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Photo: Getty Images You might not expect an antitrust trial focused on Google’s overwhelming dominance in the year 2023 to spend a lot of time talking about Internet Explorer circa 2005. But you’d be wrong. Google CEO Sundar Pichai spent a good chunk of Monday in a DC courtroom, testifying as part of the ongoing US v. Google antitrust trial . He stood at a podium instead of sitting (apparently he hurt his back), often with a magnifying glass in his hand, pushing his glasses up on his forehead as he squinted down at a binder full of exhibits. One exhibit proved particularly interesting: a letter from Google’s then-top lawyer David Drummond, sent on July 22nd, 2005, to Microsoft’s then-general counsel Brad Smith. Drummond’s letter concerned the launch of... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/CKpX3AR

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Porsche said today that future models would include native versions of popular Google apps, like Maps and Assistant. The German automaker is the latest to support Google built-in, enabling native Android apps with over-the-air (OTA) software updates. Earlier this year, Porsche said it was considering adopting Google’s software for its in-car infotainment in a sign that parent company Volkswagen was still struggling to fix its software issues . Today, VW said it was planning around 2,000 job cuts at its in-house software provider, Cariad, that will delay the launch of its new architecture, according to Reuters . It was just a few months ago that VW rolled out an entirely new app store designed to serve its wide portfolio of car brands.... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/hVHeFyY

Marathon and Destiny 2 ’s The Final Shape have been delayed. | Image: Bungie Bungie is laying off an unspecified number of staffers as well as delaying two of its forthcoming titles: Marathon and Destiny 2 ’s forthcoming expansion, The Final Shape . The latter is now expected to launch in June 2024, while the former won’t be expected until 2025. The layoffs, first reported by Bloomberg , are part of ongoing cuts within Sony’s PlayStation division. There’s no official number just yet, but ex-Bungie employees have begun posting on social media about the layoffs . Sony purchased Bungie last year in a $3.6 million deal that was supposed to see the Destiny developer operate as an independent unit within the company. The Final Shape is an ambitious new expansion pack for Destiny 2 that is meant to conclude many of the... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/c7gD8Hp

Image: Laura Normand / The Verge Everyone knew that Twitter wasn’t worth $44 billion when Elon Musk bought it a year ago. Now, we know what Musk himself thinks the company is worth today: $19 billion. On Monday, employees at X were awarded equity in the company at a valuation of $19 billion, or $45 per share, according to internal documents seen by The Verge . That price is a 55 percent discount to Musk’s original purchase price, per the documents. They note that “the fair market value per share is determined by the Board of Directors based on a number of factors in a manner that complies with applicable tax rules.” (Musk has yet to create a formal board for X.) Since he took over Twitter, Musk has said he wants to mold the company’s compensation plan after SpaceX, which... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/EMxa4e2

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Microsoft is starting to block “unauthorized” Xbox controllers and accessories from being used on Xbox consoles. Resetera posters spotted a warning about the block last week, with some third-party Xbox controllers now throwing up a “connected accessory is not authorized” warning when connected to an Xbox console. It’s unclear if Microsoft is trying to target cheat devices, or whether the Xbox maker is trying to push its official partner program. An error has now started appearing for some third-party Xbox controllers, alongside a warning that notes the accessory will be blocked from further use after two weeks. “From the moment you connect an unauthorized accessory and receive error code 0x82d60002, you’ll have two weeks to use the... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/xTkpUfS

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge President Joe Biden signed an executive order providing rules around generative AI, ahead of any legislation coming from lawmakers. The order has eight goals: to create new standards for AI safety and security, protect privacy, advance equity and civil rights, stand up for consumers, patients, and students, support workers, promote innovation and competition, advance US leadership in AI technologies, and ensure the responsible and effective government use of the technology. Several government agencies are tasked with creating standards to protect against the use of AI to engineer biological materials, establish best practices around content authentication, and build advanced cybersecurity programs. The National Institute of Standards... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/RS7ZI9x

Illustration: The Verge OpenAI is rolling out new beta features for ChatGPT Plus members right now. Subscribers have reported that the update includes the ability to upload files and work with them, as well as multimodal support. Basically, users won’t have to select modes like Browse with Bing from the GPT-4 dropdown — it will instead guess what they want based on context. The new features bring a dash of the office features offered by its ChatGPT Enterprise plan to the standalone individual chatbot subscription. I don’t seem to have the multimodal update on my own Plus plan, but I was able to test out the Advanced Data Analysis feature, which seems to work about as expected. Once the file is fed to ChatGPT, it takes a few moments to digest the file before... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/nZzvO6G

Image: The Verge YouTube’s NFL Sunday Ticket streams have been plagued with buffering and pixelation, making afternoon games today unwatchable, according to many, many posts. The @TeamYouTube account acknowledged the issue at 1:53PM ET. The team wrote that they're aware YouTube is having issues and they are working to fix them, but acknowledged that “YouTube TV or NFL Sunday Ticket may also be impacted.” Now that YouTube is the only place to watch NFL Sunday Ticket , that leaves viewers across the country with no options to watch games apart from any available local broadcasts. People have taken to X to complain that streams are freezing up or lagging , or that it’s just like watching illegal streams . And plenty of them point out the money factor . NFL... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/7tTnvFA

Image: Apple I’m trying to remember the last time a company’s big event came for prime time TV the way Apple’s 8pm ET keynote is trying to lock down our attention tomorrow. The only company I can think of that’s done it successfully lately is Victoria’s Secret with its Fashion Show. While I suspect there’s some overlap in audience between that and an Apple Keynote, I also suspect Bella Hadid is a bigger draw than a new iMac. But Apple is still going for it! Promising a keynote that will air on its website, YouTube, and over Apple TV while things like Monday Night Football airs on broadcast TV. The company is ready to take all the cultural cache its phones, Bluetooth headsets, and computers have earned it and convert that fanbase into a bigger... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/w3KV8Jy

Image: William Joel / The Verge Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 12, your guide to the best and Verge -iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome. I’m so psyched you found us, and also, you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage .) This week, I’ve been testing the Superlist tasks app, reading about the high-stakes race to crack crypto wallets , rehearsing my case for buying an e-bike , taking voice notes like a boss with Whisper Memos , and avoiding all my problems by watching Between Two Ferns bloopers on YouTube. I also have for you a new pair of AR glasses, a Netflix thriller, all the great sci-fi you could ever need, a great parenting app, a super-deep interview about Windows, a new puzzling platform, and a bunch more. As always, of... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/m0W8oMV

Illustration: The Verge Typical heart rate monitoring in wearable tech, like smart watches or wireless earbuds, relies at least partially on photoplethysmography (PPG), which uses light pulses to measure blood activity. It works generally well, but it has its limitations. Google scientists wrote in a new research blog spotted by 9to5Google yesterday that they had tried a different approach, called audioplethysmography (APG), that uses ultrasound to measure heart rate. And they did it with off-the-shelf active noise-canceling (ANC) earbuds and a software update. The trick works by bouncing a low-intensity ultrasound signal off the inside of the ear canal and using the tiny microphone that helps make ANC work to detect skin surface perturbations as blood pumps... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/B2U3Jvm

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Google is looking into an Android 14 bug that’s been wreaking havoc for people with multiple user profiles. On October 27th, a Google representative acknowledged the bug and said the team is “working hard on a fix” for it. Thanks for sticking with us. Our team is looking into this storage issue affecting some Pixel devices running Android 14 and we're working hard on a fix. We'll update this thread with more details soon. While the first reports were mostly from Pixel 6 owners who experienced the problem as the update started rolling out, Ars Technica reported this week that a Google issue tracker for the problem had grown beyond over 350 replies, extending to owners of many different devices. The problems range from missing apps to... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/Y3sIO2n

Image: OneWheel One month after Onewheel recalled every single one of its electric skateboards after four known deaths and a year of delay , the company’s releasing its fastest, most powerful, and most expensive board yet. It’s called the Onewheel GT S-Series , and the $3,200 board will already come with the new safety mechanism it told the government it’d add to several previous generations of Onewheel — called Haptic Buzz , it vibrates the board when it’s running out of battery, attempting to exert too much torque, or is erroring out. Speaking of torque, the S-Series adds more of it — the primary upgrade here is a new motor with 50 percent more voltage and 50 percent more torque. The company promises “high-speed carves up even the steepest of hills,”... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/M9C4Rvc

Image: Disney If you were expecting to try out Disney Dreamlight Valley — the Disneyfied version of Stardew Valley — for free when it’s released, you might be a bit disappointed. Disney says it’s doing away with the free-to-play option and will instead charge $39.99 to play the base game. With the global launch of Disney Dreamlight Valley set for December 5th, this change feels a bit last-minute. Disney first released the game in early access last year and said at the time it would have a free-to-play model when it was officially out. But now, Disney revealed it will offer several different packages, with the base game costing $39.99. Image: Disney “This choice ensures that Disney Dreamlight Valley will be able to continue... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/tQM9a1m

Photo by Abed Rahim Khatib / Anadolu via Getty Images The Gaza Strip is suffering a near-total connectivity outage as the Israeli Defense Forces announced Friday that it was “expanding ground operations” in the region. As of Friday, the connectivity tracker NetBlocks reported “a collapse in connectivity in the Gaza Strip,” with one of the largest and last remaining Palestinian telecom providers, Paltel, being highly impacted by intense airstrikes. Paltel said it had sustained “a complete disruption of all communication and internet services” as a result of the barrage, according to The Washington Post . Since Israel cut off much of Gaza’s access to electricity earlier this month, the strip has largely relied on other power sources like generators to support connectivity. But in recent days,... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/MhoRk8H

Image: The Verge Apple has released the developer beta of iOS 17.2, and it includes the Journal app, a digital daily diary for users to log their activities. The Journal app was first announced at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference in June , and the company frames it as a way for users to self-reflect and practice gratitude. A feature of the Journal app that’s raised questions is how it uses machine learning to prompt user entries, using data like photos, workouts, location data, and more — perhaps good for people who need a little bit of inspiration. But as my colleague Victoria Song wrote at the time , not all our memories are happy, and it’s not hard to see how an AI-powered prompt machine could go awry. 9to5Mac has more details about features... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/gEAic3M

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Forbes launched a beta version of a generative AI search platform built with Google Cloud to provide personalized searches for readers. The platform is called Adelaide — named after the wife of Forbes’ founder, B.C. Forbes. Readers can ask specific questions or input general topic areas and get recommended articles about their query, along with a summarized answer to whatever they asked... as long as it’s within Forbes’ coverage scope. Adelaide trained on Forbes stories but only covered the past 12 months of its news and list coverage. Vadim Supitskiy, chief digital and information officer at Forbes , said the publication wanted to increase engagement with both search and its stories. “Engagement with search has been pretty standard... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/HDmRlTa

The M2 generation of MacBook Air now comes in two sizes, and both are discounted. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Apple sells MacBooks equipped with its own M-series chips in a wide range of sizes and price points. The offerings start with the 13-inch MacBook Air from 2020 at $999 and go all the way up to last year’s 16-inch MacBook Pro at $2,499 (and more Macs are expected to be announced at its upcoming “Scary Fast” evening product event on October 30th). But finding a deal on a current Mac with an M1 or M2 chip — or a higher-end Pro or Max version — is usually not too difficult. At this point, we don’t recommend buying any older Intel-based Macs. They’re just completely outclassed by all the newer models unless you have some super-niche Windows Boot Camp needs. Alternatively, purchasing refurbished is another way to save money on an Apple... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/dzQ2CJE

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Social messaging platform Telegram has blocked channels used by Hamas, but only on Android phones due to violations of Google’s app store guidelines. According to CNBC , two channels — hamas_com and al-Qassam brigades — were cut off for Android users, though other channels the group uses, like Gaza Now, are still accessible. Telegram blamed the blocks on Google’s app store guidelines , according to reporting in The Jerusalem Post . Users reportedly see an error saying the channels can’t be viewed on “Telegram apps downloaded from the Google Play Store,” implying that the ban doesn’t extend to the app when it’s downloaded from elsewhere or used on another operating system. A Google spokesperson, who asked to be quoted anonymously due to the... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/xZN2gfj

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Apple will try to better differentiate its AirPods lineup as new models launch over the next couple of years, according to a new report from Bloomberg ’s Mark Gurman. That will include phasing out both the second-gen and third-gen AirPods when a successor is announced sometime next fall. Gurman claims that the third-gen “regular” AirPods haven’t sold particularly well and partially attributes this to consumers frequently opting for the older, cheaper second-gen pair, which Apple has continued to sell. To avoid facing that problem again, Apple plans to simultaneously launch two sets of fourth-generation AirPods in 2024. Both sets will sit beneath the AirPods Pro, with pricing remaining similar to where it is today, but the two SKUs will... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/wLnXzJ8

Illustration: The Verge Apple announced that it would be making all of the parts, tools, and information necessary for consumers and repair shops to fix the device maker’s products during a White House event on Tuesday . Apple is already required to make these materials available in California after the state passed its Right to Repair Act earlier this month, but the company says it will bring this new support to consumers and independent repair shops nationwide. “We intend to honor California’s new repair provisions across the United States,” Brian Naumann, Apple vice president and general manager of the company’s repair business, said during Tuesday’s meeting. “Apple also believes that consumers and businesses would benefit from a national law that balances... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/76db8zv

Wyze’s new video doorbell is its first with local recording. | Image: Wyze Smart home company Wyze has a new doorbell cam. The Wyze Video Doorbell v2 is a 2K-capable doorbell camera with a head-to-toe view of your porch and local recording via a microSD card. Costing just $39.99 (plus shipping), it’s a wired doorbell (there’s no battery backup) and is an upgrade from the original Wyze Doorbell . The camera comes in black, and the local storage feature allows for 24/7 recording. You have to buy the microSD card separately (it supports up to 256GB), but if you choose not to, you won’t need to pay a subscription, as Wyze offers free 12-second recordings when the doorbell is pressed. There are very few doorbells that offer 24/7 continuous video, and fewer still for free. The Verge’s top pick video doorbell, the Nest... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/QoUbxD0

Here’s a Ram truck at CES 2018. | Image: Sean O’Kane / The Verge Stellantis — the gigantic international automotive conglomerate that owns everything from Jeep to Ram to Alfa Romeo and Opel — has canceled its plans for CES 2024, we are told via a short press release . The company blames the current United Auto Workers (UAW) strikes, which today expanded to include 6,800 workers at the factory that makes Ram 1500 trucks , which is the largest Stellantis factory in the United States. Stellantis has “the worst proposal on the table regarding wage progression, temporary worker pay and conversion to full-time, cost-of-living adjustments (COLA), and more,” the UAW said in a statement to Axios . “As the costs of the ongoing UAW strikes against Stellantis continue to mount, the Company has decided to cancel its... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/Aa8BKjz

A screenshot of the Meta Verified toggle. | Image: Meta Instagram is testing a toggle that lets you only see posts from Meta Verified users, according to Instagram head Adam Mosseri on Monday. “We’re exploring this as a new control for people and a way for businesses and creators to get discovered,” Mosseri wrote on his broadcast channel. The new Meta Verified toggle will appear as an option under “Following” and “Favorites” when you tap the Instagram logo at the top of the app. The prominence of the toggle could make paying for Meta Verified, which costs $11.99 on the web or $14.99 in an app, a more attractive proposition as it gives people a new way to try and appear more prominently in an Instagram feed. That said, Mosseri’s post didn’t say how big the test is or who might have access to... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/wcS179M

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The next big Snapdragon chip headed to Android phones is likely to be announced this week — and details have leaked early revealing a heavy focus on AI. According to MSPoweruser , Qualcomm’s upcoming Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 will support some handy and creative AI camera tools, including the ability to remove objects from videos, expand areas of a photo, and generate fake backgrounds. The leaked marketing materials also boast about the chip’s ability to run various AI models, including both Stable Diffusion and Meta’s Llama 2. Making that happen is supposed to be an upgraded Hexagon neural processor, which the leaked document says is 98 percent faster (presumably than last year’s processor, but the image doesn’t clarify). Qualcomm showed off t... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/5omxNQR

New device types, including robot vacuums, smoke alarms, washing machines and refrigerators are coming to Matter. | Photo Illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge One year in, and Matter is adding support for fridges, robot vacuums, smoke alarms, and more. It’s a major step toward a complete smart home, but success hinges on platform and manufacturer follow-through. Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/f1bPpje

Now your mom and dad can help you find your next potential partner and stop dunking on your questionable dating choices. | Image: Tinder If you’re the kind of person who asks friends and family for help with your love life, Tinder is aiming to make things a little easier by letting them suggest potential partners for you directly within the app. Tinder’s new Matchmaker feature lets users invite their loved ones, regardless of whether they have a Tinder profile or not, to view and recommend potential matches, essentially integrating a “friend test” into the dating app. Tinder Matchmaker is available now in 15 countries including the US, UK, Australia, Canada, France, and Germany, with a global rollout expected “in the coming months.” Users can start a Matchmaker session either directly from a profile card, or within the app settings — creating a link that can be shared... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/TIfm87z

Metal Gear Solid 3 protagonist “Naked Snake.” | Image: Konami It’s hard to fault the breadth of content Konami has included in its tantalizingly-named ‘Vol. 1’ collection. Just don’t go in expecting many modern upgrades to these decades-old titles. Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/VTr1hIl

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge October starting to slip away, and so far, all we’ve gotten was a very confusing Apple Pencil , despite rumors of iMacs and iPads . Well, it sounds like that new 24-inch M3-powered iMac is on its way this month after all. Mark Gurman thinks so, having written in his Power On newsletter for Bloomberg today that it’s coming very soon — as early as October 30th, in fact. That would end, as Gurman notes, an over 900-day drought since the M1 iMac launched in the first half of 2021. Gurman writes that he was “told that Apple is planning a Mac-centered product launch around the end of this month.” He adds that if you try to order the iMac, 13-inch MacBook Pro , and either of the other higher-end Pro models, several of their configurations aren’t... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/noQvzDB

Image: William Joel / The Verge Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 11, your guide to the best and Verge -iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome to the Installer verse, which is officially a thing now — we did it, everybody — and you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage .) I’m traveling this week, so I’ve got a slightly abbreviated issue for you. But there’s just way too much good stuff not to share. This week, I’m spending all my free time playing Subpar Pool , testing Twine as my new go-to Android RSS reader, watching Zane Lowe talk music with Blink-182 , learning about the incredible work of the masters of film set design , reading Cory Doctorow’s new book, The Internet Con , finally for real canceling some too-expensive streaming... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/csNl5GF

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge In 2020, scientists decided just to rework the alphanumeric symbols they used to represent genes rather than try to deal with an Excel feature that was interpreting their names as dates and (un)helpfully reformatting them automatically. Yesterday, a member of the Excel team posted that the company is rolling out an update on Windows and macOS to fix that. Excel’s automatic conversions are intended to make it easier and faster to input certain types of commonly entered data — numbers and dates, for instance. But for scientists using quick shorthand to make things legible, it could ruin published, peer-reviewed data, as a 2016 study found . Microsoft detailed the update in a blog post this week, adding a checkbox labeled “Convert continuous... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/RavunO8

Illustration: The Verge A jury found Google guilty of sexual discrimination and awarded female Google Cloud executive Ulku Rowe, who filed the complaint, $1.1 million. Rowe’s lawsuit alleged that the company gave higher pay to less-experienced male cohorts and that it later denied her promotions in retaliation for her complaints, both internal and later in court. Bloomberg Law reports the jury ruled that Google owes Rowe for both punitive damages and pain and suffering. Rowe said before the trial started that her time at Google was “overshadowed by what I believe are unfair compensation and treatment due to my gender.” She alleged that, after the company passed her over for a promotion to vice president that was given to a man who had neither applied nor was... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/qrkQBIZ

How many motors have you got? | Photo by Sean O’Kane / The Verge Tesla’s Cybertruck is finally nearing its first delivery event on November 30th , and yet we still don’t have key details on configurations, prices, and other specifications of the unconventionally designed pickup truck. But today, we got some insight for the launch, including initial Cybertruck powertrain options and Gross Vehicle Weight Rating (GVWR), thanks to new VIN info from the National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). A required VIN decoder submission that Tesla and other automakers must provide to NHTSA before vehicles are delivered to customers is now available for all to see and decipher. A Verge tipster pointed us to a Cybertruck Owners Club forum post where user Throwcomputer provided an analysis of Tesla’s... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/qYiMeId

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The Washington Post reported Friday that Reddit might cut off Google and force users to log in to Reddit itself to read anything if it can’t reach deals with generative AI companies to pay for its data. But the company tells The Verge that’s not true. “Nothing is changing,” says Reddit spokesperson Courtney Geesey-Dorr. The Washington Post’s report wasn’t just focused on Reddit — it’s about how more than 535 news organizations have opted to block their content from being scraped by companies like OpenAI to help train products such as ChatGPT. According to the original report, Reddit is in negotiations with AI companies to get them to pay to use its data, and if it couldn’t strike those agreements, it might require logins to see content.... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/z4GQCW5

Photo by Steven Ferdman / Getty Images Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee is among a group of authors suing Meta, Microsoft, and other companies over the use of their work in building AI tools. In a lawsuit filed Tuesday, Huckabee and other authors including Christian writer Lysa TerKeurst allege that their books were pirated and used in datasets that trained AI models. EleutherAI, an artificial intelligence research group, is also named in the suit, as is Bloomberg. The proposed class action suit is the latest example of authors alleging tech companies used their work without permission to train generative AI models. Over the past several months, a string of popular authors including George R.R. Martin , Jodi Picoult, and Michael Chabon have sued OpenAI for copyright... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/nP8N3xO

Amazon’s paper mailers. | Image: Amazon Amazon is fulfilling a small part of its promise to switch from using plastic bubble mailers and air pillows to all recyclable paper packaging for its shipments. The company announced that it has outfitted one facility in Euclid, Ohio , with an upgraded packaging machine that can automatically fold custom-fit boxes to wrap some products, use paper mailers for small items, and slide in paper fillers instead of plastic ones in standard boxes. Amazon’s efforts to switch to nonplastic materials come after the company’s promise in July to cut out plastic mailers in favor of recyclable alternatives. Non-padded paper mailers are largely not as durable as plastic ones, but Amazon says it developed paper rolls that can stretch, seal with heat,... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/0qOfcXi

Jaz Sinclair as Marie Moreau. | Photo by Brooke Palmer / Prime Video As invested as Amazon has been in its adaptation of The Boys , it always seemed like a given that the series’ new spinoff, Gen V , would be coming back for a second season following its debut last month. But just in case there was any doubt, Amazon’s just made Gen V ’s sophomore year official. This afternoon, ahead of Gen V ’s season 1 finale this November, Amazon announced that it has renewed Gen V for a second season. In a statement about the renewal, Amazon MGM Studios TV head Vernon Sanders described producing Gen V as “an incredible journey” and pointed to showrunners Michele Fazekas and Tara Butters’ desire to push boundaries as sources of the show’s success. “Their unapologetic approach is exactly what audiences love, and it has... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/fXuUD1S

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Netflix is getting another price increase. As part of the streamer’s third quarter earnings results , Netflix announced that starting today, users on its $9.99 per month Basic plan will now have to pay $11.99, and those paying $19.99 per month for Premium will have to pay $22.99. Netflix’s $6.99 ad-supported plan and $15.49 Standard tier will stay the same price. Netflix last raised its prices in January 2022 and stopped offering its $9.99 Basic ad-free plan to new and relapsed users in July, forcing them to fork out more to avoid ads. Prices for the Basic and Premium plans in the UK and France are going up as well, with the ad-supported and Standard plans remaining unchanged. In the UK, the Standard and Premium plans will cost £7.99 and... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/NFPuYhA

It may not offer stereo sound or in-line playback, but the first-gen Sonos Move remains a great portable speaker. | Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge In case you somehow weren’t aware, we’re in the thick of gadget season, with Apple, Google, and Meta having all recently released a trove of new devices. Sonos, not to be outdone, has also launched a new portable speaker in the form of the Sonos Move 2 . And now, unsurprisingly, Sonos has dropped the price of the first-gen model to make way for the updated version. Right now, the Sonos Move is on sale direct from Sonos for $299 ($100 off), matching its best price to date. While not as capable as the $429 Move 2, the original model still offers plenty of power and portability. The hefty speaker is close to the original in terms of design, and while its battery doesn’t last quite as long and it doesn’t offer stereo sound like the new... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/PVFIY5o

Photo by Bill Pugliano / Getty Images General Motors’ plan to make more electric trucks has run into another snag. The company had originally planned to kick off production of its EV trucks at its Orion facility in Detroit in 2024 — but now it won’t get started until late 2025. GM said it’s delaying production “to better manage capital investment while aligning with evolving EV demand.” Another reason cited is “engineering improvements” aimed at improving profitability. Orion is where GM currently builds its Chevy Bolt EV and EUV, both of which are ceasing production at the end of 2023. GM has said it will build a new Chevy Bolt based on the automaker’s Ultium battery and drive technology — but has yet to say when that vehicle will go into production. GM said it’s delaying... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/VPvm6tK

Image: Kristen Radtke / The Verge We found the best cameras for your budget and needs. Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/vZHILNp

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge One of the worst tech labor years ever continues with the news that roughly half of Bandcamp employees have been laid off. Bandcamp employees are reporting the news via social media . about half the company was laid off today. some of the most incredible people i’ve ever worked with, including two of my amazing editorial colleagues @diamonde and @atoosamoinzadeh and most of the incredible support staff among many others. this is a loss, no two ways about it — jj skolnik (@modernistwitch) October 16, 2023 Epic Games bought the indie music platform back in 2022 for an undisclosed amount before selling it barely a year later. Late last month, Epic Games laid off 16 percent of its workforce , or 830 employees, due to what CEO Tim Sweeney... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/10nBN6D

Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge My phone is absolutely littered with messages. I have a mess of messaging apps: Messages, WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram, GroupMe, Google Chat, Discord, Slack, Messenger, and Snapchat. Then there are all the apps that aren’t necessarily for messaging but still offer it as a feature, like LinkedIn and Instagram and X. Reddit and TikTok both can act like messaging platforms; I get messages through Tumblr sometimes; Skype is still sort of around. Chat is a core part of the modern internet experience, which is why everyone wants a piece : if you can build the app in which people talk to their friends, you’ve built the stickiest thing in tech. But in reality, all that competition means we spend our days endlessly checking inboxes and trying to... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/rpOC7cm

“Sega had their own console?” That was a devastating comment I heard as I sat playing Sonic the Hedgehog 2 on a Sega Genesis Mini at the Portland Retro Gaming Expo (PRGE) this weekend. The Sonic games on Genesis were my favorites as a kid; one time, I played so much Sonic that I peed my pants. How could this person not know about Sega consoles? Thankfully, the person’s friend was more charitable than I would have been. He used it as a teaching opportunity and showed him the game he was playing. (And I realized later that the person may have been asking about mini consoles.) The whole event was filled with that wonderful spirit about sharing the joy of classic games and generally nerdy stuff. I saw four friends huddled around a classic X... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/jRslGxr

Image: Intel Intel is launching its 14th Gen desktop processors this week, promising boost frequencies of 6GHz out of the box for its flagship Core i9-14900K. Known as Raptor Lake Refresh, Intel is maintaining pricing for its 14th Gen Core i9, i7, and i5 processors this year, sticking to the same retail pricing as the 13th Gen when these new chips launch on October 17th. The 6GHz boost on the new Core i9-14900K makes it the “fastest desktop processor at volume,” according to Intel, referring to its special-edition 13900KS that first broke the 6GHz barrier at stock speeds last year but didn’t ship at volume. The more interesting 14th Gen processor in this refresh could be the Core i7-14700K, though, thanks to a significant bump to its efficiency... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/Q9bOgmE

Apple CEO Tim Cook talks to an employee at a solar farm in Hanstholm, Denmark. | Photo by Christoph Dernbach / picture alliance via Getty Images A new report compares climate initiatives by Apple, Dell, Google, HP, Microsoft, and Nvidia. Apple’s far from perfect, but so far, it’s ahead of the pack, according to today’s report. It’s the only company among the six tech giants that has set targets for its suppliers to switch to renewable energy. “Other brands need to send similarly clear signals to their suppliers,” Gary Cook, global climate policy director for the nonprofit Stand.earth that published the report , said in a press release. To be sure, a completely separate report published by a different environmental group last week casts some doubt on Apple’s recent carbon neutral claims. Stand.earth’s new report, however, puts Apple’s broader climate initiatives in perspective by... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/5B4g9kp

Laker legend-turned-actor Rick Fox has a new passion: sustainable concrete. | Image: Partanna A new house in the Bahamas is built with an alternative concrete that sucks CO2 out of the air. It’s a home that’s supposed to help in the fight against climate change, and the plan is to build 999 more like it. That’s the slam dunk NBA Lakers legend-turned-actor Rick Fox is working toward now on the small island nation where he grew up. Fox is the CEO and co-founder of the sustainable building materials startup Partanna that unveiled its first home today. If they’re successful in the Bahamas, the goal is to make its alternative concrete an everyday building material that could cut down pollution from construction. “I shut down my entire career that was in Hollywood to pursue and create [climate] solutions,” Fox tells The Verge . “I had... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/chWYdVE

Image: Mojang Minecraft already has the distinction of being the bestselling video game of all time . Today, it adds more down to that particular feather in its cap with the announcement that it has sold a staggering 300 million copies. “As we approach the 15th anniversary, Minecraft remains one of the best-selling games of all time, with over 300 million copies sold, a milestone no one could have dreamed of when we were all placing our first blocks,” Helen Chiang, head of Mojang Studios, said in a statement. The new milestone was announced during Minecraft Live 2023 , a Minecraft livestream event that shares news and community updates and features a neat voting event in which players can vote on which new creature should be added to the game. This... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/tDPB7YW

Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge Apple may have a surprise iPad update announcement in store for this week. 9to5Mac says it has corroborated a report from Supercharged that Apple will announce spec bumps for three of its iPads — the base model, the iPad Air, and the iPad Mini. In a story this morning for Bloomberg , Mark Gurman said, “I don’t believe updates of any significance are imminent,” while also mentioning Apple has versions of the iPads with new chips in development. 9to5Mac says Apple will issue a press release announcing that the iPad Air and the iPad mini will be bumped to M2 and A16 Bionic chips, respectively. Apple refreshed the iPad Air and 10th-generation iPad last year, but it’s been twice as long since the company updated the iPad Mini with an A15... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/WJ20Ywc

Image: Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Mark Gurman writes in his Power On newsletter for Bloomberg today that the more affordable follow-up to the Apple Vision Pro will “likely” ditch the external display to help it reach an internally-discussed price point between $1,500 and $2.500. Gurman also reiterates what he wrote in June — that the more affordable version will probably run on an iPhone-grade chip, have fewer cameras, and get lower-resolution screens inside. Ditching the external display means Apple would lock one of the Vision Pro’s marquee features — EyeSight — behind the paywall of the more expensive versions. EyeSight is the thing that lets you see an on-the-fly render of the wearer’s eyes so they can “look” at you when you’re talking to them, and so you can tell,... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/EwR01a9