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Showing posts from May, 2023

Trial of Theranos’ Elizabeth Holmes: news, updates, and more

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Photo by Kimberly White/Getty Images for Fortune The former billionaire is now serving her prison sentence after it was revealed that her blood-testing company hadn’t achieved the breakthroughs it claimed. Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/5qS2Kyt

Nvidia’s new ultra-low motion blur tech lets PC gamers have high refresh rates, too

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Image: Nvidia Nvidia is updating its Ultra Low Motion Blur (ULMB) technology, which could make gaming even smoother on high-end monitors. In an announcement on Sunday , Nvidia says its upgraded ULMB 2 feature is capable of providing over 1,000Hz of effective motion clarity with “practically zero” crosstalk — but only on 1440p 360Hz G-Sync monitors for now. This means you no longer have to choose between having a more responsive refresh rate or reducing motion blur, both of which affect gameplay. Now Nvidia says the effective motion rate for a 360Hz monitor with ULMB 2 enabled is 1440Hz. “That means in order to obtain the same level of motion clarity without ULMB 2, gamers would need a classic panel capable of 1440 Hz,” Nvidia notes. You still can’t use... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/fPyh6DO

Rivian teases its next-generation R2 SUV that’s smaller than the R1S

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Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe and lead designer Jeff Hammoud stand in front of the body of the R2 SUV. | Image: Rivian A year ago, Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe said the company was on track to launch its next-generation R2 electric vehicle platform in 2025. Now, Scaringe is giving Rivian fans a teaser of the new compact SUV that’s expected to be much more affordable than the R1S, which currently starts at $78,000. During an Instagram Q&A session hosted by Scaringe over Memorial Day weekend, the CEO took a moment to link up with Rivian lead designer Jeff Hammoud to show a glimpse of the R2’s shape. The two stood in front of a clay model of an R2 covered with a black cloth, outlining a vehicle that seems boxy like an R1S but smaller. Scaringe also revealed in the session that the R1T electric truck will no longer be getting the “Tank Turn” four-wheel turning,... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/E5D271l

Apple’s rumored VR headset could have ridiculously high-end screens

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Illustration: The Verge Apple’s rumored mixed reality headset might have extremely pixel-dense and bright displays, according to a tweet from Ross Young , CEO of Display Supply Chain Consultants, who has shared accurate information about Apple products in the past . Young says that the AR / VR headset will be equipped with two 1.41-inch Micro OLED screens, each with 4,000 ppi, and they’ll be able to go beyond 5,000 nits of brightness. You should also be able to see 4K resolution per eye, he said in a follow-up tweet . Based on previous reporting, it already seems like the headset could be a monster device , and displays like these could make it even more of a high-end product. Meta’s Quest 2 offers 773 ppi and 100 nits of brightness , and while that’s not a totally... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/pfb8Wer

Top AI researchers and CEOs warn against ‘risk of extinction’ in 22-word statement

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The 22-word statement was kept short to avoid disagreement among signatories. | Image: Alexa Steinbrück / Better Images of AI / Explainable AI / CC-BY 4.0 A group of top AI researchers, engineers, and CEOs have issued a new warning about the existential threat they believe that AI poses to humanity. The 22-word statement, trimmed short to make it as broadly acceptable as possible, reads as follows: “Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war.” This statement, published by a San Francisco-based non-profit, the Center for AI Safety, has been co-signed by figures including Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, as well as Geoffrey Hinton and Youshua Bengio — two of the three AI researchers who won the 2018 Turing Award (sometimes referred to as the “Nobel Prize of... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/WnZNqF7

Microsoft fixes Surface Pro X cameras that stopped working

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Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Microsoft has issued a temporary fix for Surface Pro X tablets after cameras on the device stopped working last week . Issues with cameras on some Arm-based devices, including the Surface Pro X, started on May 23rd, with owners reporting they couldn’t use their built-in webcams in apps like Zoom and Microsoft Teams. “Microsoft is deploying a critical troubleshooter to mitigate this issue on most affected Windows devices,” reads a support note from Microsoft late on Friday. “This workaround might disable some features of the camera or lower the image quality but should allow the camera to function until the issue is resolved by the device manufacturer with an updated camera driver.” Qualcomm’s camera driver for these particular devices... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/D9cmO6q

Apple’s original cloud photo sync service shuts down this summer

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Illustration: Nick Barclay / The Verge I have two pieces of news for you this morning. The first is that My Photo Stream, the free cloud-based photo syncing feature Apple launched in 2011 , is still up and running in 2023. That’s despite it being effectively superseded by iCloud Photo Library roughly eight years ago . Now that you’re up to date, the second piece of news is that My Photo Stream is shutting down in a couple of months’ time on July 26th, according to an Apple Support page spotted by Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman . The end of My Photo Stream won’t come as too much of a surprise. Although it was free, it came with a long list of restrictions on the amount of photos you could upload, and these were only saved on Apple’s servers for 30 days. Photos saved in the cloud then... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/XNm20dn

Street Fighter 6 is worth it for the brilliant new campaign alone

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Image: Capcom The latest from Capcom introduces a story mode that builds on the traditional arcade and online experiences expected from a modern fighter. Plus, it has a beginner-friendly control scheme that’s a button masher’s dream. Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/naKEdTU

MSI is trying hard to be a premium laptop brand

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Here’s the new Prestige 16. | Image: MSI MSI — a brand traditionally known for gaming hardware — has announced a bunch of laptops at Computex 2023, and there’s an interesting lack of gamery among them. Instead, the company appears to be focusing hard on the premium lifestyle space with its mid-2023 offerings. Notable among these releases is the new Commercial 14 series, a line of business laptops intended to compete with high-end enterprise PCs — the likes of the ThinkPad. I conclude this from the fact that MSI’s press release highlights its “tailor-made solutions to enterprises through a series of optional security measures, NFC (near-field communication) and built-in Smart Card Reader.” If that’s not a word-for-word ThinkPad pitch, I don’t know what is. MSI has attempted... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/7uC2odi

League of Legends esports players voted ‘overwhelmingly’ for a walkout

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Photo by Colin Young-Wolff / Riot Games Players in the North American League of Legends esports league have voted to walk out in protest of Riot Games’ decision to no longer require franchises to field an amateur team. Since Riot’s announcement, many franchises have already dropped their amateur teams for the summer season, cutting off an important development pipeline for players who want to compete in the main League Championship Series (LCS). The vote, held by the LCSPA, which represents North American League of Legends esports players, passed “overwhelmingly,” according to an early Monday tweet . It’s unclear exactly when the walkout will take place, but assuming the two sides don’t come to some sort of agreement, it seems likely it will happen at the start of the summer... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/on0aC9u

The Witcher is officially one of the most successful game series of all time

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Image: CD Projekt Red The Witcher is a juggernaut, and thanks to new data from The Witcher game developer CD Projekt Red (CDPR), we have a better idea of just how huge it really is. The studio revealed Monday that The Witcher video games have sold more than 75 million copies , with The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt alone responsible for more than 50 million of those sales . Those sorts of numbers mean that series is one of the biggest video game franchises of all time. For comparison, this new data puts The Witcher 3 in spitting distance of smash hits like Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Red Dead Redemption 2 , which have both sold more than 53 million copies, and both of those are among the top-selling games ever . Those Witcher sales numbers will probably grow by quite a bit... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/ALxlQkU

WhatsApp is working on usernames and screen sharing

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Image: The Verge WhatsApp is developing a number of new features, including usernames and screen sharing, as reported by WABetaInfo . The username feature was spotted in the beta version 2.23.11.15 for Android, and allows WhatsApp users to select a unique username attached to their account. The feature could mean that in the future, users could find each other by their username instead of using a phone number. Conversations that are started using a username are end-to-end encrypted , according to WABetaInfo . Some beta testers using the 2.23.11.19 version of the Android app also noticed a new screen sharing feature. After pressing the screen sharing button, users could confirm and begin sharing the contents of their screen on video calls. The feature also... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/sd3iSpg

Computex 2023: all the news from Taiwan’s big PC show

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Photo by Sam Yeh / AFP via Getty Images For one glorious week, PC enthusiasts will gather in Taipei. Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/Lxkg1W3

Logi Dock review: conference calls have never been so cute

Power, ports, and pretty lighting — for a price. Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/IKtAUV6

The System Shock remake is a delightful surprise

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POV: You are a pathetic creature of meat and bone. | Nightdive Studios Welcome to my death machine, interloper. Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/lioCM0y

Watch this Nvidia demo and imagine actually speaking to AI game characters

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Image: Nvidia At Computex 2023 in Taipei, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang just gave the world a glimpse of what it might be like when gaming and AI collide — with a graphically breathtaking recreation of a cyberpunk ramen shop where you can actually talk to the proprietor. Seriously, instead of clicking on dialogue options, it imagines you could hold down a button, just say something with your own voice, and get an answer from a video game character. Nvidia’s calling it a “peek at the future of games.” Unfortunately, the actual dialogue leaves a lot to be desired — maybe try GPT-4 or Sudowrite next time, Nvidia? Here’s the entire conversation I hastily transcribed: Player: Hey Jin, how are you? Jin: Unfortunately not so good. How come? I am worried about... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/0hEFB5J

Dolphin says Nintendo blocked a Steam release of its Wii and GameCube emulator

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Image: The Verge The Steam launch of Dolphin, an open-source emulator for the Wii and the GameCube, has been delayed indefinitely (via PC Gamer ). A blog post by the developers says that’s due to a Nintendo “cease and desist citing the DMCA” (an earlier version of the blog post simply said “issued a DMCA” but it has since been updated) after they’d announced plans for a Steam launch in March. Dolphin Emulator Project : It is with much disappointment that we have to announce that the Dolphin on Steam release has been indefinitely postponed. We were notified by Valve that Nintendo has issued a cease and desist citing the DMCA against Dolphin’s Steam page, and have removed Dolphin from Steam until the matter is settled. We are currently investigating our... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/gHhSkq7

Quest 3 hands-on confirms Meta’s building a ‘far thinner and lighter’ headset

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The Quest 3 will improve on the Quest 2 (pictured above) in many important ways. | Photo by Owen Grove / The Verge A hands-on look at the Meta Quest 3 reveals a massive set of improvements to the Meta mixed reality headset, as detailed in Mark Gurman’s Power On newsletter for Bloomberg this morning. Gurman says the Quest 3, now codenamed Eureka, is “far lighter and thinner” than the original Quest 2, which bodes well for its comfort during extended usage. A lot of the features he mentioned are similar to what we expect to learn about the Apple “Reality Pro” VR / AR headset soon, including fancy hand-tracking and pass-through video . But some rumors say the rumored Apple headset could cost as much as $3,000 . Gurman said Meta also hasn’t settled on the Quest 3’s price yet, but that it could be costlier than the $400 Quest 2, which “may stick around at a... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/PIqaYz7

Right to repair: all the latest news and updates

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Image: The Verge The right-to-repair movement is picking up momentum across the US and the rest of the globe. Here’s the story so far. Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/cEsiowt

LG’s 48-inch 4K OLED gaming monitor is over $600 off right now

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LG 48GQ900 48-inch OLED gaming monitor | Image: LG The 48-inch LG UltraGear 48GQ900 is on sale at Amazon for an incredible 43 percent off from its typical $1,499.99 price right now, putting it at $852.14 before taxes for Amazon Prime members (or $896.99 for those without Prime), for nearly its lowest price ever. If you’d rather go to the source (or just not Amazon), LG is selling it for $899.99 , as is Newegg . This price is as good as it gets for this giant LG OLED gaming display. If you take this deal, you can expect the usual inky blacks that make OLEDs the contrast champs of the display world, and its 4K resolution will mean a nice, sharp picture spanning its flat panel. Its 120Hz refresh rate can be overdriven to 138Hz, with support for variable refresh rate (VRR), plus stamps for... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/KEhSwHa

The odd appeal of absurdly long YouTube videos that don’t play anything

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I swear, this is a screenshot of an actual YouTube video. | Image: David Pierce The video’s title is, for once on YouTube, pretty straightforward: “ 24 hours + of pure black screen in HD! ” Leaving aside the questions about the difference between standard- and high-def pure black screens, the video does what it says on the tin. Hit play, and you get more than 24 hours — 24 hours, one minute, 27 seconds, to be exact — of black screen and silence. It’s like turning off your computer, without turning off your computer. This video has 40.2 million views. The first time I watched it, I assumed there was a joke or a Rick Roll or something in there somewhere and watched an upsettingly long time to find it. Nothing. So I figured it was a bit. Fun meta-commentary about the drivel people choose to watch! Most commenters seemed... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/0DQgrR4

Apple’s $50 million butterfly keyboard settlement is finally approved

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People who owned MacBooks with butterfly keyboards will now get paid. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge The $50 million settlement over Apple’s bad butterfly keyboard design got final approval by a federal court judge in California, Reuters reported yesterday . US District Court Judge Edward Davila denied an attempt to amend the agreement, writing in his ruling that 86,000 people filed claims. That finally puts a figure on the number of people affected who will get compensation for repairs they’d paid for. Or at least the number who heard about the lawsuit and followed it to the settlement agreement that was reached last July . The original suit came about because Apple laptops from 2015 to 2019 had a new keyboard design that just didn’t hold up under normal use; crumbs and dirt, or even just accumulated dust, could cause keys to fail or... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/vMtryhW

A lawyer used ChatGPT and now has to answer for its ‘bogus’ citations

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OpenAI’s ChatGPT is a lot of things, but a lawyer it is not. | Illustration: The Verge Lawyers suing the Columbian airline Avianca submitted a brief full of previous cases that were just made up by ChatGPT, The New York Times reported today . After opposing counsel pointed out the nonexistent cases, US District Judge Kevin Castel confirmed, “Six of the submitted cases appear to be bogus judicial decisions with bogus quotes and bogus internal citations,” and set up a hearing as he considers sanctions for the plaintiff’s lawyers. Lawyer Steven A. Schwartz admitted in an affidavit that he had used OpenAI’s chatbot for his research. To verify the cases, he did the only reasonable thing: he asked the chatbot if it was lying. Image: SDNY This case isn’t going very well. When he asked for a source,... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/EyMCeYo

Living and working from an all-electric VW ID Buzz

Two humans and a beagle named Hank spent two weeks and 2,000 miles in Europe with a Ququq camping box to preview the future of #vanlife. Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/GdsCk67

Google’s Magic Compose beta is here — but it sends your messages to Google

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Image: Google Google has finally started to roll out the beta of Magic Compose, its new Messages feature that uses AI to help you write text messages. However, as pointed out by Android Police , the feature comes with a pretty big caveat: it will send up to “20 previous messages” to Google’s servers to generate suggestions — even if you’re using RCS with end-to-end encryption (E2EE). Google outlines these conditions on its Magic Compose support page , noting that it will send these messages, along with any included emoji, reactions, and URLs, to its servers to help its AI craft an appropriate response. The company adds that it won’t send any messages with attachments, voice messages, and images but notes “image captions and voice transcriptions may be... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/duNMJnI

The Little Mermaid is Disney’s most animated ‘live-action’ remake yet

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Halle Bailey as Ariel. | Image: Giles Keyte Halle Bailey’s turn as The Little Mermaid’s Ariel is inspired, but the movie’s lackluster sense of visual magic does her very few favors. Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/Hnjaq1S

The Witcher is getting a fifth season on Netflix

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Image: Netflix While fans await season 3 of The Witcher , Netflix already has its eyes on season 5. In an interview with Deadline , Sophie Holland, the show’s casting director, explained, “We’re just about to start filming on season four with Liam Hemsworth and there will be a short gap then we go straight into season five.” The third season of the fantasy show will kick off on June 29th — but only the first half . Much like Stranger Things 4 , Netflix is splitting The Witcher season 3 into two volumes, the second of which will premiere in July. From there, things get interesting. Starting with season 4, Hemsworth will take over the lead role of Geralt from mainstay Henry Cavill, who is moving on to other projects . Clearly, Netflix has a good amount of... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3ORPWYH

The wildest Tears of the Kingdom builds we’ve seen

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Image: Nintendo The most enjoyable aspect of Tears of the Kingdom for me right now isn’t so much my own adventures in the game. It’s watching other people far more creative and patient than I am craft the most ridiculous mind-, physics-, and decency-bending machines ever made in a video game. We’re already seeing players craft fire-spouting robots , elaborate murder contraptions that would make Wile E. Coyote exceedingly jealous , and, more wholesomely, horse car washes and baby swings . Here are some of our favorites. @foozology Ganondorf may be the Demon King but im the King of Demons #totk #zelda #link #ganondorf #America #b2 #stealthbomber #oil #switch ♬ Fortunate Son - Creedence Clearwater Revival This is the most American thing to ever... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/uUMq3BV

Alone in the Dark’s new footage is full of terror — and you can play a demo right now

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Image: THQ Nordic Following Resident Evil and Dead Space , the year of horror remakes continues with the upcoming launch of Alone in the Dark . The new version is described as a “re-imagining” of the initial trilogy, which kicked off with the seminal survival horror original in 1992. It’s being developed by Pieces Interactive and published by THQ Nordic and stars David Harbour and Jodie Comer — you can get a feel for the creepy action in the spotlight video, which features plenty of gameplay footage, above. Here’s the basic premise for the game: Deep in the 1029’s south, Emily Hartwood’s uncle has gone missing. Together with private investigator Edward Carnby, she embarks on a journey to Derceto Manor, a home for the mentally ill where something is lurking.... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/5zj8dAE

The FDA will apparently let Elon Musk put a computer in a human’s brain

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Screenshot by Sean Hollister / The Verge Elon Musk’s brain-computer interface company Neuralink says it has received Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval to launch its first in-human clinical study . If this is true, it means that actual humans could be getting a device from Neuralink implanted in their heads. The news follows Elon Musk’s November claim that Neuralink was about six months away from its first human trial — which suggests it’s the rare Musk promise that’s actually coming true on time. The announcement of a future human trial isn’t nearly as much of a milestone as the results of that trial. But this isn’t just any trial. This represents Elon Musk, of all people, getting to attach a device to a human brain. We are excited to share that we have received the... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/Cgrh7P6

Tesla leak reportedly shows thousands of Full Self-Driving safety complaints

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Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge A Tesla whistleblower has leaked 100GB of data to the German outlet Handelsblatt containing thousands of customer complaints that raise serious concerns about the safety of Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) features. The complaints, which were reported across the US, Europe, and Asia, span from 2015 to March 2022. During this period, Handelsblatt says Tesla customers reported over 2,400 self-acceleration issues and 1,500 braking problems, including 139 reports of “unintentional emergency braking” and 383 reports of “phantom stops” from false collision warnings. Some of the incidents mentioned by Handelsblatt include descriptions of how cars “suddenly brake or accelerate abruptly.” While some drivers safely gained control of their vehicle,... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/ilOjNya

Ford EVs will use Tesla’s charging plug starting next year

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A Ford Mustang Mach-E sitting at a Tesla Supercharger | Image: Ford Ford CEO Jim Farley and Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced that in early 2024 more than 12,000 Tesla Superchargers will be operational with Ford vehicles. Farley also announced that next-generation Ford vehicles would come equipped with the North American Charging Standard ( NACS ) port, Tesla’s standardized version of its proprietary charging system. “We don’t want Tesla superchargers to be a walled garden,” Tesla CEO Elon Musk said on the Twitter Space call. According to Musk, Tesla wants Ford and other automakers to be on an equal footing when it comes to access to dependable EV charging. “We don’t want Tesla superchargers to be a walled garden” Coming soon: More locations to charge your Ford® electric vehicle. Thousands of them. @Tesla h... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/NmH2vhc

Belkin’s fast-charging Apple Watch power bank might actually be witchcraft

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I, a miserly curmudgeon, preordered this thing. | Image: Belkin Today was simply another Thursday when my colleague and The Verge’s senior news editor, Richard Lawler, tagged me in a Slack thread. Upon opening said thread, I pterodactyl screeched. Behold, the Belkin BoostCharge Pro — a $99.99 10,000mAh power bank with a lil divot that lets you fast charge a compatible Apple Watch or second-gen AirPods Pro on the go (and any device that charges via a USB-C cable at up to 20W). Is it expensive? Yes, especially since it’s not yet available and only open for preorders. I wouldn’t begrudge anyone who isn’t a wearables reviewer or smartwatch devotee for scoffing. It’s a sensible reaction, and I fully understand why you may think I’m a Dingus of the Highest Order for being this happy about an unproven... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/v0P6FRN

HP has found an exciting new way to DRM your printer!

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The HP Deskjet 2755e, a printer that prompts you to use HP Plus to get free ink. | Image: HP Amazon’s No. 1 bestselling printer is the HP Deskjet 2755e . It’s not hard to see why. For just $85, you get a wireless color printer, scanner, and six months of free ink. It also comes with HP Plus, one of the most dastardly schemes Big Inkjet has ever unleashed. I’m not talking about how printers quietly waste their own ink, or pretend cartridges are empty when they’re not, or lock out official cartridges from other regions . Heck, I’m not even talking about “Dynamic Security,” the delightful feature where new HP firmware updates secretly contain malware that blocks batches of third-party cartridges while pretending to harden your printhead against hacks. No, the genius of HP’s latest scheme is that it’s hiding in plain sight, daring... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/gjAZbsS

The best Memorial Day deals you can already get

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We found some great discounts on Apple’s latest smartwatch and other gadgets. | Image: Will Joel / The Verge Memorial Day isn’t just the unofficial start of summer — it’s also a good time to save money on everything from outdoor furniture to the latest tech accessories. And while many retailers are likely going to launch their Memorial Day sales closer to the weekend, retailers like Walmart have already begun offering deals on streaming devices, noise-canceling earbuds, video doorbells, gaming headsets, and a range of other popular tech. What’s more, Amazon and other retailers are currently matching the discounted prices, making now one of the best times of the year to save on certain categories. Below, we’ve rounded up some of the top Memorial Day deals you can get in the run-up to the holiday on Monday, May 29th. We’ve also peppered in a few... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/GxEnQO7

Verizon warns customer service employees of impending layoffs

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Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Just days after overhauling its wireless data plans , Verizon on Wednesday held a meeting with a wide audience of customer service employees to notify them of upcoming “restructuring” and “streamlining” measures that are all but certain to result in significant layoffs. More details will be shared tomorrow, May 25th, according to a prerecorded message that employees received. Over 6,000 employees were present on today’s call — The Verge spoke with several of them — but the consolidation measures could end up impacting numbers far beyond that. The warning comes just a month after Verizon posted Q1 ’23 earnings, which fell short of Wall Street estimates as its subscriber base continued to shrink. The company lost 127,000 postpaid... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/sMwjUxT

Sony announces heist game Fairgames

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Image: Sony Interactive Entertainment Sony opened up its big showcase event with a brand-new title called Fairgames . It’s the first release from Haven Studios, which was acquired by Sony in 2022 and is led by industry vet Jade Raymond. It’s a competitive multiplayer title with a focus on heists. “Fairgames will give you an opportunity to break the rules as a modern-day Robin Hood, a thrill seeker, or just someone who wants to collect cool loot,” creative director Mathieu Leduc wrote on the PlayStation blog . “Trespass inside forbidden locations around the world, fill your pockets like a kid in a candy store and unravel the nefarious plans of untouchable billionaires.” Sony is likely hoping the game will join its growing library of big-name properties. Right now, that includes... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/PGaAvu5

Right-to-repair rules are now the law in Minnesota

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Image: The Verge Minnesota Governor Tim Walz has signed a groundbreaking right-to-repair law after it passed the state legislature in April. The rules, part of an omnibus appropriations bill , require electronics manufacturers to let independent repair shops and consumers buy the parts and tools necessary to repair their own equipment. But the rules don’t apply to some notable categories, including farm equipment, game consoles, medical devices, and motor vehicles. The new Minnesota rules take effect July 1st, 2024, and they cover products sold on or after July 1st, 2021. If manufacturers sell a product in the state, they must offer residents the equipment to repair it on “fair and reasonable” terms within 60 days, and they must offer documentation for... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/FOQkxma

Warner Bros. Discovery apologizes for crediting writers and directors as ‘creators’ on Max

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A view of the stage during the Warner Bros. Discovery Upfront 2023 at the Theater at Madison Square Garden. | Photo by Kevin Mazur / Getty Images Warner Bros. Discovery ’s baffling (but unsurprising) decision to lump writers, directors, and producers together as nondescript “creators” in Max’s new credits section has been met with almost nothing but contempt for reasons that should be very clear four weeks into an industry-wide writers strike . Now, the entertainment giant is apologizing for the move, blaming it on technical issues and apparently working to make things right. In joint public statements from Writers Guild of America West president Meredith Stiehm and Directors Guild of America president Lesli Linka Glatter, both organizations lambasted Warner Bros. Discovery Wednesday afternoon for Max’s “devaluation of the individual contributions of artists.” “For almost 90 years,... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/IsWoCAT

You can finally view all your saved Wi-Fi passwords in the latest Windows 11 preview

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Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge Microsoft is working on an easier way to view your saved Wi-Fi passwords in Windows, the company reveals in its latest blog post . The new feature comes in a new Insider Preview Build that’s been released to the Dev Channel. With the new build (23466) of Windows 11, you can now see saved SSID keys in plain text by going to Settings > Network and internet > Wi-Fi and then going to Manage known networks . Then, you can select a saved SSID and click View Wi-Fi security key . And that’s it. Image: Microsoft The new “View Wi-Fi security key” section when viewing any known network in Windows 11 settings. Currently, the Wi-Fi password of the current network your Windows 11 PC is connected to is buried in the wireless... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/8cEQDSu

PlayStation is betting big on new franchises and live service games

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Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Right now, Sony may be widely renowned for its ambitious single-player PlayStation games from franchises you’ve come to know and love — series like God of War , Horizon , and Spider-Man come to mind for me. But in just a few years, you might instead be playing a lot of new PlayStation franchises — and a lot of live service titles. As part of a business presentation on Tuesday, Sony shared some updates about how it plans to invest in its its portfolio. In the 2025 fiscal year, for example, it estimates that 50 percent of its PlayStation Studios investments will be in new IP, which a major jump from years past: according to a slide, in its 2019 fiscal year, only 20 percent of its investments were in new franchises. And if you look at the... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/qzRsjWh

Why YouTube is a tough place for kids podcasts

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Getty Images This is Hot Pod , The Verge’ s newsletter about podcasting and the audio industry. Sign up here for more. Hope everyone at The Podcast Show is enjoying the conference (and ignoring their jet lag). While I’m still very much across the pond (like, way across) in LA, this issue of Hot Pod leads with some news from BBC Radio. I’m also digging into kids podcasts on YouTube and an interesting announcement by Bill Simmons about Spotify’s voice cloning for ads. But before I start — remember Twitter Spaces? Twitter’s live audio platform will make history tomorrow at 6PM PT when Florida Governor Ron DeSantis hops in a room to announce his bid for presidency. As The Verge reported last year, most of the team behind Twitter Spaces has either been... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/uToShnp

Here’s how ads might look in Google’s new AI-powered search experience

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Illustration: The Verge Think Google is already loaded with ads? Well, if a new video in a blog post is anything to go by , ads might be even more obtrusive in the company’s new AI-powered Search Generative Experience (SGE). I’ve already expressed some concern over how much ads push things down in SGE based on what Google showed when it revealed the new experience at I/O. But those ads were only above and below SGE, and what Google showed on Tuesday were examples of ads within SGE. See for yourself in a GIF of the video below: This is a video from Google that I converted to a GIF. The GIF moves kind of quickly, so let’s break down exactly what we can see here: In a mobile search for “outdoor activities to do in Maui,” there are normal... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/sniNp2g

Tears of the Kingdom’s puzzle designers are fantastic trolls

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Image: Nintendo The Zelda developers are trolls, and I love them. One really well-designed aspect of Tears of the Kingdom is that the game will teach you how to play it. I don’t mean through explicit tutorials; rather, throughout my frankly embarrassing amount of playtime , the game presented to me, either in shrines or in the overworld, obstacles and the tools to surmount them. And every time I solved a puzzle, a more complex version of that same kind of puzzle would pop up later on, forcing me to put together what I learned to take on this new challenge. It makes Tears a kind of Metroidvania in that sometimes my progression is locked until I’ve mastered a certain skill or problem-solving mechanic. The game will also give you a full lesson contained... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/ZYkxm1N

Netflix’s password sharing crackdown is here — and it costs $7.99 per month

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Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge Netflix is about to kick your best friend off your account — unless you pay for them to share your account, that is. On Tuesday, Netflix revealed the details of how its crackdown on password sharing will affect viewers in the US and how much it will cost to keep extra people on your account. If you have the Netflix Standard plan that costs $15.49 per month, then you have the option of adding one extra member who can use the service outside your household for $7.99 extra each month. Anyone who pays for the Netflix Premium package with 4K streaming has the option of adding up to two extra members, but each one will still cost another $7.99. Netflix subscribers on its two cheapest plans (Basic or Standard with Ads, which cost $9.99 and... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/A2xtdbo

Shut up and mint the coin

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It should be the size of a hubcap, and it should glow in the dark. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge It’s time to mint the coin, sickos! If you have not been paying attention to the most tragically online sectors of the financial internet, here’s a summary: the government is about to grind to a halt — yes, again — to argue over the national debt. But there is a way out, and it’s been known for years. What we do is mint a $1 trillion platinum coin . Nobody in Congress appears capable of even pretending to act like an adult. So in that spirit, I present to you the coin Since 2003, there’s been an increasing level of dumbfuck nonsense from our elected officials around the debt ceiling. The “debt ceiling” is a limit on government spending that was instituted in 1917. When there’s a Democrat in the White House — and sometimes, even when there... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/QR8hrc2

GM is making an all-electric Cadillac Escalade

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Cadillac Escalade IQ nameplate. | Image: GM GM has announced it’s working on an all-electric version of the luxury full-size Cadillac Escalade SUV, called the Escalade IQ. The Escalade IQ joins Cadillac’s other EVs, which include the ultra-luxury and limited Celestiq and the more attainable Lyriq SUV, which starts at $64,000 . It’s all part of GM’s plan to make the luxury brand exclusively an EV label by 2030. GM’s Ultium platform is the basis for its current and upcoming electric vehicles, including the Chevy Equinox EV, Silverado, and even the GMC Hummer EV — and presumably this one as well. Many of the electric vehicles from multiple automakers are leaning into larger SUVs in the US market as demand for them increases. Kia’s EV9 is one hotly anticipated three-row SUV that... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/t18NAIE

Venmo Teen accounts are coming next month

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Image: Venmo Venmo is introducing a new service that allows parents to open a Venmo account for children between the ages of 13-17 to send and receive money via the app. Venmo Teen accounts also come with a debit card and controls for parents to monitor transactions and manage their child’s privacy settings — important because Venmo has been routinely criticized for its lack of privacy protections in the past. Parents or legal guardians must sign up for a Venmo Teen account on behalf of their children. Each Venmo Teen account is connected to the parent’s personal Venmo account, which allows guardians to send money to their teen, monitor their account balance and transactions, and manage their privacy settings. Up to five Venmo Teen accounts can be... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/l4PWLOy

Node by Node

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Photo illustration by William Joel / The Verge; photo by Anthony Hamboussi Tevina Willis taped up her windows as Superstorm Sandy neared her Red Hook, Brooklyn, home. Outside her apartment, hurricane winds pushed a wall of water into the city. The storm surge swept boats from the harbor onto streets turned into rivers. Willis rode it out. “I had been through hurricanes in the projects when I was a child,” she says. “I knew just to be calm and sit away from the windows, away from glass.” Two days later, the storm subsided. But for Willis and others in Red Hook, the disaster was just the beginning. New York City’s infrastructure was mangled. Power and telecommunications lines — even cellphone networks — had gone down. Her building inside the Red Hook Houses, a public housing complex where she lived, was left... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/Q6LctIW

A Twitter bug is restoring deleted tweets and retweets — including my own

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Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Earlier this year on the 8th of May I deleted all my tweets, just under 5,000 of them. I know the exact day because I tweeted about it . This morning, though, I discovered that Twitter has restored a handful of my old re-tweets; interactions I know I scrubbed from my profile. Those re-tweets were gone. I remember surveying my bare timeline with satisfaction before thinking, “great, time to draw attention to myself.” But now they’re back. You can see them by scrolling down my timeline past May 8th, with even more appearing if you select “ tweets with replies .” I remember deleting all my tweets because I tweeted about it The re-tweets themselves are completely run-of-the-mill. There’s a video of kids cheering a construction worker. A S... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/ECyVmf5

Meta hit with record-breaking $1.3 billion fine over Facebook data transfers to the US

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Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Meta has been hit with a record-breaking $1.3 billion fine (€1.2 billion) by EU data regulators, and ordered to stop transferring the Facebook data of EU citizens to the US. EU courts believe such data transfers expose EU citizens to privacy violations — a complaint that stems back to 2013 and revelations by whistleblower Edward Snowden about US mass surveillance programs. The ruling was made by Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC), which said that that the current legal framework for data transfers to the US “did not address the risks to the fundamental rights and freedoms” of Facebook’s EU users and violated GDPR. The fine exceeds the previous EU record of €746 million levied against Amazon in 2021 for similar privacy violations .... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/yBKlnUW

Pac-Man is the latest video game classic to be lovingly recreated in Lego

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Lego’s new Pac-Man set. | Image: Lego Lego has announced a new premium set based on 1980s arcade classic Pac-Man. The 2,650-piece set is designed to recreate a Pac-Man arcade cabinet, complete with an illuminating coin-slot, four-way joystick, and a mechanical chase. There’s a crank on the side of the cabinet which you can turn to move the characters around the game’s maze, and the set comes with a diorama of a figurine playing a smaller version of the arcade cabinet. On top of the cabinet sit rotating versions of Pac-Man and the ghosts Blinky and Clyde. Image: Lego Turning a small crank makes the characters move around the ‘screen.’ Image: Lego There’s even an illuminating coin-slot. The Lego Icons Pac-Man set will... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2YF9OKh