powered' Brand Protection Software called Brand Shield that created some bogus Phishing report to our registrar."

Michelle Yeoh in Star Trek: Section 31. | Image: Paramount Plus It's the first week of December, and the end of the year is coming in fast and with a lot to look forward to at theaters this month. That very cool-looking Lord of the Rings anime hits US theaters on the 13th; Sonic the Hedgehog 3 follows on the 20th; and I'm deeply excited to see Nosferatu on December 25th. (If you're not with me on that last one, give Matt Zoller Seitz's RogerEbert.com review of it a read and get back to me.)While I'm waiting to go be unnerved by Robert Eggers' new spooky vampire movie, let's take a look at some good trailers from the last week.Star Trek: Section 31I'll admit that the biggest appeal for me about this straight-to-streaming spy movie spinoff of Star Trek: Discovery is Michelle Yeoh as Emperor Philippa Georgiou. She's just having so much fun in this trailer. The trailers haven't revealed yet what threat she'll be facing, other than being forced to do teamwork, but it seems like it'll be pretty heavy on the rag-tag team of antiheroes action thing.The Olatunde Osunsanmi-directed movie also stars Omari Hardwick, Kacey Rohl, Sven Ruygrok, Humberly Gonzalez, Rob Kazinsky, and Sam Richardson. It premieres on Paramount Plus starting January 24th.SeveranceI was late to the Severance party, having finally finished it a few months ago, so I can only imagine how eager people who saw its cliffhanger ending have been to see the story continue. Well, the second season of creator Dan Erickson's bizarro sci-fi drama is almost here, and it looks like it's probably going to bring answers, with even more mystery heaped on top of it.All of the first season's main characters, including Mark (Adam Scott), Dylan (Zach Cherry), Helly (Britt Lower), and Irving (John Turturro) are returning, and they'll be joined by characters played by the likes of Alia Shawkat, Gwendoline Christie, and Bob Balaban. Season two of Severance premieres January 17th on Apple TV Plus.InvincibleThe third season of Invincible will see a stronger, older Mark Grayson (Steven Yeun) tell off GDA director Cecil Stedman (Walton Goggins) and episodes that show creator Robert Kirkman hopes will each feel like a finale. And there's no season break this time around.The show debuts with three episodes February 6th on Amazon Prime, with new episodes releasing every Thursday after until March 13th.The Wheel of TimeThe Wheel of Time continues its retelling of the Robert Jordan fantasy epic on March 13th next year. In its third season, the show follows Joshua Stradowski's Rand al'Thor - the Dragon Reborn" - and Moiraine Damodred (Rosamund Pike) as they go into the Aiel Waste. It's been more than two decades since I read the book series, so I couldn't spoil what happens there for you if I wanted to, but I seem to recall this was a fairly dark time in the series.The GorgeWho knows what evil is in The Gorge's, uh, gorge, but it's apparently contained well enough that humanity only needs two snipers - who aren't allowed to interact with each other - stationed on either side of it to make sure it stays there. The snipers, Levi (Miles Teller) and Drasa (Anya Taylor-Joy), do interact and fall for eachother, then end up in the gorge. Oops!Scott Derrickson directs the movie, which also stars Sigourney Weaver, Sope Dirisu, and William Houston. It premieres February 14th on Apple TV Plus.Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuXGiant robot anime fans rejoice: there's a new Mobile Suit Gundam coming next year. It's called Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX, and it's produced by Khara, the studio behind the Rebuild of Evangelion films.The weird name references a Gundam called the gMS- GQuuuuuuX. The show will follow a highschooler - named Yuzuriha Machu" Amate (Tomoyo Kurosawa) - who learns to co-pilot the building-sized, sword-wielding robot with pilot Shuji Ito (Shimba Tsuchiya). Some of its episodes will head to Japanese theaters on January 17th.