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This week brought a few noteworthy movie and TV trailers — the big one being Sonic the Hedgehog 3. And while I won’t include them here, you should check out some of the trailers included with our coverage of the most recent Nintendo Direct (shoutout to the Nintendo DS Castlevania games collection). It’s clear that summer is winding down, and so are the big blockbusters. Things will liven up a bit with Beetlejuice Beetlejuice next week, but things are looking quiet for a little bit after that. Sonic the Hedghehog 3 Sonic the Hedgehog 3 finally brings Sonic’s big nemesis, Shadow, into the mix, played by Keanu Reeves. The trailer only gave a bit of Reeves’ voice but makes up for it with lots of Jim Carrey’s disheveled and depressed Dr.... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/31/24233095/trailers-of-the-week-sonic-the-hedgehog-3-napoleon-agatha-all-along-wallace-gromit

OSOM’s first phone, eventually renamed the Solana Saga. | Image: Osom A lawsuit filed against Osom Products, Inc. by its former chief privacy officer, Mary Stone Ross, claims that the company’s CEO, Jason Keats, used business funds for extravagant purchases that include two Lamborghinis, reports Android Authority . Keats, who founded Osom after Essential shut down and hired several of Essential’s former workers, is also accused of using company resources to pay for things ranging from his racing habit to his racing partner’s salary to his own mortgage, the outlet writes. Ross has apparently asked the court to make Osom give her access to company records that may prove the lawsuit’s claims. The lawsuit also reportedly claims that Keats tried and failed to sell the company to HP and that, after that deal... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/31/24233005/essential-phone-osom-products-ceo-lawsuit-personal-spending-lamborghinis-racing-mortgage

Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge The rechargeable lithium-ion batteries that power most of our laptops may be the most practical battery tech we have right now, but they naturally degrade over time as their ions flow back and forth — it’s an inevitable consequence of the way they’re built and the way they work . Eventually, the batteries can’t hold as much of a charge. Most modern laptops now come with some kind of smart charging technology built in, to limit the number of full charges that happen. How this is implemented varies between laptops — I’ll talk about this, as well as other ways to ensure the battery on your MacBook or Windows laptop stays as healthy as possible for as long as possible. General battery health As with smartphones, because of the chemical... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/24232455/mac-windows-pc-battery-how-to

Photo: Joe Raedle / Getty Images The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) cleared SpaceX’s reusable Falcon 9 rocket for flight on Friday after temporarily grounding it following a failed landing earlier this week . The company has already pulled off two launches since the FAA’s decision, putting 42 more Starlink satellites into orbit, it announced in a post on X today. The agency said that while the investigation of the landing incident remains open, flights can continue, “provided all other license requirements are met,” according to CNN . SpaceX had requested a return to flight on Thursday, the same day the FAA initially grounded the rocket, reports Reuters . Falcon 9 delivers 42 @Starlink satellites, including 26 with Direct to Cell capabilities, to low-Earth orbit... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/31/24232928/spacex-falcon-9-cleared-to-launch-faa-two-starlink-flights

Apple’s ninth-gen iPad is certainly showing its age at this point, but it remains a bargain at just $199. | Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge It’s always sad when summer comes to a close. However, on the bright side, Labor Day represents yet another long weekend — not to mention an opportunity to save on a slew of goods before the holiday shopping season kicks off in earnest. Although Labor Day isn’t until September 2nd, many retailers are already offering steep discounts on a range of tech, some of which rival the Prime Day deals we saw in July. Right now, for instance, Apple’s last-gen iPad is on sale for less than $200. Other Verge -approved items have also fallen to an all-time low (or close to it), including Sonos’ Era 100 speaker , Amazon’s latest Echo Spot , and the entry-level Kindle . Granted, we’ve seen many of these products go for slightly less in the past — and it’s... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/24229577/best-labor-day-sales-2024-tech-d

Image: The Verge A senior CrowdStrike executive will testify before the House Homeland Security Committee next month about the IT outage that grounded planes and workplaces to a halt globally on July 19th. Adam Meyers, CrowdStrike’s senior vice president of counter adversary operations, has agreed to appear before the panel on September 24th at 2PM ET, the committee announced. Committee leaders had previously called on CEO George Kurtz to testify , but he’s not currently listed as a witness. In a statement, Committee Chair Mark Green (R-TN) said that while he’d hoped Kurtz could attend, “I look forward to hearing testimony from Mr. Meyers, who CrowdStrike assured was the appropriate witness to discuss the details of the outage. Americans deserve to know... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/30/24232301/crowdstrike-vp-adam-meyers-congress-testimony-it-outage

A rendering of Sage Geosystems’ geothermal energy project. | Image: Sage Geosystems Meta announced a new partnership this week in the hopes that geothermal energy can help it reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. Meta and startup Sage Geosystems struck up a deal to develop new geothermal power plants. If they make it to the finish line, the plants would provide carbon pollution-free energy that Meta needs for new data centers in the US. The company has struggled to keep its carbon pollution down since it pledged in 2020 to reach net zero emissions by the end of the decade, its latest sustainability report published yesterday shows . The race to develop more powerful AI tools has raised the stakes , triggering the development of new energy-hungry data centers. So, Meta is putting its faith in next-generation geothermal... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/29/24231301/meta-facebook-geothermal-energy-sage-data-center-partnership

Where to Watch shows you all the sports on ESPN — and elsewhere. | Image: ESPN ESPN’s newest feature will be a welcome bookmark for sports fans everywhere: the company just launched “Where to Watch,” which aims to be a universal guide for streaming sports all over the internet. When you open the page on ESPN’s website or in its app, Where to Watch looks like a typical schedule of games, the kind of thing ESPN has had forever — it’s sortable by sport and able to show your favorite team at the top. But next to each listing, it now shows where you can watch the game, even when it’s not on ESPN. ESPN says Where to Watch has data from more than 250 streaming services. On Wednesday morning, it offered me a baseball game on MLB.TV, a college soccer game on ACC Extra, some MLS on Apple TV Plus, and five different ways to... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/28/24230579/espn-where-to-watch-sports-streaming-guide

Illustration: The Verge Google will soon let Gemini subscribers create custom chatbots that can serve as a gym buddy, cooking partner, writing editor, and more. Users can give the chatbots — called Gems — distinct personalities and specialties by simply describing a set of instructions. Google first introduced Gems during I/O in May. In an example prompt shown by Google, users can create a “knowledgeable, casual, and friendly” Gem that can help people plan low- or no-water gardens. For users who don’t want to create a custom chatbot right away, Google is offering some premade Gems, including a learning coach, an idea brainstormer, a career guide, a coding partner, and an editor. GIF: Google You can give Gems a name and a set of... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/28/24230490/google-custom-ai-chatbots-gems-launch

Google’s Imagen 3 is capable of generating photorealistic images of people. | Image: Imagen 3 Google is letting its users generate images of people through its Gemini AI chatbot again after pulling the feature earlier this year amid reports of historically inaccurate images, like racially diverse Nazis . In an announcement , Google says it will roll out an early access version of the capability to Gemini Advanced, Business, and Enterprise users in English “over the coming days.” This upgrade will be powered by Imagen 3, the latest version of Google’s AI text-to-image generator. Google quietly launched Imagen 3 through its AI Test Kitchen earlier this month, and now it’s coming to Gemini across all languages. The upgraded tool is capable of generating anything from photorealistic landscapes to textured oil paintings with a... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/28/24230445/google-gemini-create-ai-generated-people-imagen-3

Image: Instagram Instagram will now let you add text to your photos right from the post editor, meaning you won’t need to edit your photos in a separate app just to add some text. A bit of text might help your post stand out from the rest of the photos on your feed — or help people see information that might otherwise get lost in your caption. From the post editor, you’ll also now be able to layer another photo on top of a photo as a sticker. When you tap on that layered photo, you can change its shape from a rectangle to a square, circle, heart, or star, according to Instagram’s blog post . This feature seems fun to me — I suspect people will find some clever ways to use this in their photos. Reels and stories are getting some text improvements, too.... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/27/24228983/instagram-photos-text-editor-stickers

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Samsung has announced new AI capabilities for its smart appliances, including new AI-generated wallpapers for certain refrigerators, as well as an AI upgrade for its Bixby voice assistant. The updated Bixby will hit five Samsung Bespoke appliances starting on August 27th. AI-generated wallpapers are coming to Samsung Family Hub refrigerators released in the US and Korea after 2022, the company says . To create them, users will pick a theme from seven categories and one of six art styles. Once the new wallpaper is created, it can go on the fridge’s cover screen or whiteboard, or saved in an album for later. It will require a Wi-Fi connection, and users will be limited to creating up to five wallpapers per day. The improved Bixby will be... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/26/24228788/samsung-ai-wallpapers-refrigerators-bixby-upgrade-bespoke-appliances

Image: Indiegogo Indiegogo is taking a renewed swing at holding crowdfunding campaigns accountable for shipping products with a new program. The company’s “Shipping Guarantee” initiative promises that anytime you support an eligible campaign, you’ll get your order on time or your money back. The guarantee will apply to campaigns that meet eligibility requirements, which include launching with a product that’s in the “final manufacturing stages” and having “a proven track record of successful crowdfunding on the site.” Covered campaigns will have a Shipping Guarantee badge above the Pick Your Perk button on the site. If you back one of these campaigns and don’t receive shipping confirmation by the date a campaign promised, you can immediately request a... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/26/24228647/indiegogo-shipping-guarantee-crowdfunding

Screenshot by Jay Peters / The Verge Apple has announced the date of its next big event: September 9th, 2024, at 1PM ET / 10AM PT. The event, which has the tagline “It’s Glowtime,” will take place at the Steve Jobs Theater at Apple Park. During the show, the company is expected to launch the iPhone 16 lineup. The big change to the iPhone 16 and 16 Plus is expected to be a switch to a vertically aligned camera system on the back. (If the final phones look like what we’ve seen on iPhone 16 dummy units , I’m already a big fan of this change.) The iPhone 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max phones might get bigger screens but are rumored to keep Apple’s familiar three-camera layout. Those phones could also come in a new bronze color . Image: Apple It’s (almost)... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/26/24223957/apple-iphone-16-launch-event-date-glowtime

The HoverAir X1 Promax. | Photo by Owen Grove / The Verge The HoverAir X1 wasn’t your traditional drone. People who have little interest in piloting, like my colleague Thomas Ricker , use the highly crash-resistant self-flying $350 camera to easily get aerial video just by pressing two buttons. But it’s not particularly high-quality video, it’s not particularly fast, and you can’t fly it far away even if you wanted to. That’s where the new HoverAir X1 Pro and X1 Promax come in. Zero Zero Robotics has just put both drones up for sale on Indiegogo . We briefly checked them out in person, and they sound like an improvement on the X1 in practically every way. Photo by Owen Grove / The Verge The new HoverAir X1 Pro and Promax, next to the original X1. While they are... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/26/24227115/hoverair-x1-pro-promax-announcement-price-release-date

Telegram CEO Pavel Durov. | Getty Images Telegram says its CEO and founder Pavel Durov has “nothing to hide” after he was arrested by French authorities outside of Paris. “It is absurd to claim that a platform or its owner are responsible for abuse of that platform,” the company says in an unnamed statement posted to its official channel in the Telegram app on Sunday. French officials have confirmed to multiple outlets that Durov was arrested as part of a police investigation into criminal activity taking place on the social network. While not encrypted by default, Telegram’s largely hands-off approach to moderation means that the app is seen by many as a private, censorship-free alternative to other social networks. “Almost a billion users globally use Telegram as means of... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/25/24228444/telegram-ceo-pavel-durov-arrest-france-company-response

Formula 1 racer Lando Norris in Bahrain in 2022. | Photo: Hasan Bratic / Picture Alliance via Getty Images Formula 1 broadcast footage from the Dutch Grand Prix qualifiers at Circuit Zandvoort this weekend that was captured by a gyro camera system mounted above the helmet of the weekend’s race winner, Lando Norris. The camera, which F1 has been testing since 2022, was conceived with an eye particularly toward accentuating exaggerated angles of banked turns at Zandvoort, but despite using it there last year, F1 wasn’t able to broadcast it, according to AutoSport . Watch Lando Norris soar through the sand dunes (via gyro cam) as he secured pole position at Zandvoort #F1 #DutchGP @pirellisport pic.twitter.com/aa5ZPD13U6 — Formula 1 (@F1) August 24, 2024 Many F1 fans on social media praised the broadcasts from Norris’ car, saying things... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/25/24228247/formula-1-f1-gyro-camera-dutch-grand-prix-zandvoort

Photo: Drew Angerer / Getty Images Former pharmaceutical executive Martin Shkreli must turn over his copies of The Wu-Tang Clan’s Once Upon a Time in Shaolin album to comply with a preliminary injunction issued by federal Judge Pamela Chen in an ongoing lawsuit, ArtNet reported on Friday. PleasrDAO, NFT collective and current owner of Shaolin claims in its lawsuit that he “improperly retained copies of data and files” from the album and plans to release them. Among other complaints, the group alleges that this violated a court order to forfeit it to the US government . Here are the hearing’s minutes, as published on sites like CourtListener : ... the Court issued a preliminary injunction as to Defendant Shkreli: (1) enjoining him from possessing, using, disseminating, or... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/25/24228184/martin-shkreli-wu-tang-clan-shaolin-lawsuit-surrender-album

Adam Driver in Megalopolis. | Screenshot: YouTube So, all those faked review quotes from the Megalopolis trailer that got pulled last week were apparently AI, after all. Not only that, but the person who was in charge of the materials for the trailer, Eddie Egan, has been removed from the movie’s marketing team. That’s all according to Deadline , which reported on Friday that the AI-ness of it all was confirmed in an investigation after the fact. Neither Egan nor Megalopolis studio Lionsgate meant to fake the quotes, which had purported to be critical notes from contemporaneous reviews of Megalopolis director Francis Ford Coppola’s past films. According to some of the trailer’s quotes, critics had called The Godfather a “sloppy, self-indulgent movie,” while Apocalypse Now was “an epic... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/25/24228003/megalopolis-trailer-fake-quotes-ai-generated-eddie-egan-dropped-lionsgate

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Telegram CEO Pavel Durov is reportedly in custody after being arrested near Paris Saturday evening as he was departing his private jet. The billionaire was apprehended on a warrant related to a preliminary investigation, writes Reuters . French authorities believe that the platform’s lack of moderation has “allowed criminal activity to go on undeterred on the messaging app.” Durov will go before a judge tonight and could be indicted as early as Sunday, according to TF1 (which we read using Google Translate), one of two French outlets cited by Reuters. Telegram has become a critical resource as people turn to it to find crucial information in places where heavy information censorship is common, such as Russia. But Durov’s preference for... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/24/24227672/telegram-ceo-pavel-durov-arrested-ceo

Image: Canoo EV startup Canoo has lost co-founder and chief technology officer Sohel Merchant and is moving its operations out of Los Angeles, according to two reports from TechCrunch this week, citing unnamed sources. Merchant took over the CTO position in 2021, when the company’s CTO left, along with two other co-founders. One of those who remained, chief designer Richard Kim, departed last year . With Merchant now reportedly gone, chief engineer Christoph Kuttner is the last founder standing at Canoo, according to TechCrunch yesterday . Canoo wrote in a quarterly SEC filing on August 14th that it was “permanently” dropping its headcount as part of a reorganization plan for its Torrance, California facility, and offering to move “approximately 137”... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/24/24227609/canoo-ev-startup-cto-sohel-merchant-founder

Image: NASA NASA administrator Bill Nelson announced today that US astronauts Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore will return next February with the SpaceX Crew-9 mission after spending more than 80 days aboard the International Space Station (ISS). According to NASA Commercial Crew Program manager Steve Stich, “As we got more and more data over the summer and understood the uncertainty of that data, it became very clear to us that the best course of action was to return Starliner uncrewed.” He said NASA found “there was just just too much uncertainty in the prediction of the thrusters.” “If we had a way to actually predict what the thrusters would do, for the undock, and all the way through the de-orbit burn, and through the separation sequence, I... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/24/24226860/boeing-starliner-nasa-barry-wilmore-sunita-williams

Image: Pokémon A new all-Pokémon FAST channel is bringing the first 22 seasons of the original Pokémon anime, courtesy of Canadian distributor WildBrain. The channel will kick off its availability in the US, with Canada, the UK, Australia, and New Zealand to follow, according to WildBrain’s announcement this week. Melissa Pearce, senior director of media licensing at The Pokémon Company International, called FAST TV is “an ideal platform” to connect with audiences and offer “accessible and curated content in a family-friendly environment.” WildBrain distributes other ad-supported channels that include properties like Super Mario Bros. , Sonic the Hedgehog , and Inspector Gadget , and its channels exist on platforms like Tubi and Pluto. The announcement... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/24/24227429/pokemon-first-22-seasons-fast-channel

Image: Game Science A perfectly fine action game has become saddled with a lot of baggage. Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/23/24226834/black-myth-wukong-hands-on-impression-game-science

Image: Amazon MGM Studios Zoë Kravitz’s directorial debut has Get Out aspirations, but it lands somewhere closer to Don’t Worry Darling . Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/23/24226041/blink-twice-review

Instead of carrying a bag full of lenses, the new Samyang Remaster Slim lets you only carry alternate optical elements. | Image: Samyang In an attempt to lighten camera bags, Samyang has created a prime lens that allows photographers to change the focal length by swapping out just the optical elements inside it, instead of having to change lenses completely. The simpler design of prime lenses in general — which offer no zoom capabilities — can deliver several advantages, including sharper images and a shallower depth of field. The tradeoff is that photographers have to move closer or further away when framing subjects or swap between several prime lenses with different focal lengths. That approach can get expensive and heavy — problems that Samyang’s Remaster Slim autofocus lens, measuring just 0.8 inches thick, may solve. The optical elements in the Remaster Slim sit in... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/22/24226064/samyang-prime-lens-camera-remast

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Stuart Franklin Our basic assumptions about photos capturing reality are about to go up in smoke. Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/22/24225972/ai-photo-era-what-is-reality-google-pixel-9

The body of billionaire tech mogul Mike Lynch was recovered off the coast of Sicily, the Italian coast guard announced on Thursday. Lynch’s 184-foot superyacht, the Bayesian, sunk on August 19th reportedly after being hit by a tornado over the water, called a waterspout. The yacht sank quickly, according to reports, even though its manufacturer claimed it was unsinkable. Lynch was on the yacht with family and friends celebrating his acquittal on fraud charges in June. HP, which bought Lynch’s company Autonomy for $11 billion in 2011, had alleged “accounting improprieties” that misrepresented Autonomy’s value. In an interview with the BBC — the only broadcast interview before the yacht sank — Lynch said his wealth helped him deal with the... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/22/24226123/mike-lynch-body-found-superyacht-bayesian-italy

Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge Apple will soon let iPhone and iPad users in the European Union choose default apps for phone calls, messaging, keyboards, password managers, and more. These options will be available later this year in a new “Default Apps” section in Settings, according to an update on Thursday . In the spring of next year, Apple says it will also let users set default navigation, translation apps, and call spam filter apps. Along with these new options, iPhone users in the EU will add the ability to delete the App Store, Messages, Camera, Photos, and Safari apps. The only apps Apple won’t let users delete are Settings and Phone. Image: Apple Apple is adding more detail to its browser choice screen. Some small changes are... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/22/24226110/apple-iphone-ipad-default-apps-eu-competition

Magic Editor’s new tool helped us add the bike and car with nothing more than a text prompt. | Photo: The Verge As it turns out, a rabbit wearing an AI-generated top hat was just the tip of the iceberg. Google is the latest phone company this year to announce AI photo editing tools, following Samsung’s somewhat troubling, mostly delightful sketch-to-image feature and Apple’s much more seemingly tame Image Playground coming this fall. The Pixel 9’s answer is a new tool called “Reimagine,” and after using it for a week with a few of my colleagues, I’m more convinced than ever that none of us are ready for what’s coming. Reimagine is a logical extension of last year’s Magic Editor tools, which let you select and erase parts of a scene or change the sky to look like a sunset. It was nothing shocking. But Reimagine doesn’t just take it a step further —... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/21/24224084/google-pixel-9-reimagine-ai-photos

A new firmware update brings audio sharing to the Beats Studio Pro. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Apple has released a firmware update for the Beats Studio Pro that finally brings audio sharing to the headphones, allowing an iPhone or iPad to stream audio to two pairs of wireless headphones simultaneously. The new feature, spotted by 9to5Mac , was noticeably missing when we reviewed the Beats Studio Pro last year, but now better positions the headphones as an alternative to Apple’s more expensive AirPods Max. Audio sharing was added to the Beats line shortly after its debut in 2019. It’s a feature found in all of Apple’s headphones featuring the company’s W1 or H1 chips, but the Beats Studio Pro debuted with a different chip that ensured all of the headphone’s features were compatible with both Apple and Android devices. The firmware... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/21/24225250/beats-studio-pro-apple-audio-sharing-update-headphones

The Yale Assure Lock 2 is one of the many smart locks that work with Airbnb. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge Airbnb is expanding its smart lock integration , allowing the company to generate door codes from Yale and August directly within its app. This means more guests can easily find the code they’ll need to unlock their vacation rental, while hosts won’t have to worry about generating and sending new codes to every visitor. The smart lock company Schlage became the first to adopt the integration after Airbnb announced it last year . Once a host connects their compatible smart locks to Airbnb, the app will automatically generate unique door codes that it will send to guests ahead of their visit. The codes will only remain active during a guest’s stay, as Airbnb will automatically deactivate them when they check out. Airbnb will also notify... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/21/24225305/airbnb-smart-lock-yale-august-integration

Gimme that excellent desk clock action while charging all the things. | Image: Nomad Nomad is course-correcting from a small design blunder last year on its three-in-one MagSafe charging stand . Like its predecessor, the new Stand One Max for 2024 is a wireless multi-charger for a compatible iPhone, Apple Watch, and set of AirPods. However, now you can charge all of those devices with your phone in landscape orientation, allowing you to use Apple’s nifty StandBy mode for glanceable information like the time and weather. The new stand is also Qi2-compatible, and at $150, it’s actually $30 cheaper than the original’s launch price, which I love to see. Other than that, the new Stand One Max (which Nomad calls “third-gen” to align with other models in its lineup, even though it’s only the second version) has a lot in common... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/21/24224358/nomad-stand-one-max-third-gen-magsafe-qi2-charger-price-specs

Image: The Verge A group of authors has sued Anthropic, accusing it of training its models on pirated books, as reported by Reuters . The proposed class action lawsuit was filed in a California court on Monday and alleges Anthropic “built a multibillion-dollar business by stealing hundreds of thousands of copyrighted books.” In the lawsuit, the authors say that Anthropic used a sprawling, open-source dataset known as “The Pile” to train its family of Claude AI chatbots . Within this dataset is something called Books3, a massive library of pirated ebooks that includes works from Stephen King, Michael Pollan , and thousands of other authors. Earlier this month, Anthropic confirmed to Vox that it used The Pile to train Claude. “It is apparent that Anthropic... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/20/24224450/anthropic-copyright-lawsuit-pirated-books-ai

Image: The Unwell Network Call Her Daddy host Alex Cooper has signed a multi-year advertising and distribution deal with SiriusXM. The press release doesn’t spell out the specific terms of the deal, but Variety reports that it’s worth as much as $125 million and will be in place for a bit more than three years. Call Her Daddy used to be exclusive to Spotify, and it remains one of the most popular podcasts on the platform, but Spotify let the show get wide distribution earlier this year as part of a broader shift to in its podcast strategy . With this SiriusXM deal, Call Her Daddy will still be available on other podcast platforms. SiriusXM also gets advertising and distribution rights for the shows on Cooper’s Unwell Network . SiriusXM’s move follows its $100... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/20/24224476/spotify-siriusxm-alex-cooper-call-her-daddy-deal

Image: Microsoft Microsoft is starting to test its new Xbox Game Pass Standard tier with Xbox Insiders today. The new Game Pass Standard subscription includes the usual Game Pass library for Xbox but with online console multiplayer, too. Crucially, it doesn’t include immediate access to day-one game releases, though. During the test period, Xbox Insiders will be able to access Xbox Game Pass Standard for just $1. “Any renewals during the preview period will also be $1 per month,” says Megan Spurr , senior community lead for Xbox Game Pass. Once this Standard tier launches fully, it will be priced at $14.99 per month. Image: Microsoft The new Game Pass lineup. Microsoft is also providing some clarity on when day-one games and... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/20/24224498/xbox-game-pass-standard-testing-xbox-insiders

Image: NASA Scientists from the Dutch Black Hole Consortium are on a mission to find novel black holes. But the task is a monumental one, as the light from the genesis of a black hole fades quickly, so they’re asking ordinary folks to pore over pictures of possible candidates using an app called Black Hole Finder to help them decide where to train their telescopes. The images are collected by BlackGEM telescopes in Chile that, when a gravitational wave is detected, immediately start scanning the sky for quickly fading light from kilonovas — bright flashes that appear when two neutron stars merge to form a black hole. The light lasts for a week at most, according to the app, making it important to find the most likely candidates quickly. Some things... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/19/24223618/black-hole-finder-app-citizen-science

Procreate CEO James Cuda has made his distaste for generative AI known. | Image: Procreate Many Procreate users can breathe a sigh of relief now that the popular iPad illustration app has taken a definitive stance against generative AI. “We’re not going to be introducing any generative AI into our products,” Procreate CEO James Cuda said in a video posted to X . “I don’t like what’s happening to the industry, and I don’t like what it’s doing to artists.” The creative community’s ire toward generative AI is driven by two main concerns: that AI models have been trained on their content without consent or compensation , and that widespread adoption of the technology will greatly reduce employment opportunities . Those concerns have driven some digital illustrators to seek out alternative solutions to apps that integrate generative... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/19/24223473/procreate-anti-generative-ai-pledge-digital-illustration-creatives

A Waymo car driving in San Francisco. | Photo: Smith Collection / Gado / Getty Images San Francisco neighbors who live in a building next to a Waymo parking lot are still being haunted by overnight honking. That’s despite a fix from the ride hail company that seems to have fixed the original problem — the cars beeping their horns in the parking lot — but has also revealed that the issue is a little stickier than it may have first seemed. Waymo said last week that the honking was the result of a safety feature triggered when a Waymo car detects another reversing toward it. Sophia Tung, who runs a YouTube livestream of the lot , told The Verge in an email that the first night after Waymo’s patch, several of the cars missed the parking lot and inexplicably entered a cul de sac next to her building. In a video we viewed, the... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/18/24223160/waymo-honking-san-francisco-parking-lot-depot-fix-not-working

Image: Ubisoft Ubisoft has published the PC requirements for Star Wars Outlaws, which is releasing later this month on August 30th, in a post that also points to a new gameplay trailer for the Grand Theft Auto- style space adventure . The trailer compares the game’s looks when certain features, like DLSS, are turned on versus off. There may not be any major revelations in terms of story or gameplay here, but it could give you an idea of whether you want to upgrade anything for the game or not. On the hardware side, Outlaws seems fairly forgiving of PCs still using components like the GeForce GTX 1660 GPU or Intel Core i7-8700K CPU. Eurogamer notes that you’ll need DLSS or FSR to run the game at minimum specs. From Ubisoft’s page: Minimum • Visual... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/18/24223015/ubisoft-star-wars-outlaws-pc-requirements-trailer

An F1 single-seater during the Formula 1 Live Barcelona Road Show on June 19th, 2024. | Photo: David Zorrakino / Europa Press via Getty Images Creators whose online identities center around Formula 1 racing have been changing their handles lately, and they seem to be reluctant to say why. But the reason may be because they’re being asked to by F1 itself, who’s rumored to have been sending cease and desist orders to certain creators with monetized accounts that use its branding. Among the abrupt branding changes was Paddock Project (formerly F1r the Girls), an F1 fan podcast. Paddock didn’t mention receiving a cease and desist letter when announcing the change , instead writing that the new name “reflects where we are and where we’re headed.” @shelovesvroomss imagine #f1contentcreators ♬ original sound - shelovesvroomss F1 influencer Mikaela Kostaras, who also recently... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/18/24223039/formula-1-f1-cease-and-desist-

Image: Samar Haddad / The Verge Laura Mae Martin is a big believer in the settings menu. As Google’s executive productivity advisor, Martin spends much of her time working with other Googlers on improving their productivity and communication systems — and one of the things she often recommends is taking a few minutes to poke through the options. “With your phone, with your email, your Slack, all these things, the features are there, but we don’t take the time to dive into them,” she says. She even thinks you should maybe have to look at settings before you can use the app. “Like, you can’t get into the app unless you spend 10 minutes figuring out what it can do.” On this episode of The Vergecast , the first in our three-part miniseries about all things productivity... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/18/24221860/laura-mae-martin-google-productivity-coach-uptime-vergecast

The Venom F5 Revolution at Circuit of the Americas. | Image: Hennessey Special Vehicles Hennessey Special Vehicles crashed its Venom F5 — a $3 million hypercar — while driving nearly 250mph on the Launch and Landing Facility (LLF) runway at Kennedy Space Center in July. Newly reported details show the cost of the crash, which happened while the company was testing out new components of the car. The crash damaged the runway surface, according to crash-related documents acquired by ClickOrlando . The damage was apparently minimal, and repair, plus subsequent hazmat cleanup, cost $712.70, which was billed to Space Coast Testing, the company that manages runway rentals. Renting the LLF, which was once used as a landing strip for NASA’s Space Shuttle and serves aerospace purposes like delivering the United Launch Alliance’s... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/18/24222567/hennessey-venom-f5-hypercar-crash-kennedy-space-center-shuttle-landing-strip

Image: David Pierce / The Verge Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 48, your guide to the best and Verge -iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome, get ready for a lot of books this week, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage .) I’m back after a couple of weeks off — thanks to everyone who wished me a good vacation and sent over book recommendations! I wound up reading Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore , She Rides Shotgun , and The Wager and highly recommend all three. Mostly, I spent two weeks chasing a toddler around various restaurants and playgrounds, and it was a good time, but I am oh so very glad to be back hanging with all of you. And it turns out I missed a lot of good stuff! This week, I’ve been reading about W... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/18/24222043/halide-process-zero-google-gemini-podcast-installer

Rimac, the company behind the absurdly quick Nevera EV, says it’s now made it even faster with the Nevera R. This new version of Rimac’s new electric supercar can apparently hit 60mph from a stop in just 1.74 seconds, or about a tenth of a second faster than the original . The EV apparently generates 2,107 horsepower, or about 200 more than its predecessor . On top of that, Rimac says the Nevera R has better aerodynamics, more downforce, and improved grip, and that it managed to knock 3.8 seconds off the Nevera’s lap time on the Nardo Ring, a high-speed Italian track owned by Porsche. Like the regular Nevera, the new EV supercar requires “manufacturer oversight” to unlock its top speed of 256mph. Without that, the car is limited to... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/17/24222466/rimacs-nevera-r-fastest-ev-supercar

Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photo from Getty Images A federal appeals court in California upheld part of a district court ruling on Friday that blocked a landmark online safety bill for children from taking effect. The panel of judges on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals objected to a portion of the California Age-Appropriate Design Code Act — specifically, a requirement that online businesses “opine on and mitigate the risk that children may be exposed to harmful or potentially harmful materials online.” The rule “facially violates the First Amendment,” the appeals court concluded. As a result, it’s upholding a preliminary injunction on that portion of the law and related aspects. But it sent another part of the law back to the lower court to reconsider and vacated the rest of the... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/16/24221907/california-age-appropriate-design-code-appeals-court-preliminary-injunction-netchoice

An inside view of a bedroom during the media visit of Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Village on July 2nd, 2024, in Paris, France. | Photo by Aurelien Meunier / Getty Images Now that the Paris Olympics are over, the temporary air conditioning units shipped in for athletes are poised to have a second — and hopefully third — life. There was a good amount of drama around these units . Planners initially didn’t include them in their design for competitors’ housing, opting instead for more energy-efficient options. Moreover, AC just hasn’t been as necessary in cooler climates until lately and is still relatively uncommon in homes across Europe . But heatwaves pose big risks for athletes, many of whom decided to supply their own mobile units to stay cool. There was a good amount of drama around these units Thousands of them were reportedly ordered for the Olympic Village, where more than 14,000 athletes stayed... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/16/242

Google design director Claude Zellweger holds up a Pixel 9 series phone in a form-fitting case. “It’s the first time we’ve designed the phone and case hand in hand,” he says. | Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge There’s one thing about the just-announced Google Pixel 9 that’s hard to convey in photos — its camera bar is prominent . Bigger than ever before. It’s roughly as thick as two US quarters stacked together — nearly a third as thick as the entire rest of the phone. It’s so big even the vanilla Pixel 9 is now roughly as thick as a “Pro” iPhone, with a far more prominent camera module. “A modern and unapologetic approach” I’ve never felt a bump quite like it, but I don’t hate it! I argued in 2022 that Google’s camera bar was a good thing : the first major smartphone design element that’s truly Google’s own. In an era when most everyone’s phone is a simple rounded rectangle, it’s a playful way to stand out, giving the phone a cute robot face. I... Continue reading… so

This has to have really thin components and batteries — but there’s plenty of space to spread it out. | Photo: Whylab / Weibo Spy photos of a thin triple-folding phone held by consumer group CEO Yu Chengdong have surfaced again. The images were posted by Weibo user Whylab on Thursday, reports Android Authority . The device looks as if could get as thin as current single-hinged foldables like the Samsung Galaxy Fold 6 when held like a regular smartphone (of course, there’s still a camera bump). Based on earlier rumors, Android Authority notes the device could unfold to a 10-inch tablet mode that is slightly bigger than other eight-inch foldables and launch as soon as next month. A picture posted last week of Chengdong using the device unfolded on a plane showed creases in the tablet screen, with a small front-facing camera on the top of the left side. Huawei's... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/16/24221720/huawei-triple-screen-foldable-leak-

The Momentum Sport earbuds come in a few different color options, but the only vibrant hue is olive. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge The Sennheiser Momentum Sport earbuds are a pretty unique piece of tech, as the noise-canceling buds feature an embedded heart rate tracker for monitoring your performance during runs and exercises. They’re also normally on the pricey side at $329.95, but right now, the olive and graphite colors are discounted to a new low of $254.06 (a savings of roughly $76) at Amazon . The Momentum Sport have a somewhat bassy tone that’s often found in fitness-focused earbuds (since that oomph-oomph can help keep you going when you’re really sweating), but they sound good and offer a secure fit for when you run. They also offer a transparency mode to keep you better attuned to your surroundings and IP55-rated weather resistance that should be able to... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/good-deals/2024/8/15/24220659/sennheis