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You won't have to worry about how your hair looks when using the Game Boy Camera as a webcam. It will always look bad. | Screenshot: Epilogue The 26-year-old Game Boy Camera is still embraced by some photographers seeking a lo-fi aesthetic, and soon, it could serve double duty as a webcam for anyone who wants to show up to a video call looking like a low-res pixelated mess.This is made possible using the GB Operator: a USB dock that allows Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance cartridges to be played on a computer (or the Steam Deck) through an app called Playback and the open-source mGBA emulator. The dock can also back up save game data or easily extract photos captured by the Game Boy Camera.Epilogue, the company behind it, shared a short video of the new feature on X and told Time Extension, We now have a live feed from the Game Boy Camera, but still need to... Continue reading...

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Twilio says someone has obtained phone numbers associated with its two-factor authentication service (2FA), Authy, as reported earlier by TechCrunch. In a security alert on Monday, Twilio warns that the threat actors" may try to use the stolen phone numbers to carry out phishing attacks and other scams.The incident follows a 2022 data breach that occurred after a phishing campaign tricked employees into disclosing their login credentials. The attackers accessed data from 163 Twilio accounts and managed to access and register additional devices on 93 Authy accounts.Twilio traced this leak back to an unauthenticated endpoint" that it has since secured. Last week, the threat actor ShinyHunters published a list of 33 million phone... Continue reading...

The update brings mixed reality spatial computing to the mainstream on the Meta Quest 3. | Image: Meta Mark Zuckerberg announced on Wednesday that version 67 of Horizon OS is rolling out with an experimental feature allowing Quest owners to multitask with up to six virtual windows. Once enabled (by going to Settings, then Experimental, and toggling it on), you'll be able to dock three windows in what Meta is calling a hinged" layout while freely placing and resizing up to three more wherever you want.The feature is available on the Quest Pro, Quest 2, and Quest 3, but it's especially nice on the Quest 3 when you're using it in mixed reality mode. The augmented reality support is similar to the Apple Vision Pro's experience. With the additional windows, Quest owners now have more options and, according to reports, the ability to move... Continue reading...

A warranty void if seal broken" sticker covering a screw hole. | Image: Eirik Solheim (CC BY-SA 2.0) Ever seen one of those warranty void if removed" stickers covering the screw holes on a gadget? Today, the FTC is reminding ASRock, Gigabyte, and Zotac that they're illegal.In fact, the FTC sent letters to ASRock, Gigabyte, and Zotac that suggest the FTC's concerns aren't just skin sticker-deep. Each letter tells the manufacturer to change its warranty and review its customer support practices to make sure they aren't illegally threatening your warranty.Staff would be concerned if GIGABYTE, in practice, denied warranty coverage based on the warranty provisions quoted above or any similar provision," reads part of one of the letters.As of today, each of these companies' warranties does include such a threat. The very first line in A... Continue reading...

Users will be able to swap the CMF Phone 1's rear case and attach accessories like a folding kickstand. | Image: Nothing Nothing plans to reveal the first smartphone from its affordable CMF subbrand on July 8th, but as part of a continuing series of teasers, it's revealed the CMF Phone 1's unique customizability, including a dial that can be used to attach accessories and a rear panel that can be easily swapped.The light-up glyphs on the Nothing Phone 1 and Phone 2 won't make it to this model, but a short video of a rotating dial on the back looks similar to the aluminum alloy dial on the CMF Buds that allows a lanyard to be attached to the earbuds' charging case.

Image: The Verge Until Friday, OpenAI's recently launched ChatGPT macOS app had a potentially worrying security issue: it wasn't hard to find your chats stored on your computer and read them in plain text. That meant that if a bad actor or malicious app had access to your machine, they could easily read your conversations with ChatGPT and the data contained within them.As demonstrated by Pedro Jose Pereira Vieito on Threads, the ease of access meant it was possible to have another app access those files and show you the text of your conversations right after they happened. Pereira Vieito shared the app he made with me, and I used it to make a video showing how the app can read my ChatGPT conversations with the click of a button. I was also able to find... Continue reading...

The Astro for Business robot is no more. | Image: Amazon For a moment there, it seemed like Amazon might pivot its Astro home robot to enterprise after giving it a better job as a camera-equipped patrol dog. But today, it's discontinuing the Astro for Business robot for good. On September 25th, every one of the 20-pound wheeled robots will stop working, and Amazon will automatically issue full refunds for the $2,349.99 bot, plus a $300 credit.Amazon isn't commenting on how many business bots it actually sold since the November 2023 launch, but the company's VP of hardware engineering, Lindo St. Angel, says he's increasingly convinced the progress we're making in home robotics is where we should focus our resources." We're sharing his full internal memo below.Amazon also provided this... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge Google is making it easier for advertisers to disclose whether political ads contain AI-generated content. In an update spotted by Search Engine Land, Google says it will automatically generate disclosures whenever advertisers label election ads as containing synthetic or digitally altered content."Last year, Google started requiring political advertisers to insert their own clear and conspicuous" disclosures on ads containing AI content. But now, Google is simplifying the process, as it will automatically include an in-ad disclosure whenever advertisers select an altered or synthetic content" checkbox in their campaign settings.The disclosure will appear in feeds and YouTube Shorts on mobile devices as well as in-stream ads shown... Continue reading...

The latest Beam isn't tiny, but it's far from the biggest soundbar around. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge While the world of deals is about to heat up with Fourth of July sales and Amazon's upcoming Prime Day event, there are some great discounts you can take advantage of right now. For starters, Sonos is selling refurbished models of its second-gen Beam in black or white for $299, which is $100 off its usual refurb price and $200 cheaper than buying the soundbar in new condition.That's as cheap as you're going to find the latest version of Sonos' midrange soundbar, which is a lot like its first-gen version but with small improvements like Dolby Atmos and low-latency eARC support. The Beam is a good all-around performer if you want a simple soundbar that sounds great for its size, doesn't clutter up your space with extra speakers or... Continue reading...

Image: Marvel Studios The premise of Disney Plus' What If...? made it seem like the animated Marvel series might run indefinitely as the studio keeps putting out live-action projects, but it looks like this chapter of the big multiverse story is just about over.Though What If...? season 3 doesn't have a premiere date, Entertainment Weekly reports that it will be the final installment in the series that gave us Jeffrey Wright's Uatu the Watcher and Hayley Atwell as Captain Peggy Carter. Speaking on this week's episode of Marvel's new official podcast, What If...? executive producer Brad Winderbaum described the upcoming season as the completion of a trilogy" and teased that it will go beyond the first two seasons in its exploration of the multiverse."Notably,... Continue reading...

You can find the Xiaomi Moaan InkPalm Plus for around $125 online. | Image: Xiaomi It seems like everyone is enamored with the Boox Palma, including our own David Pierce, but at $280, it's expensive for an e-reader. For another option that mirrors larger e-readers but in a tiny and cheaper package, John Moltz has taken a look at the $125 Xiaomi Moaan InkPalm Plus over on Six Colors.There are some notable compromises, like a reflective screen that will potentially have users struggling to dodge glare, ordering off of AliExpress, and a dated Android 11 OS that isn't fully translated from Chinese to English.The display is also a few years behind the 300ppi e-paper panels you now get on Kindles, Kobos, and even the Boox Palma, featuring a 5.84-inch E Ink screen with just 276ppi of resolution. The InkPalm Plus also has... Continue reading...

Mineral's autonomous plant buggies" could find a new home via licenses with former industry partnerships. | Image: Alphabet Alphabet is reportedly walking away from its Mineral robotic agriculture startup due to fierce industry competition and slim profit margins. According to Bloomberg, the Google parent company will license some of its farming technology to Driscoll's, a berry producer that's spent the last few years working with autonomous plant buggies" Mineral created to study crops, soil, and other environmental factors.Bloomberg says it's obtained a memo in which Mineral announced plans to transfer its technology out to the agriculture ecosystem to maximize the impact of bringing our AI to agriculture" and confirms that Mineral will no longer be an Alphabet company." Licensing discussions are reportedly taking place with companies that previously... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge A year and a half ago, Threads was but a twinkle in Mark Zuckerberg's eye.Now, the rival to Elon Musk's X has reached more than 175 million monthly active users, the Meta CEO announced on Wednesday.His announcement comes as Threads is about to hit its one-year anniversary. Back when it arrived in the App Store on July 5th, 2023, Musk was taking a wrecking ball to the service formerly called Twitter and goading Zuckerberg into a literal cage match that never happened. A year later, Threads is still growing at a steady clip - albeit not as quickly as its huge launch - while Musk hasn't shared comparable metrics for X since he took over.As with any social network, and especially for Threads, monthly users only tell part of the growth... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge Perplexity has launched a major upgrade to its Pro Search AI tool, which it says understands when a question requires planning, works through goals step-by-step, and synthesizes in-depth answers with greater efficiency."Examples on Perplexity's website of what Pro Search can do include a query asking the best time to see the northern lights in Iceland or Finland. It breaks down its research process into three searches: the best times to see the northern lights in Iceland and Finland; the top viewing locations in Iceland; and the top viewing locations in Finland. It then provides a detailed answer addressing all aspects of the question, including when to view the northern lights in either country and where. GIF:... Continue reading...

Screenshot: Steam Play is important - in fact, it can be as important to a grown-up as it is to a child. If you've spent the day concentrating on work, doing your taxes, cleaning your home, or caring for others, it's not a bad idea to also take a little time for yourself to escape from your adult responsibilities.These days, play can take a lot of different forms - whether it's assembling the latest monster Lego project, getting together for a marathon board game, or staying up later than you should with your favorite virtual city builder. On a screen or on a tabletop, virtual or touchable, played alone or with friends - games are a way we can keep ourselves centered.We asked the staff of The Verge what games they play in order to give their busy... Continue reading...

Image: That Odd Gentlemen Harmonium: The Musical took a lot of time and resources, but according to its developers, it was worth it. Continue reading...

LG is bringing Athom's Homey products and the third-party device support they provide under its wing. | Image: LG / Homey LG has acquired an 80 percent stake in Athom, a Dutch company best known for its Homey smart home platform. The deal, which LG says will see it acquire the remaining 20 percent of Athom within the next three years, has been forged to expand LG's smart home ecosystem and should position it to better compete against Samsung's rivaling SmartThings platform.LG plans to integrate Athom's existing Homey connectivity - which supports smart devices from Sonos, Ikea, Aqara, Philips Hue, and more - across its appliances through its ThinQ smart home platform. According to Homey, its users will soon be able to control ThinQ-enabled LG appliances via the platform. Homey has developed a significant user base since it was founded in 2014, with its f... Continue reading...

Picking up my new passport at the post office. | Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge Perhaps you've heard you can now renew your US passport online. As long as you meet certain requirements, there's a beta website for that. The State Department tells me it's not necessarily faster - but anecdotally, my family just had two of the speediest, most painless experiences we've ever had with the US government.I applied from my phone, I shot my own digital photo at home - and one week later, I picked up my new passport at the post office. I submitted it on June 15th, my passport was issued on June 20th, and it was waiting for me on the 21st. That's just six days in total.Five business days eachWhen my wife tried it, her renewal went even quicker: she applied on June 24th, her application was approved on the 26th, her new... Continue reading...

An exploded view of the Amflow PL e-bike showing the Avinox drive system. | Image: DJI DJI is expanding into electric bikes in a big way with its new Avinox drive system and Amflow e-bike brand. The company best known for its drones is launching its first e-bike - the carbon fiber Amflow PL electric mountain bike - before the end of the year, complete with the mid-drive Avinox motor and fast-charging battery. It has so many smart and powerful features packed into a relatively lightweight e-bike that it should catch the attention of competitors like Bosch and Specialized.As a showcase for DJI's new Avinox drive system, the Amflow PL e-bike features a very impressive 120Nm of max torque and 1000W of on-demand boost power to overcome even the steepest inclines. Otherwise, its remarkably quiet" mid-drive motor is rated for... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge Xbox has resolved a widespread outage that prevented players from connecting to Xbox Live, playing online games, downloading games, or using other services for several hours. Users should no longer be encountering issues signing in to Xbox Live and services," Xbox says in a post on X. Thank you for your patience, game on!"Issues with Xbox Live seemed to have started around 2PM ET, with Downdetector reports beginning to rise around that time. At around 3PM ET, Xbox said it was aware that some users have been disconnected from Xbox Live" and that the company started investigating."

Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge Apple has chosen App Store chief and former marketing head Phil Schiller to represent the company on OpenAI's nonprofit board, according to a report from Bloomberg. Schiller will reportedly get an observer role, meaning he can attend board meetings but can't vote or act as a director.Joining the board will allow Schiller to learn more about the inner workings of OpenAI as Apple works to build ChatGPT into iOS and macOS later this year. The integration will allow the AI-supercharged Siri to punt more advanced queries to ChatGPT if users grant permission. As previously reported by Bloomberg, no money is currently involved in the partnership, though Apple is expected to get a percentage of ChatGPT subscriptions made through its platforms... Continue reading...

I can't afford an actual house in this hellish economy, so a virtual one will have to do. | Image: Snap Snapchat Plus subscribers are getting a new feature that allows you to design your own virtual house to show off on the Snap Map. You can view your house at any time by visiting the map, as can anyone you share your location with.Your customization options range from drabby shacks to extravagant multistory abodes and castles. It essentially lets you show off your location with a more inviting curb appeal than the lifeless gray cuboid structures that typically populate the map. There's not much other utility there right now except to give Snapchat Plus members a little something extra to justify yet another social media subscription in their monthly budget.But maybe it's a segue to something more? I'm imagining an AR experience a la P... Continue reading...

Image: Mastodon If you're on Mastodon, you might notice new author bylines appearing alongside articles - including those from The Verge. Click on the byline, and you'll jump directly to the author's fediverse account, allowing you to track their work wherever it's posted.For now, you'll only see this feature on mastodon.social and other instances that use a recent Mastodon nightly release. You can see how author bylines appear beneath articles in this post, which links you to Mastodon CEO Eugen Rochko's profile. Image: Mastodon The byline doesn't have to link to an author's Mastodon account. It can also lead to a person's profile on Threads, Flipboard, WordPress with ActivityPub, PeerTube, and others. To make it work, Mastodon... Continue reading...

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge Figma's new tool Make Designs lets users quickly mock up apps using generative AI. Now, it's been pulled after the tool drafted designs that looked strikingly similar to Apple's iOS weather app. Figma CEO Dylan Field posted a thread on X early Tuesday morning detailing the removal, putting the blame on himself for pushing the team to meet a deadline, and defending the company's approach to developing its AI tools.In posts on X, Andy Allen, CEO of Not Boring Software, showed just how closely Figma's Make Designs tool made near-replicas of Apple's weather app. Just a heads up to any designers using the new Make Designs feature that you may want to thoroughly check existing apps or modify the results heavily so that you don't unknowingly... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge Google's greenhouse gas emissions have ballooned, according to the company's latest environmental report, showing how much harder it'll be for the company to meet its climate goals as it prioritizes AI.Google has a goal of cutting its planet-heating pollution in half by 2030 compared to a 2019 baseline. But its total greenhouse gas emissions have actually grown by 48 percent since 2019. Last year alone, it produced 14.3 million metric tons of carbon dioxide pollution - a 13 percent year-over-year increase from the year before and roughly equivalent to the amount of CO2 that 38 gas-fired power plants might release annually.The jump in planet-heating pollution primarily comes from data center energy use and supply chain emissions,... Continue reading...

Image: Bandai Namco Imagine if those aggressive salespeople at the Macy's perfume counter were shoving napalm in your face instead of Chanel No. 5: that's what it feels like playing with the new perfume bottle weapons in Shadow of the Erdtree.The early days after any Souls game release are always some of the best. The speedrunners and content creators have found the best / most busted builds, while the developers haven't had the time to nerf them yet. People post all kinds of wild videos of bosses melting within seconds, going down so fast they don't even have time to trigger their second or third phases. It happened in vanilla Elden Ring with Hoarfrost Stomp, and it's happening again with Erdtree's perfume bottles. Image: FromSoftware ... Continue reading...

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Modular laptops with parts that can be swapped out as needed are becoming more popular, like Framework's Laptop 16 and the Lenovo ThinkPad P1. Continue reading...

The Pixel 9 could come with a new camera bump. | Image: OnLeaks via 91Mobiles The next generation of Pixel phones could come with new Google AI" features, including one that sounds a little like Microsoft's controversial Recall tool. As reported by Android Authority, Google is working on a Pixel Screenshots" feature that can save and process helpful details" from your screenshots, allowing you to search through them.However, unlike Microsoft Recall, which automatically captures what you're doing on your device, Google's version would only process the screenshots taken manually - which should immediately make it less creepy-feeling than Recall. Microsoft delayed the rollout of Recall on Windows 11 after security experts raised concerns about the feature. Even though Google AI may only use the screenshots you... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge It hasn't always been that simple to create a PDF using your phone. Several years ago, when I started handling my mother's bills, I realized I needed a quick way to scan her documents while I was at her home. Rather than drag a scanner around, I found a handy Android app called Tiny Scanner that let me turn paper documents into easy-to-store PDFs using my phone's camera.Later, Google introduced the beta of its own scanning app called Stack, so I began using that to create many of my PDFs. It offers quick scans and categorization and was just a little more fun to use.However, as is Google's wont, that company is now sunsetting Stack and giving some (although not all) of the app's abilities to create, edit, and store PDFs to Google... Continue reading...

A traffic warden during an eight-hour shift under the hot sun in Las Vegas, Nevada, on July 12th, 2023, where temperatures reached 106 degrees Fahrenheit amid a heatwave. | Photo: Getty Images The Biden administration says it will propose new rules today to protect workers from the deadliest weather-related risk Americans face: extreme heat. The Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is expected to post its new heat protections on the federal register today, Biden administration officials said on a press call yesterday.The rules are supposed to prevent heat-related illnesses and deaths on the job. Heat already kills far more people in the US than hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, or any other weather-related disaster. Global warming is only making the problem worse, leading to longer, more frequent, and more intense heatwaves. The proposed rules are meant to enable workplace protections to... Continue reading...

Photo by John Thys / AFP via Getty Images On the heels of Tesla CEO Elon Musk's massive payday, the company released its latest quarterly production and delivery report, showing drops from last year in both production and deliveries.Tesla reported producing 410,831vehicles over the three-month period that ended in June, a 14 percent drop compared to the second quarter of 2023. Tesla reported delivering 443,956 vehicles to customers during Q2 of 2024, a 4.76 percent drop from the 466,140 vehicles it delivered in Q2 2023.This continues a trend that began earlier this year in which Tesla reported its first year-over-year sales drop since 2020. The company is continuing to struggle with demand as customers have more choices than ever when shopping for an electric vehicle. It... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Netflix is following through on its plan to phase out its cheapest ad-free tier for existing subscribers. As spotted in numerous posts on Reddit, Netflix is now asking some basic plan subscribers to choose a new plan to stay subscribed to Netflix.One Reddit user received a notification on their Netflix app, saying Your last day to watch Netflix is July 13th. Choose a new plan to keep watching." Subscribers paying $11.99 / month for the basic plan will have to choose either the $6.99 ad-supported tier, the $15.49 ad-free tier, or the $22.99 ad-free 4K premium plan.Judging by the posts on Reddit, it looks like most users receiving the prompt are located in Canada or the UK, which tracks with Netflix's plan to phase out the basic... Continue reading...

Image: Alex Parkin / The Verge The Apple Vision Pro is many things. But for us, and for many other users, it's one thing in particular: a really, really, really big screen. Since Apple started shipping its spatial computing headset five months ago today, we've tested the device as a TV, a computer monitor, a game console, a mega-chill way to relax on the beach, and much more.On this episode of The Vergecast, we talk about the past, present, and future of the Vision Pro. We chat with The Verge's Wes Davis and Victoria Song about their experiences with the device, along with what they've liked and what they'd like to change. It seems pretty clear that the first version of the device wasn't a groundbreaking, market-moving hit, so what next? Apple is reportedly working... Continue reading...

Leon Kennedy in the Resident Evil 4 remake. | Image: Capcom Capcom is developing a new Resident Evil game, Resident Evil 7 director Koshi Nakanishi confirmed during a summer Capcom Next" livestream on Monday.We're making a new Resident Evil," Nakanishi said during the show. It was really difficult to figure out what to do after 7. But I found it, and to be honest it feels substantial. I can't share any details just yet but I hope you're excited for the day I can."That's admittedly not much to go on, but I get the sense he's hinting that this new game is the next major entry in the franchise. If that's the case, we'll have to see if Capcom calls it Resident Evil 9 or finds some sort of clever subtitle, like it did with the logo for Resident Evil Village.The news of a new Resident Evil... Continue reading...

It looks even more ancient than a Fallout terminal, and that's awesome. | Image: Atari It's always worth revisiting the classics, and there's no shortage of retro consoles and emulators to enable that. The Atari 400 Mini is more niche than we're used to, however, and that's what makes it so intriguing. The 8-bit retro replica console has dropped to $102 ($18 off) at Amazon in a limited-quantity opportunity that's nearly halfway claimed.The Atari 400 was one of the brand's first home consoles and computers, noted for the inclusion of a keyboard alongside its iconic joystick. It launched in 1979, which probably explains why I haven't heard of most of the games in the lineup (my feet touched the planet in 1988). Asteroids, Star Raiders II, Centipede, and Berzerk ring a bell for me, and I've even played a few of them over... Continue reading...

Photo by Getty Images Car dealerships hamstrung by outages following two cyberattacks against CDK Global in June might finally be able to use their systems again this week, as the company says it aims to get dealers back online by July 4th.We are continuing our phased approach to the restoration process and are rapidly bringing dealers live on the Dealer Management System (DMS)," Lisa Finney, a CDK Global spokesperson, says in a statement to The Verge. We anticipate all dealers connections will be live by late Wednesday, July 3 or early morning Thursday, July 4. Our Customer Care channels have also been restored and customers can call, chat, or submit eCases if they need assistance."CDK Global provides software for nearly 15,000 car dealerships, and... Continue reading...

Photo: Smith Collection / Gado / Getty Images At some point in the future, a new Multi-Purpose Tap" concept will let payment cards or devices like smartwatches and phones accomplish multiple things at once when using NFC. With this in play, a customer in a store might tap their phone with Apple Wallet or Google Pay on a terminal that simultaneously checks their ID if they're buying booze, add points to their loyalty account, pay for their goods, and provide them with a digital receipt.Some of the concept's goals are laid out today in a PDF from the NFC Forum, the nonprofit consortium of tech companies that guides and promotes the NFC standard and which includes Apple, Google, and Sony among its roster. Image: NFC Forum NFC Forum slide on Multi-Purpose Tap.... Continue reading...