The Verge

Collage by Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photos from Getty Images When video game scholars want to study games that are no longer on sale, they sometimes have to drive many hours to do it legally - and that won't be changing anytime soon. The US Copyright Office has just denied a request from video game preservationists to let libraries, archives and museums temporarily lend individuals some virtual, remotely accessible copies of those works.Kendra Albert, who made the argument on behalf of the Software Preservation Network and the Library Copyright Alliance, says preservationists weren't asking for a lot: It was the thing that basically exists for all kinds of special collections in libraries: the library reviews the request, makes sure it's not harmful, and allows access to the work."While the... Continue reading...

Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos | Laura Normand / The Verge The Washington Post's editorial page had drafted an endorsement of Kamala Harris for president when its owner, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, intervened to cancel its publication, The Washington Post reports. In its place, The Post ran a bizarre column by its current publisher (and former Rupert Murdoch henchman) Will Lewis, saying The Post would not endorse anyone.This is now the second American newspaper, after The Los Angeles Times, to kill a Harris endorsement at the owner's behestIn his editorial, Lewis cited the Post's decision not to publish an endorsement in the race between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon in 1960. Nixon would later be implicated in the Watergate scandal, which generated 69 indictments and 48 criminal convictions... Continue reading...

The powerful Asus ROG Ally is $100 off, which is nearly half the price of its successor. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge If you're a gamer looking to save but can't wait until another a month until Black Friday, it might be worth checking out Best Buy's three-day gaming sale. Now through October 27th, the retailer's offering discounts on gaming gear, but some of the best deals are on hardware specifically.For example, Best Buy has some notable deals on Windows handheld consoles, like the Asus ROG Ally, which is on sale with a Z1 Extreme chip for $549.99 ($100 off) (and even cheaper at $499.99 for My Best Buy Plus and Total members). That's $50 shy of its best price to date, and nearly half the price of its successor, the ROG Ally X. Admittedly, the ROG Ally X, offers more impressive performance and battery life, but the ROG Ally is still more powerful... Continue reading...

It's the Leica M's platinum anniversary, and this camera costs as much (or more) than most weddings. | Image: Leica Camera Leica is celebrating the 70th anniversary of the M rangefinder camera, but the most precious gift it's giving for the occasion is for only 250 rich people and costs $22,995. The ludicrously expensive Leica M Edition 70 set includes a platinum-plated Leica M-A 35mm film camera with Leicavit fast winder, a matching 50mm APO-Summicron-M f/2 lens, and a metallic film container with a roll of black-and-white film.Yes, the film container is also platinum, and yes, that's completely ridiculous.This anniversary edition commemorates when the Leica M3 was released in 1954 as the first M camera. Leica goes to great lengths to honor the M3 and the brand's legacy just about whenever it can. Back in 2014, the Leica M Edition 60 did the same thing... Continue reading...

Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge Meta's AI chatbot will soon begin citing Reuters reporting while answering news-related queries. The two companies have struck what Axios describes as a multi-year deal" that will allow Meta to use Reuters content for its chatbot responses. The deal is the first of its kind for Meta, in an era of news outlets agreeing to provide their content to AI companies.We're always iterating and working to improve our products, and through Meta's partnership with Reuters, Meta AI can respond to news-related questions with summaries and links to Reuters content," Meta spokesperson Jamie Radice said in an email. While most people use Meta AI for creative tasks, deep dives on new topics or how-to assistance, this partnership will help ensure a... Continue reading...

Image: Amazon MGM Studios Like a Dragon proves that a quality adaptation doesn't always have to be a faithful one. Continue reading...

Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photos by Getty Images Adobe is going all in on generative AI models and tools, even if that means turning away creators who dislike the technology. Artists who refuse to embrace AI in their work are not going to be successful in this new world without using it," says Alexandru Costin, vice president of generative AI at Adobe.In an interview with The Verge, Costin said that he isn't aware" of any plans for Adobe to launch products that don't include generative AI for creators who prefer to manually complete tasks or oppose how AI is changing the creative industry.We have older versions of our products that don't use gen AI, but I wouldn't recommend using them," Costin said. Our goal is to make our customers successful, and we think that in order for them... Continue reading...

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge; Getty Images OpenAI plans to launch Orion, its next frontier model, by December, The Verge has learned.Unlike the release of OpenAI's last two models, GPT-4o and o1, Orion won't initially be released widely through ChatGPT. Instead, OpenAI is planning to grant access first to companies it works closely with in order for them to build their own products and features, according to a source familiar with the plan.Another source tells The Verge that engineers inside Microsoft - OpenAI's main partner for deploying AI models - are preparing to host Orion on Azure as early as November. While Orion is seen inside OpenAI as the successor to GPT-4, it's unclear if the company will call it GPT-5 externally. As always, the release plan is subject to change and... Continue reading...

Image: Scout Motors This is how you revive an iconic brand. Continue reading...

The M3 Pro generation of MacBook Pros arrived about one year ago in October 2023. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Another round of Apple devices is about to arrive. After launching new iPhones, Apple Watches, and AirPods in September and a new iPad earlier this month, Apple is now gearing up to launch updated Macs. After weeks of rumors and speculation, Apple SVP Greg Joswiak came out and directly teased the arrival of new computers to be announced during the final week of October.We're expecting a fresh round of chip upgrades, at least one redesign, and maybe an October surprise or two (the good kind). Since there was no hyped-up save-the-date sent out for an in-person or livestream event, we're expecting a series of early morning press releases - in the past, Apple has tended to drop them around 9AM ET.Joswiak's teaser mentioned a week" of... Continue reading...

Lilium's Jet eVTOL. | Image: Lilium Two years before German air taxi manufacturer Lilium promised to deliver its first two aircraft to customers, the air taxi pioneer has run out of money and will imminently stop making them. In a filing to the US SEC, Lilium says it cannot acquire the funding to continue operations in its subsidiaries (Lilium GmbH and Lilium eAircraft GmbH), and is going into insolvency. We've been covering the company continually since 2017, when it successfully took its first flight in Germany.Lilium had previously confirmed it had begun assembling its first two all-electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft in Germany, while working towards certification from the EASA and FAA, but its first customer deliveries weren't slated until 2026.... Continue reading...

Image: Sony Sony's third Venom feature feels like another throwback to when comic book movies kept things short and silly. Continue reading...

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Apple may not be doing a formal product event this October, but Apple SVP Greg Joswiak is teasing a week" of Mac announcements starting on Monday morning.Rumors have been swirling about announcements of updated Macs. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman has been all over them, saying in an early October Power On newsletter that Apple was planning to announce a suite of Macs powered by M4 chips as well as a refreshed iPad Mini - though that has since been announced.

Image: Intel Intel's flagship Core Ultra 200S-series processor runs more efficiently, but PC gaming performance is disappointing. Continue reading...

Illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photos by Getty Images A lawsuit has been filed against Character.AI, its founders Noam Shazeer and Daniel De Freitas, and Google in the wake of a teenager's death, alleging wrongful death, negligence, deceptive trade practices, and product liability. Filed by the teen's mother, Megan Garcia, it claims the platform for custom AI chatbots was unreasonably dangerous" and lacked safety guardrails while being marketed to children.As outlined in the lawsuit, 14-year-old Sewell Setzer III began using Character.AI last year, interacting with chatbots modeled after characters from The Game of Thrones, including Daenerys Targaryen. Setzer, who chatted with the bots continuously in the months before his death, died by suicide on February 28th, 2024, seconds" after... Continue reading...