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Showing posts from August, 2024

Trailers of the week: Sonic 3, Napoleon, and Agatha All Along

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This week brought a few noteworthy movie and TV trailers — the big one being Sonic the Hedgehog 3. And while I won’t include them here, you should check out some of the trailers included with our coverage of the most recent Nintendo Direct (shoutout to the Nintendo DS Castlevania games collection). It’s clear that summer is winding down, and so are the big blockbusters. Things will liven up a bit with Beetlejuice Beetlejuice next week, but things are looking quiet for a little bit after that. Sonic the Hedghehog 3 Sonic the Hedgehog 3 finally brings Sonic’s big nemesis, Shadow, into the mix, played by Keanu Reeves. The trailer only gave a bit of Reeves’ voice but makes up for it with lots of Jim Carrey’s disheveled and depressed Dr.... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/qYEKCMm

A former Essential Phone exec used company funds for Lamborghinis, claims lawsuit

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OSOM’s first phone, eventually renamed the Solana Saga. | Image: Osom A lawsuit filed against Osom Products, Inc. by its former chief privacy officer, Mary Stone Ross, claims that the company’s CEO, Jason Keats, used business funds for extravagant purchases that include two Lamborghinis, reports Android Authority . Keats, who founded Osom after Essential shut down and hired several of Essential’s former workers, is also accused of using company resources to pay for things ranging from his racing habit to his racing partner’s salary to his own mortgage, the outlet writes. Ross has apparently asked the court to make Osom give her access to company records that may prove the lawsuit’s claims. The lawsuit also reportedly claims that Keats tried and failed to sell the company to HP and that, after that deal... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/LU6rK5g

Brazil’s X ban is sending lots of people to Bluesky

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Image: Bluesky X is currently banned in Brazil following an order from a Supreme Court justice, and Brazilian users seem to be turning to Bluesky , an alternate social network, in droves. “Brazil, you’re setting new all-time-highs for activity on Bluesky!” the official Bluesky account says in a post . “There will almost certainly be some outages and performance issues,” Bluesky developer Paul Frazee says . “We’ve never seen traffic like this. Hang with us!” Brazil, you're setting new all-time-highs for activity on Bluesky! Brasil, você está estabelecendo novos recordes de atividade no Bluesky! — Bluesky (@bsky.app) 2024-08-30T20:56:32.649Z The Bluesky app looks and functions a lot like X, but it’s a decentralized social media platform that’s... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/q9ND26u

The best ebook reader to buy right now

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Image: Will Joel / The Verge From reading in the bath to scribbling notes in the margins, from diving into the Amazon ecosystem to avoiding it outright, there’s an e-reader for everyone. Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/FpTSVYk

Judge orders X ban in Brazil

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The Verge A judge in Brazil has ordered the suspension of X after owner Elon Musk failed to designate a new legal representative for the country, according to a report from Bloomberg . Earlier this month, Musk closed X’s offices in Brazil , saying Brazilian Supreme Court justice Alexandre de Moraes threatened to arrest the company’s legal representative for not complying with “censorship orders.” Brazil’s Supreme Court notified X on Wednesday that if it didn’t appoint a new legal representative within 24 hours, it would be banned. Musk and Moraes have been feuding for months. The Brazilian justice opened an investigation into X in April after Musk said he reactivated accounts that X was ordered to block over the spread of misinformation. As reported... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/QxRFlr4

The Borderlands movie hides its best ideas under painful jokes

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Image: Lionsgate And now you can watch it at home. Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/FWqAjrI

Apple and Nvidia may invest in OpenAI

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Image: The Verge OpenAI is reportedly gearing up for a huge round of funding, and Apple and Nvidia might be among the investors. On Thursday, The Wall Street Journal reported that Apple, which is planning to integrate ChatGPT into iOS, is in talks to invest. Soon after, Bloomberg also reported that Apple is in talks but added that Nvidia “has discussed” joining the funding round as well. The round is reportedly being led by Thrive Capital and would value OpenAI at more than $100 billion. It’s perhaps not too surprising that Apple and Nvidia might end up investing in OpenAI. Apple is set to integrate ChatGPT with Siri later this year , and it reportedly planned to have Phil Schiller join OpenAI’s board before apparently abandoning that plan . And Nvidia is... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/w9YVHni

Studios are cracking down on some of the internet’s most popular pirating sites

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Toei Animation For years, The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) has worked with Hollywood’s Motion Picture Association (MPA) to crack down on digital piracy, and this week, it seems like the organizations took a huge step towards reaching their goal. Today, ACE — a coalition of over 50 major entertainment companies and production studios including Amazon, Disney, and Warner Bros. — took partial credit for the shuttering of Fmovies, a popular network of streaming sites hosting pirated films and television shows. In a statement, ACE called Fmovies and its affiliated sites “the largest pirate streaming operation in the world,” and according to The Hollywood Reporter , two suspects have been arrested by Hanoi police because of their connection... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2fzDmOS

The Nintendo Switch is receiving a rare $30 discount

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The Nintendo Switch is still a good handheld, even if the Steam Deck and more powerful options exist. | Photo by James Bareham / The Verge Nintendo recently confirmed it’ll announce a next-gen Nintendo Switch next year, but beyond that, the company hasn’t revealed much about the forthcoming console (including how much it will go for). If you’d rather not wait and see, the standard Nintendo Switch is currently receiving a rare discount at Amazon , where you can buy it with blue and red Joy-Con controllers for $267 ($33 off). If you like to game on the go, the base Switch remains an excellent handheld, one that can last up to six hours on a single charge. It’s still limited to 32GB of built-in storage — unlike the larger, seven-inch Switch OLED — but its built-in microSD card slot means you can always invest in more external storage. That’ll come in handy because the... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/TaYrqsp

Meta is working on mixed-reality glasses, but they’re probably years away

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The Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Meta is working on a smaller mixed-reality device that looks like a large pair of glasses, according to a report from The Information . The glasses, reportedly codenamed Puffin, may not arrive until 2027 — if the project comes to fruition at all. Sources tell The Information that the glasses could weigh around 110 grams, putting it somewhere between Meta’s lightweight Ray-Ban smart glasses and the bulkier Quest 3 headset . It seems Meta will have to make some adjustments for the device’s smaller form factor, though, as The Information reports the glasses may have an external pack containing its battery and processor — similar to the wired battery pack that comes with the Apple Vision Pro . The mixed reality glasses are rumored to feature... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/lQuGHhJ

The Rings of Power season 2 is an even stronger expansion of Tolkien’s mythos

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Image: Amazon Amazon’s Lord of the Rings show continues to be phenomenal in ways that only a truly wild budget could make possible. Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/7PzOxEs

Hyundai’s next EV will be the three-row Ioniq 9 — and it’s headed for the US

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The Ioniq 9 will be based on Hyundai’s Seven Concept that was revealed in 2021. | Image: Hyundai Hyundai’s next electric vehicle for the US will be the Ioniq 9, a beefy, three-row SUV that will be manufactured at the company’s factory in Georgia, Hyundai executives announced during an investor day conference this week . It’s a sign that while other automakers continue to second-guess their EV investments amid slowing demand, the South Korean automaker is intent on growing its share of the plug-in market by introducing new vehicles in popular segments. The Ioniq 9 will be based on the Concept Seven , which was first revealed in 2021. At that time, Hyundai said the concept would be built on the automaker’s Electric-Global Modular Platform (E-GMP), which also underpins the Ioniq 5 , Ioniq 6 , Kia EV6 , Kia EV9 , and Genesis GV60 . The Ioniq... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/terG51j

The maker of the Palma has a new cheaper e-reader

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Image: Boox Boox, the company behind the pocket-friendly Palma e-reader , has revealed its cheapest device yet. At just $149.99, the Boox 6 Go features a six-inch 300ppi E ink display and a wider-than-the-Palma form factor for reading while on the go. The device uses an upgraded Carta 1300 E ink display that’s supposed to offer deeper blacks and brighter whites. Like many of Boox’s other e-readers, the Boox 6 Go is pretty light, weighing in at just 146 grams (or 5 ounces) and measuring a quarter of an inch thick. Image: Boox Along with Android 12 and the Google Play Store on board, it runs the latest version of Boox’s firmware, which introduces a minimalistic interface, a dark mode option, and a new handwriting tool. The Boox 6... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/RorzWQ7

Google Meet’s automatic AI note-taking is here

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You might not have to worry about taking meeting notes ever again. | Image: Google Google Meet’s newest AI-powered feature, “take notes for me,” has started rolling out today to Google Workspace customers with the Gemini Enterprise, Gemini Education Premium, or AI Meetings & Messaging add-ons. It’s similar to Meet’s transcription tool, only instead of automatically transcribing what everyone says, it summarizes what everyone talked about. Google first announced this feature at its 2023 Cloud Next conference. Unfortunately, it only supports spoken English right now, but it seems like it could make missing an important meeting less stressful; it automatically takes notes in a Google Doc and will attach that file to the calendar event after the meeting is over, so you can reference them later on. It will also send that... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/LzsWtE8

Shein says it found two cases of child labor in its supply chain last year

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Image: The Verge Shein, the massively popular bargain bin retailer selling clothes, accessories, and home goods, said it uncovered two cases of child labor between Q1 and Q3 of 2023. In its most recent sustainability report released last week, Shein said the discoveries were made through the company’s audits of suppliers working with the brand. Shein says it defines children as anyone under the age of 15; in China, it’s illegal to employ children under 16. Shein didn’t specify which factories were employing children, or how many were discovered. “Upon discovering these violations, SHEIN suspended orders from the contract manufacturers and undertook investigations,” the company writes. Under the policy at the time, manufacturers were given 30 days to... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/NjhVD39

Gannett is shuttering site accused of publishing AI product reviews

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Newspaper giant Gannett is shutting down Reviewed , its product reviews site, effective November 1st, according to sources familiar with the decision. The site offers recommendations for products ranging from shoes to home appliances and employs journalists to test and review items — but has also been at the center of questions around whether its work is actually produced by humans. “After careful consideration and evaluation of our Reviewed business, we have decided to close the operation. We extend our sincere gratitude to our employees who have provided consumers with trusted product reviews,” Reviewed spokesperson Lark-Marie Antón told The Verge in an email. But the site’s more recently has been at the subject of scrutiny, at times... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/7jCLoh3

D&D publisher walks back controversial changes to online tools

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Image: Wizards of the Coast Wizards of the Coast has walked back some of its planned updates to D&D Beyond . All your current Dungeons & Dragons characters sheets are once again safe with the publisher no longer forcing updates to newer versions of spells, weapons, and magic items. Last week, as a part of the updates to Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition — collectively known as the 2024 revision — the publisher announced that it would update D&D Beyond, the tabletop RPG’s official digital toolkit that players use to reference content and create characters using a host of official and third-party sources. The update would add the new 2024 rulebooks to the toolkit, mark outdated content with a “legacy” badge, and change players’ character sheets to reflect all the new... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/5lNtcea

This over-the-counter gadget could help the war against diabetes

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Dexcom first announced the Stelo earlier this year at CES 2024. The Dexcom Stelo aims to help people with Type 2 diabetes access CGMs more affordably. Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/EoY8qQT

Telegram says CEO has ‘nothing to hide’ after being arrested in France

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Telegram CEO Pavel Durov. | Getty Images Telegram says its CEO and founder Pavel Durov has “nothing to hide” after he was arrested by French authorities outside of Paris. “It is absurd to claim that a platform or its owner are responsible for abuse of that platform,” the company says in an unnamed statement posted to its official channel in the Telegram app on Sunday. French officials have confirmed to multiple outlets that Durov was arrested as part of a police investigation into criminal activity taking place on the social network. While not encrypted by default, Telegram’s largely hands-off approach to moderation means that the app is seen by many as a private, censorship-free alternative to other social networks. “Almost a billion users globally use Telegram as means of... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/QtpOWKa

Formula 1’s new gyro camera adds a Dutch angle to the Dutch Grand Prix

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Formula 1 racer Lando Norris in Bahrain in 2022. | Photo: Hasan Bratic / Picture Alliance via Getty Images Formula 1 broadcast footage from the Dutch Grand Prix qualifiers at Circuit Zandvoort this weekend that was captured by a gyro camera system mounted above the helmet of the weekend’s race winner, Lando Norris. The camera, which F1 has been testing since 2022, was conceived with an eye particularly toward accentuating exaggerated angles of banked turns at Zandvoort, but despite using it there last year, F1 wasn’t able to broadcast it, according to AutoSport . Watch Lando Norris soar through the sand dunes (via gyro cam) as he secured pole position at Zandvoort #F1 #DutchGP @pirellisport pic.twitter.com/aa5ZPD13U6 — Formula 1 (@F1) August 24, 2024 Many F1 fans on social media praised the broadcasts from Norris’ car, saying things... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/dszSHPg

Martin Shkreli must surrender his Wu-Tang album copies

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Photo: Drew Angerer / Getty Images Former pharmaceutical executive Martin Shkreli must turn over his copies of The Wu-Tang Clan’s Once Upon a Time in Shaolin album to comply with a preliminary injunction issued by federal Judge Pamela Chen in an ongoing lawsuit, ArtNet reported on Friday. PleasrDAO, NFT collective and current owner of Shaolin claims in its lawsuit that he “improperly retained copies of data and files” from the album and plans to release them. Among other complaints, the group alleges that this violated a court order to forfeit it to the US government . Here are the hearing’s minutes, as published on sites like CourtListener : ... the Court issued a preliminary injunction as to Defendant Shkreli: (1) enjoining him from possessing, using, disseminating, or... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/bJC13aE

The best smartphone photos of the year

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Image: David Pierce / The Verge Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 49, your guide to the best and Verge -iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome, hope you like podcasts, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage .) This week, I’ve been reading about upstart baseball teams and canceled comics and Francis Ford Coppola , watching Logan Lucky , binging Teo Crawford’s camera videos , listening to The Mess Around and thus rewatching New Girl for the millionth time, trying to plan a trip to the Nintendo Museum this fall, and giving Capacities another whirl since Casey Newton recommended it this week . I also have for you a bunch of new podcasts that all launched this week for some reason, some amazing smartphone photos, a reason to hit... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/7DCqoFy

French authorities arrest Telegram’s CEO

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Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Telegram CEO Pavel Durov is reportedly in custody after being arrested near Paris Saturday evening as he was departing his private jet. The billionaire was apprehended on a warrant related to a preliminary investigation, writes Reuters . French authorities believe that the platform’s lack of moderation has “allowed criminal activity to go on undeterred on the messaging app.” Durov will go before a judge tonight and could be indicted as early as Sunday, according to TF1 (which we read using Google Translate), one of two French outlets cited by Reuters. Telegram has become a critical resource as people turn to it to find crucial information in places where heavy information censorship is common, such as Russia. But Durov’s preference for... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/6LivQB2

Canoo is down to one co-founder as its CTO reportedly leaves

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Image: Canoo EV startup Canoo has lost co-founder and chief technology officer Sohel Merchant and is moving its operations out of Los Angeles, according to two reports from TechCrunch this week, citing unnamed sources. Merchant took over the CTO position in 2021, when the company’s CTO left, along with two other co-founders. One of those who remained, chief designer Richard Kim, departed last year . With Merchant now reportedly gone, chief engineer Christoph Kuttner is the last founder standing at Canoo, according to TechCrunch yesterday . Canoo wrote in a quarterly SEC filing on August 14th that it was “permanently” dropping its headcount as part of a reorganization plan for its Torrance, California facility, and offering to move “approximately 137”... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/RLV3qy2

The best laptops you can buy

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Illustration by William Joel / The Verge The best laptops for you, from ultraportables to gaming machines, MacBooks to Chromebooks. Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/knxDTBX

Apple rumor points to an iPhone 16, Watch, and AirPods launch event next month

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Illustration: The Verge When will we meet the iPhone 16 and other new items from Apple, like MacBook Pro laptops with M4 chips inside? Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman says that based on his sources , a launch event on September 10th could reveal the new iPhone lineup, as well as the Apple Watch Series 10 and two different sets of new AirPods in time for them to go on sale as soon as September 20th. Bloomberg reports that the new phones will be similar to last year but with larger screens on the Pro models ( reportedly going from 6.1 inches to 6.3 on the Pro and from 6.7 to 6.9 inches on the iPhone 16 Pro Max) and adding a dedicated camera button. The other big updates may be new Apple Intelligence features that are in testing now and are due to start rolling out... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/qFYLNks

Families can sue app developer for breaking its anti-bullying pledge, says court

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Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge An appeals court revived a lawsuit against the anonymous messaging service Yolo, which allegedly broke a promise to unmask bullies on the app. In a ruling issued Thursday , the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals said Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act shouldn’t block a claim that Yolo misrepresented its terms of service, overruling a lower court decision. But it determined the app can’t be held liable for alleged design defects that allowed harassment, letting a different part of that earlier ruling stand. Yolo was a Snapchat-integrated app that let users send anonymous messages, but in 2021, it was hit with a lawsuit after a teenage user died by suicide. The boy, Carson Bride, had received harassing and sexually explicit messages... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/x4Q6ZyB

Google is shoving its apps onto new Windows laptops

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Image: Google Google is making a new desktop app called Essentials that packages a few Google services, like Messages and Photos, and includes links to download many others. The app will be included with many new Windows laptops, with the first ones coming from HP. The Essentials app lets you “discover and install many of our best Google services,” according to Google’s announcement, and lets you browse Google Photos as well as send and receive Google Messages in the app. A full list of apps has not yet been announced, but Google’s announcement art showcases icons including Google Sheets, Google Drive, Nearby Share, and Google One (a two-month free trial is offered through Essentials for new subscribers). HP will start including Google Essentials... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/PGVrn39

The Lord of the Rings anime looks appropriately epic in first trailer

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Image: Warner Bros. Pictures Middle-earth is looking a little different in The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim . Warner Bros. Pictures just released the first trailer for the animated prequel, which is directed by Kenji Kamiyama ( Blood: The Last Vampire , Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex ) and set 183 years before the original film trilogy. Peter Jackson is involved as an executive producer. According to the official description, the new movie “tells the fate of the House of Helm Hammerhand, the legendary King of Rohan.” Here’s the full setup: A sudden attack by Wulf, a clever and ruthless Dunlending lord seeking vengeance for the death of his father, forces Helm and his people to make a daring last stand in the ancient stronghold of the Hornburg — a... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/rulEXIN

Trump is launching a cryptocurrency platform, and we have no idea what it does

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Image: Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images Former President Donald Trump is launching a cryptocurrency platform, he announced on Thursday in a post on Truth Social . Trump’s post included few other details, but he and his sons have suggested it will target unbanked and underserved communities. “For too long, the average American has been squeezed by the big banks and financial elites,” the post reads. “It’s time we take a stand—together. #BeDefiant.” The name of the platform, The DeFiant Ones, is a play on “decentralized finance.” Trump’s Truth Social post links to a Telegram channel for the as-of-yet unreleased platform, which has posts dating back to August 15th calling it the “only official Telegram channel for the Trump DeFi project.” There are no details about what the... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/wnjl9fv

Summer blackouts are increasing in the US

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A line worker tends to fallen power lines in the East End neighborhood of Houston, days after Hurricane Beryl made landfall, on Thursday, July 11th, 2024. | Raquel Natalicchio / Houston Chronicle via Getty Images The US has dealt with 60 percent more weather-related outages during warmer months over the past decade than it did during the 2000s, according to data crunched by the nonprofit research organization Climate Central . It’s a trend that raises health risks as the planet heats up. Climate change supercharges disasters like storms and wildfires that often cut off power. Soaring demand for air conditioning also stresses out the grid. All of this can leave people without life-saving cooling or electric medical devices at times when they’re most vulnerable. Image: Climate Central Climate Central collected data from the Department of Energy on outages that took place between 2000 and 2023. It looked specifically at periods... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts

How to freeze your credit after a data breach

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Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge Back in 2017, Equifax announced that hackers stole half of the US population’s Social Security numbers in what, we said, “will likely end up being one of the worst data breaches to ever affect the country.” Perhaps — until this year, when about 2.9 billion rows of data were collected through a breach at National Public Data (NPD) , a company that resells collected personal data for background checks. This data included names, Social Security numbers, and other personal information. As usual, when this sort of thing hits the news, our immediate reaction is to wonder what we can do to prevent ourselves from falling prey to identity theft, unauthorized withdrawals, false credit applications, and other nasty consequences. And, also, as... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/Bd6KLju

The best deals on MacBooks right now

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Some of the latest M3 MacBooks are on sale, and you can find great discounts on older models, too. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Apple currently sells MacBooks equipped with its own M-series chips in a wide range of sizes and price points. It recently discontinued the M1 MacBook Air to make room for the M3 Air , but some retailers are still selling the last-gen laptop starting at $649 — a far cry from the $2,499 starting price of the latest 16-inch MacBook Pro. Purchasing a new MacBook can certainly be a pricey endeavor, but thankfully, finding a deal on a current M3-based model is actually not that difficult. Although Macs may not experience perpetual discounts, it’s not uncommon to see various models discounted by as much as $400. Alternatively, purchasing refurbished options directly from Apple is another way to save money without waiting for the changing deal... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/jqu9SIL

Civilization 7 launches in February

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Image: Firaxis Games You’ll be able to rewrite the course of history in Civilization 7 next year. Firaxis Games showed up during Opening Night Live 2024 with a new trailer and some news — Civilization 7 will launch on just about everything you can play a video game on February 11th, 2025. Civilization 6 released eight years ago but has received a steady flow of updates and DLC in the intervening years. Firaxis Games announced it was working on a new Civilization game in February of last year. Since then, the studio has been slowly rolling out the details, debuting a teaser trailer during this year’s Summer Game Fest and now a new release date trailer for Gamescom 2024. If this trailer isn’t enough for all the 4X fanatics in the house, Firaxis has even more... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/CyofDIc

Today is your last chance to save on Paramount Plus before its next price hike

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Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Starting tomorrow, August 20th, Paramount Plus’ latest price hike will go into effect, meaning today is your last day to subscribe at the current rate before prices increase on several plans. Right now, new customers can still lock in a subscription to Paramount Plus Essential for $5.99 a month before the price jumps to $7.99. What’s more, new and returning subscribers can still get a month of Paramount Plus Essential for free with promo code OGGMPZR3YBW . Paramount Plus with Showtime will also increase $1 to $12.99 a month, but if you subscribe today, you can at least save until the next billing cycle , when the new price will go into effect. The same holds true for those on the legacy Limited Commercial plan, which is increasing to... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/l7uU12B

Apple Podcasts now has a web app

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Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Apple has launched a web app for its Podcasts app, and you can access it right now at podcasts.apple.com . The app works on Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and Safari, MacRumors reports . If you’ve used the Podcasts app for Mac or iOS, the web app should feel pretty familiar: there are sections like a Browse tab where you can see featured podcasts, a Home tab where you can check out episodes from the shows you follow or that Apple thinks you might be interested in, a Top Charts tab, and more. When I first visited the site, I signed into my Apple account, and all of the shows I follow on the Podcasts app on my iPhone were there. I can’t seem to find a way to speed up playback on the web app, which is a shame for 2x sickos like me , but I appreciate... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/AfL9prK

Procreate’s anti-AI pledge attracts praise from digital creatives

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Procreate CEO James Cuda has made his distaste for generative AI known. | Image: Procreate Many Procreate users can breathe a sigh of relief now that the popular iPad illustration app has taken a definitive stance against generative AI. “We’re not going to be introducing any generative AI into our products,” Procreate CEO James Cuda said in a video posted to X . “I don’t like what’s happening to the industry, and I don’t like what it’s doing to artists.” The creative community’s ire toward generative AI is driven by two main concerns: that AI models have been trained on their content without consent or compensation , and that widespread adoption of the technology will greatly reduce employment opportunities . Those concerns have driven some digital illustrators to seek out alternative solutions to apps that integrate generative... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/wKij2sd

Waymo’s robotaxi depot is still honking its San Francisco neighbors awake

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A Waymo car driving in San Francisco. | Photo: Smith Collection / Gado / Getty Images San Francisco neighbors who live in a building next to a Waymo parking lot are still being haunted by overnight honking. That’s despite a fix from the ride hail company that seems to have fixed the original problem — the cars beeping their horns in the parking lot — but has also revealed that the issue is a little stickier than it may have first seemed. Waymo said last week that the honking was the result of a safety feature triggered when a Waymo car detects another reversing toward it. Sophia Tung, who runs a YouTube livestream of the lot , told The Verge in an email that the first night after Waymo’s patch, several of the cars missed the parking lot and inexplicably entered a cul de sac next to her building. In a video we viewed, the... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/VxnBMEv

Star Wars Outlaws gets a new trailer — and PC hardware requirements

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Image: Ubisoft Ubisoft has published the PC requirements for Star Wars Outlaws, which is releasing later this month on August 30th, in a post that also points to a new gameplay trailer for the Grand Theft Auto- style space adventure . The trailer compares the game’s looks when certain features, like DLSS, are turned on versus off. There may not be any major revelations in terms of story or gameplay here, but it could give you an idea of whether you want to upgrade anything for the game or not. On the hardware side, Outlaws seems fairly forgiving of PCs still using components like the GeForce GTX 1660 GPU or Intel Core i7-8700K CPU. Eurogamer notes that you’ll need DLSS or FSR to run the game at minimum specs. From Ubisoft’s page: Minimum • Visual... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/B2nkLdh

Formula 1 is reportedly forcing some F1 creators to change their names

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An F1 single-seater during the Formula 1 Live Barcelona Road Show on June 19th, 2024. | Photo: David Zorrakino / Europa Press via Getty Images Creators whose online identities center around Formula 1 racing have been changing their handles lately, and they seem to be reluctant to say why. But the reason may be because they’re being asked to by F1 itself, who’s rumored to have been sending cease and desist orders to certain creators with monetized accounts that use its branding. Among the abrupt branding changes was Paddock Project (formerly F1r the Girls), an F1 fan podcast. Paddock didn’t mention receiving a cease and desist letter when announcing the change , instead writing that the new name “reflects where we are and where we’re headed.” @shelovesvroomss imagine #f1contentcreators ♬ original sound - shelovesvroomss F1 influencer Mikaela Kostaras, who also recently... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/uNQ8EcL

How much does it cost to crash a $3 million hypercar on a NASA landing strip?

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The Venom F5 Revolution at Circuit of the Americas. | Image: Hennessey Special Vehicles Hennessey Special Vehicles crashed its Venom F5 — a $3 million hypercar — while driving nearly 250mph on the Launch and Landing Facility (LLF) runway at Kennedy Space Center in July. Newly reported details show the cost of the crash, which happened while the company was testing out new components of the car. The crash damaged the runway surface, according to crash-related documents acquired by ClickOrlando . The damage was apparently minimal, and repair, plus subsequent hazmat cleanup, cost $712.70, which was billed to Space Coast Testing, the company that manages runway rentals. Renting the LLF, which was once used as a landing strip for NASA’s Space Shuttle and serves aerospace purposes like delivering the United Launch Alliance’s... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/qV0R4KN

The app for taking better photos — with no AI

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Image: David Pierce / The Verge Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 48, your guide to the best and Verge -iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome, get ready for a lot of books this week, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage .) I’m back after a couple of weeks off — thanks to everyone who wished me a good vacation and sent over book recommendations! I wound up reading Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore , She Rides Shotgun , and The Wager and highly recommend all three. Mostly, I spent two weeks chasing a toddler around various restaurants and playgrounds, and it was a good time, but I am oh so very glad to be back hanging with all of you. And it turns out I missed a lot of good stuff! This week, I’ve been reading about W... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/PBSt3JE

Rimac’s Nevera R makes the world’s fastest production EV a little faster

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Rimac, the company behind the fastest production EV in the world — the Nevera — says it’s now made something even faster with the Nevera R. Rimac’s new electric supercar can apparently hit 60mph from a stop in just 1.74 seconds — or about a tenth of a second faster than the original . The EV apparently generates 2,107 horsepower, or about 200 more than its predecessor . On top of that, Rimac says the Nevera R has better aerodynamics, more downforce, and improved grip, and that it managed to knock 3.8 seconds off the Nevera’s lap time on the Nardo Ring, a high-speed Italian track owned by Porsche. Like the regular Nevera, the new EV supercar requires “manufacturer oversight” to unlock its top speed of 256mph. Without that, the car is... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/Rp6QPny

OpenAI says Iran tried to influence US elections with ChatGPT

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Illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photos from Getty Images OpenAI has banned a string of ChatGPT accounts tied to an Iranian influence campaign that generated and shared content related to the US presidential election, among other topics. The operation mainly used ChatGPT to create longform articles and social media comments for platforms like Instagram and X, according to OpenAI. OpenAI linked the accounts to Storm-2035 , a covert Iranian influence operation that has attempted to engage US voters by launching websites disguised as political news outlets. In addition to commentary about the US election on both sides of the political spectrum, OpenAI says the operation generated content about the Israel-Hamas war, Israel at the Olympic Games, politics in Venezuela, and “the rights of Latinx... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/9U6Q3Xk

A key part of California’s online safety law for kids is still on hold after appeals court ruling

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Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photo from Getty Images A federal appeals court in California upheld part of a district court ruling on Friday that blocked a landmark online safety bill for children from taking effect. The panel of judges on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals objected to a portion of the California Age-Appropriate Design Code Act — specifically, a requirement that online businesses “opine on and mitigate the risk that children may be exposed to harmful or potentially harmful materials online.” The rule “facially violates the First Amendment,” the appeals court concluded. As a result, it’s upholding a preliminary injunction on that portion of the law and related aspects. But it sent another part of the law back to the lower court to reconsider and vacated the rest of the... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/xAMDh5H

Here are the best Kindle deals right now

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You can save $60 on a few Kindle Scribe bundles at the moment. When it comes to finding a device to read 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 X. 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 beyond books and... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/1GmwfCH

OpenAI’s new voice mode threw me into the uncanny valley

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OpenAI It’s strange to sit down at my desk and talk to an AI about my life — but that’s what I spent my Tuesday doing. I’d gotten access to OpenAI’s Advanced Voice Mode, the new ChatGPT feature that sounds strangely like a human. When counting quickly, it’ll pretend it’s out of breath . It says “um” and “uh.” It laughs. It changes tone when talking about difficult or upbeat topics. After messing around with it, I felt equal parts amazed and uncomfortable. It sounds natural (when it isn’t glitching), it responds in seconds, and you’re able to interrupt it and ask new things — but do we need chatbots that sound like us? Advanced Voice Mode features several different voice options, and I chose Juniper, a feminine persona reminiscent of the movie H... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/YuSZb4A

It’s now even easier to create Google Sheets tables

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Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Google recently introduced a new table formatting feature in Sheets that made it far easier to create self-contained, sortable blocks of cells inside a spreadsheet. But the company didn’t stop there and seems to be rapidly updating the software with features that make it faster to set up, configure, and view data within a table. The latest update, which is rolling out in stages now, builds on its earlier addition of table formatting by adding “intelligent suggestions” that show a “+” button when you select data that could be turned into a table. Clicking the button then formats the data with things like alternating colors and sortable, filterable headers. The change expands on Google’s table formatting feature from May, which made it... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/PFumsgZ

Microsoft is making its Windows Game Bar more handheld-friendly

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Image: Microsoft Microsoft is starting to test a new compact version of its Game Bar with Xbox Insiders today. Similar to the Xbox app on Windows PCs, the Game Bar is getting its own compact mode that is designed for smaller screens, Windows-powered handhelds, and even for when you’re playing on a PC with a controller. “With Compact Mode enabled, access to widgets and navigation is simplified to ensure you can get access to the content you want as easily as possible,” explains Oliver Xu , senior product manager for Xbox Experiences. “When using a controller, you can switch between widgets quickly with left and right bumpers (LB/RB).” Image: Microsoft You can easily quit games from the Game Bar using a controller. The home widget... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/Y4jvZ81

Everything Google announced at the Pixel 9 launch event

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The Pixel 9 Pro XL. | Photo: Allison Johnson / The Verge Google just wrapped up its Made by Google hardware event, where we got an official look at the refreshed Pixel 9 lineup and updates across Google’s other devices. Even though the Pixel event confirmed many of the leaks we’ve seen over the past several weeks, Google still shared some announcements we haven’t heard about yet. Here’s a roundup of all the exciting news from Google’s Pixel 9 event. Google’s Pixel 9 lineup gives you another Pro to choose from Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Google’s Pixel 9 lineup adds a smaller Pro option. Google has finally taken the wraps off its Pixel 9 lineup, which includes three slab phones and a folding phone. The regular lineup consists of a base Pixel 9 with a 6.3-inch... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/vNLJbc9