The Verge

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Twitter is relaunching its public verification program, allowing anyone to apply for a coveted blue check mark. The company also previewed potential changes coming to profiles and the upcoming label for automated accounts.To make the grade for verification, users will have to meet Twitter’s revamped verification criteria, which includes having an account of public interest that falls under one of six different types of categorizations as well as being “authentic, notable, and active.”Here are the six categories of accounts that can qualify for verification:

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge About once a month, Sony’s flagship WH-1000XM4 noise-canceling headphones get a $72 price cut at a few retailers. But today, there’s a $90 discount happening at eBay that brings the price down to just $260 for a new set in black. This excellent deal comes from eBay seller Pro-Distributing, which has a 98.9 percent positive feedback rating. Orders placed today should arrive next week.My colleague Chris Welch reviewed this model, and the review title sums up what you need to know about the XM4 headphones: the best noise-canceling headphones get better. They look similar to the previous generation XM3, but the newer model has the ability to connect to multiple Bluetooth devices simultaneously and to pause music automatically when you take... Continue reading…

HP HP made an almost overwhelming bunch of gaming announcements today, which include systems equipped with Intel’s 11th Gen H-series processors: a new 16-inch Omen gaming laptop and an updated 17-inch version, along with a new budget-friendly gaming laptop line called Victus. There is also a new Nvidia G-Sync-compatible monitor. Other major tech companies — such as Razer, Lenovo, MSI, and Asus — debuted their H-series-equipped laptops last week, but HP saved its news for now.The Omen 16 (pictured above) has a 16.1-inch display and can be configured with up to QHD resolution using a fast 165Hz refresh rate. It’s got a 16:9 aspect ratio display (disappointing, since Lenovo and Asus have competing models offering the more spacious 16:10... Continue reading…

Image: Tesla Tesla’s ultra-fast Model S Plaid, which the company has been teasing since 2019, is finally ready for its public debut. The company will hold a “delivery event” on June 3rd at its factory in Fremont, California, CEO Elon Musk tweeted Thursday — though it’s unclear when Tesla actually plans on delivering the vehicle to customers. And there’s still no word on when we can expect to see Plaid versions of the Model X.The Model S Plaid, which is a step above Tesla’s Ludicrous trim level, can sprint from 0–60 mph in less than two seconds and reach speeds of up to 200 mph, Musk says. It will have a range of 520 miles, which is well above Tesla’s highest range models, and it will retail for $139,990. Musk says it will be the “fastest production... Continue reading…

Google is opening its first physical retail Google Store, the company announced today, which will debut in New York City this summer.The new store will be located in Chelsea, as part of Google’s campus in that neighborhood (the company’s New York headquarters are already located there). The Google Store will display and sell a variety of Google products: Pixel phones, Nest smart home devices, Fitbit trackers, Pixelbooks, and more. Customers will also be able to order products through Google’s online stores and pick them up in person at the physical Google Store location.Google has experimented with small pop-up stores and booths before to sell its products, but today’s store announcement marks a far more serious commitment to... Continue reading…

Tinder is launching Are You Sure?, a feature that asks users if they’re positive they want to send a possibly offensive message. | Tinder Tinder’s newest safety feature attempts to reduce the number of hateful messages sent on its platform. The company plans to start rolling out Are You Sure?, a feature that uses artificial intelligence to automatically detect offensive language. If found, the program will ask users if they’re positive they want to send that message, forcing them to pause before doing so.The company’s been testing the feature and says people who saw the prompt were less likely to be reported for inappropriate messages over the next month, which Tinder takes to mean that they’re adjusting their behavior over the long-term.Other companies have employed similar technology, including, most notably, Instagram, which rolled out warnings for potentially... Continue reading…

Apple’s software engineering head Craig Federighi had a tricky task in the Epic v. Apple trial: explaining why the Mac’s security wasn’t good enough for the iPhone.Mac computers have an official Apple App Store, but they also allow downloading software from the internet or a third-party store. Apple has never opened up iOS this way, but it’s long touted the privacy and security of both platforms. Then Epic Games sued Apple to force its hand, saying that if an open model is good enough for macOS, Apple’s claims about iOS ring hollow. On the stand yesterday, Federighi tried to resolve this problem by portraying iPhones and Macs as dramatically different devices — and in the process, threw macOS under the bus.“iPhones are very attractive... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Three years after Chrome OS first started offering support for Linux apps, the feature is leaving beta, the search giant announced during a Google I/O 2021 developer session. It’s happening in Chrome OS’s “next release,” which Android Central notes is version 91, due to enter the stable channel in the next couple of weeks.Chrome OS as an operating system has always been based on Linux, but since 2018 its Linux development environment has offered access to a Linux terminal, which developers can use to run command line tools. The feature also allows full-fledged Linux apps to be installed and launched alongside your other apps. In addition to Linux apps, Chrome OS also supports Android apps.Chrome OS can also run Android appsAs well as... Continue reading…

Sen. Amy Klobuchar is back with a bill to protect consumer data privacy when collected by large tech platforms like Facebook and Google.Klobuchar (D-MN) has teamed up with a bipartisan group of senators, including Sens. John Kennedy (R-LA), Joe Manchin (D-WV), and Richard Burr (R-NC), to reintroduce the Social Media Privacy Protection and Consumer Rights Act. The privacy legislation would force websites to grant users greater control over their data and allow them to opt out of data tracking and collection.“This legislation will protect and empower consumers”“For too long companies have profited off of Americans’ online data while consumers have been left in the dark,” Klobuchar said in a statement to The Verge. “This legislation... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge TikTok is making it much easier for creators to quickly report harassing comments. With an update that starts rolling out today, the app is adding the ability to select multiple comments at once — up to 100 — so that creators can delete and report remarks or block accounts in bulk. Creators previously had to go one by one when reporting, deleting, or blocking, so this new system should help and perhaps even encourage people to wipe out comments they don’t want to see.The feature should be particularly helpful on TikTok, since the network’s vaunted algorithm can rocket anyone to stardom in an instant, suddenly placing them in front of millions of unknown viewers. That can put unsuspecting amateurs and seasoned creators alike in a... Continue reading…

NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter communicates telemetry over Zigbee to the NASA’s Perseverance rover. | Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech Today I learned that the Ingenuity drone copter twirling about on Mars communicates with the Perseverance rover using 900MHz Zigbee radios. Not Wi-Fi, GSM, or something exotic like fission-powered lasers or space algae, but the same consumer tech you use to turn on a Philips Hue lightbulb.I came across the news via an incredulous tweet from Ben Bromley who discovered it on the Linux Unplugged podcast with guest Tobin Richardson, CEO of the Zigbee Alliance.According to Richardson, Zibee is the ideal wireless protocol to transfer telemetry data between NASA’s Perseverance rover and the semi-autonomous flying drone. “Looking at really extreme environments, like Mars, it’s good to have a very lightweight purpose-built standard,” said... Continue reading…

Users follow sites through the browser’s menu, with an aggregated feed shown when they open a new tab. | Image: Google Google is testing a new feature for its Chrome browser on Android that lets users “follow” sites to create an updating list of new content they publish. The feature is based on RSS, an open web standard that’s been the backbone of many popular web aggregation tools in the past. That includes Google’s own, much beloved (and now defunct) Google Reader.The test is small-scale: following sites will only be an option for some US users of Chrome Canary (the bleeding-edge version of Chrome that lets enthusiasts access beta features). Users will be able to follow sites from the browser menu, and updates will be aggregated in a card-based feed that’s shown when users open a new tab. It’s not clear whether this feed is wholly dependent on sites... Continue reading…

Photo Illustration by Grayson Blackmon / The Verge Ford’s CEO on an upgradable, electric future Continue reading…

Image: Riot Games Spotify is adding a weekly news show about League of Legends esports to its roster of Spotify Original podcasts. The show, Rift Reaction, is set to be a 40-episode series and will be hosted by esports content creator and journalist Travis Gafford and League of Legends Championship Series analyst Emily Rand. The first episode is out now, and new episodes will air every Wednesday, exclusively on Spotify.The podcast is the latest from Spotify and League of Legends developer Riot Games’ multiyear partnership that was announced in August, which so far also includes League of Legends-themed playlists and another Spotify Original series that led up to last year’s League of Legends esports world championship. Spotify has a dedicated hub for its... Continue reading…

The renders show the earbuds alongside their charging case. | Image: Evan Blass Sony’s unannounced WF-1000XM4 true wireless earbuds have leaked once again in a series of official-looking renders from Evan Blass, giving us our clearest look yet at the successors to 2019’s excellent WF-1000XM3 earbuds. We already had a decent idea of what the earbuds will look like thanks to leaks from February and earlier this month, but the emergence of another leak is yet more evidence that an official announcement can’t be far away.The images suggest that Sony is planning a big revamp for its upcoming earbuds. The pill-shaped design of the XM3’s is gone and replaced with a more compact circular shape, while the Sony logo has been shunted to the side of the earbuds where it’s less visible. The earbuds will apparently be available... Continue reading…

The new speaker is IP67 water resistant. | Image: Bang and Olufsen Bang and Olufsen’s latest Bluetooth speaker is the Beosound Explore, a $199 (£169) speaker that’s rated to run for 27 hours “at typical listening volumes” before needing a charge.That’s an impressive amount of battery life for a small (roughly 5 x 3 x 3 inch) Bluetooth speaker like this. For comparison, JBL’s slightly larger Charge 5 speaker goes for 20 hours, while even the much larger UE Hyperboom tops out at 24 hours.Bang and Olufsen tells me that the Beosound Explore’s battery life is thanks to a couple of things. It’s one of the first speakers to support the new Bluetooth 5.2 standard, which offers a more power efficient way to receive audio from your devices. This combines with the Explore’s innards, which are tuned with power... Continue reading…

Image: Zagg Zagg has announced a new selection of iPad keyboards: the Pro Keys with Trackpad, a case with a detachable Bluetooth keyboard; the laptop-style Rugged Book with an adjustable magnetic hinge; and the trackpad-less Pro Keys case (via 9to5Mac).The accessories support several of Apple’s newest iPads, from the M1-enabled iPad Pro on the high-end to the entry level 10.2-inch iPad. Good alternative keyboard cases to Apple’s trackpad-equipped Magic Keyboard are mostly limited to Logitech’s Combo Mix or Brydge’s Pro Plus, so Zagg’s version is more than welcome, if a bit less sleek.Unlike the Magic Keyboard, the Pro Keys with Trackpad has a case that wraps around your entire iPad and a detachable backlit Bluetooth keyboard that also doubles as... Continue reading…

ByteDance’s CEO has announced he’s stepping down from his role leading the company whose success with TikTok led it to become the world’s most valuable startup. Zhang Yiming, who co-founded ByteDance in 2012, will move to another position at the company, and fellow co-founder Liang Rubo will become the new CEO. Liang presently runs HR at ByteDance.In a lengthy internal letter that ByteDance later made public, Zhang ruminated on his position and how he feels he’d be more effective in another role. Zhang says “I worry I am still relying too much on the ideas I had before starting the company, and haven’t challenged myself by updating those concepts.”“I think someone else can better drive progress through areas like improved daily... Continue reading…

Kobo has a new e-reader out, and its the company’s biggest yet: the Kobo Elipsa, which features a 10.3-inch, 1404 x 1872 resolution (227 ppi) E Ink display, a bundled stylus, and the ability to not just read books, but to annotate, underline, and mark them up just like a real paper book.Gigantic e-readers, like the 9.7-inch Kindle DX, once were more common, but recent devices have trended towards more pocketable formats — Amazon’s Kindle’s max out at 7-inches, and Kobo’s Forma (its previous largest size) offers an 8-inch display.But the Elipsa is one of the largest mainstream e-readers yet, offering a massive display that presumably isn’t just good for reading — it’ll also feature a bundled stylus, a first for the company. The new... Continue reading…

Image: Sphero Sphero, a long-time maker of robotic toys, has announced a robotic toy car that’s designed to teach young children about the fundamentals of programming (via Gizmodo). It’s called the Sphero indi, and kids can use different-colored silicone tiles to give the car instructions, letting them create courses and mazes (and hopefully learn how to logically solve problems while doing so).The indi uses a color-sensor to check which tile it’s driving over, with green tiles telling it to speed up, pink tiles telling it to turn left, purple tiles telling it to stop and celebrate, and so on. To teach kids how to create instructions to get indi from point A to point B, the toy comes with challenge cards that include patterns with missing tiles, so... Continue reading…

Ford just unveiled the F-150 Lightning, its first electric pickup truck. And as has become tradition in the EV world, a mere $100 deposit can get you in line for one when these rigs eventually begin to roll off the assembly line starting in 2022.The trucks are available for reservation at this website. The standard range model starts at $39,974, and will get around 250 miles of range. An extended range version starts at $52,974 and can travel up to 300 miles on a single charge.Deposits are fully refundableDeposits are fully refundable, but if you want to follow through on your purchase, orders can be completed starting in fall 2021. And deliveries are expected to start in the spring of 2022.Ford’s website features details about... Continue reading…

Images: Ford Up to 300 miles of range starting at just under $40,000 Continue reading…

If you told me you’d found an OLED laptop for just $800, I’d have warned you against refurbished computers and deep-discount closeout sales. The inky blackness and gorgeous colors of OLED have not come cheap. Dell charges a $300 premium just for the screen. And yet Asus’s new affordable OLED laptop defies those expectations.The new machine is called the Asus ZenBook 13 OLED, and early reviews are already suggesting it could be a slam dunk for budget buyers. While there’s no headphone jack and some are complaining about a cramped keyboard, the 2.5-pound laptop doesn’t seem to skimp on the specs. In addition to that 13-inch 1080p OLED screen (one of the first 1080p OLEDs I can recall on a laptop) with its 100-percent DCI-P3 color gamut,... Continue reading…

Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge Google is one of the major companies behind the upcoming interconnected cross-platform smart home standard Matter, and today, the company has explained how it’ll work to support Matter with its Android devices and Nest smart home products.To start, the company is promising that all of its Nest displays and speakers will be updated to enable them to control Matter devices. That means once the update arrives (Google isn’t giving a timeframe yet), you’ll be able to use Google Assistant to control any Matter device, whether it was previously part of Google’s smart home platform or not.Additionally, newer Google smart home products with Thread built in, like the Nest Wi-Fi, Nest Hub Max, and second-gen Nest Hub, will also serve as Matter... Continue reading…

Nintendo is releasing the HD remake of The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword on the Switch on July 16th, and in the run up to the return of the — checks Hyrule Historia — current earliest entry in the Zelda timeline, it’s also selling a new amiibo. The $25 “Zelda and Loftwing” NFC-equipped figurine features the proto-princess and her bird companion, but also comes with the unique ability to teleport to the game’s floating hub world from anywhere, bypassing one of Skyward Sword’s many annoying quirks for an extra cost.Fast travel in Skyward Sword is normally only accessible at in-game save points, a remnant of the more rigid Zelda design the game launched with on the Wii in 2011. When this new amiibo is placed on the Switch in the HD... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Five female Amazon employees filed discrimination lawsuits against the company Wednesday, Recode reports. The women worked at vastly different areas of the business, ranging from a warehouse to corporate HR. All say they were retaliated against by white managers after bringing forward complaints of racial discrimination, sexism, or sexual harassment.One of the plaintiffs, a 64-year-old Black woman named Pearl Thomas, said she was placed on a performance improvement plan after complaining about her boss’s racist remarks. Thomas, who worked in HR, claimed her boss used the “n-word” in reference to her, and told her and another Black colleague “you don’t want to be an angry Black woman.”He allegedly made comments like “Latins suck,” and... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Slack is now rolling out a new field for profiles that will let you list your pronouns right under your name and job title. Once filled out, your pronouns will appear both on the mini-profiles you see when you click on someone’s name and in their full profiles.Note that your Slack profile may already have a pronouns field, if an administrator created a custom field for your company’s employees. (When I went to check The Verge’s Slack, I found we already had one.) Slack says administrators can continue using that custom field or choose to turn on this new one, though the new dedicated pronouns field has the benefit of appearing more prominently in your profile. Image: Slack Here’s how your pronouns will appear in... Continue reading…

Image: Yee, Tantipongpipat, Mishra Twitter is phasing out its image cropping algorithm in favor of showing larger previews, and the company has announced that it’s been looking into accusations that the system was biased. It found that the crops were slightly biased towards certain races and genders, but Twitter’s main gripe seems to be that the algorithm doesn’t give users control.Starting in 2018, Twitter started using the algorithm to crop images so they fit in its image preview boxes. The algorithm tries to determine what will be most visually interesting to a user so it can include it can include it in the preview, but some have accused it of favoring white faces over black ones. To determine if that’s the case, Twitter had some of its researchers produce a report... Continue reading…

Photo: Netflix The ’90s are back in Netflix’s latest horror movies. A trilogy of movies based on R.L. Stine’s classic Fear Street book series is coming to the streaming service in July. Plan your spooky movie nights accordingly: part one will debut on July 2nd, followed by sequels on the 9th and 16th.Here’s the basic premise, according to Netflix:

Apple Watch with the Assistive Touch cursor. | Image: Apple Apple announced a variety of new and updated features for people with disabilities today. Beginning May 20th, customers can use the new SignTime sign language interpreter service to contact AppleCare and retail customer care through their web browsers. Software updates later this year to iOS, watchOS, and iPadOS will bring improved options for Assistive Touch, VoiceOver, hearing aid support, and background sounds.

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Update May 19th, 2021 5:03 PM ET: GameStop has sold out of both PS5 bundles.GameStop has released some precious stock of the PS5 consoles, both for the $499.99 disc-based version and the disc-less model that costs $100 less. However, it’s offering them in bundles, as GameStop has been wont to do since the console launched late last year. Stock is coming in and out, as usual, so stay on the page if you want to ensure the best chance that you’ll get one.You can get the disc-based console with Returnal, MLB The Show 21, an extra DualSense controller, and a $20 GameStop gift card for $729.99.Alternatively, the disc-less model comes in a $599.99 bundle that includes a second DualSense controller, a $20 GameStop gift card, a $50 credit for... Continue reading…

Image: Anker/Eufy Eufy has put out a statement apologizing for a glitch that occurred two days ago, allowing some Eufy home security camera users to see video from other users’ homes. The statement explains that it happened during a software update, but the company claims it only affected a small number of users: just 712 people across the US, Canada, Mexico, Cuba, New Zealand, Australia, and Argentina. Eufy says that the issue was fixed with an emergency update less than two hours after it was identified.In a statement to The Verge, Eufy confirmed that “users were able to access video feeds from other users’ cameras.” However, in its official statement posted to Twitter (which can be viewed in full below), Eufy doesn’t explain what the bug actually was.... Continue reading…

Yesterday brought the momentous news that Google and Samsung will merge together their Wear OS and Tizen-based smartwatch platforms into a single operating system. The new software is currently being referred to as Wear, but that name could change as we get closer to the first devices that will ship with it.The unified platform is intended to give Android smartwatches a huge boost and much simpler strategy. It will also allow developers to create apps and widgets for a single OS instead of splitting their efforts between Wear OS and Tizen. A lot of this is spelled out in more detail in the below video, but let’s also focus on the big highlights.It’s going to be faster than Wear OSSpeed and responsiveness were one of the major... Continue reading…

HBO Max is getting a pair of new animated DC shows: Batman: The Caped Crusader and My Adventures with Superman, WarnerMedia announced today.The two shows appear pretty different in tone. The Caped Crusader, coming from a team that includes J.J. Abrams, Matt Reeves (the director of the upcoming The Batman), and Bruce Timm (one of the co-creators of the fan-favorite Batman: The Animated Series) promises a noir-ish “reimagining” of the character.“The series will be thrilling, cinematic and evocative of Batman’s noir roots, while diving deeper into the psychology of these iconic characters,” Abrams, Reeves, and Timm commented in a joint announcement. The teaser poster showcasing the art style for the series seems to back up the darker... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Early Monday morning, AT&T announced a sudden change in direction: it reached an agreement to spin off WarnerMedia — the conglomerate of Warner Bros., HBO, CNN, DC Comics, and more — into a new company to be merged with Discovery. While Discovery’s roster of the Cooking Channel, Travel Channel, and Food Network is a whole lot less exciting than WarnerMedia’s lineup of Batman, Harry Potter, and Game of Thrones, the combined company brings together the components needed to build a new streaming giant. And it’s already clear that this new Discovery-Warner hybrid has Disney in its sights.“It’s a combination of bulking up both sides of the business, creating a more compelling direct-to-consumer offering for HBO Max or Discovery Plus,” Neil... Continue reading…

Ford is getting ready to pull the curtain back on its latest electric vehicle. The F-150 Lightning, the electric version of the automaker’s bestselling pickup truck, will take center stage at Ford’s headquarters in Dearborn, MI, at 9:30PM ET on Wednesday, May 19th.Ford says there will be “30+ ways to watch across physical and digital destinations,” including live streams on YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook. The event will also be broadcast in several public locations like Times Square in New York City and Las Vegas Boulevard.“30+ ways to watch across physical and digital destinations”It’s a lot of hoopla for a truck that’s been in the works for over four years and has already been seen publicly, with and without camouflage. We got our... Continue reading…

Image: Consumer Reports If you’re ever annoyed by a website or app trying to trick you by using small text, brightly colored buttons, or tricky toggles, there’s a new tip line you can use to report the bad behavior, run by Consumer Reports Advocacy. The Dark Patterns Tip Line aims to collect various examples of dark patterns, defined by the website as “design tactics used in websites and apps to persuade you into doing things you probably would not do otherwise,” and use those examples to fight back against the companies that are behaving poorly.Even if you’ve never heard the term “dark pattern” before, you’ve likely come across one. Consumer Reports provides a list of examples in a tweet, and on the tip line’s site, but there are entire websites (like d... Continue reading…

Photo by Drew Angerer / Getty Images Colonial Pipeline CEO Joseph Blount has confirmed that his company did in fact pay $4.4 million to the hackers responsible for the ransomware attack on the pipeline system that transports around 45 percent of fuel used on the East Coast, The Wall Street Journal writes. Earlier reporting estimated Colonial Pipeline paid a ransom of nearly $5 million, news that was surprising — not for the amount of money that was paid, but because paying ransoms to cybercriminals is frowned upon by law enforcement agencies.The situation with Colonial Pipeline is further complicated by the fact that the Colonial Pipeline Company itself was responsible for the shutdown. Blount tells the Journal that its operational systems weren’t directly impacted, but it... Continue reading…

Photo by Amy Osborne/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images In 2010, the San Francisco Bay Area introduced a single tap-to-pay NFC card for practically all its public transit — and Google introduced the first NFC-equipped Android smartphone. Now, over a decade later, the two ideas are finally compatible. Today, you can finally digitize a Clipper card into most Android phones, or buy one there to start, then tap it to ride 24 different transit systems in SF and the greater Silicon Valley.Apple also added the same functionality to iPhones and Apple Watches last month, and here’s how I described it at the time:

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge HBO Max will launch an ad-supported tier in June for $9.99 per month, offering a cheaper option than the full $14.99-per-month ad-free subscription. The news was announced during a WarnerMedia presentation for advertisers today. The price and launch date were rumored last month.The streaming service, which has 64 million subscribers, has been planning an ad-supported tier as a way to reach a wider audience. The price makes it cheaper than a standard Netflix plan, though it still costs more than Disney Plus. HBO promises the “lightest ad load” in the industry, but it’ll include new ad formats such as “pause ads” that display ads while shows are paused.Ad-free subscribers will get access to “the full HBO Max content catalog,” but with... Continue reading…

Microsoft is finally retiring Internet Explorer next year, after more than 25 years. The aging web browser has largely been unused by most consumers for years, but Microsoft is putting the final nail in the Internet Explorer coffin on June 15th, 2022, by retiring it in favor of Microsoft Edge.“We are announcing that the future of Internet Explorer on Windows 10 is in Microsoft Edge,” says Sean Lyndersay, a Microsoft Edge program manager. “The Internet Explorer 11 desktop application will be retired and go out of support on June 15, 2022, for certain versions of Windows 10.”While the Long-Term Servicing Channel (LTSC) of Windows 10 will still include Internet Explorer next year, all consumer versions will end support of the browser.... Continue reading…

The electric version of the bestselling pickup truck is here Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Yesterday at Google’s I/O developer conference, the company outlined ambitious plans for its future built on a foundation of advanced language AI. These systems, said Google CEO Sundar Pichai, will let users find information and organize their lives by having natural conversations with computers. All you need to do is speak, and the machine will answer.But for many in the AI community, there was a notable absence in this conversation: Google’s response to its own research examining the dangers of such systems.Language models like Google’s come with a host of challenging risksIn December 2020 and February 2021, Google first fired Timnit Gebru and then Margaret Mitchell, co-leads of its Ethical AI team. The story of their departure is... Continue reading…

An explosive and stylish endless runner Continue reading…

Image: Sony The Last of Us Part II is getting a long-awaited PlayStation 5 patch on Wednesday that lets you play the game at a targeted 60fps frame rate, Sony announced.“Once patch 1.08 for The Last of Us Part II is installed on your PS5, you will find a toggle in the Display options that allows you to choose between a Framerate Target of 30 FPS or 60 FPS,” developer Naughty Dog said in a blog post. “This allows you to choose your preferred framerate to complement the rest of the enhancements that are part of the PS5 backward compatibility with PS4 games, such as an enhanced resolution, faster load times, and more.”You can catch a trailer for the patch at the top of this post, and in my opinion, it looks great. I’ll definitely be checking out the... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Apps lie at the heart of one of the most enduring conflicts in the trans community Continue reading…

Image: Roku Roku’s Streambar is one of the few double-duty soundbars out there that can also connect to your TV to stream TV shows and movies in 4K HDR from all sorts of services, like Netflix, Apple TV Plus, and more. If that sounds appealing to you, this compact 14-inch soundbar is just $100 at a variety of retailers today, costing $30 less than usual. The Streambar has four full-range drivers, and on its back is an HDMI port, an optical audio port, and a USB port. This soundbar can be wall mounted.Acer’s excellent 13.5-inch 2-in-1 Chromebook Spin 713 is $429 at Best Buy, down from $629. My colleague Monica Chin rates the Spin 713 as the best Chromebook you can currently buy because of its 3:2 aspect ratio QHD display, a backlit keyboard that’s... Continue reading…

Qualcomm’s 700-series Snapdragon chipsets are popular among midrange and premium midrange phone manufacturers. | Image: Qualcomm Qualcomm has announced a new 700-series chipset for mobile devices: the Snapdragon 778G 5G. It will start appearing in premium midrange phones from manufacturers including Motorola, Xiaomi, Realme, Honor, Oppo, and iQOO in the next few months, bringing with it some video capture and AI capabilities borrowed from the Snapdragon 888, the current chipset of choice for flagship Android phones. The company has also made a couple of other announcements today designed to get 5G connectivity into more tech.The Snapdragon 778G offers three image-signal processors, or ISPs — a feature Qualcomm touted in its flagship 888 chipset, and also appears in the higher-end 780G. This makes it possible to capture photos and video from three different... Continue reading…

Image: Lofelt Haptic feedback on Android phones is usually terrible, at least compared to devices that have Apple’s Taptic Engine. You know it, I know it, and a haptics company called Lofelt apparently knows it, too. Today, though, Lofelt, in partnership with Qualcomm, announced that it’s making its VTX haptic framework available to OEMs, with the hope that these manufacturers will start putting better haptics into more Android devices.The framework will allow OEMs to utilize high-definition haptic vibration on phones running the latest Snapdragon 8-series and 7-series without any hardware tweaks. The system is “tightly integrated with Snapdragon and fully validated by Qualcomm,” according to Lofelt. While the framework is technically compatible... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Most people in the United States don’t want their digital data used to control the spread of COVID-19, a new study found. More than half of the people in the study remained wary of sharing their data in different scenarios, including a smart thermometer company sharing information with public health officials, or using the Google and Apple exposure notification app to track infections.“I was surprised a bit about the degree of skepticism when the potential benefits are so high,” says study author David Grande, an associate professor of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.Grande and his team collected survey responses from 3,547 US adults during July 2020 about their attitudes toward the use of digital... Continue reading…