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You can make Alexa and Google Assistant fight for your love with JBL’s retro-styled speakers. | Photo by Jon Porter / The Verge I know that someone, somewhere, shares my thinking that the virtual assistants we’ve grown fond of are mortal enemies somewhere in a digital parallel universe. But JBL’s new line of Authentics speakers has warped everything I thought I knew about the ancient rivalry, allowing you to call on either assistant without toggling a setting. Right now, you can pay as little as $274.95 ($75 off) for the JBL Authentics 200 at Amazon , Best Buy , and JBL’s online storefront , which is the best discount we’ve seen on the travel-friendly speaker. The Authentics 300 is also available for $349.95 ($100 off) from Amazon , Best Buy , and JBL , while the larger Authentics 500 can be had for $549.95 ($150 off) at Amazon , Best Buy , and direct from JBL . JBL is... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/aTgLFNM

Image: Microsoft Microsoft is launching a suite of its Microsoft 365 apps on Apple’s Vision Pro headset later this week. Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, Loop, and Microsoft Teams will all be available in the App Store for Apple Vision Pro on February 2nd — the same day Apple’s new headset is available in stores. Apple Vision Pro owners will also be able to access an AI-powered version of Copilot while using the headset, including the ability to create drafts, summarize documents, and generate PowerPoint presentations with your voice. Image: Microsoft Microsoft Word on the Vision Pro. Word on the Vision Pro includes a focus mode much like the reader mode found in the desktop versions, alongside a ribbon... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/mSYAlLE

Image: Pocketpair Surprise viral gaming hit Palworld continues to reach new player milestones. Today, developer Pocketpair announced that the game has sold 12 million copies on Steam and reached 7 million players on Xbox. The Xbox number includes both sales and those who played via Game Pass, but the breakdown between the two isn’t clear. According to Microsoft , though, these numbers make Palworld the biggest third-party (i.e. a game not made by an internal Microsoft studio) launch in Game Pass history. The company says it “recently” reached a “peak of nearly 3 million daily active users on Xbox, making it the most-played game on our platforms at that time.” (Which date that took place isn’t specified.) Of course, we already knew Palworld was popular; the... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/oSpG0eR

Shopify Magic Media Editor. | Image: Shopify The Shopify Magic suite of generative AI tools that launched in April last year is adding a media editor that brings generative image fill to its platform and conversational search powered by AI. Merchants can prompt the image editor to change photo backgrounds without Photoshop experience to match whatever theme they have in mind. Shopify’s AI editor can also suggest backgrounds and styles that match existing product images in the merchant’s library once it rolls out this spring . Glen Coates, Shopify’s vice president of product, says many sellers on the platform don’t have access to big studios or professional photographers, but they still need to set their items up for success. Since there’s no additional cost to use this tool, it... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/IA7gVxt

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Microsoft just posted the second quarter of its 2024 fiscal financial results. The software maker made $62 billion in revenue and a net income of $21.9 billion during Q2. Revenue is up 18 percent, and net income has increased by 33 percent. This is the first quarter Microsoft is reporting earnings as a $3 trillion company and also the first time the company has reported additional revenue from its Activision Blizzard acquisition. While Office and cloud revenue remain strong, devices revenue from Surface sales has continued to decline this quarter, with Windows bouncing back after a slow period for the PC market. Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge The Surface Laptop Studio 2. Microsoft did warn that... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/r5pwLn7

The New York Times will begin building a team to explore the use of generative AI in its newsroom. Zach Seward, who was recently hired by the publication to head AI initiatives, posted on Threads that the team will be “focused on prototyping uses of generative AI and other machine-learning techniques to help with reporting and how the Times is presented to readers.” Seward’s post said the Times plans to hire a machine learning engineer, a software engineer, a designer, and a couple of editors to round out the AI newsroom initiative. So far, the Times has posted job listings for an associate editorial director for AI initiatives and a senior design editor. “The team, led by the editorial director for A.I. initiatives, will also include... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/zs6ZrXB

Amelia Krales General Motors’ shift from an internal combustion engine-producing company to one that makes electric motors is sputtering. EV sales are up, but growing slower than expected. The company’s next-generation Ultium platform, in particular, isn’t meeting expectations. GM’s new electric trucks and SUVs seem perennially delayed — or full of buggy software. I think I have an easy solution to a lot of these problems: bring back the Chevy Volt. Remember the Volt, GM’s scrappy Toyota Prius fighter from the mid-2010s? The company was lauded when it first came out in 2010 as a prescient bet on vehicles with electric powertrains. And it was undeniably a very good hybrid. The first-generation model got 36 miles of electric range before the gas... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/6Fsb3D5

The MSI Claw gaming handheld. | Image: MSI The MSI Claw will be one of the first handheld gaming PCs with an Intel Core Ultra processor inside — but despite what the company told us at CES 2024, it won’t have a variable refresh rate (VRR) screen. To my knowledge, the Asus ROG Ally is the only handheld with that dynamic gameplay smoothing display feature, and it’s one of its biggest advantages . I’m disappointed the MSI Claw won’t have it, too. Instead, MSI marketing specialist Anne Lee tells me you’ll be able to manually set the seven-inch 1080p, 120Hz screen to 48Hz or 60Hz if you want. MSI claims that still counts as “VRR” — but it doesn’t unless you’re taking the phrase in an exceptionally literal direction I’ve never heard a company argue before. VRR is the generic form of... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/j7DpYvO

One of iRobot’s Roombas in action. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge Amazon’s deal to buy Roomba maker iRobot is off, the companies announced today , after iRobot said the deal has “no path to regulatory approval in the European Union.” iRobot is also announcing that it’s laying off around 350 employees, or around 31 percent of its workforce as part of a restructuring . It expects to notify the majority of affected employees by the end of March. As part of the announcement, iRobot chair and CEO Colin Angle, who co-founded the company in 1990, is stepping down. iRobot’s current executive vice president and chief legal officer, Glen Weinstein, will serve as interim CEO, and Andrew Miller, formerly lead independent director of the board, will become chair. iRobot says it hopes to return to profitability by... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/UlI9Eom

SLIM landed close to its target, but engine troubles during the descent saw the lander flipped upside-down and unable to properly recharge its solar batteries. | Image: Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) Japan’s Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) has been resurrected, over a week after the probe ran out of electricity following its troubled lunar touchdown on January 20th, leaving it upside-down and its solar panels pointing in the wrong direction. On Monday, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) announced that communication with the SLIM spacecraft had been re-established, and operations to hunt for clues about the Moon’s origins had resumed. JAXA had predicted that a change in sunlight direction could allow the probe’s battery to be recharged from its awkwardly angled solar panels. It’s unclear how long this power will last — the agency previously said that SLIM was not designed to survive a lunar night, which will next... Continue reading… from The V

The Nomad Stand offers 15W of wireless iPhone fast charging for $100. | Image: Nomad Nomad’s Stand is the latest Qi2 charger to hit the market, offering up to 15W of wireless charging speed to Qi2-compatible phones like the iPhone 15. The accessory was announced in late December , but it’s now shipping in a choice of black or white for $100 from Nomad’s website . It’s $100 price point makes the Stand $10 cheaper than Nomad’s equivalent MagSafe model, the Stand One , and offers the same “up to 15W” charging speeds and magnetic attachment compatibility as Apple’s MagSafe (Apple helped develop the Qi2 charging standard). The bad news is that Nomad’s $100 asking price doesn’t include the required 20W power adapter — you just get a USB-C to USB-C cable. Image: Nomad Nomad’s Stand in black. Nomad’s... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/V0E8OFS

Arc Search browses the web for you, and then builds you the webpage you wanted. That’s the idea, anyway. | Image: The Browser Company / David Pierce A few minutes ago, I opened the new Arc Search app and typed, “What happened in the Chiefs game.” That game, the AFC Championship, had just wrapped up. Normally, I’d Google it, click on a few links, and read about the game that way. But in Arc Search, I typed the query and tapped the “Browse for me” button instead. Arc Search , the new iOS app from The Browser Company, which has been working on a browser called Arc for the last few years, went to work. It scoured the web — reading six pages, it told me, from Twitter to The Guardian to USA Today — and returned a bunch of information a few seconds later. I got the headline: Chiefs win. I got the final score, the key play, a “notable event” that also just said the Chiefs won, a note about... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/ImWUHOc

Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge The past two years have been a whirlwind of changes at Netflix — and it’s all to transform the company into a revenue-driving machine that outlives other streamers. Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/q3H1E2o

Image: William Joel / The Verge Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 23, 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 .) This week, I’ve been reading about the sudden rise in freight train heists and the strange state of Air Jordans , watching Jon Stewart’s Mark Twain Prize speeches all over again, wondering if I should buy an original Macintosh on eBay instead of continuing to pay my mortgage, scheming to get my hands on the “real” Star Wars lightsaber , tracking at-home workouts with Weller , and trying to replace doomscrolling on my phone with the Chess.com app . I also have for you a new show from the Silicon Valley creator,... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/YScbUvG

Image: The Verge X says it will hire 100 full-time employees for a new trust and safety office in Austin, Texas, according to a Saturday report by Bloomberg . The plan comes, as the article notes, just a few days before CEO Linda Yaccarino’s scheduled January 31st hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee regarding X’s handling of child sexual exploitation moderation. The team would reportedly focus mainly on CSE and would be the first proper trust and safety team since Elon Musk gutted it shortly after purchasing the platform formerly known as Twitter. X updated a blog post about its CSE moderation approach to mention the new office yesterday, as well, though it doesn’t reveal what the new team will be doing, nor when the office will open. The... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/gsAYJzS

Illustration: The Verge X appears to have blocked searches for Taylor Swift as a reaction to a recent trend of graphic AI fakes of the world-famous recording artist being posted to the site . Right now, if you search “Taylor Swift” or “Taylor Swift AI” on X, formerly Twitter, you may see a “Something went wrong” message. After Platformer ’s Casey Newton posted about the apparent block, we tried some other searches. If X is intentionally blocking searches for illicit AI-generated images of Swift, it doesn’t seem to have gotten very far. That’s because if you run into a blocked search term and decide to put the barest amount of effort into trying something else, you’ll get around it. “Taylor AI Swift” or simply putting quotation marks around her name both returned... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/0iXOI1H

Illustration: The Verge Is it a joyous outage where you get to relax, or something mission critical going wrong? Either way, “a portion” of Microsoft Teams is down — with outages in North America, South America, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, according to the latest status update from Microsoft’s official account. So yeah, if you can’t communicate with your colleagues right now via Microsoft’s biz comm platform, that’s probably why. Some users are reportedly not able to log into Teams, while others may see missing messages, missing attachments, delays, etc. We've completed the failover in the EMEA region and service telemetry is showing some improvement. The failovers for the North and South America regions are ongoing and we continue to monitor.... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/syTBPf3

Illustration: The Verge Apple is finally opening the iPhone to third-party app stores in the European Union, kicking off a potentially vibrant, unwieldy, and eclectic new era for its app ecosystem. At least, it might, depending on how developers respond to a hurdle that is at once tiny and immense: a €0.50 fee. Apple is introducing a new fee structure for apps that want to operate on these third-party stores. On the surface, it looks great: apps pay no cut of sales to Apple if they’re distributed via a third-party store. And if a developer still wants to be distributed via Apple’s App Store, too, the cut drops from the traditional 30 percent fee down to 17 percent. It’s an even lower 10 percent fee for qualifying “small business” apps, down from the original 15... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/w8UIjXn

Image: Pocketpair You can all stop calling now — The Pokémon Company’s lawyers are on the case. In a statement posted on the company’s website , The Pokémon Company says it’s aware of a “game released in January 2024” and plans to “take appropriate measures to address any acts that infringe on intellectual property rights related to the Pokémon.” It’s no secret that the game referred to is Palworld, a surprise hit juggernaut that’s slowly climbing up the Steam charts , well on its way to beating PUBG ’s all-time peak player count of 3.2 million. It’s sold 8 million copies on Steam as of today, and its developer, Pocketpair, just released a roadmap laying out plans for the game’s future . #Palworld has sold over 8 million copies in less than 6 days! Thank you... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/jHUa9vI

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) opened an inquiry into the investments of Big Tech companies that provide cloud services to smaller AI companies like OpenAI and Anthropic. The FTC sent letters to Alphabet, Amazon, Anthropic, Microsoft, and OpenAI, requiring the companies to explain the impact these investments have on the competitive landscape of generative AI. The commission wants to “scrutinize corporate partnerships and investments with AI providers to build a better internal understanding of these relationships and their impact on the competitive landscape.” Google and Amazon invested in Anthropic, while Microsoft has a close financial relationship with OpenAI. The FTC wants information on the specific investment agreements... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/C6q9SRt

This is the fastest AM4 processor you can upgrade to if you’re not ready to buy into AM5. AMD made bank on its Ryzen chipsets on the strength of bored pandemic-era gamers who spent their stimulus checks on new PC builds. Ryzen CPUs offered arguably the best price-to-performance value back then, causing many to go all in on AM4-based systems. AMD has since switched to the next-generation AM5 platform, but there’s still plenty of room on the upgrade path for those not interested in shelling out hundreds or thousands on newer hardware. Take the top-line Ryzen 9 5950X , for instance, which has never been cheaper than the $364.99 price currently showing at Amazon (18 percent off). The Ryzen 9 5950X is admittedly overkill for most people. It has 16 physical cores with 32 threads, 3.4GHz base and 4.9GHz boost clock speeds, a very... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/poUlyHR

Who says webcams can’t be fun? | Photo by Cameron Faulkner / The Verge At this point, I think it’s pretty safe to say that remote work is here to stay in at least some capacity, even if Meta , Apple , Google , and a host of other companies have rolled out more stringent WFH policies over the past year. Thankfully for those of us who work from home and still find ourselves knee-deep in Zoom calls, Insta360’s Link is on sale at Amazon , B&H Photo , and direct from Insta360 for $249.99 ($50 off), which marks a new low on the auto-swiveling webcam. Although auto-framing is nothing new — Apple introduced its Center Stage feature with the iPad Pro in 2021 — Insta360 has taken a more novel approach to keeping you centered in the frame with its latest webcam. Whereas most digitally pan and zoom, the 0.5-inch Sony... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/QZDkVqU

Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge Ring will no longer let local police publicly ask people for doorbell footage through its Neighbors app. The Amazon-owned company announced it’s going to sunset its Request for Assistance tool this week, forcing police to obtain a warrant for most of its video requests. This change might seem like a step in the right direction, but it may actually make the clip-requesting process less transparent, as police can still request clips from Ring during what they consider “emergencies.” In a statement to The Verge , Amazon spokesperson Yassi Yarger confirmed that on “rare occasions,” Ring will provide information to law enforcement “when there is an imminent danger of death or serious physical injury, such as a kidnapping or an attempted... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/LMw543r

Image: Blizzard We are, as the kids say, so friggin’ back. In November, the Overwatch League announced its end after six seasons . At the time, Overwatch League associate PR manager John Nomis said, “We are transitioning from the Overwatch League and evolving competitive Overwatch in a new direction,” confirming that while the League itself was dead, Overwatch esports would return. Today, we know what shape competitive Overwatch will take in 2024 with the announcement of the Overwatch Champions Series or the OWCS. “The OWCS is our new premiere international competitive circuit open to players across North America (NA), Europe, Middle East, and North Africa (EMEA), and Asia,” read the announcement post . The Overwatch Champions Series will have an open... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/O5dYcZw

The third-gen AirPods currently start at $159 ($10 off) when you buy them with a Lightning-only charging case. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge If you know where to look, there are often some great discounts available on Apple’s ever-popular AirPods. Since Apple launched the third-gen AirPods toward the end of 2021, we’ve seen the starting price of the second-gen, entry-level model slowly dip to around $100. And now that the second-gen AirPods Pro has been on the market for over a year, we’re also seeing their price fall more often, too. We’re even seeing great deals land on the newer updated AirPods Pro with USB-C . Here, we’ve curated the best deals currently available on each model, including the entry-level AirPods, the AirPods Pro, the third-gen AirPods, and the AirPods Max. The best AirPods (second-gen) deals In 2021, Apple lowered the list price of the... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2EKiSar

Image: The Verge This is Hot Pod , The Verge’ s newsletter about podcasting and the audio industry. Sign up here for more. On Friday, Insiders got part one of a Q&A with NPR’s new podcasting chief, Collin Campbell, who led new show development at Gimlet before the studio was dismantled by Spotify. We discussed how his strategy for NPR differs from his predecessor and how the network is moving forward after last year’s layoffs and cancellations. Today, I have the second part of the interview, in which we got into how NPR is operating in the new, competitive podcasting landscape, and what (if anything) he learned from the tumult at Gimlet. But first, some more Hot Pod Summit news! Throughline and Israel Story are coming to Hot Pod Summit It’s shaping up... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/Ru9Zzqx

Motorola’s classic clamshell modernized with a flexible OLED display finally feels worth the money after a $450 discount. | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge Between foldable smartphones like the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Flip 5, the Pixel Fold , and the OnePlus Open , it’s easy to forget the Motorola Razr Plus exists. The flip phone is a throwback to Motorola’s roots, only the sharp-edged number pad departs to make room for the 6.9-inch OLED display that greets you when opening it. (You can still ride the nostalgic wave with a software-based dialer resembling the classic design.) Thanks to a steep 45 percent discount at Woot that’s only around for the next couple of days (or while supplies last), you can buy the newest Razr Plus in black for just $549.99 ($450 off). That price is even cheaper than the $699.99 base model and about $150 cheaper than we’ve seen at other retailers during last... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/L2RYkeo

Image: Nvidia Nvidia’s RTX Remix tool is now available for modders to try. The game remastering tool, currently out in open beta , allows modders to give older games a makeover with AI-powered texture tools, ray tracing, and Nvidia DLSS 3. This is the same tool that was used to give Portal a visual boost with upgraded textures, models, and improved lighting. It’s also what a community of modders are using to remaster Half-Life 2 with some realistic-looking headcrabs and way better textures. But now that it’s available for all modders to try, it should make for an even wider range of upgraded games. Not every classic game is compatible with RTX Remix, though. Nvidia says that the tool works best with DirectX 8 and 9 games “with fixed function... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/fFJeY7t

Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge Cutting, copying, and pasting are actions that are regularly performed in apps and between apps: getting an address from a message into a map, moving an image from an email to a document, or just transferring text from one end of a note to another. But while I’ve known how to cut, copy, and paste on a laptop or desktop computer for, well, forever, I wasn’t quite as sure at first how to do it on my Android phone. In fact, cutting, copying, sharing, or pasting on Android is pretty straightforward — no matter which app you’re in or what you’re trying to move around. Here’s how to do it. Note: I’ve tested these techniques on a Google Pixel 8 running Android 14 and a Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 running Android 14 and One UI 6.0. Selecting,... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/7PMCDtW

Image: Apple Apple is kicking off the week with the first trailer for its sci-fi series Constellation . The show stars Noomi Rapace as an astronaut who “returns to Earth after a disaster in space — only to discover that key pieces of her life seem to be missing.” In the trailer, this appears to manifest itself as a series of mysteries — a strange piano, an unknown voice on a tape recorder — along with plenty of unsettling hallucinations. The rest of the cast includes Jonathan Banks, James D’Arcy, Julian Looman, William Catlett, and Barbara Sukowa, and the series is being helmed by creator and writer Peter Harness ( Doctor Who ). Constellation premieres with three episodes on February 21st, and new episodes stream on Wednesdays after that. (Between this... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/64rEu7q

Screen time is on my side, yes it is. | Image: Ford The 2024 Lincoln Nautilus will get the new super-sized screen, with other models to follow. And yes, it still supports CarPlay and Android Auto.  Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/SfAleca

Image: Meta EU users will be able to unlink their Instagram and Facebook accounts, as well as other Meta services ahead of the bloc’s new Digital Markets Act (DMA) coming into force in March, the company has announced . The changes will apply in the European Union, European Economic Area, and Switzerland, and notifications informing users of the change will appear in the coming weeks. The changes mean that EU users will be able to use many of Meta’s services without their information being shared between them. People will be able to use Facebook Messenger as a stand-alone service without a Facebook account, for example, and if they’ve previously linked their Facebook and Instagram accounts they’ll be able to unlink them. ( Meta’s help page notes that... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/OkdwzU3

Image: Apple It won’t be a huge shocker if the bulk of the “over 1 million” apps that Apple says the Vision Pro will launch with are mostly just existing iPad or iPhone versions . But what is a little surprising is that some of Apple’s big first-party apps will be, too, including Podcasts, News, Calendar, and Reminders, according to Mark Gurman’s Power On newsletter for Bloomberg today. It seems like a bizarre choice for Apple’s big, shiny new platform at first glance. But whether it’s actually a problem may depend on how well the Vision Pro’s gaze-and-tap interface ports to the apps’ touch-first approach. After all, it’s not like the Reminders app needs mind-blowing immersive 3D effects. But part of the appeal of the platform for some folks will be... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/LDaEl3o

The Magic Mouse’s new shoe. | Image: Wes Davis / The Verge This past Christmas, there was a box in my stocking that held something I had half-jokingly added to my wishlist: an “ergonomic” grip that raises, widens, and adds wireless charging to Apple’s Magic Mouse 2. It’s like a little boot with a Lightning adapter tongue that plugs right into your Magic Mouse’s underbelly. Best of all, it’s magnetic, making it perfect for use with a MagSafe puck. Does this thing totally ruin the sleek Apple aesthetic? Absolutely! And I’m not even remotely convinced by its cheap-feeling plastic that it will last longer than a few months before it just stops working. Yet, somehow, it’s exactly what the Magic Mouse needs. What it’s called doesn’t really matter, because this isn’t a product any company you’ve ever... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/DJSKNrx

Illustration: William Joel / The Verge Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 22, 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 .) This week, I’ve been reading about the unbearable sameness of coffee shops and what happened to Twitch , testing out the Funnel iOS app for quick-capturing everything, marveling over Federico Viticci’s truly wild iPad setup , setting up my Flipboard all over again now that Artifact is dead , filling my cabinets thanks to this list of great new snacks , adding all the Emmy winners to my Sofa queue, and watching every behind-the-scenes Jon Bellion video that exists on the internet. I also have for you a huge new Samsung... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/O9dQRel

Pssh. Who needs an SpO2 sensor, anyway? | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Lately, it seems like all the talk regarding the Apple Watch seems to revolve around Apple’s ongoing patent dispute with medical device maker Masimo — a legal battle that has resulted in Apple recently removing the blood oxygen features found on the Series 9 and Ultra 2. Sales have continued uninterrupted for the latest Apple Watch SE given it lacks the SpO2 sensor, however, and now the second-gen smartwatch can be had for as little as $179 ($50 off) at Walmart. To be honest, most healthy individuals are not missing out on the SpO2 sensor, nor are first-time smartwatch buyers likely to complain about the SE’s lack of an always-on display or some of the fancier health tracking features found on the Series 9. Apple’s latest entry-level... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/MvEDy6z

Image: Square Enix Making sure an event as large as Games Done Quick (GDQ) runs smoothly is a monumental task. There are lots of technical moving parts, from video equipment, to lighting, sound, and stream overlays, to donation trackers that have to be kept running 24 hours a day for a week straight. The tech team also has to consider the individual needs of over 100 runners playing on consoles that range in age and complexity from the NES to the PlayStation 5. With all of that going on, I wondered which game out of the thousands that have been run at GDQ throughout its 10-plus-year history the tech team hates the most, and the answer surprised me. It’s the PSX SquareSoft (remember them??) RPG Chrono Cross . After speaking with GDQ’s director of technology,... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/UXLanQV

Amazon’s note-taking Kindle Scribe is on sale as a part of a bundle. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge When it comes to finding a device to use to read your ebooks, you have a few options to choose from. You can always buy a tablet or use your phone, but those devices are multipurpose and can be used for a ton of things, like surfing the web or doom-scrolling on Twitter. If you are looking for something to strictly read books, e-readers, while niche, are designed to store all of your books in a virtual library with limited functionality. Amazon, one of the pioneers of the e-reader, has dominated the space for years with its ever-expanding Kindle lineup, which consists of several unique models with their own pros and cons. The bulk of the devices function as simple ebook readers; however, with the Kindle Scribe , Amazon looks to be moving... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/Ohg1bSk

Govee’s full-color light strip features tunable LEDs and the ability to sync with your music. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge Let’s face it, January can be a bleak month. The holidays are over, and all that’s left are dark, cold days, which is enough to bring anybody’s spirits down. Thankfully, Govee’s Matter-ready LED Strip Light M1 is on sale to brighten up your day. Right now, you can buy the light strip for just $39.99 ($20 off) at Amazon , which matches its all-time low price. You can also buy it for $5 more directly from Govee . If you miss seeing colorful holiday lights everywhere, then you’ll love Govee’s 6.56-foot (2m) light strip. The bright, tunable LEDs are capable of jazzing up your home with a wide range of vibrant colors and effects, making it almost feel as if it’s Christmas all over again. What’s even cooler is that the lights also flash and... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/9PC5Hfq

Like the rest of the S24 lineup, Samsung’s Galaxy S24 Ultra comes in four color options. | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge As expected, Samsung introduced the new Galaxy S24 phone lineup during its Galaxy Unpacked event on January 17th. The Galaxy S24 and Galaxy S24 Plus start at $799.99 and $999.99, respectively, while the Galaxy S24 Ultra starts at $1,299.99. All of the phones are available starting on January 31st, 2024, though you can preorder them now . We’ve yet to wrap up our testing, so we can’t comment on how well the phones perform in reality. However, in the limited time we’ve been able to try them out so far, it seems Samsung made mostly minor hardware updates. Along with brighter displays, the new lineup features larger S24 and S24 Plus models, while the S24 Ultra features what should be a more durable titanium frame. It’s the new AI features... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/FyWEshC

Masimo showed up with the Freedom (right), a prototype for a smarter watch featuring its blood oxygen tech. | Photo by Victoria Song / The Verge In the past few weeks, you’ve probably heard something about the Apple Watch getting banned . Something to do with a sensor, with some medical tech company accusing Apple of infringing on its patents. That medical tech company is Masimo, and it’s known within the medical community for its pulse oximetry technology, used for measuring blood oxygen levels. The company would also like to be known for something else: its brand-new smartwatch, which features the tech that got the Apple Watch in trouble. Masimo isn’t traditionally a gadget maker, but its new watch — the Freedom — is meant to be a true consumer device: something that looks stylish on the wrist, can relay your notifications, and will track your health while it’s at it. On paper,... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/MgC6WB5

Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge Apple is expected to include a new security feature in iOS 17.3 next week called Stolen Device Protection that will make it far harder for would-be phone thieves to hijack your Apple ID and any financial information stored on the device. Right now, your lock screen passcode is enough to access or change sensitive personal and financial data, but with the update, thieves would need to use Face ID or Touch ID, and may have to wait an hour, to make certain changes. While Apple hasn’t announced specifically when this feature will come, it’s been testing it in the 17.3 beta since December . The new security feature addresses a key vulnerability exposed by a February 2023 Wall Street Journal report : By memorizing an iPhone’s lock screen... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/wnxHtyq

Photo: JSR_ Though Awesome Games Done Quick will go on for the rest of the week, the charity speedrunning event may have already peaked with a run performed by Peanut Butter... a Shiba Inu. Using a custom-made controller and spurred by commands and treats, Peanut Butter button-pressed his way into our hearts and the speedrunning history books with his run of Gyromite in the first-ever speedrun done by a dog. Gyromite is a game where the player guides a sleepwalking scientist through his lab by pressing buttons to raise or lower colored pillars in the scientist’s way. To successfully complete a level, players must not get squished by releasing a pillar too soon and avoid monsters called “smicks” that can kill the player in one hit. For the run,... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/m2g4eVY

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The broad legislation is already forcing some major shifts in the tech industry. Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/HetILBr

Apple’s mixed-reality headset lets users switch between virtual and augmented reality using a physical dial. | Image: Apple After first introducing the Vision Pro during last year’s Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple recently revealed that the forthcoming headset will be available starting February 2nd. If you can’t wait to get your hands on it, however, you can preorder it from US Apple Store locations and online for $3,499 starting at 8AM ET on January 19th. If you plan on placing your order as soon preorders later this week, it’s a good idea to read up on everything you need to know ahead of time. To make doing so a little easier, we’ve rounded up all the info you’ll need to place a preorder below, including a few details regarding the upcoming headset, the various accessories it comes packaged with, and more. We’ll also be updating this post when... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/dQJkoYZ

Illustration: The Verge Yesterday TikTok presented me with what appeared to be a deepfake of Timothee Chalamet sitting in Leonardo Dicaprio’s lap and yes, I did immediately think “if this stupid video is that good imagine how bad the election misinformation will be.” OpenAI has, by necessity, been thinking about the same thing and today updated its policies to begin to address the issue. The Wall Street Journal noted the new change in policy which were first published to OpenAI’s blog . ChatGPT, Dall-e, and other OpenAI tool users and makers are now forbidden from using OpenAI’s tools to impersonate candidates or local governments and users cannot use OpenAI’s tools for campaigns or lobbying either. Users are also not permitted to use OpenAI tools to discourage... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/OYiAD3t

Image: Microsoft Microsoft first launched its AI-powered Office features for businesses in November, but just two months later the company is already offering them to consumers. Copilot Pro is launching today as a $20 monthly subscription that provides access to AI-powered features inside Office apps like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint alongside priority access to the latest OpenAI models and the ability to build your own Copilot GPT. If you’re already a Microsoft 365 Personal or Home subscriber then the extra $20 per month (per person) subscription will immediately unlock Copilot in Office apps on Mac, Windows, and iPad. These features include the ability to generate entire PowerPoint slide decks from a chatbot-like prompt, and inline Copilot experiences... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/q7HwyBv

Razer’s newest gaming laptops are certified for Wi-Fi 7. | Image: Razer The Wi-Fi Alliance announced at the beginning of CES last week that it had begun certifying Wi-Fi 7 devices. Not having the certification doesn’t mean a device won’t work, but it does mean that it’s been confirmed to work within the standard’s specification and is therefore compatible with other Wi-Fi devices. Handily, the Wi-Fi Alliance has a searchable database of what’s certified, and a few notable ones have already earned the Alliance’s stamp of approval for the new standard. You may already have a Wi-Fi 7 smartphone if you own the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra . Qualcomm’s FastConnect 7800 network adapter, which is now certified for the new Wi-Fi standard, is included with Samsung’s 2023 flagship phone. The only trouble is, to date,... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/ps6t5aN

Image: FedEx FedEx announced today that it will launch a new “data-driven commerce platform” this fall called fdx that it says will give online merchants “end-to-end e-commerce solutions,” including data for supply chain management. The platform will build on what it offers with ShopRunner, an online e-commerce store the company bought in 2020 . The company writes that fdx will combine new features with those already in ShopRunner, like enabling merchants to give estimated delivery dates to customers during shopping and ordering, or data on supply chain resources’ carbon impact. FedEx says when fdx launches in the fall, it will add “more efficient, cost-effective deliveries” using its data. FedEx’s system would also enable a “custom post-purchase... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/38osGgu

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge For anyone who wants to try the Apple Vision Pro when it’s officially released on February 2nd, there’s going to be a whole procedure . We knew that, but now a report in Mark Gurman’s latest Power On newsletter for Bloomberg sheds light on how the in-store demos for the Vision Pro will work. According to Gurman, the process will start with an Apple Store employee scanning users’ faces to pick out the light seal for Apple’s headset — a process he likens to configuring Face ID. For those who need vision correction, Apple will reportedly also scan their lenses with a special device to suss out the prescription. Then an employee fits a Vision Pro with one of “hundreds” of on-hand lenses and a seal and tells you how to use the device... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/WNVikfn