its ur expert

The LG MyView Smart Monitor. | Image: LG LG will show off a new series of 32-inch 4K computer monitor / TV hybrids called the ‘MyView’ at CES this year. The company announced they’ll come “in a variety of colors, including essence white, mild beige, cotton pink and cotton green.” They’ll be offered in three variants at two price levels — $599.99 and $499.99, and LG says it will announce availability in the US “at a later date.” The specs and design language of LG’s new smart LED displays are very similar to the Samsung M8. They both come in multiple colors and have a whiff of modern iMac design, though with more adjustable stands (both support tweaks to height, tilt, and rotation). Each can be used as a smart TV with the included remote and all of the new MyView monitors will... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/zfB645N

The Verge / Image courtesy of Sunblink Apple Arcade remains one of the best deals in gaming — even after getting a price bump . Since launch, the service has steadily grown with a mix of original mobile releases and App Store classics, none of which are burdened with the ads or in-app purchases that so often plague smartphone games. 2023 was a particularly strong year for new additions, with everything from daily word games for the Wordle -obsessed to cozy adventures to relax with. If you just picked up a new Apple device, or are using the subscription service for the very first time, here are some great places to start. Knotwords Zach Gage and Jack Schlesinger have partnered on a number of great mobile puzzle games — including Good Sudoku and SpellTower , both of which are... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/g6hwcvt

Illustration: William Joel / The Verge Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 19, your guide to the best and Verge -iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome, so psyched you found us, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage .) It’s the last Installer of the year, so we’re going to do something a little different! We’re going to talk about all our favorite things of 2023. Some ground rules / disclaimers: this list is not exhaustive, not everything in here is new this year it’s just new to us, this is not an Official List of Every Single Good Thing That Exists, and most importantly, if there’s something missing that you find outrageous and unacceptable you know where to find me: installer@theverge.com and (203) 570-8663 on all the... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/10H4FSi

The LG Qube is so tiny, so boxy, so handle-y. | Image: LG LG announced the CineBeam Qube (model HU710PB ) laser projector yesterday: It’s got a minimalist look and stature, weighing 3.28 pounds and measuring 135mm square on one side and just 80mm wide at the front. (For comparison, the iPhone 15 Pro is just shy of 147mm tall.) It also has an unspecified number of HDMI eARC and USB-C ports, and a 3W built-in mono speaker. Impressively, LG says it can project an up-to-120-inch image at full 4K resolution with a pretty standard 1.2 throw ratio. Oh, and it has a handle! There are some apparent drawbacks to this itty bitty projector. For starters, it pushes out a relatively dim 500 ANSI lumens (compared to 2200 ANSI lumens of the larger Xgimi Horizon Pro we reviewed two years ago). That means that,... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/PCVRQBJ

A lawsuit alleged that Vizio’s claims about refresh rates can be misleading. | Image: Vizio If you bought a Vizio TV in California after April 30th, 2014, Vizio may owe you some money. The company has agreed to pay out $3 million after a 2018 class action lawsuit alleged that its marketing of 120Hz and 240Hz “effective” refresh rates was “false and deceptive.” Vizio denies that it did anything wrong, according to the agreement . The deadline for filing claims is March 30th next year, and requires some sort of evidence of ownership, including proof of purchase or the serial number, to qualify. In addition to paying out for verified claims, Vizio would “stop the advertising practices” and “provide enhanced services and a limited one-year warranty to all Settlement Class Members,” according to details from the website set up for... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/Qghm8nG

The Verge / Photos via Getty Images Layoffs are an unfortunate reality of any industry , but the scope and scale of video game layoffs in 2023 are far beyond a typical year. More than any specific video game or piece of news, layoffs defined the past 12 months. Companies large and small have felt their impact. Unofficial figures estimate 9,000 workers have been affected, and at the heart of it all are corporations that valued growth at all costs — including people. In September, Epic Games laid off 830 employees . In a statement, CEO Tim Sweeney wrote , “We’ve been spending way more money than we earn. [...] I had long been optimistic that we could power through this transition without layoffs, but in retrospect I see that this was unrealistic.” Some of that spending was on... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/R72bqMx

Image: Microsoft Just days after introducing a Copilot app on Android, Microsoft has rolled out an app for its AI chatbot on iOS and iPadOS. Both versions of the app are now available to download from the Apple App Store . The app gives you access to Microsoft Copilot ( formerly Bing Chat ) and works similarly to OpenAI’s ChatGPT mobile app. In addition to letting you ask questions, draft emails, and summarize text, you can also create images through an integration with the text-to-image generator DALL-E3 . Image: Microsoft And, unlike the free version of ChatGPT which runs GPT-3.5, Copilot lets you access GPT-4 , the latest large language model (LLM) from OpenAI, without having to pay for a subscription. With Microsoft’s rebrand of Bing... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/w1hK8NI

Image: Getty Michael Cohen, the former lawyer for Donald Trump, admitted to citing fake, AI-generated court cases in a legal document that wound up in front of a federal judge, as reported earlier by The New York Times . A filing unsealed on Friday says Cohen used Google’s Bard to perform research after mistaking it for “a super-charged search engine” rather than an AI chatbot. The document in question was a motion that asked a federal judge to shorten the length of Cohen’s three-year probation, which he’s now facing following prison time and a guilty plea to tax evasion and other charges. But after reviewing the letter brief, US District Judge Jesse Furman wrote in a filing that “none of these cases exist” and asked Cohen’s lawyer, David Schwartz, to... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/NI9HrpY

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Microsoft is getting ready to upgrade its Surface lineup with new AI-enabled features, according to a report from Windows Central . Unnamed sources told the outlet the upcoming Surface Pro 10 and Surface Laptop 6 will come with a next-gen neural processing unit (NPU), along with Intel and Arm-based options. Microsoft’s Arm-based devices will be powered by Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon X chips , Windows Central reports. These PCs, codenamed CADMUS, will reportedly be designed to run the AI features Microsoft is packaging into a future release of Windows. They’ll also come with improvements to performance, battery life, and security on par with Apple silicon, according to Windows Central . Meanwhile, the Intel version of the devices will... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/quFP6bk

Netflix’s new stop-motion Pokémon series from Dwarf Animation Studio is on the shorter side of things, but each episode is a gorgeous testament to the power of relaxation. Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/9EswNQI

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge You can once again buy the latest Apple Watches straight from Apple. The Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 will be available again in some physical Apple stores starting today, with wider availability expected by Saturday. Online sales will resume tomorrow by 3PM ET, Apple spokesperson Nikki Rothberg told The Verge . The restarting of sales comes hours after a federal appeals court paused a sales and import ban that covered both devices. Apple was banned from selling both products in the US after the US International Trade Commission found that the company had violated patents from the medical device maker Masimo. The appeals court said that Apple could continue selling its watches temporarily, while the company waited to hear back on... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/mWhj90u

Kahhori, one of What If...?’s new characters. | Marvel Studios What If’s second season is at its best when it’s exploring the edges of Marvel’s established cinematic canon. Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/Mp7Z4Ah

Screenshot: Barbara Krasnoff / The Verge It’s hard to keep up with all the interesting, important, or just plain fun things you come across on the web. You may come across something you just don’t have time to read right now or want to save because it will come in handy later. But as most of us have discovered, creating a bookmark on a browser for each article and site that we want to read later can result in a huge bookmarky mess. Years ago, I started getting the better of this issue by signing in to Pocket, a popular and long-standing app that allows you to save a bookmarked article to a separate server and then retrieve it to read at your leisure using either a computer or a mobile device. Pocket has been around since 2007. Originally called Read It Later, it started life as... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/Yg9I8N0

The Verge / Image courtesy of Larian Studios 2023 is likely to go down in history as one of gaming’s greats, and at times it’s been challenging just to keep up. Baldur’s Gate 3 brought the 20-year-old PC franchise back with a bang, and smaller releases like Slay the Princess were a reminder of the important role PCs still hold for indie games. Given how cross-platform the vast majority of games are these days, we’re not going to primarily focus on PC exclusives. Instead, the aim is to highlight a great selection of games that show off PC gaming at its best in 2023. So alongside games like Slay the Princess , which are only available on computer platforms, there are also titles that work particularly well with a mouse and keyboard ( Baldur’s Gate 3 ) or which offer interesting... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/zoESJ02

Photo by Kena Betancur/VIEWpress The New York Times is suing OpenAI and Microsoft over claims the companies built their AI models by “copying and using millions” of the publication’s articles and now “directly compete” with the outlet’s content. As outlined in the lawsuit , the Times alleges OpenAI and Microsoft’s large language models (LLMs), which power ChatGPT and Copilot, “can generate output that recites Times content verbatim, closely summarizes it, and mimics its expressive style.” This “undermine[s] and damage[s]” the Times ’ relationship with readers, the outlet alleges, while also depriving it of “subscription, licensing, advertising, and affiliate revenue.” Meanwhile, the lawsuit states the release of AI models trained on the Times ’ content has proven... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/wJ6b8dx

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Earlier this year, Amazon announced plans to start incorporating ads into movies and TV shows streamed from its Prime Video service, and now the company has revealed a specific date when you’ll start seeing them: it’s January 29th. “This will allow us to continue investing in compelling content and keep increasing that investment over a long period of time,” the company said in an email to customers about the pending shift to “limited advertisements.” “We aim to have meaningfully fewer ads than linear TV and other streaming TV providers. No action is required from you, and there is no change to the current price of your Prime membership,” the company wrote. Customers have the option of paying an additional $2.99 per month to keep... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/cHgeoAS

The Verge / Image courtesy of Nintendo It’s been a fantastic year for the Nintendo Switch. We got new Super Mario games, some great remasters, ports of a few games that previously blew up on PC, and, of course, an absolutely massive sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild . Even though the Nintendo Switch’s successor is likely just around the corner, there’s no shortage of great games to play on the Switch you might already own. Nintendo can take all the time it needs to launch its next console; whenever that comes out, I’ll probably still be working through quests in Tears of the Kingdom . Here are some of the best Nintendo Switch games from 2023. Advance Wars 1 + 2 Re-Boot Camp Image: Nintendo Advance Wars 1 + 2 Re-Boot Camp packages up the... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/4xsf9dI

The Verge / Photo courtesy of Paramount Plus and IMDB I am a Paramount Plus apologist. I know — going by subscription numbers alone — that I have to be because people do not subscribe to the streaming service at the same rate as Netflix or Amazon Prime, but I spend more time in the Paramount Plus app than the other two. It’s got older shows like Star Trek , Frasier , and Avatar: The Last Airbender , and newer splashy shows like... everything Taylor Sheridan produces and Frasier . It has a whole mess of football (American) and football (the rest of the world), and while bigger brands like Netflix are only now experimenting with live TV, Paramount Plus has been doing it from the get-go and doing it really well. It is, I think, my desert island streaming service. A lot of new shows aired on the... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/S6oOAIR

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Apple can no longer sell the Watch Series 9 and Watch Ultra 2 in the US after President Joe Biden’s administration declined to veto the ban today. Apple pulled both devices from its website on December 21st and from its store shelves after December 24th. A statement ( via CNBC ) from the Office of US Trade Representative Katherine Tai said the agency “decided not to reverse the ITC’s [International Trade Commission] determination” after “careful consideration.” The ITC issued the ban after finding that Apple infringed on blood oxygen saturation technology patented by a company called Masimo. It also ordered Apple to stop selling any previously-imported devices with the infringed-upon tech. While Apple attempted to block the decision while... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/7qZvxzt

The Verge / Photo courtesy of Bethesda Game Studios Xbox Game Pass might have had a rather slow 2022, but its value has really paid off in 2023. There are more than 400 games to choose from, and I’ve honestly struggled to pick just 10 to recommend this year. For a monthly subscription fee of between $10.99 and $16.99, you get to play a wide range of games like Starfield , Sea of Stars , Tunic , and Inside . If you’ve just got an Xbox, here’s a list of 10 great Xbox Game Pass games that are well worth your time over the holidays. Pentiment Pentiment is a manuscript murder mystery set in the 16th century. In Pentiment, you play as Andreas Maler, a painter working on illustrated manuscripts in an abbey in Bavaria. The game plays out like a visual novel, where you’ll make decisions throughout... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/bXNeVKn

A Disney Plus subscription provides access to the full catalog of Star Wars , including recent series like Ahsoka . | Image: Suzanne Tenner / Lucasfilm Ltd. Yes, Christmas is tomorrow — and yes, we know you have yet to buy a gift. We understand that life gets busy, though, and sometimes it feels like the holidays creep up on you out of nowhere. But before you spiral into a full-blown panic attack, take a deep breath. Luckily for you, the internet is filled with a treasure trove of gift cards, subscriptions, and other great digital gifts you can buy as late as Christmas Day itself. To help make your life a little easier, we’ve curated a list of some of the best digital gifts we’ve either used ourselves or gifted to our friends and family. We’ve organized the list by interests, too, so you can find the perfect present whether your loved one is into the arts, exercise, or something else... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/RUDZLTC

It does one thing well, and yet there are other multi-use devices that are arguably better, but dammit sometimes I’m lazy. Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/BDRTfQv

The Verge / Photo Courtesy of IMDB and Hulu Hulu got a big price hike this year , but it’s getting increasingly harder to cancel (at least for me) thanks to the overwhelming number of shows and movies to watch on the Disney-owned service. While those of us in the US can currently access Hulu separately from Disney Plus, things are about to change very soon. Disney is planning to launch a combined Hulu and Disney Plus app for users who subscribe to both services, and it’s set to come out next year after some initial testing. Keep in mind that this won’t change the content available on either service, just how you access it. For now, though, here are some of the best shows released on Hulu this year. Only Murders in the Building (Season 3) Selena Gomez, Steve Martin, and Martin... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/cYAh5dJ

2024 Chevrolet Blazer EV RS in Galaxy Gray Metallic | Image: GM Our automotive editor was scheduled to test a Blazer EV soon , but it looks like that will have to wait — GM has paused sales of its brand-new Chevy Blazer EV following reports of significant issues. In a statement provided to The Verge, Chevrolet communications executive director Chad Lyons said, “Our team is working quickly to roll out a fix, and owners will be contacted with further information on how to schedule their update.” Chevrolet vice president Scott Bell said, “We’re aware that a limited number of customers have experienced software-related quality issues with their Blazer EV. Customer satisfaction is our priority and as such, we will take a brief pause on new deliveries.” GM did not confirm how many vehicles are affected,... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/AtezRmM

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Apple is banning new sales of the Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 in the US due to a patent dispute — here’s all the latest news. Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/A9XMTpZ

Warner Bros. Because of its predictable story, and despite its occasionally gorgeous visuals, James Wan’s Aquaman sequel feels like the embodiment of everything that went wrong with the DC Extended Universe. Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/49eyUoL

Illustration: The Verge A Wisconsin family has agreed to sell 407 acres of their land, which includes a local pumpkin farm attraction, to Microsoft — for a total of $76 million, reported the Milwaukee Business Journal . The local government initially offered the Creuziger family in Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin about a third of that sum in 2017 as a part of an agreement with the Foxconn Technology Group. But the family refused, opting to hold out for a better offer. “The family wishes the village and Microsoft well, and they would appreciate people respecting their privacy,” the family’s attorney David Barnes told the Business Journal . The land, which also includes the Land of the Giants pumpkin farm and a nine-acre corn maze, neigbhors another 641 acres of land... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/hg3t490

Illustration by The Verge More than 200 Substack authors asked the platform to explain why it’s “platforming and monetizing Nazis,” and now they have an answer straight from co-founder Hamish McKenzie: I just want to make it clear that we don’t like Nazis either—we wish no-one held those views. But some people do hold those and other extreme views. Given that, we don’t think that censorship (including through demonetizing publications) makes the problem go away—in fact, it makes it worse. While McKenzie offers no evidence to back these ideas, this tracks with the company’s previous stance on taking a hands-off approach to moderation. In April, Substack CEO Chris Best appeared on the Decoder podcast and refused to answer moderation questions. “We’re not going to... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/VzCU6bR

Cars, trucks, SUVs, and other vehicles drive in traffic on the 405 freeway through the Sepulveda Pass in Los Angeles, California, on August 25th, 2022. | Photo by Patrick T. Fallon / AFP via Getty Images The US saw record gains in fuel efficiency last year, but it still falls short of what’s needed to meet fast-approaching deadlines. Thanks to their love of large vehicles, American automakers have fallen behind their competitors when it comes to getting more miles per gallon of gas. Real-world fuel economy in model year 2022 rose slightly to 26 miles per gallon, according to the EPA’s latest Automotive Trends Report . That’s a 0.6mpg increase from the year before, which is apparently “more than double the annual rate of improvement in fuel economy” over the past nine years, according to the EPA. But while the agency celebrates the incremental improvement, there’s still a long way to go to reach the fuel efficiency standards the US has set... Continue reading… from The Verge -

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Apple has lost its bid to delay an import and sales ban on the Watch Series 9 and Watch Ultra 2. In a filing on Wednesday , the US International Trade Commission (ITC) denied Apple’s motion to stay the ban while awaiting an appeal. On Monday, Apple announced its plans to pull the Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 from store shelves in response to an October ruling from the ITC, which said the company’s SpO2 sensors infringed on patents from medical device maker Masimo. The last day to purchase the Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 from Apple stores is December 24th, while the import ban officially goes into effect on December 26th. Apple is already exploring ways it can avoid the ban, including by implementing software changes , according to Bloomberg . ... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/EO8cVnt

Image: Apple Apple’s June announcement that it would launch the Vision Pro headset “early next year” could be very early. As Bloomberg ’s Mark Gurman reports , things are lining up for the device to launch by February. He says we shouldn’t expect another launch event — which is understandable for a $3,499 device that will probably have a limited supply — but bringing this to market is a major undertaking that means preparing Apple Store employees to guide new users, adjust fitting, and deal with prescription lens options. Launching the first new Apple hardware platform in years includes new software with visionOS, and Gurman is already pointing to its next version, which should arrive later in 2024 along with the usual Mac and iPhone software updates.... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/tgiG6He

Next-generation Apple CarPlay UI in an Aston Martin. | Image: Aston Martin Apple said we’d get vehicle announcements tied to its “next generation” of wireless CarPlay by the end of 2023, and today, it delivered mock-ups of the dashboard-spanning UI styled for Porsche and Aston Martin. Instead of simply taking over the infotainment center and small segments of the in-dash areas, it seeks to overhaul all displays of the given vehicle. The theme is distinct to each automaker and also gives CarPlay access to the vehicle’s features, like your radio and temperature settings. In the Porsche setup, there’s a three-dial layout with the speedometer on the left and a wallpaper made to match its houndstooth seat pattern. In the Aston Martin layout, there’s a media display in the center, surrounded by the speedometer and... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/pD3zlAi

Belkin’s 3-in-1 charging stand makes for a great StandBy companion, regardless of whether you own an Apple Watch. | Photo by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge The Qi2-based chargers are certainly coming , but if you can’t wait for them to land next year, Belkin’s BoostCharge Pro 3-in-1 Wireless Charger with MagSafe is on sale now at Amazon in black for a new low of $110.99 ($39 off) or in white for just $9 more . To this day, Belkin’s BoostCharge Pro remains our favorite MagSafe 3-in-1 stand for home use . The triple charging solution offers true 15W MagSafe charging speeds, the ability to fast-charge newer Apple Watch models starting with the Series 7, and support for iOS 17’s new StandBy mode , which gives you an easy way to turn your phone into a clock, calendar, or a nifty photo frame for your desk. It’s also outfitted with a 5W charging pad on the bottom, so you can juice a pair of wireless... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/zbEZuP5

Image: Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Has December slipped by and left you with little time to finish your holiday shopping? I’m not here to judge you for waiting until the last minute (we’ve all been there, after all). Instead, I’ll do you one better by helping you find a variety of gift ideas that should still arrive in time to be wrapped and tucked under the tree before Christmas. There’s a wide swath of excellent gifts you can still nab — some of which may even be on sale — including smart home accessories, tablets, wearables, and headphones. Everything here is tech or tech-adjacent stuff that The Verge has tested or vouched for, so you can rest assured you’re not compromising on quality for the sake of timeliness. And if you need additional ideas, be sure to check out... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/52C3MXI

The Verge Microsoft’s AI chatbot Copilot will now be able to churn out AI songs on demand — thanks to a new plug-in with Suno. The Cambridge-based AI music startup offers a tool on Discord that can compose an original song — complete with lyrics — based on a text prompt. Now, Copilot users will be able to access Suno using the Microsoft chatbot. In order to start making music, Copilot users only need to sign on to their accounts and enable the Suno plug-in — or click on the logo that says, “Make music with Suno.” Users then need to think of a simple one- or two-line text prompt that describes their desired song, such as “create a folk song about Alaska summers ” or “write a song about cats in the style of Cat Power ” (both prompts I tried... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/LfhKxFd

The Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Galaxy Z Flip 5 will be part of Samsung’s self-repair program. | Image: Samsung The Galaxy Z Flip 5 and Galaxy Z Fold 5 will join the entire S23 series, the Galaxy Tab S9 series, and the Galaxy Book 2 Pro series in Samsung’s self-repair program this month. A partnership with iFixit , the repair program initially only supported S20, S21, and Tab S7 devices. At the start of 2023, the S22 line and some Galaxy Pro books were added, and now, the entire flagship S23 and foldable lines are joining the fix-it-yourself family. The Galaxy foldables are not listed on iFixit’s page yet, so we don’t know what the prices will be. But as the Google Pixel Fold costs around $900 for a parts kit to repair the large inner screen through its partnership with iFixit , I’m guessing it's not cheap. The full list of Samsung devices you can... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/FZcuz0o

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Susan Zhuang, a Democrat who will soon represent the 43rd Council District in Brooklyn, New York, admitted to using AI when answering questions from a local news publication, according to a report by the New York Post . In a text message sent to the Post , Zhuang wrote that she uses “AI as a tool to help foster deeper understanding” because English is not her first language. The responses in question were included in an article from City & State , which asked local council member-elects to fill out a questionnaire about their personal interests and policies. However, the Post noticed something was off with Zhuang’s answer to the question, “What makes someone a New Yorker?”: New York City, the concrete jungle where dreams come true. It’s not... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/VS7mkRw

Amazon Prime members may be eligible for free same-day delivery. | Photo by Justin Sullivan / Getty Images The same thing happens year after year. Things get busy with work, school, and life in general until you’re suddenly up against the clock as you race your gifts to your local post office, FedEx store, or UPS location. We’ve all been there, but we’d like to be of some help as you plan your next move and begin sending out your holiday packages. If you plan on sending your gifts via traditional mail, what follows are the upcoming domestic shipping deadlines for various retailers and shipment carriers so you can ensure that your packages arrive before Christmas, Kwanzaa, or whatever holiday it is you celebrate this time of year. Hopefully, it’ll help you avoid some holiday stress, if at all possible. With UPS, you have until Thursday,... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/ju2gvYW

Spotify Wrapped 2023 summaries | Image: Spotify You were listening, walking, and playing, and they were watching. Now Spotify and other apps are repackaging that data to recap your 2023. Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/Vvbpeoh

Image: May Mobility You probably haven’t heard of autonomous vehicle operator May Mobility because the Ann Arbor, Michigan-based company is exceptionally good at avoiding the types of headlines generated by other AV companies. In its six years in operation, there haven’t been any injuries, crashes, blocked intersections, or mass layoffs. While there have been some struggles, the company has proven to be an outlier among AV operators by continuing to raise money while others have seen their funding dry up . And now, May Mobility is ready to go fully driverless, a milestone that has the company taking stock of its successes — and looking ahead to the future. “The most capital-efficient AV company that the world has ever seen” “It’s not robotaxis,” May... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/kHxhbiA

Blue Origin will stream the launch on its site. | Screenshot: The Verge Space tourism company Blue Origin has set its sights on a New Shepard launch window that starts tomorrow at 9:30AM ET, its first attempt since the rocket booster failed during its September 2022 launch. The company says its New Shepard rocket will launch from its Launch Site One in West Texas. Blue Origin will livestream the launch on its website 20 minutes before the countdown. This will be the 24th launch of the reusable New Shepard rocket, and will carry 33 science payloads. Most of its launches have been uncrewed, but as Engadget noted , six of them have had human beings on board, including William Shatner . Last year, Blue Origin’s uncrewed NS-23 launch failed , prompting a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) investigation. The FAA... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/h2o3SL1

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Peloton is opening up its app to third-party treadmills for running, walking, or Tread Bootcamp classes. Pelo Buddy spotted a new support page on Peloton’s site announcing that the app can now record and display metrics on any treadmill that uses Bluetooth FTMS. The offer is only open to subscribers of the company’s most expensive subscription workout plan , Peloton App Plus. To pair, you’ll start a Tread class in the Peloton app, then tap the “Connect a Bluetooth Device” option. Pick your treadmill from the list, and a green check mark lets you know when it’s connected. Peloton says users can check their incline, speed, pace, and distance via the app during a class session. After the class is over, the app will also show estimated... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/XfG59nQ

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Congress has extended Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) for a few more months to April 2024. According to The New York Times , the program was included in the $886 billion National Defence Authorization Act, which passed the House by a vote of 310 to 118, with support from the majority of both parties, on December 14th. FISA was due to expire on December 31st, 2023. Senator Ron Wyden wrote in a press release on December 8th that the vote to reauthorize FISA was inserted into the NDAA “without a vote or debate” before the Senate authorized and passed it to the House. Now, the vote has headed to the desk of President Biden, who has called for it to be reauthorized. Section 702 empowers US intelligence agencies... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/UKOWPG2

Image: Epic Games Apple rules the iPhone’s App Store with an iron fist — sideloading outside it is not allowed. Google lets anyone install any app on an Android phone. But guess which one of these two companies has an illegal monopoly, according to the courts? As you probably already know, Google is the one that lost its fight against Epic Games this week . It’s a fight that Apple previously (mostly) won in a similar trial in 2021 , beating claims that it had violated antitrust laws by charging mandatory in-app transaction fees and kicking Epic’s game Fortnite off the App Store. Google tried a similar move, but in its case, a jury found it had maintained an unlawful monopoly with the Play store; a judge is scheduled to consider remedies next month. L... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/tD7hpg1

Image: Microsoft Microsoft’s Word, Excel, and PowerPoint are now available to download for free on Meta’s Quest VR headsets, as reported by Android Central . They appear to be the web versions of the apps, so while there’s a lot that’s very familiar about them, after giving the apps a whirl from inside a Quest 3, I can tell you that the virtual office experience still has a few quirks. The first hurdle is logging in. While you don’t need a paid Microsoft 365 account, when I opened up Word, I had to log in by typing my long Microsoft account password. (The option to log in with a security key failed when I tried it; the other choices were to log in with a GitHub account or a company account.) Since I don’t have a Bluetooth keyboard lying around, that meant... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/pFgjM79

Image: Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge If you haven’t enabled Bluetooth on your Stadia controller yet, you don’t need to rush. Google has extended the deadline for when its controllers will no longer work wirelessly from the end of this year to December 31st, 2024, as shown on its website ( via @wario64 ). After Google announced the discontinuation of its Stadia cloud gaming service last year, the company said it would let its controllers live on as wireless Bluetooth gamepads compatible with PCs, Macs, phones, and other systems. It also rolled out a special web-based tool in January that you can use to activate Bluetooth on your Stadia controller. Screenshot by Emma Roth / The Verge Google previously gave users until December 31st, 2023 to complete the... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/mX5I7cf

Photo Illustration by Amelia Holowaty Krales and Cath Virginia / The Verge We’ve assembled a collection of quick-hit gifts that can be issued within seconds, freeing you of shipping concerns and in-store shopping. Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/60YuqW8

Photo: Netflix No thank you for waking me up. Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/DgXTMZ3

Image: Google Google is releasing a tool to help users diagnose problems with their Pixel phones. Users can launch the app by entering #*#7287#*# on the dial pad, allowing them to check whether their phone is working correctly before or after a repair. There are a bunch of diagnostic tools available within the app. While users can run a full diagnostic test to detect issues across the entire device, there are also options to run individual tests for physical defects and problems affecting the phone’s display, sensors, and connectivity. The new tool is available on all Pixel phones in English. Image: Google Aside from the diagnostics app, Google is introducing redesigned repair manuals the company says are “easier for technicians... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/fQ9yPaC

Image: The Verge Online shopping giant Temu is suing its competitor Shein, saying the fast fashion giant is using “Mafia-style” intimidation tactics on merchants. In the suit filed on Wednesday, Temu says Shein has deployed increasingly aggressive strategies to “illegally interfere with Temu’s business,” including intimidating merchants who list their products on both platforms and issuing tens of thousands of illegitimate copyright takedowns. Temu and Shein have previously sued each other “Shein recently has gone so far as to falsely imprison merchants doing business with Temu, including detaining merchant representatives in Shein’s offices for many hours while Shein confiscates the merchants’ electronic devices, obtains access to proprietary Temu... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3JCQNmR

Illustration: The Verge Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg posted on Threads that the platform is beginning to test making Threads posts available on Mastodon and other ActivityPub-supporting services . Zuckerberg wrote that making Threads work with the interoperable standard “will give people more choice over how they interact and it will help content reach more people.” Joining the fediverse — the decentralized world of social media that includes Mastodon, Pixelfed, and other services that all interoperate through ActivityPub — has been on the Threads team’s to-do list since the very beginning. Instagram head Adam Mosseri told The Verge in July that he believed decentralizing the platform was key to making it relevant to a new generation of creators. “I think we might... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/8bnGV0e