The Verge - All Posts

More security features on more Android phones. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Google is announcing an array of new security features as it releases its second Android 15 beta, including a feature that can detect the moment your phone is swiped from your hands. Some of these updates will be included with Android 15 when it arrives this fall, but theft detection and a number of other features will be available to phones with much older OS versions, too - bringing them to many more people.Theft Detection Lock works by recognizing the unusual motions that would indicate someone has yanked your phone out of your hand or a table in front of you. To prevent a thief from being able to access information on your device, the screen automatically locks. The system looks for other signals that indicate foul play, too, and... Continue reading...

Quilt uses ductless heat pump-powered mini-split units combined with touchscreen remote controls to heat and cool your home. | Image: Quilt (Cayce Clifford) A new company founded by three former Googlers is looking to disrupt the somewhat staid mini-split industry. Quilt is a new home climate system" - a ductless HVAC system that uses heat pump-powered mini-split units to heat and cool your home.Two things make Quilt stand out from the start: it's smart and pretty. The system has built-in millimeter-wave radar sensors for precision occupancy detection, so you can choose to heat and cool only occupied rooms. They work with a smartphone app and a stylish touchscreen remote called the Dial, and the system uses predictive algorithms to heat and cool your home as efficiently as possible.Each Quilt unit is a ductless mini-split, but rather than large white boxes on your wall, Quilt has... Continue reading...

Photo by Andrew Harnik / Getty Images Four top Senators unveiled a proposed roadmap for artificial intelligence regulation on Wednesday, calling for at least $32 billion to be spent each year for non-defense AI innovation.The members of the AI Working Group - Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Mike Rounds (R-SD), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), and Todd Young (R-IN) - released the long-awaited proposal after months of hosting AI Insight Forums to inform their colleagues about the technology. The events brought in AI experts, including executives like OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Google CEO Sundar Pichai, as well as academics, labor, and civil rights leaders.Here's what the roadmap is not: specific legislation that could pass expeditiously. In the 20-page report, the working... Continue reading...

ADT's new smart security system includes the option to use facial recognition to allow a trusted neighbor" temporary access to your home when you're away. | Screenshot: Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge ADT has confirmed to The Verge that it's rolling out a big upgrade to its ADT Plus home security system. The all-new hardware and software platform for ADT Plus features new ADT hardware, deeper integration with Google Nest hardware, and the ability to automatically disarm using facial recognition to let trusted neighbors into your home when you're away.I first reported on the new system last October, but until now, ADT had declined to comment despite publishing multiple support pages about it on its site. This week, ADT spokesperson Ben Tamblyn confirmed to The Verge the new ADT Plus system has started rolling out to some states and will be available nationwide in the coming months. The system can be self-installed or professionally... Continue reading...

Image: Apple Apple just announced a slew of new accessibility features coming to its software platforms in the months ahead, including eye tracking, which the company says uses artificial intelligence to let people with physical disabilities more easily navigate through iOS and iPadOS.A new music haptics" option will use the iPhone's Taptic Engine vibration system to play taps, textures, and refined vibrations to the audio of the music" for supported Apple Music tracks. Apple is also adding features to reduce motion sickness for those susceptible to it when using an iPhone in a moving vehicle.All of these new accessibility options are likely to debut in iOS and iPadOS 18, though Apple is only saying later this year" ahead of its WWDC event... Continue reading...

Chromecast with Google TV will soon become a Google Home hub to control local and cloud-based smart home devices. | Photo: Chris Welch / The Verge Google has announced that it's opening up API access to its Google Home smart home platform. This means that any app maker - smart home-related or not - can access the over 600 million devices connected to Google Home and tap into the Google Home automation engine to create smart solutions for their users inside their own app.The Home APIs can access any Matter device or Works with Google Home device, and allows developers to build their own experiences using Google Home devices and automations into their apps on both iOS and Android. This is a significant move for Google in opening up its smart home platform, following shutting down its Works with Nest program back in 2019.In a blog post published during its Google I/O developer... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Uber announced several new mobility products as part of its annual Go-Get conference, including shuttle service for airports and concert events and scheduled carpool trips.Uber Shuttle, which is coming soon to select cities, allows customers to use the Uber app to book a seat in a shuttle bus when traveling to an airport or concert destination. The company says the fare will be a fraction" of the price of a normal Uber ride.The ridehailing and delivery company has been selected as the official partner of Live Nation, the parent company of Ticketmaster. The partnership will give Uber access to amphitheaters across the country" as it aims to position Uber Shuttle as a crucial link between venues and mass transit hubs and parking... Continue reading...

Image: Intel Why can't you just plug a USB cable between two PCs, drag your mouse cursor between their screens, and drop files between them, as if they were a single machine? Well, you can and have for years - but Intel may be about to turbocharge that idea with Thunderbolt Share.It's a proprietary app that Intel will be licensing to laptop, desktop, and accessory manufacturers to bundle with new hardware. Install it on two Thunderbolt 4 or 5 computers, connect them with a Thunderbolt cable, and you should be able to share your mouse, keyboard, screens, storage, and other USB peripherals; drag and drop files at Thunderbolt speeds; and sync data between them. It won't let you share an internet connection, though. Image: Intel I... Continue reading...

Mike Krieger has a long history in tech and AI. | Photo by Jerod Harris / Getty Images for Vox Media As Anthropic tries to take on the AI giants, it has a new big-name executive on board: the company announced this morning that Mike Krieger is its new chief product officer. Krieger, of course, was one of the co-founders of Instagram and spent the last few years working on Artifact, an AI news-reading app that was recently acquired by Yahoo.Krieger will oversee all of Anthropic's product efforts going forward. It's an important moment for the company to push hard on product, too: it recently released the Claude app for iOS, long after a bunch of its competitors were available on mobile, and just announced support for use in Spanish, French, Italian, and German. Anthropic, which was founded by ex-OpenAI employees, has been seemingly... Continue reading...

Image: Netflix Netflix has finally named and dated its new anime series Terminator Zero, releasing worldwide on August 29th. If you recall your convoluted time-traveling, skin-wearing cyborg apocalypse history, you'll realize that's the 27th anniversary of the series' Judgment Day, when the machines begin their conquest of humanity. Well, one of them, anyway.The show is mainly set in 1997 Tokyo, and according to its writer, it won't be ignoring the movies - any of them. The basic plot involves a soldier going back in time to protect a scientist named Malcolm Lee who's trying to create a benevolent AI system to fend off the bad one that's going to destroy humanity, including his three kids. There are some slight differences from most of the movies... Continue reading...

Every Thursday, The Verge's veteran Microsoft reporter will uncover the secrets and strategy behind the world's biggest software company for paid subscribers Continue reading...

Image: The Verge Google I/O introduced an AI assistant that can see and hear the world, while OpenAI put its version of a Her-like chatbot into an iPhone. Next week, Microsoft will be hosting Build, where it's sure to have some version of Copilot or Cortana that understands pivot tables. Then, a few weeks after that, Apple will host its own developer conference, and if the buzz is anything to go by, it'll be talking about artificial intelligence, too. (Unclear if Siri will be mentioned.)AI is here! It's no longer conceptual. It's taking jobs, making a few new ones, and helping millions of students avoid doing their homework. According to most of the major tech companies investing in AI, we appear to be at the start of experiencing one of those rare... Continue reading...

Every month, streaming looks more and more like cable. | Image: The Verge Yet another streaming service bundle is on the horizon, this time courtesy of Comcast. Variety reports that the telecommunications giant is planning to launch a three-way bundle for Peacock, Netflix, and Apple TV Plus later this month, which will be available to Comcast broadband and TV customers at a discounted rate compared to subscribing to each service separately.Speaking at an industry conference on Tuesday, Comcast CEO Brian Roberts said the new StreamSaver" package will come at a vastly reduced price to anything in the market today." The price of the bundle hasn't been revealed yet, nor has the type of subscription tier - ad-free or ad-supported - users can expect. The deal will likely be competitive regardless, as Roberts says... Continue reading...

Where the Blade comes ahead in performance, the Zephyrus wins on value. Continue reading...

Photo Illustration by Rafael Henrique/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images We already know Dell is getting ready to launch a new Arm-powered variant of its popular XPS 13 laptop, but now a confidential document has leaked a lot more details on Dell's future XPS plans. VideoCardz has obtained and published a 311-page document from Dell that goes into detail on the XPS 13 - that's due soon - and when we can expect to see Qualcomm's next-generation chips for Windows on Arm.Qualcomm-powered Snapdragon X Elite laptops look set to debut next week, with Asus announcing it has a new AI PC" ready to launch on Monday - the same day Microsoft is holding a Surface and Windows event all about Windows on Arm. Dell's own XPS 13 variant running the Snapdragon X Elite leaked just a few days ago, and this new document from V... Continue reading...

From left to right: Wireless Temperature Sensor X, Heat Pump Optimizer X, Thermostat X, and two Smart Radiator Thermostat X | Image: Tado Tado just launched a new range of heating products - called Tado X - that supports the Matter smart home protocol. It joins Nest as being one of the few (only?) European smart heating control systems to support the new standard designed to improve interoperability between devices from any smart home ecosystem, and the first to run natively on a Thread mesh network.The Tado X system is designed to replace traditional thermostats to control a boiler, underfloor heating, and radiator valves. It includes the Thermostat X, Smart Radiator Thermostat X, Wireless Temperature Sensor X, and Heat Pump Optimizer X which all promise to make your home's heating system smart and easy to use. The optional new Bridge X acts as a Thread border router... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge This is not a joke: Google will now let you perform a web" search. It's rolling out web" searches now, and in my early tests on desktop, it's looking like it could be an incredibly popular change to Google's search engine.The optional setting filters out almost all the other blocks of content that Google crams into a search results page, leaving you with links and text - and Google confirms to The Verge that it will block the company's new AI Overviews as well. Screenshot by Sean Hollister / The Verge This is the new Web button. You know, for all your Web searches. Isn't every search a web search? What is Google Search if not the web?" you might rightfully ask.But independent websites like HouseFresh and... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge Ilya Sutskever, OpenAI's co-founder and chief scientist who helped lead the infamous failed coup against Sam Altman and then later changed his mind, is officially leaving the company.Both Altman and Sutskever have posts announcing the news:

Illustration: The Verge Google has announced that the code for Project Gameface, its hands-free gaming mouse' that you control by making faces, is now available open-source to Android developers on Tuesday.Developers can now integrate the accessibility feature into their apps, allowing users to control the cursor with facial gestures or by moving their heads. For example, they can open their mouth to move the cursor or raise their eyebrows to click and drag.Announced during last year's Google I/O for desktop, Project Gameface uses the device's camera and a database of facial expressions from MediaPipe's Face Landmarks Detection API to manipulate the cursor.Through the device's camera, it seamlessly tracks facial expressions and head movements, translating... Continue reading...

Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photos from Getty Images Eight TikTok creators are suing to stop a law that would ban the app unless its Chinese parent company divests it, arguing that the measure would strip them of their livelihoods and creative outlets.The suit is similar to the company's own challenge to the law in that it leans on First Amendment arguments, calls lawmakers' concerns around the app speculative, and recalls that courts have blocked other methods of banning TikTok, including former President Donald Trump's executive order and a Montana state law. But while the company's suit details the alleged impracticality of separating TikTok from its owner ByteDance, the creators' suit focuses squarely on how their own speech could be impacted if TikTok went away.While the court is l... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge Google says its new AI model, LearnLM, will help students with their homework.LearnLM, a family of AI models based on Google's other large language mode, Gemini, was built to be an expert in subjects, find and present examples in different ways like a photo or video, coach students while studying, and, in Google's words, inspire engagement."Google has already integrated LearnLM into its products, bundling it with other services like Google Search, Android, YouTube, and the Gemini chatbot. For example, customers can use Circle to Search on Android to highlight a math or physics word problem, and LearnLM will help solve the question. On YouTube, while watching a lecture video, viewers can ask questions about the video, and the model... Continue reading...

The billboard ads contained messages that seemingly mocked celibate women. | Image: The Verge Dating app company Bumble has issued an apology for running an ad campaign that seemingly shamed women for not being sexually active and mocked people for choosing celibacy instead of dating.After updating its app and brand design in April to try to attract new users who are exhausted from the dating scene," Bumble ran a series of billboard ads containing messages like You know full well a vow of celibacy is not the answer," and Thou shalt not give up on dating and become a nun." The company faced swift backlash across social media from users who condemned the ads for delegitimizing celibacy as a valid personal choice.We made a mistake," the company said via an Instagram post on Monday. Our ads referencing celibacy were an attempt... Continue reading...

I thought Google killed its augmented reality glasses after they couldn't live up to the promise of real-time translation. I thought Project Iris was vaporware after the company shed its AR leaders and downsized the division that was reportedly facing internal turmoil.But we may have written off Google's Glasses too soon - because Google just revealed a new prototype pair in a blink-and-you-missed-it moment at Google I/O.In the heat of the moment, I thought the Googler simply donned a pair of normal glasses before pulling out their smartphone at 1:30 in the Project Astra demo video below. But no, those frames are thick.There's even a little picture-in-picture moment where you can see them wearing the glasses. Here it is zoomed... Continue reading...

Well, that's one way to kick off a developer-focused tech event. | Image: Google Developer conferences aren't exactly known for having an energetic, party-like atmosphere, but thankfully, that didn't stop Google's latest hype man. The company's I/O event this year was kicked off by Marc Rebillet - an artist known in online spaces for pairing improvised electronic tracks with amusing (and typically loud) vocals. He also wears a lot of robes.If you have no idea who I am, I would expect that," said Rebillet. He introduced himself as an improvisational musician who makes stuff up."That made him a good fit to demo the DJ mode that Google recently added to its generative AI text-to-music tool, MusicFX. Back in February, Google DeepMind's Adam Roberts described the feature as an infinite AI jam that you control."R... Continue reading...

Barrels stored at the Energy Fuels White Mesa Mill uranium production facility in Blanding, Utah, on June 12th, 2023. | Photo: Getty Images President Joe Biden signed a new law that bars the US from importing uranium from Russia in the hopes of jumpstarting domestic mining to fuel nuclear reactors. The law also unlocks $2.7 billion in federal funding to shore up that domestic supply chain, which Congress previously approved pending limits on imports from Russia.Russia has historically been one of the biggest suppliers of uranium to the US and other countries. When the US banned coal, oil, and gas imports in response to the war in Ukraine in 2022, it excluded uranium from its sanctions, which showed how much the US depends on foreign imports of uranium, particularly from Russia and its allies.Since then, there's been a bipartisan push to kickstart domestic uranium mining... Continue reading...

Image: Google Google I/O just ended - and it was packed with AI announcements. As expected, the event focused heavily on Google's Gemini AI models, along with the ways they're being integrated into apps like Workspace and Chrome.If you didn't get to tune in to the event live, you can catch up with all the latest from Google in the roundup below.Google Lens now lets you search by recording a video

The new Blink Mini 2 adds weather resistance so you can use it indoors and outdoors. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge If you've got vacation plans for Memorial Day weekend, a security camera can help you keep an eye on valuables back home so you can really relax during your time off. And right now, one of the least expensive options on the market is even more affordable, with the new Blink Mini 2 selling for just $29.99 ($10 off) at Amazon, Best Buy, and The Home Depot. If you want to keep an eye on packages outdoors, you can also buy the wired camera from Amazon with a weather-resistant adapter for just $39.98 ($10 off).The Blink Mini 2 is an excellent upgrade over its predecessor. It's still a very basic 1080p camera, but it now offers better low-light performance, a wider field of view, and USB-C support. Most notably, the camera now features IP65... Continue reading...

Illustration by Haein Jeong / The Verge Among Google's swath of new AI models and tools announced today, the company is also expanding its AI content watermarking and detection technology to work across two new mediums.Google's DeepMind CEO, Demis Hassabis, took the stage for the first time at the Google I/O developer conference on Tuesday to talk not only about the team's new AI tools, like the Veo video generator, but also about the new upgraded SynthID watermark imprinting system. It can now mark video that was digitally generated as well as AI-generated text.Watermarking AI-generated content will matter increasingly as the technology gains prevalence, especially when AI gets used for malicious purposes. It's already been used to spread political misinformation, claim s... Continue reading...

Image: The Verge Google is adding a bunch of new features to its Gemini AI, and one of the most powerful is a personalization option called Gems" that allows users to create custom versions of the Gemini assistant with varying personalities.Gems lets you create iterations of chatbots that can help you with certain tasks and retain specific characteristics, kind of like making your own bot in Character.AI, the service that lets you talk to virtualized versions of popular characters and celebrities or even a fake psychiatrist. Google says you can make Gemini your gym buddy, sous-chef, coding partner, creative writing guide, or anything you can dream up. Gems feels similar to OpenAI's GPT Store that lets you make customized ChatGPT chatbots.You can set... Continue reading...

Image: The Verge Google is building its Gemini AI into Chrome on desktop. During its I/O event on Tuesday, Google announced that Chrome 126 will use Gemini Nano to power on-device AI features, such as text generation.Gemini Nano is the lightweight large language model Google introduced to the Pixel 8 Pro last year - and, later, the Pixel 8. To get Gemini Nano on Chrome, Google says it tweaked the model and optimized the browser to load the model quickly."The integration will let you do things like generate product reviews, social media posts, and other blurbs directly within Chrome. Microsoft similarly added its AI assistant Copilot to Edge last year, letting you ask questions and summarize the information on your screen. Unlike Gemini Nano in Chrome,... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge Gemini, Google's ChatGPT competitor, is getting new trip planning capabilities, the company announced today at its I/O developer conference.Based on the user's prompt, the AI model will now research publicly available information as well as tap into specific details like flight times and hotel bookings to work up a custom, multiday vacation itinerary in a matter of seconds."In a briefing with reporters, Google VP and general manager of Gemini, Sissie Hsiao, said that manually planning a trip could take me hours, days, maybe even weeks." But with the help of Gemini, the process could be nearly instantaneous. And it will be dynamic," meaning it can be tweaked and adjusted through prompts and other requests thanks to Gemini's new trip... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Google is working on new protections to help prevent Android users from falling victim to phone scams. During its I/O developer conference on Tuesday, Google announced that it's testing a new call monitoring feature that will warn users if the person they're talking to is likely attempting to scam them and encourage them to end such calls.Google says the feature utilizes Gemini Nano - a reduced version of the company's Gemini large language model for Android devices that can run locally and offline - to look for fraudulent language and other conversation patterns typically associated with scams. Users will then receive real-time alerts during calls where these red flags are present.Some examples of what could trigger these alerts... Continue reading...

Image: Google The future of Gemini, Search, Android, and more. Continue reading...

Image: Sony Pictures The classic competitive game show Jeopardy! is getting a spinoff series on Prime Video. Sony Pictures Television is producing Pop Culture Jeopardy!, which turns the classic academic quiz show with three challengers into a team-based trivia game that touches on music, movies, culture, sports, celebrities, entertainment, and more.The new series marks the first time the company's game show division is expanding the Jeopardy! brand to a streaming platform with a new show. Years ago, the company let watchers binge the main show on Hulu.While the series sounds like a casual side mission for the franchise, Sony Pictures Television's president of game shows, Suzanne Prete, states it will be a nail biter" for fans and that teams will compete... Continue reading...

The annual rings on the trunk of a conifer tree. | Photo: Getty Images A summer marked by deadly heatwaves across Asia, Europe, and North America last year turns out to have been the hottest in the Northern Hemisphere in at least 2,000 years, according to a new study published in the journal Nature.Officially, 2023 went down in history books as the hottest on record for the planet - but those records only started in 1850. To see how drastically the climate has changed over millennia, the authors of the new paper studied ancient tree rings to gauge fluctuations in temperatures over the years.The results show us how extreme the weather is becoming. And while temperatures have reached unprecedented peaks, they're also a warning of what's to come unless policymakers do more to turn down the heat.The cross... Continue reading...

Workers are producing structural components of EV batteries at a production workshop in Qingkou Automobile Industrial Park in Fuzhou, Fujian province, China, on February 23rd, 2024. | Photo by Costfoto / NurPhoto via Getty Images The Biden administration announced much higher tariffs today on key goods from China that the US will need to meet its climate goals. The move targets transportation, clean energy technologies, raw materials, and more.To encourage China to eliminate its unfair trade practices regarding technology transfer, intellectual property, and innovation, the President is directing increases in tariffs across strategic sectors such as steel and aluminum, semiconductors, electric vehicles, batteries, critical minerals, solar cells, ship-to-shore cranes, and medical products," a White House fact sheet says.It's the latest move the US has taken amid efforts to ramp up domestic manufacturing while escalating trade tensions with China. All in all,... Continue reading...