Posts

Showing posts from September, 2023

LG is dropping ATSC 3.0 from its TVs next year

Image
A picture of two LG TVs at CES 2022. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge LG told the FCC it’s pulling support for the ATSC 3.0 standard in its TVs next year because of a “challenging and uncertain patent landscape,” according to LightReading (via ZatzNotFunny ). ATSC 3.0, aka Nextgen TV, is the next-generation broadcast format that would bring 4K TV and advanced video and audio formats like HDR and Dolby Atmos, as well as interactive apps, for free. As we wrote about the standard in 2017 : ATSC 3.0 is the next major version of the broadcast TV format. (Version 2.0 was intended as a backward compatible update that was eventually canceled in favor of the more significant 3.0 update.) Where ATSC 1.0 added digital technology and HD video, ATSC 3.0 is planned to be an IP-based (internet protocol) system. It’s still... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/0O8Rt7e

Apple blames iOS 17 bugs and apps like Instagram for making iPhone 15s run hot

Image
Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Apple has acknowledged user complaints that iPhone 15 and 15 Pro phones are overheating, reports Forbes , but said that contrary to speculation, it has nothing to do with the phone’s hardware design. Forbes noted an update to Instagram has already rolled out with version 302, released September 27th, to address some of the issues. Bloomberg notes an unnamed Apple spokesperson specifically mentioning Instagram, Uber, and the game Asphalt 9 as examples of apps that could cause the devices to “run warmer than normal.” Apple also says there is no safety risk in the thermal issues but that other factors, like USB-C power adapters with more-than-20W charging and background processing that occurs shortly after a phone is restored, can make a... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/bzEfnhu

Apple’s dark sci-fi comedy Fingernails turns love into science

Image
Image: TIFF Fingernails , a sci-fi romcom coming to Apple TV Plus from director Christos Nikou , imagines a future where one very specific technology has changed the world. In this timeline, scientists have figured out how to conclusively determine if two people are in love. This upends relationships as we know them, with couples sticking steadfastly to the results of the test; if they get a negative result, they end up splitting up. It’s a cute conceit for exploring the ways relationships can grow stale or change over time, and Fingernails builds on that with its darkly comedic vibe. It also has a surprising amount of body horror — the nature of which you might be able to glean from the title. The film centers on Anna (Jessie Buckley), a teacher who... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/o5q0KuM

The co-founder of a collapsed crypto hedge fund was arrested in Singapore

Image
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Su Zhu, the co-founder of the collapsed crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC), was arrested in Singapore on Friday. Zhu was taken into custody while attempting to leave the country from Singapore’s Changi Airport, as reported earlier by Bloomberg . Teneo, the liquidation firm in charge of liquidating 3AC’s assets, says it received a committal order against Zhu after he failed to comply with a court order that compelled him to cooperate with the liquidation process. That committal order directs Singaporean police to arrest Zhu and hold him in prison for four months. Teneo says it obtained a “similar” committal order for 3AC’s other co-founder, Kyle Davies. During his time in prison, Teneo says the liquidators will engage with Zhu... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/x9uEXRV

Pokémon’s Van Gogh collaboration turned out to be kind of a disaster

Image
A painting of Munchlax and Snorlax inspired by Van Gogh’s “The Bedroom.” | Image: The Pokémon Company The horde of people that descended upon the Van Gogh Museum yesterday to snatch up as much merchandise as they could was the first sign that the Pokémon x Van Gogh collaboration might be a bit more chaotic than expected. While there was hope that all the fracas might die down and give everyone a chance to get in on the fun, unfortunately, it doesn’t look like that’s going to be the case. Initially, it seemed like The Pokémon Company’s plan was for people to be able to easily find multiple pieces of merchandise from the special Pokémon x Van Gogh Museum collection online at the Pokémon Center, even if you couldn’t make it to the actual exhibit in Amsterdam. This afternoon, though, The Pokémon Company announced that its online store is... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/uhB1kZw

October’s video game release calendar is a little too stacked

Image
Image: Nintendo / Insomniac Games / Sega October is a lousy month for games. It’s just stuffed full of some of the biggest releases of the year. Remember back in the summer when Tears of the Kingdom , Diablo IV , and Final Fantasy XVI all released in the span of five weeks? October is that on steroids — a greater number of high-profile games concentrated in a much shorter stretch of time. Here’s what we’re looking at. Wargroove 2 - October 5th Assassin’s Creed Mirage - October 5th Assassin’s Creed Mirage is billed as a return to the series’ action-adventure roots. The game returns to the Middle East having you play as Basim, a character AC fans might recognize from Valhalla as he comes into his own as a Hidden One, the precursors to the Assassins. Ubisoft is all in on A... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/xZrSFUK

‘There’s no tracing Xbox 360 chat,’ claimed guy now charged with insider trading

Image
An Xbox 360 wireless headset. | Photo by Alphathon (Wikimedia Commons) If you’re going to do financial crimes, maybe an Xbox isn’t your best bet? That is one but hopefully not the only lesson learned by 26-year-old Anthony Viggiano, a former Goldman Sachs investment analyst who’s been indicted for insider trading, along with two of his friends. He allegedly tipped off those friends to big financial deals using both encrypted messaging and — incredibly — a game console’s audio chat. According to the indictment ( via Kotaku ), the FBI secretly recorded Viggiano admitting that he passed on illegal info, possibly via an Xbox 360, of all things: Salamone: You have shit where you’re giving fucking information to fucking Steve [Forlano Jr.]? VIGGIANO: Nah. Nah. Because similar to you . .. signal, or like XBOX... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/XATQxq7

Letterboxd has been acquired — and promises ‘very little’ will change

Image
Image: Letterboxd Letterboxd, a beloved film reviews and social media platform that took off during the pandemic, has been acquired. Its new owner is a Canadian holding company called Tiny , which promises a “fast, friendly, and simple” process for founders looking for “quick, straightforward exits.” The deal, as reported by The New York Times , values Letterboxd at $50 million. Tiny also owns companies like AeroPress, according to its website . Letterboxd has been around since 2011, founded by Matthew Buchanan and Karl von Randow, and has grown its user base to around 10 million people — a drop in the bucket compared to bigger, noisier sites, but home to film buffs, critics, and even a few celebrities. The app is part social media and part personal log —... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/xUYtebM

The best entertainment of 2023

Image
The Boy and the Heron. | Image: Studio Ghibli Right now, we are absolutely spoiled for choice when it comes to entertainment. TV shows, movies, and games all come out at such a fast and furious pace that it’s hard to keep up. Not all of them are worth your time, of course — which is where we come in. Our team spends a lot of time immersed in the various realms of pop culture so that we can handpick our favorites for you. That could mean a hot new indie game you might’ve otherwise missed or the streaming series that will become your new obsession. Either way, if you’re finding it hard to sort through the flood, this is the place to find a curated selection of the best stuff. And like last year , this page will be updated regularly throughout the year — so make sure to check back in... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/hUtdrpa

Google adds a switch for publishers to opt out of becoming AI training data

Image
Illustration: The Verge Google just announced it’s giving website publishers a way to opt out of having their data used to train the company’s AI models while remaining accessible through Google Search. The new tool, called Google-Extended , allows sites to continue to get scraped and indexed by crawlers like the Googlebot while avoiding having their data used to train the company’s present and future AI models. The company says Google-Extended will let publishers “manage whether their sites help improve Bard and Vertex AI generative APIs,” adding that web publishers can use the toggle to “control access to content on a site.” Google confirmed in July that it’s training its AI chatbot, Bard, on publicly available data scraped from the web. Google-Extended is... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/dWehMy3

The best magnetic chargers for your MagSafe iPhone

Image
Image: The Verge Making sense of Apple’s messy MagSafe charging ecosystem, where the first-party options are far from the best. Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/W9smucV

Newsrooms around the world are using AI to optimize work, despite concerns about bias and accuracy

Image
Journalism and other fields are dealing with a new wave of tools like Google Bard. | Image: Google The arrival of generative artificial intelligence has accelerated the use of AI in different fields, including journalism. AI is most visible in journalism when things go wrong. Some newsrooms have published AI articles riddled with errors or offensive suggestions. There’s widespread anxiety that AI will be used to replace journalists on the cheap. But a new global survey demonstrates the ways that AI has worked its way into the business, even as journalists worry about its implications — and they don’t just involve writing articles. The report was published this week by JournalismAI, an initiative from Polis, the London School of Economics and Political Science’s journalism think tank. It is supported by the Google News Initiative. “... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/UGTO508

Five ways the Meta Quest 3 will (let developers) change the game

Image
On Wednesday, Meta didn’t announce an obvious killer app alongside the $499 Meta Quest 3 headset — unless you count the bundled Asgard’s Wrath 2 or Xbox Cloud Gaming in VR . But if you watched the company’s Meta Connect keynote and developer session closely, the company revealed a bunch of intriguing improvements that could help devs build a next-gen portable headset game themselves. Graphics — look how far we’ve come This is the obvious one, but it’s also stunning to see just how much better the same games can look on Quest 3 vs. Quest 2. A lot of that’s thanks to the doubled graphical horsepower and increased CPU performance of the Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 , though there’s additional RAM, resolution per eye, and field of view as well: ... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/6bB7JTh

ChatGPT can now search the web in real time

Image
Illustration: The Verge OpenAI posted today that ChatGPT can once more trawl the web for current information, offering answers taken directly from “current and authoritative” sources, which it cites in its responses. The feature, called Browse with Bing, is only open to those with Plus and Enterprise subscriptions for now, but the company says it will roll it out “to all users soon.” Microsoft’s Bing Chat on Windows, in the Edge browser, and in third-party browser plugins could already return live information from the web, and so can Google’s Bard in Chrome and other browsers . Both also offer links when searching, as ChatGPT’s Browse with Bing feature now does. Meta just announced at Meta Connect that it will also use Bing to power real-time web results in the... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/F4iABmU

Fortnite V-bucks are about to get more expensive

Image
Image: Epic Games Fortnite ’s in-game currency is getting a price adjustment — and it’ll make V-bucks more expensive in a number of countries. The pricing change goes into effect on October 27th, and it impacts the following countries: Czech Republic, Denmark, Eurozone countries, Hungary, Japan, Norway, Poland, Romania, Sweden, Turkey, and the United States (as well as countries that use the USD in their Fortnite storefronts). “These adjustments are based on economic factors such as inflation and currency fluctuations, and follow similar pricing alignments recently completed in the United Kingdom, Canada, and Mexico,” developer Epic Games said in a statement , when announcing the changes. The changes aren’t huge, but they’ll be noticeable to those who spend... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2MmzC4N

Meta’s Quest 3 wireless charging dock juices up your headset and controllers

Image
Image: Meta Meta is releasing a charging dock for its new Quest 3 headset . For $129.99, the all-in-one charging station allows you to neatly mount and charge the Quest 3 headset and controllers when you’re not immersed in virtual reality. This charging station is the first of its kind for Meta. While the company offered a charging dock for the Quest Pro 2 , it was wired and didn’t provide a way to charge both the headset and controllers on a single platform (mainly because the controllers use AA batteries). This new dock is more similar to the two-in-one station Anker made for the Quest 2 . It lets you charge the headset using the contact pads on the bottom of the Quest 3. The controllers are a little trickier, as they likely continue to use AA... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/217BesQ

The Code Conference 2023

Image
Image: Code We’re live from the Code Conference, featuring interviews with X CEO Linda Yaccarino, AMD CEO Lisa Su, and more. Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/B3jXWM7

Peloton co-founder Tom Cortese is stepping down

Image
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Tom Cortese, Peloton co-founder and chief product officer, is stepping down from his role. In a press release shared on Tuesday , Peloton says it will replace Cortese with former Twitter executive Nick Caldwell. “After nearly 12 years of pouring myself into Peloton and serving our Members, I have decided it is time to move on and create space for new perspectives,” Cortese says. “I’m eager for new growth for Peloton and for me personally, but I’m also excited to support and watch this next phase of Peloton’s evolution.” Cortese isn’t leaving the company completely. Peloton says he’ll enter an advisory role on November 1st to “support its vision and growth.” Cortese has held a pivotal role at Peloton, where he led the company’s development... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/675oQTS

The Quest 3 is Meta’s last chance to win the headset war before it truly begins

Image
The Quest 2 versus the Quest 3. | Image: Meta Meta doesn’t just need another hardware building block — it needs games. Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/SEDfldq

Make sure to update your iPhone 15 before transferring over data from your old phone

Image
Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge If you’ve just picked up a new iPhone 15 device, before you transfer over your data from an older phone, make sure to update that new phone to iOS 17.0.2 first. An Apple support document says that the update, which came out on Thursday, fixes an issue that “may prevent transferring data directly from another iPhone during setup” ( via MacRumors ). Initially, iOS 17.0.2 was only available for the just-launched iPhone 15 phones; the most current software for older iPhones available last week was iOS 17.0.1, which also launched on Thursday and included some big security updates . On September 26th, 9to5Mac reported that Apple released a new build of 17.0.2 with the same release notes available for all iPhones capable of running the current... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/uLQeB9h

Newegg now takes GPU trade-ins

Image
Newegg’s caption for this photo was “Joseph Olmedo of Newegg examines a graphics card to determine its condition.” Joseph, you’re doing great, man. | Image: Newegg Newegg will now take your old GPU off your hands in exchange for a trade-in credit on a new one. The Newegg Trade-In Program , which soft-launched earlier this month but was officially announced today, gives you a modest bit of cash back on your new GPU and Newegg a steady stream of cards to refurbish and resell. Estimated trade-in values range from $30 for a 4GB AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT all the way up to $561 for an Nvidia RTX 3090 Ti 24GB. You check your trade-in value by clicking the big ol’ “Check Your Trade-In Value” button on the product page for a GPU and selecting your card from a drop-down menu. Despite the “GeForce GTX” card in the photo above, Newegg won’t take cards older than the AMD RX 5000 series (launched in July 2019) or... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/jMg9Ziw

FCC announces plans to resurrect net neutrality rules

Image
Photo by Steven Ferdman / Getty Images The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has announced plans to reinstate landmark net neutrality rules meant to guarantee fair access to the internet and its information, five years after they were repealed by then-president Donald Trump in 2018. Previous net neutrality rules adopted in 2015 classified broadband service under public utility rules and prevented internet service providers from blocking websites, throttling traffic, or charging more for faster access to certain services. According to FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel, the commission is expected to conduct an initial vote on reinstating these rules next month during an October 19th meeting. “Net neutrality is one of the most widely discussed issues in telecommunications... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/izHRBIY

Apple’s Studio Display gets manual controls for its webcam

Image
Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge Apple just released macOS Sonoma , and along with the new 14.0 version of its operating system, there’s an update for its standalone Studio Display monitor that addresses some of our issues with its much-derided webcam ( via MacRumors ). Now, the Studio Display’s camera offers manual control over framing and zoom, which you can adjust by moving the image back and forth or in and out within the video preview window. From Apple’s update notes : Studio Display Firmware Update 17 Adds support for zoom, recenter, and manual framing to the built-in camera Minor stability improvements If you move too far one way or another, there’s a Recenter button to take things back to the default. The updated controls are also available if you’re using an... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/BI7HSsN

You can now prompt ChatGPT with pictures and voice commands

Image
Illustration: The Verge Most of OpenAI’s changes to ChatGPT involve what the AI-powered bot can do : questions it can answer, information it can access, improved underlying models . This time, though, it’s tweaking the way you use ChatGPT itself. The company is rolling out a new version of the service that allows you to prompt the AI bot not just by typing sentences into a text box, but by either speaking aloud or just uploading a picture. The new features are rolling out to those who pay for ChatGPT in the next two weeks, and everyone else will get it “soon after” according to OpenAI. The voice chat part is pretty familiar: you tap a button and speak your question, ChatGPT converts it to text and feeds it to the large language model, gets an answer back,... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/Ww58arU

Bayonetta director and Platinum Games co-founder Hideki Kamiya is leaving the studio

Image
Kamiya onstage at Microsoft’s 2016 E3 press conference. | Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images Hideki Kamiya, the Japanese video game director known for his work on Bayonetta , Viewtiful Joe, and The Wonderful 101 , is leaving PlatinumGames. The news was first announced by the development studio on X , the platform formerly known as Twitter, with Kamiya himself confirming the news via his own account shortly afterwards. He is due to officially leave Platinum on October 12th. Although neither party gave an exact reason for Kamiya’s departure from the studio, where he currently serves as its vice president, it sounds like an amicable separation. “We are truly grateful for his creative ideas, leadership, and contribution to the growth of PlatinumGames from our start-up to this very day,” the company’s statement reads. “We believe that... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/MNWn79V

Amazon will invest up to $4 billion into OpenAI rival Anthropic

Image
Amazon has commited to an initial $1.25 billion investment that can be increased by an additional $2.75 billion. | Image: Amazon / Anthropic Amazon announced on Monday that it will invest up to $4 billion into Anthropic — the AI startup best known for its Claude chatbot and founded by siblings Dario and Daniela Amodei who used to work for OpenAI. This deal pales in comparison to the reported $13 billion that Microsoft has so far invested into OpenAI , the biggest name in generative AI technology right now, but that partnership has been blossoming since 2019 . Nevertheless, it’s a clear sign that Amazon is staking its claim in the escalating AI arms race. Anthropic says it’s Claude AI model is safer than rival AI services because it can revise its own responses without human moderation Anthropic’s Claude and Claude 2 large language model–based chatbots are similar to OpenAI’s... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/nOmaJT4

Pixel 8 series rumored to include seven years of software support

Image
A teaser image of the Pixel 8 and 8 Pro released by Google. | Image: Google Google’s upcoming Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro could come with seven years of software support, according to a leaked list of specs published by 91Mobiles . Kamila Wojciechowska , the original source of the leak, has also published US pricing for the two unannounced phones ahead of their October 4th launch. The Pixel 8 Pro is reportedly due to start at $899, the same as the 7 Pro, while the Pixel 8 could start at $699, a $100 increase over the $599 starting price for the Pixel 7. Wojciechowska notes that it’s unclear whether Google will offer seven years of major Android OS updates for the phones, or whether the figure just refers to seven years of security patches (my money’s on the latter, for what it’s worth). But either way it’s a decent... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/7hGcsbV

Hollywood writers reach tentative deal to end the strike

Image
The Writers Guild of America has been on strike since May 2nd. | Photo by Frederic J. Brown / AFP via Getty Images The Hollywood writers strike may be close to an end. After a more than 140-day work stoppage, the Writers Guild of America (WGA) announced on Sunday night that it reached a “tentative agreement” with major Hollywood studios on pay, working conditions, and more. “We can say, with great pride, that this is an exceptional deal — with meaningful gains and protections for writers in every sector of the membership,” the WGA negotiating committee wrote in an email to members. WGA leadership said details of the agreement couldn’t be shared until its language is finalized; after that, writers will have to vote to approve the deal. The guild said its leaders may end the strike as soon as Tuesday, once the contract is finalized and sent to members... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/0rYDeL3

Resident Evil Village’s iPhone port might launch a day before Halloween

Image
The tall lady from Resident Evil Village comes to iPhones soon. | Image: Capcom Capcom quietly revealed an October 30th release date for Resident Evil Village on a page for the iOS and iPadOS versions of Village and the Resident Evil 4 remake. Resident Evil 4 remains listed as “available 2023.” Capcom doesn’t list any prices, but for reference, the macOS version of the game is $29.99 on the Apple App Store. Yesterday, Gematsu reported that Capcom had announced the same release date for the port in Japan. Capcom hasn’t formally announced the release date for the US version of Village outside of the page linked above. We’ve reached out to the company to confirm the release date is as listed on its site. Screenshot: Wes Davis / The Verge Resident Evil Village for iOS and iPadOS appears to have a... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/jU9f3ts

Meta’s AI chatbot plan includes a ‘sassy robot’ for younger users

Image
Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge Meta is preparing to announce a generative AI chatbot, called “Gen AI Personas” internally, aimed at younger users, according to The Wall Street Journal . Reportedly set to launch during the company’s Meta Connect event that starts Wednesday, they would come in multiple “personas” geared towards engaging young users with more colorful behavior, following ChatGPT’s rise over the last year as one of the fastest-growing apps ever. Similar, but more generally targeted, Meta chatbot personas have already been reportedly tested on Instagram . According to internal chats the Journal viewed, the company has tested a “sassy robot” persona inspired by Bender from Futurama and an overly curious “Alvin the Alien” that one employee worried could imply... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/m6gw24G

NASA collected a sample from an asteroid for the first time — here’s why it matters

Image
Victoria Thiem, system safety engineer from Lockheed Martin, checks the temperature of the actual size OSIRIS-REx’s return capsule sample during the recovery rehearsal at Lockheed Martin, Waterton Canyon campus in Littleton, Colorado on Tuesday, June 27, 2023.  | Photo by Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post The OSIRIS-REx mission, launched in 2016, has collected as much as several hundred grams of asteroid material, which could help scientists understand the earliest stages of the solar system. Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/reYtmvR

Watch as NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission brings asteroid samples back to Earth

Image
NASA Seven years after the OSIRIS-REx mission launched, a capsule containing rocks captured from the asteroid Bennu in 2020 will land in Utah on Sunday morning. Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/sKw3Ux6

Apple’s new software is widgets all the way down

Image
Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 7, your guide to the best and Verge -iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, first of all, hi, hello, welcome, and second of all, you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage .) This week, I’ve been reading about the AI writing lives of real writers , rewatching the John Wick movies to prepare for The Continental , shopping for StandBy-capable iPhone docks , getting back into VR exercise with Supernatural boxing , and really, really, really hoping Microsoft’s controller-first vision for the future of gaming comes true soon. I also have for you a new super-slick Windows laptop, two crypto-related podcasts you should hear, a reason to try Bard again, OpenAI’s new image-making tool, a... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/kdz37a0

California governor vetoes a bill requiring humans in autonomous big rigs

Image
Driverless trucks from Waymo. | Credit: Waymo Governor Gavin Newsom has vetoed Assembly Bill 316 , which would have required human attendants in driverless vehicles over 10,000 pounds, reports Reuters . The bill saw broad support among state legislators and was backed by the Teamsters and other labor organizations. At the moment, The governor wrote in his veto message that the bill “is unnecessary for the regulation and oversight of heavy-duty autonomous vehicle technology,” adding that the existing regulatory framework is “sufficient.” The California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) was given regulatory authority over autonomous vehicles in the state. Newsom writes that the DMV consults the state highway patrol, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, “and others with... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/jVeifEl

Alexa is the best frenemy I’ve ever had

Image
Illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge Before I received my first Alexa-enabled smart display as a Christmas gift in 2019, I was not a big fan. I just didn’t feel like I could trust an Amazon device with a camera inside of it. I’d heard about all the privacy concerns , and I was determined to avoid it like the plague. But then a plague really did happen — and right when my mom got sick. And then, suddenly, this device I was once suspicious of became a vital part of our support system. Those people Amazon always claim love Alexa? I somehow suddenly found myself becoming one of them. To be clear, Mom had been sick for years. Mom has Parkinson’s disease, an incurable neurological disorder that affects everything from mobility to memory. At first, she suffered from a few tremors... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/XD0nKsY

The iPhone 15 Pro is teaching me to embrace digital zoom

Image
I promise digital zoom isn’t as icky as it used to be. | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge If you want to hear a love story, ask any photographer about their favorite lens. They’ll probably get a little glimmer in their eye as they tell you about the fast 35mm they carry everywhere or the long portrait lens with the bokeh that hits just right. Camera bodies come and go, but your favorite lens is a lifelong relationship. Phone camera lenses are a different story. They’re built like a regular camera lens — only, you know, tiny — and they’re with us literally everywhere we go. But I don’t know anyone who would wax poetic about the 24mm equivalent wide angle on their iPhone or the 5x telephoto lens on their Pixel. Our relationships with them are much more transactional, and the results have as much to do with the image processing... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/ebLCdZG

Apple iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max review: by the numbers

Apple didn’t choose the USB-C life, but boy are we glad it got here anyway. Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/Weq8TC7

Microsoft’s Surface and AI event: all the news and announcements

Image
Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Microsoft’s big Windows and Surface event focused on its AI vision of the future. Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/4MNBpZY

This retractable cable can help make the iPhone USB-C transition easier

Image
Lightning and USB-C, oh my. | Image: Asicen Did you hear the iPhone 15 has USB-C now ? That’s a great thing and long overdue, but it does mean that there will be a period of transition where some of us end up having to deal with both Lightning and USB-C iPhones in our lives, particularly if we live with someone who isn’t buying the new iPhone right away. This is particularly cumbersome if you share a vehicle and want to use CarPlay in it — you’ll need a way to hook up your new USB-C iPhone and maintain a Lightning connection for the other person using the car. You could do this with multiple cables, of course, and switch it every time you get in the car, but who needs that hassle? For the past couple of years, I’ve used this three-headed cable to use Apple CarPlay and Android Auto... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/MZtUPvL

In this official Star Wars game, anyone can die

Image
Quantic Dream is famous for choose-your-own-adventure games like Heavy Rain and Detroit: Become Human , where protagonists can die along the way — and apparently, Disney and Lucasfilm have signed off on that idea for its upcoming Star Wars game, Star Wars Eclipse . “There’s no game over. Anyone can die, anything can happen, and the story sort of continues,” Quantic Dream marketing VP Lisa Pendse told IGN at the 2023 Tokyo Game Show. “One of the big focuses we’ve had when we announced Star Wars Eclipse was to make sure it was clear that this is actually an action adventure game that has all of the elements that you would come to expect and want from a Quantic Dream title, which is intricately branching narratives, multiple playable... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/TJ62D8Q

How to turn off NameDrop in iOS 17

Image
Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge iOS 17 offers a lot of interesting new features for your iPhone, one of which is called, appropriately, NameDrop. What NameDrop does is let you exchange contact information with another iPhone (and gives you a chance to use your snazzy new Contact Poster ) by just holding the top of your phone near the top of someone else’s iPhone. You turn off NameDrop by using the AirDrop settings. Obviously, that’s not something that will often happen by accident, but if you still don’t like the idea of accidentally triggering NameDrop with somebody else — or if you tend to carry two phones in your bag and don’t want them to be trying to exchange contact info all afternoon — you can quickly and easily turn it off. Here’s how: In... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/1f0rFNZ

Amazon’s rumored home projector can turn anything into a screen

Image
Amazon’s first projector project, the Amazon Glow, folded in failure last year. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge Amazon is reportedly working on a projector that would turn any surface in your home into a screen, as reported by Reuters . People familiar with the matter told the news organization that the projector is designed to do things like beam a recipe on the wall above a stove and make Zoom calls that track you as you move around the house. A touch interactive projected screen is an obvious move for the ambient smart home that Amazon has long proposed, one where the tech appears when you need it and disappears when you don’t. I mean, that's literally the definition of a projector. When I reviewed Amazon’s first attempt at a smart projector, the now-discontinued Amazon Glow , I said that it would have made more sense as a smart home control... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/yVGIj0a

Mastodon gets better search, onboarding, and cross-server interactions

Image
Image: The Verge Mastodon, the federated microblogging platform, has been updated to version 4.2 , which comes with massive improvements to search and the web interface, particularly for logged-out and first-time users. One of Mastodon’s many charming qualities is that, unlike Twitter X, Bluesky, Instagram, and most other social media platforms, the user base is split across thousands of instances, each of which can decide to federate with or block any of the others. This is good in many ways. You can get a nice little intentional community going on your local server, and servers that are filled with abusive, illegal, and harmful content and / or users are widely ostracized. But it presents some, shall we say, unintuitive workflows for people used to... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/vg0WV5f

Threads might be getting an edit button soon

Image
Illustration: The Verge Meta’s in-development edit button for Threads might let you edit posts within five minutes of publishing them, as reported by developer Alessandro Paluzzi on X (formerly Twitter) . Instagram chief Adam Mosseri confirmed shortly after the app’s July launch that an edit button was on the list of potential features , and now that Paluzzi has discovered some details about it, perhaps the feature will be available more widely sometime soon. #Threads is working on the ability to edit posts within 5 minutes pic.twitter.com/TlyoieQNcM — Alessandro Paluzzi (@alex193a) September 21, 2023 An edit button is one of the things I think Threads is missing most, so I’m happy to see this shred of evidence that Meta might be closer to actually... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/JOXMwRa

Environmental conservation in Brazil: more investments, fewer ‘stupid decisions’

Image
Image: Brazil Climate Summit At the moment I arrived at the Brazil Climate Summit event, it felt like home to me. As I opened the door to The Forum at Columbia University, I heard dozens of people speaking my language for the first time in 11 days. God, are we loud — and I love it. Entering the bathroom after breakfast, I saw two women brushing their teeth — Brazilians carry a toothbrush in their purse and flee to the office or event bathroom after eating. You may wonder why Brazil is pursuing this agenda in New York. First of all, because of the UN climate summit — which happens this week. Second, they want to show international investors the power of the country — not only economically but environmentally as well. According to The World Bank, Brazil holds more... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/RgvpJ2r

An early iPhone 15 Pro teardown looks inside Apple’s new flagship phone

Image
Image: PBKreviews via YouTube Want to get a look at the inside of the iPhone 15 Pro? The flagship handheld hasn’t even started shipping yet, but the folks over at PBKreviews have already taken apart the device, revealing the redesigned midframe chassis, along with all the components nestled beneath the iPhone 15 Pro’s screen and glass backing. The video starts with the careful removal of the display using a screen disassembly device and a plastic pick. From there, PBKreviews disconnects the screen from the body of the phone and removes a series of cables. That’s when we get a good look at the iPhone 15’s camera assembly, which has three Phillips screws holding it down. Image: PBKreviews via YouTube The camera assembly on the iPhone 15 Pro. A... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/qfnGIbC

Here are the details on the grisly deaths of Elon Musk’s Neuralink monkeys

Image
Illustration by Lille Allen / The Verge Elon Musk said earlier this month that “no monkey has died as a result of a Neuralink implant,” but an alarming new report from Wired seems to contradict Musk’s statement. Public documents obtained by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) and seen by Wired indicate that Neuralink’s macaque subjects were euthanized after suffering various complications, including “bloody diarrhea, partial paralysis, and cerebral edema.” Wired writes that the documents show a male monkey was euthanized in March 2020 “after his cranial implant became loose,” with the necropsy revealing “the failure of this implant can be considered purely mechanical and not exacerbated by infection.” On Tuesday, Neuralink announced it’s starting in-human... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/tnIWTdp

The US is going to restart its free at-home covid test kit program

Image
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The US government will again offer free at-home covid tests starting September 25th, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced on Wednesday . The kits are intended for use through the end of 2023; as with previous versions of the free test program, the kits will include four tests along with instructions for verifying extended expiration dates. The government ended its most recent free test kit program on May 31st as cases and hospitalizations dwindled, but hospitalizations have been steadily rising since July, according to The New York Times ’ covid tracker . According to the HHS release, the White House has invested $600 million for the new round of free kits, which it will purchase from 12 US manufacturers. The... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/J4ThRDP

X ranks the lowest among all social media in combating climate disinformation, study finds

Image
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Climate change misinformation — including that which is funded by the fossil fuel industry — continues to thrive on social media. While Google, YouTube, Meta, and TikTok are all still lagging in their moderation of climate denial content, X (formerly Twitter) appears to have no clear policies on what to do with such content and is not transparent with what (if any) actions it is taking, according to an analysis published today by a coalition of environmental groups and researchers known as Climate Action Against Disinformation. Out of a possible 21 points, researchers scored platforms on how effectively they moderate factually incorrect information about the climate — using a combination of the company’s community guidelines, terms of... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/YiQL7zt

Panasonic cuts the wires from its SoundSlayer neck speaker for gamers

Image
The Panasonic SoundSlayer (GNW10). | Image: Panasonic Companies keep trying to make neck speakers a thing. People must be buying them, though, because Panasonic is releasing a new one: the GNW10 SoundSlayer , a wireless neck speaker with AI voice isolation (which it confusingly calls “AI voice control”) for phone calls and in-game voice chat. The SoundSlayer is $299 and will be available in late October of this year. This is essentially an updated version of the wired SoundSlayer neck speaker that Panasonic released two years ago. The biggest change is that the new SoundSlayer employs a small transmitter that plugs into your console or PC and sends audio with a proprietary 2.4GHz wireless protocol that Panasonic says is good for under 20ms of latency. That’s less than you’d typically see... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/ysTnj79

The Orion Video System app turns your iPad into an HDMI monitor with retro vibes

Image
Yes, you can play your docked Nintendo Switch on your iPad like it’s a portable monitor. | Image: Lux The developer behind the popular iPhone pro camera app Halide has a new app that lets you use your iPad as an HDMI display you can use to play console games on, monitor your camera on a production set, and more. The app is called the Orion Video System, which is available today on the App Store and features a simple “modern design” interface — but with it comes fun retro-themed fonts and menus that remind you of the times you’ve attempted to set the clock on your VCR. Orion works because Apple’s just opened the floodgates for USB video class (UVC) support on the iPad with iPadOS 17. You can now connect compatible webcams and video capture cards to USB-C iPad models (sorry, iPads with Lightning ports), including the cheap sub-$20 ones you... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/vmIobPc