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Google Pics is like Canva, but with even more AI

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Google wants Workspace users to edit and generate their business imagery with Pics. | Image: Google Google has a new suite of creative design tools for Workspace users called Google Pics, which aims to make editing and generating "professional-grade" AI images less cumbersome for businesses. Built around Gemini and the Nano Banana generative AI model, Google Pics is designed to give more granular control over prompt-based image making and manipulation, allowing users to tap on specific objects or text, and describe what they want to change - features that may avoid the ugly results that chatbots are known to spit out for marketing imagery. "While AI image generation has been a huge hit for personal use, it's been a different story for bus … Read the full story at The Verge. source https://www.theverge.com/tech/987423/google-pics-ai-image-editor-generator

Car owners want tech they can ignore

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Automakers keep shoving more tech into their cars, despite evidence that consumers are increasingly fed up with huge screens and glitchy software . In fact, the features that car owners appreciate the most happen to be the ones they barely notice, according to the latest tech survey from JD Power. The consumer research firm surveyed 68,084 owners of new 2026 model-year vehicles after 90 days of ownership. The survey touched on 40 automotive technologies covering comfort and convenience; connected vehicles; driver assist; electric vehicles; and smart vehicles. The features that scored the highest were the ones that were the most inconspicuo … Read the full story at The Verge. source https://www.theverge.com/news/986721/car-tech-survey-jd-power-smart-ignition

Markiplier is now GoPro’s biggest shareholder

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YouTuber Mark "Markiplier" Fischbach has invested enough in GoPro to become its single largest shareholder, with an 8.5 percent stake in the company, Bloomberg reports. Speaking to Bloomberg , Fischbach said he thought GoPro "seems undervalued" and sees his investment as "part of a larger mission to make filmmaking more accessible," following the release of his first feature film , Iron Lung , earlier this year. Fishbach posted a video last week praising GoPro's new Mission 1 ILS camera and comparing it to the pricier Red Komodo-X, saying he plans to use the Mission 1 ILS in future movies. It includes an affiliate code for the new camera, but … Read the full story at The Verge. source https://www.theverge.com/tech/986847/markiplier-gopro-investor

Read Tim Cook’s final message to Apple staff as CEO

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Steve Jobs' successor carried the torch of the iPhone and built Apple into a global powerhouse with few rivals. Since becoming CEO in 2011, Tim Cook has led the company to become one of the most dominant forces in the daily lives of billions of people. Today is his last day as CEO. Sending lots of love to the Apple community on my last day as CEO. My title changes tomorrow, but the love I have for the Apple community never will. Thank you for being a constant source of inspiration. My gratitude is endless, and I'm excited for the next chapter! - Tim Cook (@tim_cook) August 31, 2026 We'll have a lot to say about new Apple CEO John Ternus a … Read the full story at The Verge. source https://www.theverge.com/tech/986832/read-tim-cooks-final-message-as-ceo-to-apple-staff

Instagram cracks down on AI accounts pretending to be human

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“AI creator” accounts like Aitana Lopez will get a new “AI-generated profile” label. | Image: Aitana Lopez Instagram is finally taking steps to address the rise of fake AI-influencer accounts that have gotten harder to spot . It's also renaming the "AI creator" label to "AI-generated profile" to make it clear when a profile features an AI-generated person that's not a real human being. "We've heard that people don't like seeing a profile that seems human, only to find out later that the person featured is AI-generated," said Instagram in a blog post . "They want to know when a profile features an AI-generated person." To that end, Instagram will be hunting down accounts that don't self-label their AI-generated profiles, and penalize them by limi … Read the full story at The Verge. source https://www.theverge.com/tech/986593/instagram-addresses-fake-ai-profile-slop

Professor Murder Rides the Subway is a forgotten slice of dance punk perfection

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I recently dug out my CDs and started reripping them all . I've found a few forgotten gems in there, but few hit harder for me than the beautifully concise Professor Murder Rides the Subway EP. There was a period of time in the mid-aughts in NYC where it seemed like every indie band wanted you to let loose, dance like no one was watching, and just have some damn fun. Few embodied that as much as New York dance punk band Professor Murder. LCD Soundsystem and The Rapture were the biggest names of the dance punk revival. But there were also bands like Rahim, Liars, Dan Deacon, and countless lesser-known acts on DFA that you could see on any giv … Read the full story at The Verge. source https://www.theverge.com/entertainment/986564/professor-murder-rides-the-subway-dance-punk-perfection-review

Enormous 12TB Steam leak includes abandoned Half-Life 2: Episode 3 assets

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Over 12 terabytes of data, containing builds of every game uploaded to Steam between 2003 and 2013, has been leaked . We don't know everything in the archives yet because of its massive size. But people have already dug up assets related to the canceled Half-Life 2: Episode 3 , content cut from Portal 2 , and a build of a game called F-Stop that's set in the Portal universe but is built around a camera mechanic. The leak also includes titles from third-party developers. Early versions of Call of Duty and Resident Evil installments have been dug up, as have builds of Mirror's Edge , Batman: Arkham Asylum , and Dragon Age: Origins . And more is lik … Read the full story at The Verge. source https://www.theverge.com/games/986552/12tb-steam-leak-half-life-2-episode-3