Lead Hacker

The new PlayStation 5 “slim” is matching its all-time low of $449 ($50 off) for a limited time. | Photo by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge Sony’s recent State of Play showcase may have given us a brief glimpse into the company’s plans for 2024 and beyond, but that probably does little if you were hoping for something you can play right now. That’s where the Days of Play sale comes in. Now through June 12th, Sony is discounting dozens of PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4 titles , as well as accompanying hardware , accessories , and subscriptions . First things first, if you’re still looking to pick up a PS5 console, you can save $50 on the PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 5 Digital Edition , which are available for as low as $449 ( Amazon , Best Buy , PlayStation Direct ) and $399 ( Amazon , Best Buy , and PlayStation Direct ), respectively. These match the lowest prices we’ve seen on the... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/31/24167893/sony-days-of...

Photo: Getty Images A big part of Microsoft Build that stood out to me last week was the potential of Windows on Arm for PC gaming, especially for laptops and handhelds. Microsoft and Qualcomm aren’t talking much about this yet, but both companies have been dropping hints about game compatibility. Qualcomm said previously that most Windows games should “just work” on Snapdragon X Elite laptops, and Microsoft took the time to demo some more games onstage at Build last week. Borderlands 3 was shown running around 60 percent faster than native 1440p resolution thanks to Microsoft’s Auto Super Resolution technology. This taps into the NPU to boost frame rates and resolution, much like how Nvidia’s DLSS utilizes its own GPUs to upscale games. Microsoft also... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/31/24168566/windows-arm-copilot-plus-gaming-pcs-handhelds

Image: The Verge Anthropic is releasing a new feature for its AI chatbot Claude that will let anyone create an email assistant, a bot to purchase shoes, or other personalized solutions. It’s called “tool use” (or the nerdier “function calling” ), and it hooks up to any external API of your choosing. While I’m not a huge fan of the term “AI agents,” that’s essentially the game plan here. For instance, the tool can analyze data to create personalized product recommendations based on a user’s purchase history or provide quick responses to customer inquiries, such as tracking order status or offering real-time technical support. To spin up an assistant, all it needs is access to an API and someone who knows how to code. Also, this tool can work with images,... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/30/24167231/anthropic-claude-ai-assistant-automate-tasks

Illustration: The Verge We’ve been covering big changes to Google and Google Search very closely here on Decoder and The Verge . There’s a good reason for that: the entire business of the modern web is built around Google. It’s a whole ecosystem. Websites get traffic from Google Search, they all get built to work in Google Chrome, and Google dominates the stack of advertising technologies that turn all of it into money. It’s honestly been challenging to explain just how Google operates as a platform, because it’s so large, pervasive, and dominant that it’s almost invisible. But if you think about it another way — considering the relationship YouTubers have to YouTube or TikTokers have to the TikTok algorithm — it starts to become clear. The entire web is... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/24167865/google-zero-search-crash-housefresh-ai-overviews-traffic-data-audience

Illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photo from Getty Images It’s a scheme that “reads like it’s ripped from a screenplay,” according to one Commerce Department official. Thirty-five-year-old Chinese national YunHe Wang allegedly helped run an international botnet that deployed VPN programs to infect more than 19 million IP addresses around the world. After distributing malware through programs such as MaskVPN and DewVPN, Wang allegedly operated the botnet and sold access to the compromised IP addresses, according to the Department of Justice . The department says his customers then went on to commit their own crimes under the concealment of the proxied addresses. The botnet, known as 911 S5, “facilitated cyber-attacks, large-scale fraud, child exploitation, harassment, bomb threats, and export... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/29/24167094/us-arrests-911-s5-botnet-administrator

Image: Cadillac If you’re looking for an electric car and Cadillac sounds like your kind of brand, but the $64,000 Lyriq is too rich for your blood (to say nothing about the $340,000 bespoke Celestiq ), you may find what you’re looking for in the 2025 Optiq. Since first revealing the Optiq last November , Cadillac has been pitching this two-row SUV as its entry-level model — and now we know exactly what that means. The 2025 Optiq starts at $54,000, which is affordable for a luxury brand like Cadillac. And it will come with all sorts of standard goodies to help boost its sales pitch, including dual-motor all-wheel drive, Super Cruise hands-free driver assistance, and a ton of native Google apps. What it won’t have is the ability to mirror your smartphone... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/29/24166206/cadillac-optiq-ev-price-specs-photos

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge In 2020, Epic Games sued Apple for antitrust violations. It’s been years since the trial wrapped and judgment was rendered, but for the past few weeks, Apple and Epic Games have been back in front of Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers once more. Gonzalez Rogers mostly ruled in favor of Apple last time. Things might not go so well for the company this time. As a reminder, this whole case got started when Epic challenged Apple’s up to 30 percent fees to developers for in-app purchases through a splashy campaign where it basically ignored Apple’s App Store guidelines and put in its own mobile payment processing system in its popular game Fortnite . That got the Fortnite app kicked off of the App Store , setting up the perfect scenario for Epic to... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/28/24158911/apple-v-epic-evidentiary-hearing-app-store-payments

Image: Porsche Porsche has announced the 2025 Porsche 911 Carrera GTS, its first hybrid electric model, a car that it says can go from zero to 60mph in 2.9 seconds and tops out at 194mph. There’s also some new tech in the dash, including an all-digital instrument cluster on a 12.6-inched curved display that now shows information from CarPlay, which it says is “integrated more deeply into the vehicle.” But Porsche’s “all-digital cockpit” doesn’t appear to be the next-generation wireless CarPlay that Apple announced in 2022 and that both Porsche and Aston Martin recently said would be coming first to their cars . Porsche spokesperson Frank Weissman told The Verge via email that this is “a similar setup to what we introduced on our latest Cayenne,... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/28/24166210/porsche-911-carrera-gts-hybrid-apple-carplay

At just $299.99, Apple’s entry-level iPad offers even better value if you’re looking for a powerful tablet for basic entertainment purposes and light productivity. | Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge I got a nice sunrise surprise this morning. Sure, trees and power lines in my little corner of Texas were being hewn to the ground by the storms ripping across the central South, and I’m still without power as of this writing — but I have just enough juice in my power bank to inform you that we’ve found the best deal yet on the 10th-generation iPad . The 64GB / Wi-Fi configuration is down to $299.99 (about $34 off) at Amazon in select colors when you clip the on-page coupon. That’s a new price record for Apple’s entry-level iPad. The latest baseline iPad now looks more like the pricier ones in Apple’s lineup, although it’s lost the home button and headphone jack and switched out the Lightning port for USB-C. And while it’s still on the... Continue reading… source https://www....

Image: Alex Parkin / The Verge Almost 12 years ago, Microsoft showed us the Surface for the first time. Back then, the company’s big bet was that the laptop market was ready for a shake-up, that it could radically change both the hardware and software of a Windows PC and make everything better. Windows 8 didn’t go so well, and neither did the early attempts at building Windows on top of Arm processors. The Surface, though, has turned into a pretty great device. Now, Microsoft is making a very different wager, this time on AI being the future of computing in practically every way you can think of. And once again, it’s making that bet with the Surface. On this episode of The Vergecast , Microsoft’s Windows and devices head Pavan Davuluri joins the show to discuss the... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/28/24166127/microsoft-surface-ai-smart-home-google-vergecast

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge T-Mobile has agreed to purchase parts of regional wireless carrier US Cellular in a $4.4 billion deal that includes US Cellular’s wireless customers, stores, and approximately 30 percent of spectrum assets. US Cellular will retain ownership of its towers and “approximately 70 percent of its spectrum portfolio across several spectrum bands,” with T-Mobile entering a long-term arrangement to lease space on more than 2,000 towers. According to T-Mobile, the deal will improve nationwide coverage for US Cellular wireless customers while providing better 5G connectivity in “underserved rural areas” where T-Mobile sometimes struggles compared to AT&T and Verizon. In the announcement, T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert said: With this deal T-Mobile can... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/28/24166093/tmobile-us-cellulars-wireless-acquisition-4-billion

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge An upcoming version of Microsoft Phone Link lets you select and copy text from within images synced from your Android phone. The feature is live now in Release Preview Insider builds, so it should roll out to everyone soon. Phone Link (called Link to Windows on the phone side) lets you sync calls, messages, notifications, and images — and cast your entire phone — from your Android phone to your Windows computer. It also works in a more limited fashion with iOS devices, which only sync notifications, messages, and calls over Bluetooth. Screenshot: Nathan Edwards / The Verge Phone Link will now let you select and copy text from images synced from your Android phone. The Windows Snipping Tool got text... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/27/24165825/windows-phone-link-select-text-photos

The Verge Elon Musk founded xAI last summer , and today it announced raising $6 billion in funding , saying it will help bring the startup’s “first products to market, build advanced infrastructure, and accelerate the research and development of future technologies.” So far, xAI has launched Grok, a supposedly edgier version of OpenAI’s ChatGPT available via X, formerly known as Twitter, where the chatbot is currently only available to X Premium subscribers. Funding in this round came from several sources, according to xAI, including Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, and Saudi Arabian Prince Al Waleed bin Talal. Last year, a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission showed that xAI was looking to raise up to $1 billion in equity... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/27/24165619/elon-musk-xai-startup-6-billion-funding

HBO Director Muta’Ali’s MoviePass, MovieCrash is a thorough but circuitous breakdown of how executives’ obsession with exponential growth all but destroyed the company. Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/24160812/moviepass-moviecrash-review

Bambu P1P vs. Creality K1C: an ‘easy’ 3D printer showdown. Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/23924708/creality-k1c-bambu-p1p-review

Ventje’s eVentje. The eVentje custom buildout is a worthy all-electric successor to the iconic VW Camper in Europe. Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/24158082/id-buzz-ventje-camper-review-price-specs

Tap the waveform icon, circled above, to search with sound. | Screenshots: YouTube Music The Android YouTube Music app is rolling out a feature that’s part Shazam and part your friend when you say, “hey what’s that song that goes...” right before you hum out a bar. The feature lets you hum, whistle, sing, or play a recording of a song to figure out what it is. If you have the new feature, you’ll see a new waveform icon next to the microphone icon that appears when you tap the search button in the upper right corner of the app. Tap this, and the app will start listening. It’s not too shabby, either! When I tested, it was able to identify actual recordings with what seemed like uncanny speed, making it a great replacement for Shazam. As far as listening to me hum, it accurately picked out most of the songs I sang, whistled,... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/25/24164879/youtube-music-hum-to-search-available-android

Image: Bungie A jury found on Friday that Phoenix Digital, which owns the cheat mod site AimJunkies, is guilty of violating Bungie copyrights when it created cheats for Destiny 2 , reported Stephen Totilo , who has written about Bungie’s cheating lawsuits for Axios . The landmark decision may be the first time a jury has agreed that a cheat creator violated a gaming company’s copyrights. Yesterday’s jury decision awarded Bungie ( PDF ) a tidy sum of $63,210. Bungie counsel James Barker said in a statement emailed to The Verge that the company is “committed to our players and will continue to protect them against cheats, including taking this and future cases all the way to trial.” In 2021, Bungie sued AimJunkies and four defendants (here’s a PDF of the... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/25/24164679/bungie-anti-cheating-lawsuit-jury-trial-aimjunkies-copyright-violation-victory

You want a fit that’s snug but not too snug. | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge Getting a smart ring is a little more complicated than getting a smartwatch. To buy one, you need to acquire a sizing kit, try on a bunch of sample rings, find your size, wear it for 24 hours, make sure it fits properly, let the company know your size, and then , you get your smart ring. At least, that’s how it usually works. Apparently, you may be able to skip that process entirely with Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy Ring — I just wouldn’t necessarily recommend it. Leaker Evan Blass posted a screenshot of the Samsung Galaxy Ring’s delivery process in his latest Substack post. Like other smart rings, you have the option of getting sent a sizing kit. It does note, however, that the Galaxy Ring follows US standard sizing and that if you know... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/24163871/smart-rings-samsung-galaxy-ring-oura-ring-sizing-wearables

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images From Taylor Swift fans crashing Ticketmaster to the federal lawsuit that threatens to break up Live Nation’s alleged monopoly. Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/24163157/doj-live-nation-ticketmaster-antitrust-lawsuit

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge T-Mobile has begun notifying customers that it’s hiking their rates by as much as $5 per line per month. The company’s help account on X confirmed the price increase, telling one person that it was “adjusting prices to respond to rising costs.” Reports suggest the hike applies to older plans, including One, Magenta, Magenta 55 Plus / Military, and Simple Choice, but the full extent isn’t known. T-Mobile told employees that it is notifying the “small fraction of customers” who are affected by the change today, May 22nd, according to an internal document and slides published by The Mobile Report . The company added that the increases, which are either $2 or $5 depending on which plan customers are on, will show up on their next bill “as... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/22/24162490/t-mobile-price-increase-magenta-one-simple-choice-plans

The European spec ID.7 electric sedan. | Image: The Verge Volkswagen’s impressive ID.7 all-electric sedan — a vehicle type that is increasingly uncommon in the US — won’t be showing up on our shores anytime soon, the automaker announced on Wednesday . It cites changes in “market dynamics” as a reason as well as strong SUV sales in the US. The ID.7, which launched in Europe in 2023, was supposed to be VW’s first electric non-SUV slated for the US market. The automaker claims that after introducing the ID.7 Tourer, which is the station wagon version of the sedan, customer demand for the models is “higher than expected, especially in Germany.” The US is still getting the ID Buzz retro-inspired microbus EV this year as well as an updated 2024 ID.4 SUV with improved EPA range and performance . The... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/22/24162459/volkswagen-2024-id7-electric-sedan-delay-north-america-us-ev

Illustration: The Verge Google only just rolled out AI summaries in search results — and now they’re getting ads. In an update on Tuesday , Google says it will soon start testing search and shopping ads within AI Overviews for users in the US. In the example shared by Google, the search engine’s AI overview lists a response to the question: “how do I get wrinkles out of clothes?” Beneath the AI-generated suggestions, there’s a new “Sponsored” section with a carousel showing wrinkle spray you can buy from places like Walmart and Instacart. GIF: Google Google says it will display ads in AI Overviews when “they’re relevant to both the query and the information in the AI Overview.” Advertisers that already run certain campaigns through Google... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/21/24161724/google-ai-search-results-ads-test

The Snapdragon Dev Kit for Windows in a transparent shell; most if not all units will be black. | Image: Qualcomm Excited for an era of long-lasting powerful Windows laptops with Arm chips and 45 TOPS for AI but would rather pay less and plug into the wall? Qualcomm has just revealed a Mac Mini-esque box that’s ostensibly just for developers. The new $899.99 “Snapdragon Dev Kit for Windows” houses the most powerful of Qualcomm’s lineup of Snapdragon X Elite chips — the one with the 4.6 TFLOP GPU — as well as 32GB of LPDDR5x RAM, 512GB of NVMe storage, and lots of ports, all within roughly the same volume as Apple’s mini desktop. Image: Qualcomm Image: Qualcomm While the spec sheet unfortunately suggests the two-pound PC will only ship in black — not the transparent model at the top of this post — the eight-... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/21/24158603/qualcomm-windows-snapdragon-dev-kit-x-elite

Image: Microsoft Microsoft’s new Surface Laptop could be the most impressive laptop the company has ever made. It has a modern chassis with thin display bezels and a new Arm-based CPU that might just give Apple laptops a run for their money when it comes to performance . That’s no mean feat, considering Apple’s striking lead since 2020, but we won’t know how it compares until we get a Surface Laptop in hand. That didn’t stop me from diving deep on their specs to see how they compare on paper. Before we get to the real nitty-gritty, let’s take a look at some of the most obvious differences you’ll see between the Surface Laptop and the MacBook Air. What’s it gonna cost you? The M3 MacBook Air starts at $1,099 for an 8GB model, which already puts it at a... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/24161123/microsoft-surface-vs-macbook-air-comparison

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella introduces the Copilot Plus PC branding. | Image: Allison Johnson Microsoft is making a major push to put AI into laptops. It’s introducing a new branding today called “Copilot Plus PCs” that’ll highlight when Windows laptops come with built-in AI hardware and support for AI features across the operating system. All of Microsoft’s major laptop partners will offer Copilot Plus PCs, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said at an event at the company’s headquarters on Monday. That includes Dell, Lenovo, Samsung, HP, Acer, and Asus; Microsoft is also introducing two of its own as part of the Surface line. And while Microsoft is also making a big push to bring Arm chips to Windows laptops today, Nadella said that laptops with Intel and AMD chips will offer these AI features, too. “We get to reimagine the platform... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/20/24160486/microsoft-copilot-plus-ai-arm-chips-pc-surface-event

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Are you ready for Microsoft’s latest Windows on Arm push? That’s what we’re expecting at today’s Surface and Windows AI event. Rumors suggest Microsoft will unveil a new Arm-powered Surface Pro 10 and Surface Laptop 6 devices and a host of new AI features for Windows. Microsoft has been building up to this moment for quite some time, so expect to hear a lot about its transition to Windows on Arm. Things kick off at 10AM PT / 1PM ET. Microsoft isn’t livestreaming this event, so follow our live blog for all the very latest as it happens. Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/20/24158827/microsoft-surface-windows-ai-event-live-blog-news-updates

Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes led a tabletop exercise for journalists to role-play as election officials to understand the speed and scale of AI threats they face. | Photo by Ash Ponders for The Verge The job has never been harder, and the threats have never been stranger. Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/24159214/election-officials-role-playing-ai-democracy-arizona-2024

Illustration by Carlo Cadenas / The Verge A security lapse could let millions of college students do free laundry, thanks to one company. That’s because of a vulnerability that two University of California, Santa Cruz students found in internet-connected washing machines in commercial use in several countries, according to TechCrunch . The two students, Alexander Sherbrooke and Iakov Taranenko, apparently exploited an API for the machines’ app to do things like remotely command them to work without payment and update a laundry account to show it had millions of dollars in it. The company that owns the machines, CSC ServiceWorks, claims to have more than a million laundry and vending machines in service at colleges, multi-housing communities, laundromats, and more in the US,... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/19/24160383/students-security-bug-laundry-machines-csc-serviceworks

A 2023 Mac Pro. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge The Mac Studio and Mac Pro aren’t due for an upgrade to Apple’s M4 chip until the middle of next year. That means both machines will still be on Apple’s M2 generation this year, unlike all other Macs except the MacBook Air, Bloomberg ’s Mark Gurman wrote to Power On subscribers today . Throughout 2024, though, all of Apple’s laptops (except the MacBook Air) will move to the M4 chip that the company just gave the iPad Pro , Gurman writes. Amusingly, this herky-jerky chip upgrade cycle means that the iPad Pro is currently the single-core performance champ of Apple’s lineup — and it will continue to be for about another year, when compared to the Mac Studio and Mac Pro. Screenshot: Geekbench It’s not even close, according... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/19/24160117/ipad-pro-m4-single-core-mac-pro-m2-ultra

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Sonos is teasing, both in emails and on social media , that its “most requested product ever” is “coming soon” on May 21st (this Tuesday). This, of course, is almost certainly the Sonos Ace, its first wireless headphones. Sonos has been expected to launch the Ace in June , but given the company’s “most requested” phrasing here and the fact that the headphones recently appeared for sale by authorized dealer Schuurman , it seems they’re coming sooner than that. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Sonos (@sonos) A launch this week could help Sonos with some of the ire surrounding the roll-out of its new app earlier this month. The app was ostensibly created in part to support the Sonos Ace, but i... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/19/24160259/sonos-teasing-new-propduct-announcement-ace-headphones-tuesday-may-21

Image: David Pierce / The Verge Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 38, your guide to the best and Verge -iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome, so psyched you found us, and you can also read all the old editions at the Installer homepage .) This week, I’ve been writing about iPads and the future of Google , watching American Fiction and Bodkin , rewatching Her because of… reasons, endlessly replaying the songs of Windows95man , learning how to make better sandwiches , testing Claude for AI stuff, and listening to the new-old Childish Gambino album . I also have for you a new AI model, literally thousands of new Lego pieces, a new way to Google, the fanciest mop you’ve ever seen in your life, more emulators for iOS, and much more. And I have a question: W... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/24158659/ai-assistant-chatgpt-gpt4o-google-search-dyson-washg1-installer

Image: Blue Origin It’s been over a year and a half since Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket failed mid-flight, and more than two since its last crewed flight. Now, the company is go to launch six human beings into space. The company’s launch window begins at 6:30AM PT / 9:30AM ET, but will start streaming 40 minutes ahead of time on its website . Blue Origin also normally streams its launches live on its YouTube channel , so it’s a pretty safe bet it will do so for its NS-25 mission tomorrow. Assuming the launch goes as planned, it will carry six passengers aboard , including the 90-year-old Ed Dwight, who was America’s first Black astronaut candidate but has never been to space. The other passengers are Mason Angel, Sylvain Chiron, Kenneth L. Hess, Carol... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/18/24159826/blue-origin-first-crewed-launch-since-2022-where-to-watch

Is this a Game Boy Advance SP or Nintendo DS Lite? Who can say? | Image: Retrohai hai Softbank Have you ever looked at a Nintendo DS and thought it would be cooler if the top screen was swapped for the Game Boy Advance SP’s? Or looked at a Super Nintendo controller and wished it had a GBA SP screen bolted onto the back? Whether you have or not, Hardware modder Hairo Satoh, aka Retrohai hai Softbank, has you covered with some truly cursed reimaginings of Nintendo’s portable consoles. (Recall their portable emulated PlayStation built into the Takara Roulette Controller .) Let’s go on a little journey through Satoh’s Instagram account. Before we get into my favorite mutated Nintendo handhelds — frankententos, if you will — know that Satoh also does some very pretty custom jobs on the company’s various portable consoles. And they’re m... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/18/24159721/retrohai-nintendo-ds-lite-game-boy-color-advance-sp-mods

The 13-inch OLED iPad Pro with the screen removed. | Screenshot: iFixit Apple’s newest iPad Pro is remarkably rigid for how thin it is , and apparently also a step forward when it comes to repairability. iFixit shows during its teardown of the tablet that the iPad Pro’s 38.99Wh battery, which will inevitably wear down and need replacement, is actually easy to get to. It’s a change iFixit’s Shahram Mokhtari says during the video “could save hours in repair time” compared to past iPad Pro models. Getting to it still requires removing the screen, which is glued in and is connected to the iPad in four places, but iFixit was essentially able to pull the almost immediately after removing the screen (after removing the camera assembly and dealing with an aluminum lip beneath that, which made some of the tabs hard to... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/18/24159722/ifixit-teardown-apple-oled-ipad-pro-13-inch

Illustration: Cath Virginia / The Verge As the corpse of E3 lies a-mouldrin’ in its grave , its spirit marches on in the form of a bevy of video game showcases and events. There’s a hefty number of them — some notable, some not (but they should be) — and they encompass a wide range of games and genres. Here’s your guide to the whats, wheres, and whens of this year’s summer of games. Access-Ability Summer Showcase 2024 Accessibility has become a major feature of games, with developers often incorporating accessibility features in their marketing materials . The Access-Ability Showcase takes that one step further, curating an entire digital event around games with robust accessibility features. “Our aim is to make sure that if a game looks exciting, you don’t have to worry about... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/24159055/summer-gaming-events-xbox-showcase-nintendo-direct

Illustration: The Verge Jan Leike, a key OpenAI researcher who resigned earlier this week following the departure of cofounder Ilya Sutskever, posted on X Friday morning that “safety culture and processes have taken a backseat to shiny products” at the company. Leike’s statements came after Wired reported that OpenAI had disbanded the team dedicated to addressing long-term AI risks (called the “Superalignment team”) altogether. Leike had been running the Superalignment team, which formed last July to “solve the core technical challenges” in implementing safety protocols as OpenAI developed AI that can reason like a human. The original idea for OpenAI was to openly provide their models to the public, hence the organization’s name, but they’ve become proprietary... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/17/24159095/openai-jan-leike-superalignment-sam-altman-ai-safety

Both the Garmin Epix Pro and Fenix 7S Pro are currently matching their all-time low. The same goes for Garmin’s inReach Mini 2. | Image: Garmin Here at The Verge , our deal writers spend a lot of time covering the latest discounts at Amazon, Best Buy, and other retailers that happen to sell the tech we cover. Admittedly, REI is often not one of them, but the company’s anniversary sale — which runs through May 27th — is a great chance to save not only on tents, glamping chairs, and subzero sleeping bags but also Garmin’s rugged lineup of sports watches. For the next week or so, many of our favorite Garmin watches are on sale for up to 25 percent off, with Amazon and Garmin matching REI’s pricing in most instances. The second-gen Garmin Epix Pro Sapphire Edition , our favorite model for endurance athletes, is available from Amazon , REI , and Garmin starting at $799.99 ($200 off),... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/17/24158267/rei-anniversary-sale...

Illustration: The Verge A note from OpenAI says that you may no longer have to download files you have on Google Drive or OneDrive if you want to use ChatGPT to analyze your data. You will be able to add those files directly to the chatbot. The feature, rolling out to paying ChatGPT users over the next few weeks, will save people from the annoyance of having to first download a file and then upload it again on the chatbot. Once they’ve got access to the feature, ChatGPT Plus, Enterprise, and Teams users will only need to give the chatbot access to their Google Drive or OneDrive account. OpenAI says in a blog post that the integration means ChatGPT can read through Excel, Word, PowerPoint files, and their Google equivalents “more quickly.” So far, the improved... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/17/24158970/chatgpt-openai-google-drive-microsoft-onedrive-data

Screenshot by Tom Warren / The Verge Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut debuts on PC today, and it’s the first game to feature Sony’s new PlayStation PC overlay and shared Trophies system. I’ve had a chance to get a first look at this new overlay, and my initial impression is that it’s really unobtrusive, clean, and simple. There are five main sections here: search, friends, Trophies, profile, and settings. Search lets you find other PlayStation players and add them as friends, whereas the friends section lists both your online and offline friends. You can see your friends’ Trophies, but you can’t message friends or party chat from this overlay, unfortunately. You’ll have to use in-game chat if you want to speak to a console friend, or just use Discord. GIF... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/16/24158246/sony-playstation-pc-overlay-hands-on

Photo by David Gray / AFP via Getty Images The House passed the TICKET Act 388-24 on Wednesday, which would force ticket sellers to show consumers total prices (including fees) upfront and guarantee refunds when events are canceled or postponed. The bill would still need to pass the Senate and be signed by the president to become law, but the overwhelming support in the House is a positive sign. The legislation comes after the Ticketmaster fiasco around Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour tickets , where the ticket-selling platform canceled general sales after high demand it later partially blamed on bots. That prompted lawmakers to haul its top exec from its parent company, Live Nation , into a hearing. In the wake of the disaster, The New York Times reported that the Department of Justice... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/16/24158227/house-passes-ticket-act-junk-fees-taylor-swift

Illustration: The Verge Meta is starting to test a TweetDeck-like experience for Threads today. It will allow Threads users to create customizable feeds that are stacked in a column interface on the web — just like TweetDeck did before it became a paid service and was rebranded to X Pro last year. “If you’re in the test, you can choose to keep things simple with a single feed, or add separate columns for your favorite searches, tags, accounts, saved posts, and notifications,” explains Meta spokesperson Seine Kim in a statement to The Verge . “You can choose to have specific columns auto-update in real time.” Image: Meta The new TweetDeck-like web experience for Threads. Meta will be selecting Threads users to test this new experience... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/16/24158018/threads-tweetdeck-test-column-real-time-feature

Photo: Wes Davis / The Verge Apple appears to have a bug that’s dredging up data that iPhone owners thought was gone. Some iPhone owners are reporting that, after updating their phones to iOS 17.5, their deleted photos — some quite old — are popping up again, according to a Reddit thread that MacRumors spotted . iOS beta testers had the same complaints about the bug last week. People reporting the apparent bug say that they’re seeing old photos appear in their Recents album after Monday’s update . iOS does give users the option to restore deleted photos , but after 30 days, they’re supposed to be permanently removed. The person who started the thread claimed that NSFW photos they had deleted “years ago” were back on their phone. Another Reddit user said that they saw... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/15/24157284/apple-iphone-ios-17-5-update-deleted-photos-voicemails

Image: Google Google Photos already has impressive search capabilities, but Google is using Gemini to dial those powers up to the next level. During today’s I/O keynote , CEO Sundar Pichai announced “Ask Photos,” a new feature coming this summer that should make the service much smarter when it comes to understanding what it is you’re looking for, using artificial intelligence to connect the dots for more sophisticated requests. Pichai asked the app, “What’s my license plate number again?” Currently, searching for a license plate requires scrolling through photos of many different cars. But here, Google Photos was smart enough to figure out which vehicle was the intended one — based on location, how many times it has appeared in photos through the... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/14/24156552/google-photos-ask-gemini-feature-io

Image: Sony Pictures The classic competitive game show Jeopardy! is getting a spinoff series on Prime Video . Sony Pictures Television is producing Pop Culture Jeopardy!, which turns the classic academic quiz show with three challengers into a team-based trivia game that touches on music, movies, culture, sports, celebrities, entertainment, and more. The new series marks the first time the company’s game show division is expanding the Jeopardy! brand to a streaming platform with a new show. Years ago, the company let watchers binge the main show on Hulu . While the series sounds like a casual side mission for the franchise, Sony Pictures Television’s president of game shows, Suzanne Prete, states it will “be a nail biter” for fans and that teams will compete... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/14/24156287/jeopardy-pop-culture-spinoff-streaming-amazon-prime-video

Ikea’s new Energy Insights feature will offer real-time data on energy consumption and electricity spot prices. | Photo: Ikea Energy management is a big benefit of the smart home, and more companies are starting to offer easier ways to monitor and control your home’s energy use through their app on your phone. The next level is offering intelligent ways to automate the process to save you money without you having to think about it. Swedish furniture giant Ikea just took a small step toward providing that to users of its smart home platform, Home Smart . This week, it launched an Energy Insights feature to monitor your home’s energy use and announced its first energy-monitoring smart plug, the Inspelning, is coming in October. Image: Ikea The Inspelning is Ikea’s first energy monitoring smart plug. Ikea says the Inspelning can monitor... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/13/24155302/ikea-energy-insights-home-smart-app-feature

Photo: Meta Meta Quest headsets are ready to go on flights with you as Meta has announced a new Travel Mode. The company is rolling out the experimental feature to Quest 2 and 3 headsets running Quest software version 65 or later, allowing owners to use the headset in passthrough on a flight without windows drifting away from them. To try it, opt in under Settings > Experimental features . Then the new mode will live in the Quick settings panel, where you can toggle it from the Quest’s universal menu. Travel Mode isn’t without limitations — it’s not designed to account for the motion of a car or train, for instance; Meta says support for other transportation methods is coming. Also, if a game or app requires an internet connection, your plane will... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/13/24155396/meta-quest-airplane-passthrough-travel-mode-experimental-feature

Photo illustration by The Verge / Photo: Adobe The tech and the consumers both might not be quite ready yet, but he’s betting big on an AI future. Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/24153956/adobe-shantanu-narayen-ai-firefly-premiere-photoshop-pdf-creativity-commerce

Image: Tayfun Coskun / Anadolu Agency via Getty Images US safety regulators are looking into two crashes involving Amazon’s robotaxi company, Zoox. The Office of Defects Investigation, under the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, opened a preliminary evaluation into Zoox after two separate reports of the vehicles suddenly braking and causing motorcyclists to crash into their rear end. NHTSA confirms that the Zoox vehicles were operating in driverless mode without safety drivers when the incidents occurred. The vehicles involved in both crashes were Toyota Highlander SUVs, which Zoox uses for testing and data gathering. According to the Office of Defects Investigation, the investigation covers an estimated 500 vehicles. The crashes did not involve Zoox’s unique toaster-looking... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/13/24155272/amazon-zoox-robotaxi-crash-motorcyclists-rear-end

Image: John Deere The solar storms that have been wowing people with the Northern Lights across the United States the last two nights have also been disrupting GPS satellites, crippling some Midwest farmers’ operations, reports 404 Media . The issues have forced many to stop planting just as a crucial planting deadline for corn farmers approaches. The storms reportedly knocked “some GPS systems” offline temporarily, which messed with the accuracy of “Real-Time Kinematic” (RTK) systems. Tractors from John Deere and other brands use RTK for “centimeter-level positional accuracy” when carrying out farming work like crop-planting or fertilizing, 404 Media writes. The “extremely compromised” systems caused “drastic shifts in the field and even some heading... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/12/24154779/solar-storms-farmer-gps-john-deer

Image: Samar Haddad / The Verge Not all video games need video. Over the years, games that exist only in audio have taken players into entirely new worlds in which there’s nothing to see and still everything to do. These games have huge accessibility implications, allowing people who can’t see to play an equally fun, equally immersive game with their other senses. And when all you have is sound, there’s actually even more you can do to make your game great. On this episode of The Vergecast , we explore the history of audio-only games with Paul Bennun , who has been in this space longer than most. Years ago, Bennun and his team at Somethin’ Else made a series of games called Papa Sangre that were among the most innovative and most popular games of their kind. He explains... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/24153919/audio-games-papa-sangre-vergecast