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Illustration by Laura Normand / The Verge CNBC reports The Global Times , a state-run paper in China, has warned Elon Musk about pushing the covid “lab leak” theory. Reporter Eunice Yoon said the social media post asked if Musk is “breaking the pot of China,” with a meaning similar to asking if he was biting the hand that feeds him. Ever since Musk announced his intention to buy Twitter, it’s seemed certain that at some point, the service’s content would put him at odds with the Chinese Communist Party, as Nilay Patel wrote after the deal closed : Are you excited for the Chinese government to find ways to threaten Tesla’s huge business in that country over content that appears on Twitter? Because it’s going to happen. How fast we arrived at this most obvious sticking point is no... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2023/2/28/23619306/elon-musk-china-lab-leak-covid-tweets

No thank u. | Image: The Verge There is a new trend among websites where they want my email address before I’m allowed to read their free content. While I sympathize with the struggles of the media business, I am just going to point out something obvious: not reading is easier than reading — and way easier than logging in. I don’t mind that The Atlantic requires an email — it has kept me from hate-reading the astounding churn of bad takes they publish — but just about everyone else has got to knock this off. You hear me, Reuters ? I am annoyed with Reuters , specifically, because it’s a wire service, and I can usually find its articles without logging in by avoiding the Reuters website. As for you, The New York Times, I do not want to read your stories in your app! No... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2023/2/28/23618804/google-facebook-login-ads-web-design-hell

A Ford F-150 Lightning caught fire in a holding lot near the automaker’s Michigan factory. | Photo: DR/SP/Andia/Universal Images Group via Getty Images The Ford F-150 Lightning fire that broke out at a Michigan factory in early February wasn’t caused by a battery defect, according to a report from Bloomberg . In a statement to the outlet, Ford’s South Korean battery supplier SK On calls the incident a “rare” occurrence and says it’s working on a fix. Ford abruptly halted production of its flagship electric pickup on February 4th after one of the trucks caught fire in a holding lot affiliated with its Dearborn, Michigan, factory and spread to two other vehicles. Both Ford and SK have been investigating the issue for weeks and still haven’t resumed F-150 Lightning production. SK has once again started to build batteries in its Georgia factory, however. “We believe this was a rare... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2023/2/28/23618974/ford-f-150-lightnin...

Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images Tesla is convening its first Investor Day event on March 1st at its Gigafactory in Austin, Texas, at which Elon Musk is expected to unleash upon the world his latest Master Plan for the company’s future. Expectations are high, but given Musk’s penchant for leaving past Master Plan promises unfulfilled , keeping those expectations in check may be a wise move. Musk has said the event is for “people and life of earth,” adding that “it will be a message of good hope & positivity for the future.” That certainly sounds affirming, but the reality facing Musk and Tesla today undercuts a lot of the optimism of that message. Wild stock fluctuations , increasing competition , recalls , product delays , allegations of union busting , and an impending r... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2023/2/27/23613859/tesla-investor-day-what-to-expect-master-plan-3

Álvaro Bernis / The Verge How we use the internet is changing fast, thanks to the advancement of AI-powered chatbots that can find information and redeliver it as a simple conversation. Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/23610427/chatbots-chatgpt-new-bing-google-bard-conversational-ai

Image: Alex Castro / The Verge We’ve talked before about the problems in the early days of PayPal , which was then called X. Elon Musk, in his infinite wisdom, decided customer acquisition was the most important thing, and as a result, PayPal had to deal with rampant fraud. Don’t just take my word for it — here’s Peter Thiel, describing those days : We had decided to give credit cards to absolutely anybody who wanted them. You got a up to $10,000 credit limit. Elon had told the woman who was rolling the service out that he wanted a million people to be using the new credit card by the end of the year. Fortunately, it was about two levels down from the front page, and so not that many people were able to discover this. Some people did; they wrote us back and said, “This... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2023/2/27/23617383/gemini-crypto-credit-card-fraud-ach

Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge Reddit is adding the ability to search for comments within a specific post right from the search bar. The new feature seems pretty handy, as it should make it much easier to find certain comments on a post without having to scroll forever or use CTRL / CMD + F. Here’s a GIF from Reddit showing how it works: GIF: Reddit Handy! I can think of a lot of times this could be quite useful. It could be a great way to find a discussion of a specific character from a TV show or movie, for example, or perhaps to pull up a fitness routine buried in another post. And those are just ways I’d use it; I’m sure the vast number of Reddit users out there will be more creative. Reddit says the feature is available now on desktop,... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2023/2/27/23617070/reddit-comments-search-bar-post

The iPad Air has the most color variety among the current lineup. | Photo: Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Apple’s sweet spot of an iPad is back down to its lowest price. The 2022 iPad Air is on sale for $499.99 at Best Buy and Amazon in its base 64GB Wi-Fi configuration, about $100 off its regular $599 price. That same $100 discount can be had on the 256GB version, costing $649.99 at Amazon or Best Buy instead of its usual $749. The excellent midrange Air comes in five different colors, each of which is on sale at this great price. In addition to being one of the most colorful iPads, the fifth-generation iPad Air offers great value for performance. It packs an M1 processor that’s more than capable for the most labor-intensive iPad uses, all-day battery life, and a handy USB-C port as well as second-gen Apple Pencil compatibility. At this... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2023/2/27/23616605/apple-ipad-air-pokemon-diamond-pearl-nintendo-switch-d...

Yes, Lady Dimitrescu looks even taller in VR. Sony’s new PlayStation VR2 is a solid headset with a relatively small launch catalog, and one of its most exciting titles is a VR mode for Resident Evil Village , Capcom’s first-person 2021 survival horror shooter . Village draws inspiration from Resident Evil 4 , which got a stellar Meta Quest 2 port back in 2021 , so I had high hopes. And they weren’t unfounded. The free PSVR 2 update to Village offers great shooting with the device’s Sense controllers and makes a solid case for the headset’s quirky “face rumble” feature. If only other parts didn’t torture me as badly as Ethan Winters’ hands . I’m not making any claims to fully reviewing Village in VR here. In my free time since the mode’s launch on February 22nd, I’ve been spending halting... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/23615564/resident-evil-village-vr-mode-psvr2-hands-on

The new Nokia logo. | Image: Nokia Finnish telecoms firm Nokia has redesigned its logo to remind the world that it doesn’t make mobile phones anymore. “In most people’s minds, we are still a successful mobile phone brand, but this is not what Nokia is about,” Nokia CEO Pekka Lundmark told Bloomberg . “We want to launch a new brand that is focusing very much on the networks and industrial digitalization, which is a completely different thing from the legacy mobile phones.” Nokia revealed its new brand identity on Sunday at MWC — the first major redesign of the firm’s logo in nearly 60 years. The company has come a long way since its founding as a single paper mill operation in 1865. Its original logo featured a salmon head — a reference to the Nokianvirta river by which... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2023/2/27/23616582/nokia-new-logo-telecoms-mobile-phones

Illustration: The Verge Google is introducing a new widget for its notes and lists app Keep, which will let you put a single interactive note on your home screen. With it, you’ll be able to check items off a list, which could be handy for a to-do or grocery list. While you can force one of Keep’s current widgets to show just a single note using the tags system, doing so isn’t as simple as just selecting one to display on your home screen. Plus, Keep’s existing widgets don’t have the level of interactivity that Google’s promising with its new widget; if you try to mark off checkboxes, it’ll just open the app instead of actually checking it off like the single note widget will. Gif: Google The new Keep single note widget will let you keep... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2023/2/27/23614281/google-keep-single-note-widget-checklist-interactive

Those glowing blue lines on the back aren’t (just) for show. | Photo by Jon Porter / The Verge OnePlus’ latest concept phone is all about keeping cool. The company showed off the OnePlus 11 Concept device at MWC Barcelona , which features glowing blue pipelines on its back to represent the cooling liquid of its “Active CryoFlux” cooling technology. Yes, it’s designed to look flashy, but OnePlus argues the cooling system serves an important practical purpose. By keeping the phone cooler under load, the company claims you can get better performance from games, and faster charging speeds. All without the need for the “size, weight, and noise” of a physically spinning fan like we’ve seen from the likes of Nubia or in smartphone cooling accessories from Razer or Asus . Two quoted performance benefits include a 2.1 degree Celcius (around... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2023/2/27/23615772/oneplus-11-concept-phone-cooling-mwc-activecryoflux-blue-veins

Photo by Paul Hennessy/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images The Crew-6 mission’s getting ready to blast off into space. With the help of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, the company’s Dragon Endeavour spacecraft will lift off early Monday morning at 1:45AM ET from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The spacecraft will carry four astronauts, including NASA’s Stephen Bowen and Warren “Woody” Hoburg, as well as the United Arab Emirates’ Sultan Alneyadi and Russian cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev. They’re headed to the International Space Station for an up to six-month stay, where they’ll conduct various research projects to help “prepare for human exploration beyond low-Earth orbit and benefit life on Earth.” With #Crew6 , we’ll gather new information in experiments that will bring us closer to our goal of... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2023/2/26/23615966/watch-spacex-launch-crew-6-mission

Álvaro Bernis / The Verge How we use the internet is changing fast, thanks to the advancement of AI-powered chatbots that can find information and redeliver it as a simple conversation. Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/23610427/chatbots-chatgpt-new-bing-google-bard-conversational-ai

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Twitter product manager Esther Crawford no longer has a job at the company following yet another wave of layoffs, according to Platformer ’s Zoë Schiffer . Crawford headed up various projects at Twitter, including the company’s Blue with verification subscription as well as Twitter’s forthcoming payments platform. During her time at Twitter, Crawford emerged as one of Twitter’s most prominent product managers under Elon Musk’s leadership, and notably tweeted a picture of herself on the floor of Twitter’s office in a sleeping bag and eye mask. “When your team is pushing round the clock to make deadlines sometimes you #SleepWhereYouWork,” the tweet reads. When your team is pushing round the clock to make deadlines sometimes you #... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2023/2/26/23615841/twitter-blue-esther-crawford-layoffs

The Xiaomi 13 Pro offers a big image sensor and very fast wired charging. | Photo by Jon Porter / The Verge The Xiaomi 13 and 13 Pro are making their global debut today, starting with a launch event at Mobile World Congress. The 13 series phones were announced in China late last year , each with Leica co-branded cameras and top-shelf Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipsets. Based on previous releases, they won’t be coming to the US, but will be available in the UK, Europe, and other parts of Asia. Given that we’ve known the phones’ specs since December, there’s nothing surprising there, but here’s the recap: they’re both upper midrange phones, but the 13 Pro stands out with a 1-inch-type sensor borrowed from the Xiaomi 12S Ultra and 120W wired fast charging. Photo by Jon Porter / The Verge The Xiaomi 13 Pro (pictured) and 13 boast... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2023/2/26/23612472/xiaomi-13-pro-global-launch-availability-camera-price-mwc

Photo by John Sciulli/Getty Images for Turner The 29th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards honors outstanding performances in both film and television. This year’s event will take place at the Fairmont Century Plaza hotel in Los Angeles, California, but won’t air on TNT or TBS as it has in the past. If you’re looking forward to seeing whether Michelle Yeoh takes away an award for her leading role in Everything Everywhere All At Once , or if the stunt performers in Avatar: The Way of Water win for those spectacular underwater action scenes , here’s how to watch the ceremony live. What time do the 2023 SAG Awards start? The SAG Awards take place on Sunday, February 26th, 2023 at 8PM ET / 5PM PT. Where can I watch the SAG Awards? While the year’s event won’t air on cable, you can watch it... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2023/2/26/23615040/how-to-watch-2023-screen-actors-guild-awards-sag

Image: Trae Patton / Paramount Plus The first episode of Star Trek: Picard ’s third and final season is available to stream online for free, as spotted earlier by Gizmodo . You can either watch the full, hour-long premiere on YouTube or from the Paramount Plus website , but it’s only available for a limited time . Star Trek: Picard ’s final season sees Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) reuniting with some of his USS Enterprise crewmates, including Worf (Michael Dorn), William Riker (Jonathan Frakes), Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton), Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden), and Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis) as they face off against a new foe, Vadic (Amanda Plummer). We've got your weekend shore leave plans right here. For a limited time, stream the season premiere of #StarTrekPicard... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2023/2/25/23614903/star-trek-picard-season-three-premiere-watch-free-paramount

Apple’s M2-powered Macbook Air is on sale for $1,049. | Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge Just in case you woke up this morning feeling like spending a thousand bucks, we’re starting off the weekend with a terrific deal on Apple’s latest MacBook Air. Right now, the M2-powered model with 8GB of RAM, an eight-core CPU, and 256GB of storage is on sale at Best Buy and B&H Photo for $1,049 ($150 off), which is one of its best prices to date. If you need a laptop that’s a jack-of-all-trades, the M2-powered MacBook Air will likely fit the bill. It boasts a lot of the same features as the excellent M1 model from 2022 — including all-day battery life, Touch ID, and MagSafe charging — yet it offers faster performance and a lighter build. It also features a 1080p webcam and a brighter display than its predecessor. So long as you don’t... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2023/2/25/23613445/apple-macbook-air-m2-irobot-roomba-i7-robot-vacuum-tribit-stormbox-mi...

Image: The Verge A short story titled “The Last Hope” first hit Sheila Williams’ desk in early January. Williams, the editor of Asimov’s Science Fiction magazine, reviewed the story and passed on it. At first, she didn’t think much of it; she reads and responds to writers daily as part of her job, receiving anywhere from 700 to 750 stories a month. But when another story, also titled “The Last Hope,” came in a couple weeks later by a writer with a different name, Williams became suspicious. By the time yet another “The Last Hope” came a few days later, Williams knew immediately she had a problem on her hands. “That’s like the tip of the iceberg,” Williams says. Since that first submission, Williams has received more than 20 short stories all titled “The... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2023/2/25/23613752/ai-generated-short-stories-literary-magazines-clarkesworld-science-fiction

Ads may be coming to Ted Lasso. | Image: Apple Apple has made a notable hire that could signal its intent to move into ads on Apple TV Plus. The company has hired advertising exec Lauren Fry to “to help build a video advertising business for its Apple TV Plus streaming service,” according to The Information . Apple has been turning more to ads to help grow its revenues; it added new ad placements in the App Store last year and reportedly wants to bring ads to apps like Maps, Books, and Podcasts , so it’s not surprising that it’s looking at ads for TV Plus as well. And this hire isn’t even the first exploration of ads with its streaming offerings, as it has run ads against its Major League Baseball games and is reportedly building an ad network around its streaming service with Major... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2023/2/24/23614183/apple-tv-plus-ads-ad-supportied-tier-hire

A bear roaring into a cloud of cocaine. | Image: Universal Director Elizabeth Banks’ Cocaine Bear over-delivers on a very simple, silly premise that mostly works because it doesn’t take anything seriously except being ridiculous. Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/23612160/cocaine-bear-review-elizabeth-banks

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Since Thursday morning, Dish Network has been experiencing a major outage that’s taken down the company’s main websites, apps, and customer support systems, and employees tell The Verge it’s not clear what’s going on inside the company. The company’s Dish.com website is completely blank save for a notice apologizing for “any disruptions you may be having” while promising that “teams are working hard to restore systems as soon as possible.” The Boost Mobile and Boost Infinite sites display a similar message. When we called each brand’s customer support lines, there were no humans on the other end — each call automatically hung up after delivering a recorded message about the outage. Dish’s website is currently just a... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2023/2/24/23613737/dish-outage-internal-system-issue-boost-mobile-genesis

The Aqara FP2 presence sensor is now available to buy in China and is coming soon to the US. | Image: Aqara More details have emerged about Aqara’s FP2 presence sensor as presales for the device begin in China for a March launch, indicating an international release is imminent. The sensor, which uses mmWave radar tech rather than traditional PRI sensing, is now available to preorder for a discounted price of ¥599 (roughly $86), according to this tweet from the Chinese tech blog WaveTech . The Aqara FP2 — which we named a Best in Show at CES 2023 and should come to the US in the spring — could revolutionize motion control in the smart home. A presence sensor differs from a standard motion sensor in that it can accurately detect human presence from movements as slight as the rise and fall of your chest when breathing, as well as know where you... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2023/2/24/23613530/aqara-fp2-presence-sensor-launches-china-price-specs-features

Josh.ai showed off a proof-of-concept ChatGPT integration using its voice assistant. The Josh system is currently only available through professional installers. | Image: Josh.ai Today, you can ask Alexa to turn on the lights or have Siri tell you the temperature in your bedroom, and sometimes they’ll get it right. Or you may hear, “You have 15 devices named lights; which one would you like to control?” or “The current temperature in Kathmandu is 53 degrees.” But what if your voice assistant was not only always accurate but could also respond to nebulous comments like “I’ve had a rough day; what’s a good way to unwind?” with “intelligent” responses? For example, by lowering the shades, dimming the lights, adjusting the thermostat, and queuing up some goodies on Netflix? That’s the potential of voice assistants powered by new AI language models, according to Alex Capecelatro, co-founder of the Josh.ai home... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2023/2/24/2361338...

Illustration by Brian Scagnelli / The Verge Last April, 27-year-old Nicole posted a TikTok video about feeling burned out in her career. When she checked the comments the next day, however, a different conversation was going down. “Jeez, this is not a real human,” one commenter wrote. “I’m scared.” “No legit she’s AI,” another said. Nicole, who lives in Germany, has alopecia. It’s a condition that can result in hair loss across a person’s body. Because of this, she’s used to people looking at her strangely, trying to figure out what’s “off,” she says over a video call. “But I’ve never had this conclusion made, that [I] must be CGI or whatever.” Over the past few years, AI tools and CGI creations have gotten better and better at pretending to be human. Bing’s new chatbot is... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2023/2/24/23608961/tiktok-creator-bot-accusation-prove-theyre-human

Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge Twitch has a new “experiments” support page where it will share details on many of the experimental features it’s testing on its platform. The Twitch experiments page explains some of the ways the company tests new features and has a list of some of the tests it’s currently running, what they change, and how long the experiment will last. The company says it will update that list monthly. Many platforms run experiments with small groups of users, but it’s not exactly common for them to have a public list that users can check to see if the button or screen they’re seeing is new or if everyone’s seeing it. Now, Twitch users will have somewhere to go if they see something that looks unfamiliar or if they just want to check in on some of the... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2023/2/23/23612165/twitch-experiments-support-page-feature-testing

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Twitter Spaces, the company’s social audio rooms, no longer lets you use captions if you’re listening on iOS. Twitter still advertises that you can turn on captions through the three-dot menu in a Space, but on iOS, that option currently isn’t there. On other platforms, it seems like captions should work but don’t. When listening to a Space on the web, captions don’t show, and while the “CC” closed captions button is present, clicking it on or off doesn’t change anything. On Android, the option to turn on captions is there, but it didn’t work for one Verge staffer. The loss of captions in Spaces is a major blow to accessibility on the platform, as captions can be useful for those who are hard of hearing or who may want to follow a... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2023/2/23/23612307/twitter-spaces-captions-removed-broken-ios-web-android

A painting of a young Mrs. Kersh and her “father” Bob Gray. | Image: Warner Bros. In both Stephen King ’s original It and Warner Bros.’ recent adaptations of the novel , one of the most alarming things the Losers Club discovers about Pennywise the Dancing Clown is just how long the extra-dimensional being has been terrorizing the people of Derry, Maine. The tiny taste of Pennywise’s history featured in 2019’s It Chapter Two was one of the most memorable moments in the film, and one imagines that’s part of why HBO Max is working on a new It prequel series set in the same world. Today, HBO Max announced that Andy Muschietti, Barbara Muschietti, and Jason Fuchs are developing Welcome to Derry , a new series that “expands the vision” that Andy Muschietti first began crafting while directing It and It Chapter Two . In a... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/23612291/hbo-max-welcome-to-derry-bob-gray

Automating your finances can make it more convenient to pay bills, save, and budget. | Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge Few things are more stressful than money. Between paying bills, buying necessities, investing for retirement, and saving up for a rainy day, personal finance can feel like a full-time job. But it doesn’t have to be. The best part about online banking is that everything can be automated — even if you’re living paycheck to paycheck. There are several benefits to automating your money . You’ll always pay your bills on time, which in turn eliminates late fees and protects your credit score. If you’re bad at saving money, you can automatically transfer a set amount per week or month to a savings or retirement account. Budgeting sound like a total nightmare? That can be automated, too. But while automating your finances can be convenient,... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/23608794/personal-finance-automation-how-to

Don’t be afraid to take advantage of your PlayStation 5’s expandable storage — it’s easy! | Photo by Tom Warren / The Verge It’s the 23rd day of the second month of the year 2023. What does that mean? Absolutely nothing. So let’s get to today’s deals. The 2TB Samsung 980 Pro NVMe SSD with an included heatsink is selling for a new low price of $159.99 at Amazon and Best Buy on a one-day deal. That beats its previous low by $10, saving you an outright $110 off its full price. While this is a speedy drive for a desktop PC, you can use it to upgrade the storage of your PlayStation 5, especially since it includes the requisite heatsink. If you haven’t opened up your PS5 and given it a storage boost yet, we can’t recommend this SSD enough because it’s very easy to install , and the 667GB of available built-in storage runs out quickly when you install 100GB-plus... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2023/2/23/23610326/samsung-980-pro-ssd-ps5-airpods-herman-miller-ch...

Janelle Monáe in Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery . | Image: John Wilson / Netflix Later today, Netflix will be releasing a director’s commentary for Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery ; subscribers will be able to check it out starting at 1PM ET. This isn’t the first time Netflix has released a commentary track, but the feature is something of a dying art, with DVD and Blu-ray releases largely supplanted by streaming, where special features are much less common. When the news was first announced, writer and director Rian Johnson, who signed on to direct a pair of Knives Out sequels for Netflix , wrote : “Sorry it took a minute but it’s a good one I think.” And given the sheer number of Easter eggs and cameos in the film — including an appearance from this very website — the commentary track will likely make it worth a... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2023/2/23/23611763/glass-onion-knives-out-directors-commentary-netflix

Look at that beautiful crowbar. | Screenshot: Valve via game mod by sultim_t It’s time to dust off your trusty crowbar and see it in a new light, complete with colorful reflections. A PC mod of the original Half-Life from 1998 that adds realtime path-traced ray tracing to the game is now available, and it’s absolutely gorgeous. First teased by its creator sultim_t (Sultim Tsyrendashiev) over a year ago, the mod pack is now available to download on GitHub to install and play with the original Half-Life on Steam . While a proper remake of Half-Life already exists in the form of Black Mesa , let’s say this falls more in the “remaster” camp — much like sultim_t’s other projects, adding ray tracing to original Doom and Quake titles. The ray-traced Half-Life has elements that still look very late-90s, but greatly... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2023/2/22/23611075/valve-half-life-pc-mod-ray-tracing-lighting-nvidia-rtx-gpu

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Nvidia just reported its fourth quarter and full-year earnings , and it’s not exactly rosy — at least compared to pandemic highs. Last year , Nvidia had record quarterly revenue of $7.64 billion, including $3 billion in pure profit. For Q4 of its fiscal 2023, the company forecast that it would see just $6 billion in quarterly revenue in today’s earnings results, and that’s just about where it landed: $6.05 billion in revenue, down 21 percent, of which $1.4 billion was profit, down 53 percent. For the full year, it raked in $26.92 billion, almost identical to last year, though profit was down 55 percent. Remember: in 2021, $5 billion in revenue a quarter was a new Nvidia record . Now it’s the status quo: the company says it’s expecting to... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/23608886/nvidia-q4-2023-earnings

Image: Mercedes-Benz Mercedes-Benz unveiled the 2024 E-Class’ interior, and while its cabin is not a radical departure in design from existing Benzes, the new E-Class is packed full of interesting and advanced features that will influence the rest of the lineup — like a selfie camera and built-in apps for TikTok and Zoom. One of the major upgrades in the 2024 E-Class is the Superscreen, which combines the large standard central touchscreen with a second display in front of the passenger. (Unlike the EQS’s Hyperscreen , the digital gauge cluster remains a standalone display.) It looks beautiful, with slim air vents that curve around the top of the screen and a row of touch-capacitive buttons sitting below the center display. The new E-Class is packed full of... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2023/2/22/23610496/mercedes-benz-e-class-superscreen-tiktok-zoom-selfie

The organization behind Matter wants to create a data privacy specification for the smart home. | Image: CSA Do you wish you could see exactly what data your smart thermostat collects and how it uses that information? Would you like to know what your video doorbell knows about who visits your home and when? Are you interested in who can see that map of your bedroom your robot vacuum generated ? Or would you at least like to be reassured that no one else knows these intimate details? Today, the Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA), the group behind Matter , announced the formation of a new Data Privacy Working Group . The group will develop a global “Alliance Data Privacy Specification” to certify the data privacy of smart devices and the services they use as well as provide information about how that data is used in a clear, digestible manner —... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2023/2/22/23610081/smart-home-matter-data-privacy-certification-csa

Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge At this point, it’s fair to assume that something went wrong with Spotify HiFi. Two years ago today, during the company’s Stream On event, Spotify announced a new streaming tier that would let customers enjoy lossless, CD-quality audio from the leading subscription music service. Spotify felt the news was worthy of some star power and filmed a promotional video for HiFi with Billie Eilish and Finneas. It remains on the company’s YouTube page, and you can still read the blog post saying upgraded sound would arrive “later this year” — meaning by the end of 2021. And then it just... didn’t happen. Two years on, Spotify HiFi still hasn’t been released. The prolonged wait and lack of updates have become meme-worthy at this point. It’s a... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2023/2/22/23608937/spotify-hifi-lossless-audio-two-years-later

Image: Starry Starry, an ISP that launched in 2016 with a focus on delivering home internet with wireless antennas instead of cables, has declared bankruptcy. In a press release , the company says that it intends to quickly restructure and that it’ll continue providing internet service in its “five core operating markets.” Those are Boston, New York City, Los Angeles, Denver, and Washington, DC. The ISP has clearly been struggling over the past few months. In October 2022, it announced that it was laying off around 500 people, which amounted to about half of its staff. A few months later, Starry announced it was leaving Columbus, Ohio , in a bid to focus more on its five “core” markets. All the while, it was burning millions of dollars in cash, and its... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2023/2/21/23608940/starry-bankruptcy-chapter-11-wireless-internet-service-provider

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Microsoft is hoping two gaming giants will help get its Activision Blizzard deal across the line with regulators in Europe. Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2023/2/21/23608634/microsoft-activision-blizzard-deal-nintendo-nvidia-partners

Image: The Verge Microsoft is already loosening restrictions it recently placed on interactions with the Bing AI chatbot and said it’s going to start testing another option that lets users choose the tone of the chat, with options for Precise (shorter, more focused answers), Creative (longer and more chatty), or Balanced for a bit of both. After repeated reports of strange behavior (like the time it split into multiple personalities and one of them offered us furry porn) and jailbreaks that did things like expose its secret rules, Microsoft set new rules last Friday that limited the number of interactions testers could have and how long they last. The limits cut down testers to five turns per session and a max of 50 per day. According to Microsoft,... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2023/2/21/23608888/microsoft-bing-ai-edge-chatbot-conversation-limits

I gotta work on my virtual WPM. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Hand tracking on Meta’s Quest VR headsets is about to get better. With the new v50 update, you’ll be able to “touch” things like menu buttons or virtual keyboards with just your hands, meaning it will be easier than before to use your hands for certain functions instead of relying on the Quest controllers or a pinch gesture. When Meta first rolled out hand tracking to its Quest headsets in late 2019 , you had to pinch to “select” something, meaning you’d pinch to scroll through text or to click a button. But the new hand-tracking features will be available as an experimental setting Meta calls “Direct Touch.” “Direct Touch is a major improvement to our hand tracking technology, offering a more intuitive and engaging way to interact with... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2023/2/21/23609001/meta-quest-pro-hand-tracking-direct-touch-v50

Vroom vroom in VR. | Image: Sony We’re just a day away from the Wednesday launch of Sony’s PlayStation VR2 headset, and ahead of its release, the company is sharing details on Gran Turismo 7’s VR mode and on 10 new games that will be available within the device’s “launch window.” Let’s start first with Gran Turismo 7 . As part of the game’s free 1.29 update, which is available now, the entire game except for two-player splitscreen will be supported by PSVR 2. “ GT7 takes full advantage of PS VR2’s next-gen features — utilizing specially optimized HDR tone mapping, as well as foveated rendering from the eye-tracking feature (a technology that renders areas of the screen that the player is directly looking at in high definition), and dynamic 3D audio support, players will... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2023/2/21/23608858/sony-playstation-vr2-psvr2-gran-turismo-7-vr-mode-launch-window-games

Photo by Alex Wong / Getty Images Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) threw his support behind striking YouTube Music workers in a letter addressed to Google CEO Sundar Pichai Tuesday, as first reported by the Austin Chronicle . Sanders’ support comes amid growing tensions between workers on YouTube Music’s Content Operations team and its parent company, Google. The nearly 60 workers are formally employed by Cognizant, a third-party contractor to Google. Last October, they filed for a union election with the 1,300-member Alphabet Workers Union (AWU). But shortly after that request was filed with the National Labor and Relations Board, Cognizant issued a new return-to-office mandate that organizers — and Sanders — argue amounts to an illegal union-busting strategy. “Our request to... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2023/2/21/23608748/bernie-sanders-google-alphabet-youtube-music-workers-strike-awu

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The first shots have been fired in a Supreme Court showdown over web platforms, terrorism, and Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. Today, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Gonzales v. Google — one of two lawsuits that are likely to shape the future of the internet. Gonzalez v. Google and Twitter v. Taamneh are a pair of lawsuits blaming platforms for facilitating Islamic State attacks. The court’s final ruling on these cases will determine web services’ liability for hosting illegal activity, particularly if they promote it with algorithmic recommendations. The Supreme Court took up both cases in October: one at the request of a family that’s suing Google and the other as a preemptive defense filed by Twitter.... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2022/12/1/23487958/supreme-court-gonzalez-google-twitter-taamneh-section-230

Illustration: The Verge Microsoft and Sony’s gaming chiefs are both preparing to meet with EU regulators today in a showdown over Microsoft’s proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard. The closed-door hearing in Brussels will see Xbox chief Phil Spencer and other senior Microsoft executives argue the case for the $68.7 billion deal to proceed, with PlayStation chief Jim Ryan attending to voice Sony’s concerns over the deal. It’s a pivotal moment for Microsoft’s proposed acquisition, which has already seen opposition from regulators in the UK and US. The FTC is suing Microsoft to block its Activision Blizzard purchase, while the CMA published its provisional findings of its investigation earlier this month, warning that the deal could harm UK gamers. The CMA... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2023/2/21/23608283/microsoft-activision-eu-meeting-regulators-sony-call-of-duty

The Sonos Era 300. Plus an interview with Shigeru Miyamoto, and more lobbying from Microsoft. Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2023/2/21/23608314/february-21-2023-tech-news-liveblog

“Brain stimulation system to provide a sense of wellbeing.” | Embraer Commercial air travel is a largely terrible experience, and aviation companies patent a lot of ways to make it either slightly less miserable or an even more dystopian hell . Where does reading passengers’ emotions to offer them transcranial stimulation therapy fall? I’ll leave that up to you. Brazilian aerospace manufacturer Embraer filed a patent application for a “brain stimulation system to provide a sense of wellbeing” back in 2016, and it was granted last year. But I only discovered it thanks to a more recent Mastodon post by attorney Jeff Steck , and I am fascinated. Embraer’s reasonable starting premise is that lots of people become anxious on long car, train, and airplane rides, “turning a short trip into a long one.” From there,... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2023/2/20/23607336/embraer-patent-transcranial-stimulation-emotion-reading-airplane-passenger-seat

Photo: Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge As Super Nintendo World opens up in Los Angeles, the creator of Mario talks about getting back to his roots, and exploring new creative fields. Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/23604504/shigeru-miyamoto-interview-super-nintendo-world

It’s really not that hard. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Getting PCBs made is fun and cheap, they’ll let you draw whatever you want on there, and the cops can’t stop you. Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/23598993/pcb-circuit-boards-diy-silkscreen-print

Image: Microsoft Microsoft is preparing to launch a new version of Microsoft Teams next month that has been rebuilt from the ground up to significantly improve its system resource usage on PCs and laptops. Sources familiar with Microsoft’s plans tell The Verge that the software giant has recently started testing this new Teams client broadly inside Microsoft, with plans to roll out a preview to Microsoft Teams users in March. Known as Microsoft Teams 2.0 or 2.1 internally, Microsoft has been working on this new Teams client for years. The app should use 50 percent less memory, tax the CPU less, and result in better battery life on laptops. While Microsoft shipped some of this early work in the built-in Teams experience for consumers in Windows 11 ,... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2023/2/20/23607037/microsoft-teams-performance-improvements-less-cpu-memory