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Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is planning to hold a “hackathon” next week in order to create a “mega API” for accessing Internal Revenue Service data, reports Wired . The outlet says the API would be used to move the data into a cloud platform — potentially a third-party one — to serve as the “read center” of the agency’s systems. DOGE’s hackathon plan includes pulling together “dozens” of IRS engineers in DC to build the API, writes Wired . Among the third-party providers the department has reportedly discussed involving is Palantir, a company known for its vast data collection and government surveillance and analysis work. DOGE is aiming to finish the API work in 30 days, a timeline one IRS employee told Wired is “not technically possible” and would “cripple” the IRS. Wired says the DOGE operatives orchestrating the project are 25-year-old Gavin Kliger and health-tech CEO Sam Corcos. On March 1st, The Washington Post reported that Corcos had pushed t...

After a long stretch of slim pickings, the last couple of years have been huge for Android smartwatches. Now there are more good options than ever. But the market is fragmented. Wear OS 5 is here for Samsung’s Galaxy Watches, Google’s Pixel Watch 3 , and soon, the OnePlus Watch 3 when it ships later this month . However, the larger ecosystem is catching up. Some features, like Google Assistant, are not yet available on certain Wear OS 3 smartwatches, and Wear OS 4 still isn’t widely available. Even so, the Android wearable ecosystem is barreling ahead. Featured in this article How we test smartwatches Smartwatches are meant to help you keep track of your notifications, as well as your health and activity. We do a mix of benchmark testing and experiential, real-life testing. That means snoozing with them, taking them out on GPS activities like runs and hikes, working up a sweat in several workouts, and comparing how they do against long-term control devices for heart rate, s...

Breaking down the confusing world of color spaces. The best method that we have for defining color is by using math. Specifically, mind-boggling mathematical models called color spaces that use geometry to assign colors as a fixed point that we can reference, ensuring the blue that I see is the same blue you see. As a creative-leaning person who can barely split a bill without a calculator app, all that math is extremely daunting. The good news is that computing software will do all these complicated calculations for us, allowing us to rely on our eyeballs to pick whatever colors look best. The bad news is that there’s an equally daunting number of color spaces to choose from, and they’re all optimized for different tasks across web design, photography, video editing, physical printing, and more. And if you select the wrong one at any point between creating, editing, and viewing something, it can really mess with what colors are supposed to look like. It’s a lot to absorb....

Meta has announced the release of Llama 4 , its newest collection of AI models that now power Meta AI on the web and in WhatsApp, Messenger, and Instagram Direct. The two models, also available to download from Meta or Hugging Face now, are Llama 4 Scout, a small model capable of “fitting in a single Nvidia H100 GPU,” and Llama 4 Maverick, which is more akin to GPT-4o and Gemini 2.0 Flash. And the company says it’s in the process of training Llama 4 Behemoth, which Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg says on Instagram is “already the highest performing base model in the world.” According to Meta, Scout has a 10-million-token context window — the working memory of an AI model — and beats Google’s Gemma 3 and Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite models, as well as the open-source Mistral 3.1, “across a broad range of widely reported benchmarks,” while still “fitting in a single Nvidia H100 GPU.” It makes similar claims about its larger Maverick model’s performance versus OpenAI’s GPT-4o and Google’s Gemin...

“Hands Off” protesters in Manhattan. People are gathering in cities all over the United States and globally to protest an “illegal, billionaire power grab” by President Donald Trump and Elon Musk. They’re being put on by over 150 different organizations , including civil rights groups, labor unions, and LGBTQ+ advocates, and span more than 1,200 locations. Last weekend, “Tesla Takedown” protests targeted Tesla showrooms around the country to show disapproval for Musk, its CEO, who has spearheaded an effort to carry out mass federal workforce layoffs and hollow out government agencies. As Tesla’s sales have plummeted this quarter, Musk has threatened to “go after” the company’s critics, while the FBI has created a task force to investigate individual acts of vandalism and other actions aimed at the company. Rain or shine (mostly rain) — Mia Sato (@miasato.bsky.social) 2025-04-05T18:21:40.575Z The scope of these protests is much broader, targeting both Trump and Musk, w...

Microsoft unveiled its Xbox AI era earlier this year with a new Muse AI model that can generate gameplay. While it looked like Muse was still an early Microsoft Research project, the Xbox maker is now allowing Copilot users to try out Muse through an AI-generated version of Quake II . The tech demo is part of Microsoft’s Copilot for Gaming push, and features an AI-generated replica of Quake II that is playable in a browser. The Quake II level is very basic and includes blurry enemies and interactions, and Microsoft is limiting the amount of time you can even play this tech demo. View this post on Instagram A post shared by The Verge (@verge) While Microsoft originally demonstrated its Muse AI model at 10fps and a 300 x 180 resolution, this latest demo runs at a playable frame rate and at a slightly higher resolution of 640 x 360. It’s still a very limited experience though, and more of hint at what might be possible in the future. Microsoft is still positioning Mus...

In the second major disruption of today’s 50th anniversary event at Microsoft’s headquarters, another employee stood up and began yelling at Satya Nadella, Steve Ballmer, and Bill Gates — the company’s current and past CEOs — in protest of Microsoft’s dealings with the government of Israel. “Shame on you all. You’re all hypocrites,” she said as some in the crowd began to boo. “50,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been murdered with Microsoft technology. How dare you. Shame on all of you for celebrating on their blood. Cut ties with Israel.” The protestor then mentioned No Azure for Apartheid , the group that coordinated today’s protests both inside and outside the venue. It’s been a long-running movement among some employees at the company. View this post on Instagram A post shared by The Verge (@verge) Gates chuckled and said “alright,” before returning to the discussion. “I think Steve and I almost cared too much, and our life was the company, and Satya has this ability ...

French satellite network company Eutelsat has been providing Ukraine with much-needed internet access for almost a year with the help of the German government, Reuters reports . Eutelsat’s OneWeb division operates low-orbiting satellites that communicate with terrestrial terminals for internet connectivity — similarly to rival SpaceX’s Starlink network, which has been the primary supplier of satellite internet for Ukraine’s government. At Eutelsat’s Paris headquarters on Thursday, CEO Eva Berneke revealed that Germany has been providing the funding (of an undisclosed amount) to run the company’s satellite internet access in Ukraine. Right now, Eutelsat has less than a thousand terminals there compared to Elon Musk-owned SpaceX, which has about 50,000 Starlink terminals working in the country, mostly funded by Poland and the US. However, Berneke says Eutelsat could get 5,000 to 10,000 more into Ukraine “within weeks.” Eutelsat spokesperson Joanna Darlington tells Reuters that they ...

Even with all the self-induced turmoil that Sonos has been through over the last year , if you’ve been eyeing any of the company’s products, it might be wise to buy sooner than later. In an email, spokesperson Erin Pategas tells me that Sonos is “closely monitoring developments related to the proposed tariffs and actively assessing potential implications for our business, customers, and supply chain. At this time our focus remains on delivering the best audio experiences for our customers.” That’s less optimistic framing than the company gave only a couple months ago, but for good reason. Like many other tech companies, Sonos thought it would be in a good position after mixing up its supply chain beyond China to other production hubs. On the company’s most recent earnings call, chief financial officer Saori Casey said the following: “You may recall we underwent a significant effort to diversify our supply chain a few years ago, which resulted in a manufacturing of nearly all of ou...

The discounted Kindle Paperwhite Kids is nearly identical to the standard model (pictured here), but comes with optional parental controls and no ads. | Photo: Andrew Liszewski / The Verge 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.   The best Kindle (2024) deals The best Kindle Kids (2024) deals The best Kindle Paperwhite (2024) deals The best Kindle Paperwhite Kids (2024) deals The best Kindle Scribe (2024) deals The best Kindle Colorsoft Signature Edition deals Amazon, one of the pioneers of the e-reader, has dominated the space for years with its ever-expanding Kindle lineup, which consist...

Genki’s Energy Pack powers up the Switch 2 using a short USB-C cable. | Screenshot: YouTube With every new portable console comes a mountain of new third-party accessories. We’ve already seen Hori’s Piranha Plant alternative to the Switch 2’s USB-C camera, but Genki has announced a larger lineup of accessories designed to help protect the portable console while you’re playing away from home, plus some clever ways to keep it and its Joy-Con controllers charged. The $49.99 Genki Joy-Station looks like a sleek way to avoid the annoying juggling act of keeping more than two Joy-Cons charged, with some additional, well thought-out functionality. The Joy-Cons attach to two delta-shaped grips turning each pair into standalone controllers. Two Joy-Cons can be simultaneously charged using a USB-C cable while attached to the grips – useful for those times when you want to play and the Joy-Cons are nearly dead – but they also charge when the grips are reattached to the charging base. Tha...

At least two of Nintendo’s Switch 2 games are going to be more expensive than most games on the first Switch. Many Switch games cost $59.99, but Nintendo revealed today the Switch 2’s Mario Kart World , a June 5th launch title, will cost $79.99, while Donkey Kong Bananza , releasing a little over a month later, will cost $69.99. These aren’t Nintendo’s first titles to exceed a $59.99 price. That honor goes to The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom , which launched at $69.99 . When that price was announced, Nintendo told Game Informer that “we determine the suggested retail price for any Nintendo product on a case-by-case basis.” Nintendo is taking some of the sting off Mario Kart World’s higher price if you get it as part of a special $499.99 Switch 2 bundle. (On its own, the Switch 2 costs $449.99 .) But it appears that Nintendo’s next-generation console could have games that are generally more expensive than before. from The Verge https://ift.tt/a0ipr6k

Federal Trade Commission Chair Andrew Ferguson has refused to commit to resisting President Donald Trump if he ordered the agency to drop its antitrust suit against Meta, saying he would “obey lawful orders” and calling the scenario “a hypothetical.” His comments, made at a tech policy event in Washington, DC, followed a session where Ferguson reaffirmed his belief that independent regulatory agencies are “not good for a democracy.” Ferguson appeared at an antitrust-focused event hosted by Y Combinator on Wednesday, branded as the “Little Tech Competition Summit.” The FTC is set to begin its blockbuster anti-monopoly trial against Meta in just a couple of weeks, making a case that — in an extreme scenario — could break up the company. Yet Trump has proven willing to pardon allies or test legal bounds to support them. Ferguson has pledged strong fealty to him, declaring last month that Trump “is the chief executive and is vested with all the executive power in our government,” inc...