The Verge - All Posts

The new Vertex AI capabilities aim to improve the accuracy of Google's corporate chatbots. | Illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photos by Getty Images Vertex AI, the Google Cloud development platform that allows companies to build services using Google's machine learning and large language models, is getting new capabilities to help prevent apps and services from pushing inaccurate information. After rolling out general availability for Vertex AI's Grounding with Google Search feature in May - which enables models to retrieve live information from the internet - Google has now announced that customers will also have the option to improve their services' AI results with specialized third-party datasets.Google says the service will utilize data from providers like Moody's, MSCI, Thomson Reuters, and ZoomInfo and that grounding with third-party datasets will be available in Q3 this... Continue reading...

Illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photo from Getty Images Over the last day or so, customers of the big three US mobile carriers - Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile - who are using data roaming internationally have complained about an inability to connect and make calls. Complaints about connection problems have spread across social media for hours, with little response from the carriers.According to T-Mobile vp of corporate communications Tara Darrow, ...we're one of several providers impacted by a third-party vendor's issue that is intermittently affecting some international roaming service. We're working with them to resolve it."In an email sent to The Verge, AT&T spokesperson Keoni Holoman also explained that the issue is apparently linked to an unnamed third party:

When connected to a smartphone, the Unistellar Envision binoculars can identify over a million landmarks on Earth and in space. | Image: Unistellar Unistellar's new Envision binoculars bring smart functionality similar to Swarovski's Optik AX Visio binoculars announced earlier this year. But instead of recognizing birds and animals, the Envision will use AR to identify and label over a million unique landmarks including mountains and trails and more than 200,000 objects in the night sky.The French company launched a decade ago with smart telescopes that automate the process of finding and photographing objects like stars and planets. It's now squeezing that technology into a pair of binoculars featuring 50mm lenses from Nikon upgraded with an augmented reality projection system that overlays contextual information about what's being viewed in real time.It's innovative, but... Continue reading...

Illustration: Kristen Radtke / The Verge On today's episode of Decoder, we're talking about money and politics - always a good time - and how they come together in the form of lobbying in America. It's hard to imagine a time when the influence of big corporations and mouthy billionaires didn't touch every part of American politics, but the kind of lobbying we have now didn't really exist before the 1970s.That's when big corporations started reacting to a cratering economy and did what they do best: throw money around. Now, of course, our political debates about everything from energy and finance to healthcare are deeply intertwined with corporations and their money - and new big players in tech have started spending tons of political money of their own.To understand the... Continue reading...

Image: Microsoft Microsoft is launching its Xbox TV app on Amazon's Fire TV Sticks in July. The Xbox app will provide access to Xbox Cloud Gaming so subscribers to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate can stream a variety of games directly to Fire TV devices.Microsoft will support the Fire TV Stick 4K Max and Fire TV Stick 4K models for its Xbox app, which will be available in more than 25 countries. All you'll need is a compatible Fire TV Stick, a Bluetooth-enabled wireless controller, and an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription to stream Xbox games. Image: Microsoft The Xbox TV app running on a Fire TV Stick. This marks the first time the Xbox TV app has launched on a device other than Samsung's recent TVs and monitors. Microsoft first p... Continue reading...

GE Cync's new undercabinet smart lights bring task lighting, dimming, and full color to your kitchen countertops. | Image: GE Cync If you've been looking for a simple way to add smart, color-changing undercabinet lighting to your kitchen, I have good news. First announced at CES earlier this year, GE Lighting's new Cync Reveal HD Plus Smart Undercabinet Fixtures are now available at Amazon, Lowe's, and Best Buy, starting at $59.99.These full-color and tunable white light fixtures fit under your cabinets and can be hardwired or plugged in to illuminate your countertops. The Cync lights are Matter-enabled and work with Amazon Alexa, Google Home, Apple Home, and Samsung SmartThings for smart home integration. I first saw a sneak peek of them at CES 2023 and was excited that this might finally provide a good solution to the problem of smart kitchen lighting. ... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Traffic got you down? If the idea of locking your car keys in a drawer and using alternate means of transportation sounds intriguing, Uber has the challenge for you. Today, the ridehailing company announced the One Less Car trial, in which 175 people in the US and Canada will be selected to ditch their cars for five weeks in exchange for cash and credits to be put toward other travel modes.Call it a gimmick or a PR stunt, Uber says the aim is to highlight the high costs of personal car ownership, as well as all the external effects on our health and the cities where we live. Uber has long advocated for fewer cars on the road - even as studies have shown that the app-based ridehailing industry has intensified traffic congestion in... Continue reading...

Mr. Bugs Wordy Nugz." | Screenshot by Jay Peters / The Verge Wordle is a pretty clever name for the very good word game created by Josh Wardle. But when he was first working on it in 2013, Wardle had another name in mind that isn't quite as catchy.This is true: I was going to call Wordle, Mr. Bugs' Wordy Nugz," Wardle revealed as part of a presentation about Wordle at Figma's Config conference on Wednesday. He also showed a slide that spelled out the name in big yellow letters. Had I called the game Mr. Bugs, I like to think it would not have been successful."During the presentation, which was about the development decisions that he said are the opposite of what you're meant to do" but ultimately contributed to making the game a hit, Wardle also discussed the history of the game and showed... Continue reading...

Image: Baggu It all started with a nylon purse shaped like a horse.Baggu, the wildly popular brand of reusable shopping bags, announced earlier this month that it would be releasing a collaborative collection with New York-based brand Collina Strada. In the past, special-edition designer drops have been successful for Baggu: a previous collab sold out within minutes of items hitting the web. This new collection - with its colorful, dreamlike prints and bags shaped like a pony, little legs and all - seemed designed to elicit that same viral hype. The brands teased designs. Influencers posted unboxing videos. Fans were ready to shop.But on the day the bags and accessories were set to go on sale, fans got more details about the designs: some of the... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Google has added new Chrome Actions to mobile that will let you call, read reviews for, or get directions to a restaurant or other business - all right from the address bar. The company announced the new feature in a blog on Wednesday.Android users will see this new feature right away, but iOS users will have to wait until the fall. Image: Google A screenshot of the new Chrome Action shortcuts. First introduced in 2020, Google Actions lets you quickly perform tasks from the address bar by typing in select queries, like edit passwords," delete history," or translate this page." It's one of a few address bar shortcuts Google offers, like the @" shortcut that lets you quickly find bookmarks, tabs, and links... Continue reading...

A 3D-printed version of Super Monkey Ball's AiAi completes this custom creation. | Photo: Tom Tilley / X Gamers could get an edge in Sega's Super Monkey Ball with the help of a unique DIY controller: a literal monkey in a ball that can be physically rolled around instead of mashing a joystick on a gamepad.Super Monkey Ball requires players to tilt and roll a series of complex floating platforms to control the monkey's movements, so Sega designed the original arcade versions of the game with an oversize trackball controller.That wasn't carried over to the console versions of the game, and since arcade machines typically cost thousands of dollars, developer Tom Tilley decided to design and build a much cheaper solution made from recycled and 3D-printed materials. I am a software developer, but I worked for about eight years as a fax and... Continue reading...

Image: FromSoftware Shadow of the Erdtree is gonna get easier. Bandai Namco has seemingly heard the great hue and cry from reviewers and players alike that Erdtree is far too difficult. In response, the publisher is implementing a calibration update" that will reduce the level of difficulty by making players stronger. According to the patch notes for this update:

Image: The Verge, Microsoft A few years ago, Microsoft was planning to launch a dedicated Xbox cloud console, codenamed Keystone. The device looked like a miniature Xbox Series S, a small white box that was dedicated to accessing Xbox games over the company's Xbox Cloud Gaming service. Microsoft eventually canceled its plans to launch Keystone, but a new patent gives us the best look at what the Xbox cloud console would have looked like.Spotted by Windows Central, the patent reveals that Keystone would have shipped with an HDMI port, ethernet, and a power connector. At the front, there was an Xbox button, a controller pairing button, and a USB-A port. Underneath, Microsoft had a circular Hello from Seattle" plate that the console sat on, similar to what it uses... Continue reading...

Photo by Daniel Golson for The Verge I'll admit, I was too distracted by Rivian's surprise announcement of a $5 billion deal with Volkswagen to develop software and electric vehicles to notice that the buzzy California company was also planning an investor day event on June 27th.So when I woke up on Wednesday to see this shareholder letter - thanks to InsideEVs with an assist from BloombergNEF's Corey Cantor on Threads - I was pretty surprised to see Rivian was essentially taking a page from Tesla by teasing us with some shroud-covered mystery vehicles. Screenshot: Rivian It's already been a pretty jam-packed 2024 for Rivian: the introduction of the more affordable R2, starting at $45,000; the surprise reveal of the R3 and R3X, which briefly broke... Continue reading...

The excellent M2-powered Mac Mini is up to $110 off. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Apple may have released a bunch of new and improved laptops over the last few months, but the Mac Mini remains a solid desktop machine if you just need a basic computer for your home. And right now, Amazon is selling the latest M2-powered Mac Mini with the upgraded 512GB of storage for $689.99 ($110 off), which is just $10 shy of its all-time low price. You can also still buy the base model for $499 ($100 off) with a 256GB SSD and 8GB of RAM from Amazon, Best Buy, and B&H Photo.If you're looking for a desktop that's more than capable of powering through everyday tasks, the Mac Mini is a good option. It's a fast performer that's even capable of some light video work, but it also offers a good port selection - including Thunderbolt 4 /... Continue reading...

Screenshot: Google Stack, one of Google's experimental Android apps, is due to disappear on September 24th.A product of Google's Area 120 incubator, Stack was one of those overlooked gems that was just, well, useful: it allowed you to create or import PDFs and store them in different categories that it called Stacks: tax, insurance, medical, etc. The app would pick up data from the PDF to suggest a title, add searchable details like the date of the document, the amount (if it was a receipt), or the organization that issued it, and there was also a field to add notes.According to Google's support page, Stack's functionality has been incorporated into the Google Drive app." As someone who used Stack to save and then easily locate a number of PDFs that I... Continue reading...

Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge Apple's putting renewed focus on its repairability efforts today. The company has extended its self-service diagnostics tool to Europe, giving customers in 32 countries an easier way to test products for potential issues.But perhaps more interesting is the fact that Apple also published a new whitepaper - Longevity, by Design" (PDF link) - that explains the company's principles for designing for longevity." I'm sure there'll be a lot of analysis about every page, but within the paper is actually some news: Apple says that later this year, it will extend more software features to third-party iPhone components.True Tone, the feature that adjusts an iPhone display's white balance to better match your environment, has typically been... Continue reading...

Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge After Democratic strategist Keith Edwards urged Threads users to check the Instagram setting limiting political content from people they don't follow, many people noticed theirs had abruptly changed. Journalist Taylor Lorenz confirmed that her settings had changed as well and noted that they appeared to reset every time she force-closed the Instagram app, which we've also confirmed on our phones.Meta says the behavior was unintentional. This was an error and should not have happened," Meta communications director Andy Stone posted on Threads. We're working on getting it fixed."Meta introduced the opt-out setting that limits recommendations of political content" to Instagram and Threads in March. At the time, the company said it... Continue reading...

Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge Meta is testing a feature for its Quest headsets that allows you to place windows freely, similar to the Apple Vision Pro. Multitasking with multiple windows has been part of Meta Horizon OS (formerly Meta Quest OS) for a few years now, but currently, it only supports three virtual windows docked in a side-by-side layout.RoadtoVR points out this demonstration video from a data miner named Luna, who spotted the experimental feature in version 67 of the Meta Quest Public Test Channel.

Image: Toys R Us Do you have fond memories of Toys R" Us, back before private equity helped lay it to waste? If so, I'm really curious what you think of this partially AI-generated video that the zombie brand is calling the first-ever brand film using OpenAI's new text-to-video tool, Sora."OpenAI's Sora wowed the world in February with photorealistic videos created by generative AI - and again when the company's CTO refused to say where Sora was getting its training data from. (YouTube is the going theory.)But though OpenAI has reportedly been pitching Hollywood on the tech, one of the first entities to publicly bite is brand management firm WHP Global, which currently licenses the Toys R" Us brand to stores like Macy's and is also exploring larger... Continue reading...

In case you were wondering, yes, there will be lots of AI. | Image: Samsung Samsung's next Unpacked summer launch event will take place on July 10th in Paris, France, the company announced on Tuesday. The animation accompanying the invitation hints at foldables, and the invite itself removes all doubt: Prepare to discover the power of Galaxy AI, now infused into the latest Galaxy Z series and the entire Galaxy ecosystem." But we're also on the lookout for something of a different shape: the Galaxy Ring.Rumors indicate that the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Z Flip 6 will be fairly minor upgrades, with the Z Flip 6 getting a slightly bigger battery and the Z Fold 6 looking a little boxier. Not the most exciting stuff, but that's been the story with the past few generations of Samsung's folding phones.Instead, the more... Continue reading...