Posts

Showing posts from September, 2024

You might start seeing Instagram comments on Threads soon

Image
Illustration: The Verge Instagram might roll out a way to share comments on other Instagram posts to Threads, according to Alessandro Paluzzi, who often reverse engineers Meta’s social media apps to find coming features. Paluzzi shared an image showing that when commenting on an Instagram post, there could be a new dropdown menu that lets users choose to share the comment only to Instagram or “also share on Threads.” Meta has made a few moves to integrate Threads with its other platforms in the past, such as showing Threads posts on Instagram or Facebook (and, later, letting users opt out of that). The Twitter-like short-posting social network also lacks DMs of its own, but users can still receive or send messages through Instagram. The bigger effort, of... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/15/24245679/meta-share-instagram-comments-threads-feature-rumor

Apple will charge more to swap your iPhone 16 Pro battery

Image
Image: Nilay Patel Apple has hiked the price of its battery repair service for the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max . Now, it will cost $119 to get your battery replaced in either phone — a $20 jump over its older fee. The price remains the same for the standard and “Plus” models, as do those for last year’s phones, as MacRumors notes . The company doesn’t seem to have started charging more for other battery replacements yet, but it wouldn’t be unexpected. In 2022, Apple drove the cost of iPhone 14 battery service up by $30 to $99 . Increases for iPad, MacBook, and older iPhone battery repairs came after that , and Apple Watches followed suit later . (One longs for the salad days of battery drama-induced $29 battery replacements !) Defective batteries are covered... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/15/24245431/iphone-16-pro-max-battery-replacement-price-increase-apple-repair

Megalopolis could have let audiences ask Adam Driver questions during showings

Image
Adam Driver in a Megalopolis trailer. | Screenshot: YouTube Francis Ford Coppola wanted voice recognition software to let audience members ask Adam Driver’s Cesar character a question during theatrical showings of Megalopolis , according to a Telegraph interview with the director . Then, the software would trigger the theater’s projector to play a clip of “the most relevant response” from Driver. Apparently, it was actually in the works. Amazon had agreed to make a “custom version of its Alexa voice-recognition software” to do this, but the team working on it was laid off during a huge round of layoffs in 2022 , writes The Telegraph. Alas. “Imagine!” Coppola beams. “You could see Megalopolis five times in its opening week and it would be different each time! It would have been the future of the... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/14/24244876/megalopolis-voice-recognition-tech-amazon-adam-driver-questions

NASA’s Starliner astronauts don’t feel ‘let down’ by Boeing’s spacecraft

Image
NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore spoke about their continued stay aboard the International Space Station during a press conference held yesterday. The two are now fully incorporated into the ISS crew, as the Boeing Starliner spacecraft that was meant to take them home last week was instead sent back to Earth uncrewed . Early on, the two were asked if they felt “let down” by Boeing. “Absolutely not,” said Wilmore: “This operation is not easy. NASA does a great job — the people at Nasa do a great job — of making a lot of things look easy. Sending probes beyond the edge of our solar system; going in [and] getting samples from asteroids; humans in space. It’s a very risky business and things do not always turn out the way you... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/14/24244790/nasa-starliner-astronauts-suni-williams-butch-wilmore-press-conference-boeing

8BitDo’s new Bluetooth mod kit puts GameCube controllers back into play

Image
A GameCube controller, post-mod. | Image: 8BitDo 8BitDo announced it’s taking preorders for a new mod kit that lets you retrofit a wired GameCube controller with Hall effects joysticks and Bluetooth connectivity. The company is charging $25.98 for the kit, which it says is a simple, solderless mod. 8BitDo has made a few of these in the past for old Nintendo controllers, including those for the N64 and earlier consoles , and now it’s the GameCube’s turn. The kit replaces your controller’s existing PCB with a drop-in board that has Hall effects joysticks and a USB-C-rechargeable 300mAh battery attached. It also comes with a trigger pack, and 8BitDo says the battery will get 6 hours of playtime between charges. It’s compatible with the Switch and Android, according to the product page. I... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/14/24244670/8bitdo-mod-kit-gamecube-controller-bluetooth-hall-effects-joystick

Check out the Pixel 9 Pro Fold’s guts in iFixit’s latest teardown

Image
Photo: Allison Johnson / The Verge Courtesy of iFixit, a new teardown video of the Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold reveals what the repairability advocate organization’s Shahram Mokhtari says is “the most exciting foldable we’ve seen on the iFixit teardown table.” iFixit offers very clear shots of the phone’s internals in the video and its accompanying blog post , along with some very detailed Lumafield CT scans of the foldable. Mokhtari notes in the video that Google is offering official repair guides and replacement parts for the phone. iFixit found impressive modularity in the Pixel 9 Pro Fold, including easily removable wearable parts like the USB-C port and SIM card tray, and the site praised the use of 3IP screws throughout. The repair experts were also able to pull off... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/14/24244590/google-pixel-9-pro-fold-teardown-x-ray-ct-scan-repairability

Is this weirdly shaped, canary yellow thing Tesla’s robotaxi?

Image
This photo, from X user @MatthewDR via Reddit user u/boopitysmopp (since deleted), could be of Tesla’s long-gestating robotaxi. | Screenshot: u/boopitysmopp, via @MatthewDR A blurry photo of a heavily camouflaged vehicle tooling around on the Warner Bros. movie studio lot surfaced last night, spurring speculation that it’s the fabled Tesla robotaxi set to be revealed next month. With its canary yellow wrap and clearly manipulated shape, it’s difficult to glean much about the robotaxi from just this sighting. Everything about this photo should be taken with a grain of salt, including the tires, boxy rear end, weird roof bump ( lidar? ), and upsetting hood indentions. All is not what it seems. According to Electrek , the photo was first posted to Reddit by u/boopitysmopp, who is said to be a lot employee at Warner Bros. (The post has since been removed, and the Reddit user has deleted their profile, so the... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/13/242438

Google unlists misleading Gemini video

Image
Screenshot by Jay Peters / The Verge Google has unlisted an impressive Gemini demo video it posted last December that seemed remarkably conversational. BBB National Programs’ National Advertising Division (NAD), an ad industry watchdog, inquired whether the video “accurately depicts the performance of Gemini in responding to user voice and video prompts.” Google chose to end the inquiry by ending its promotion of the video that showed Gemini quickly responding to various spoken prompts, such as identifying parts of drawings and creating a geography game on the fly. Buried in the description was a disclaimer indicating the demo might not be as good as it seemed: “For the purposes of this demo, latency has been reduced and Gemini outputs have been shortened for brevity.” A... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/12/24242897/google-gemini-unlists-misleading-video-ai

Apple gets FDA authorization to turn the AirPods Pro into hearing aids

Image
Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Just days after Apple announced a new hearing aid feature for the second-generation AirPods Pro , the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has authorized the software that powers this functionality. In a press release , the FDA describes Apple’s solution as “the first over-the-counter (OTC) hearing aid software device.” The feature “was evaluated in a clinical study with 118 subjects with perceived mild to moderate hearing loss,” according to the FDA, and “the results demonstrated that subjects who used the HAF self-fitting strategy achieved similar perceived benefit as subjects who received professional fitting of the same device.” Enabling the AirPods Pro to double as clinical-grade hearing aids is one of several new features that... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/12/24242929/apple-airpods-pro-hearing-aids-fda-authorization

This life-size Lego McLaren P1 can hit almost 40mph

Image
Lego’s McLaren P1 isn’t quite as fast as the real deal. | Image: Lego After releasing a 24-inch-long scale replica of the McLaren P1 earlier this year, Lego has now debuted a full-size drivable version of the hypercar built from over 342,817 Technic pieces and powered by hundreds of Lego electric motors. That eclipses the 3,893 pieces that go into building Lego’s 1:8-scale McLaren P1 model. The company says the full-scale version used 393 types of Technic components, including 11 specifically manufactured for the replica. That would make it hard to build a copy yourself, but you’d also struggle to find the time. Lego says it took 6,134 hours to design and plan its P1 and 2,210 hours to assemble it. Lego opted to build with Technic components instead of its standard bricks as it allowed the company’s... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/12/24242802/lego-mclaren-p1-hypercar-full-size

Google Chrome makes it easier to opt out of annoying notifications on Android

Image
On mobile, you get a one-tap unsubscribe under annoying website notifications from Chrome. | Image: Google Google is expanding a Chrome safety feature to help you cancel pesky website notifications with a single tap. It’s already available on Pixels and is coming to more Android devices; adding a simple unsubscribe button in the notification so that you can get rid of websites you didn’t mean to subscribe to, like horoscopes or weird facts about ducks (there’s also an undo button in case you actually do still want those weird duck facts). There’s also an updated Safety Check running in the background to automatically revoke permissions from websites that you haven’t visited in a long time or are otherwise dangerous. You can see the actions taken in the summary panel, which lists other potential security concerns like compromised passwords and... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/12/24242838/google-chrome-android-notifications-permissions

A rundown of what’s new and improved in Android 15

Image
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge After previews at Google I/O 2024 and months of testing, the finished version of Android 15 is now available for developers. That doesn’t mean it’s out for users just yet: according to Google, it’ll be a few weeks before it arrives on Pixels and then will get to Samsung and other select devices “in the coming months.” As usual with Android, the software will come with a variety of different tweaks and variations depending on the make of your phone. In terms of the core Android 15 functionality that Google, Samsung, and others are building on top of, here’s some of what’s new with this release. Better multitasking Android 15 will improve the multitasking experience on tablets and large-screen displays by enabling you to pin the taskbar... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/24160704/google-android-15-beta-new-features

This Iodyne is the most gadgety portable SSD ever devised

Image
The Iodyne Pro Mini. | Photo: Iodyne Do you know what’s on your portable drives? Or where you saw them last? Are they ready to store and share massive gobs of video? Are they blazing fast? The Iodyne Pro Mini is designed to be the (pricey) answer to all of that. It’s the first external SSD with a pair of Frore AirJet Mini Slim inside, a solid-state cooling chip that, the company says, helps it transfer data at a sustained three gigabytes per second with a drive no bigger than an iPhone. It’s the first I’ve seen with a built-in e-paper display that can automatically keep track of remaining storage and the last time it was used — plus your project name, lost-and-found phone numbers or emails, QR codes, or anything else you type in. Image: Iodyne I... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/10/24240378/iodyne-pro-mini-ssd-e-paper-find-my-apple-google-thunderbolt

Chrome is making it easier to keep track of browser tabs

Image
Tab groups will soon make it easier to revisit webpages across devices without bookmarking them. | Image: Google Google is adding some new features to Chrome that aim to help users organize and keep track of their browser tabs across both desktop and mobile devices. The search giant announced in a new blog post that tab groups — which enable Android and desktop Chrome users to keep related pages together in custom-labeled groups — will start rolling out to Chrome for iOS starting today. Once Chrome is updated, iPhone and iPad users can access the feature by opening the tab grid, long-pressing on a tab, and selecting “Add Tab to New Group.” Custom names and colors can then be assigned to the created tab groups to help keep them organized and easily identifiable. GIF: Google Here’s a quick demo showing how to access tab... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/10/24240874/google-chrome-browser-tab-groups-update-ios-android-desktop

The Apple Watch Ultra 2 now comes in black

Image
The Apple Watch Ultra 2 in black. | Photo: Chris Welch / The Verge Apple has refreshed the Apple Watch Ultra 2 with a new “satin black” color option and sleep apnea detection feature, the company announced at its September event today. It’s the first time Apple has offered the Watch Ultra in more than one color since it launched two years ago. The Watch Ultra 2 will use the watch’s accelerometer and measurements over time to detect when a sleeper’s motion is consistent with sleep apnea. The feature is coming to the new Apple Watch Series 10 as well as the Series 9. Apple also announced a new titanium Milanese Loop. It’s $799 and available for preorder today ahead of a September 20th release. The Watch Ultra will get watchOS 11, which brings with it updates to Smart Stack — the widgets that pop up when... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/9/24239740/apple-watch-ultra-specs-price-features-release-date

Apple Watch Series 10 announced with bigger screen and thinner design

Image
Screenshot: Apple The 10th version of the Apple Watch has been announced at Apple’s event on Monday and features a 40 percent brighter wide-angle OLED screen that’s larger than the display on the Apple Watch Ultra. The new Apple Watch Series 10 is just 9.7 millimeters thick, making it 10 percent thinner than the Apple Watch Series 9. Apple says its larger OLED screen, the largest used in an Apple Watch to date, allows the wearable to display an extra line of text onscreen, making it easier for users to check emails and messages at a glance. Powered by Apple’s new S10 chip with a four core neural engine, the Series 10 features a polished aluminum finish, and a new metal back integrating the smartwatch’s various antennas. It’s still water resistant to... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/9/24236801/apple-watch-series-10-price-specs-features-release-date

iPhone 16 event live blog: all the news from Apple’s keynote

Image
Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge We’re here with the latest on Apple Intelligence, iPhones, Apple Watches, and AirPods. Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/9/24236176/apple-iphone-16-liveblog-apple-watch-x-airpods-keynote

The Miniroll Bluetooth speaker is a return to form for Ultimate Ears

Image
The Ultimate Ears Miniroll is available now in black, gray, pink, and blue colorways. | Image: Logitch / Ultimate Ears Ultimate Ears just launched the Miniroll, a new compact Bluetooth speaker that’s more portable than the company’s Boom-branded lineup. Priced at $79.99, the Miniroll is now the smallest and most affordable Bluetooth speaker offered by Ultimate Ears, and revives the disc design used by the company’s discontinued Roll and Roll 2 products . As its name suggests, that familiar form factor has been shrunk to a diameter of around 4 inches (105mm), and a thickness of 1.9 inches (48mm) — making it easier to fit into pockets or smaller bags. The Miniroll weighs 9.8 ounces (279g) and still features a built-in strap that can be used to attach it to things like bags and belt loops. Ultimate Ears also says that the speaker is “drop-proof” up to... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/9/24239682/ultimate-ears-miniroll-bluetooth-speaker-price-availabil

What to expect from Apple’s ‘It’s Glowtime’ iPhone 16 event

Image
Apple’s iPhone 16 event invitation. | Image: Apple Apple is getting ready to announce the iPhone 16, which will surely be its most powerful and best-camera-having phone yet (at least for the Pro models). It’s also expected to be the first iPhone to launch with Apple Intelligence across the board. In addition to the iPhone 16 lineup and a slate of new watches and AirPods, Apple is expected to show more AI features, like the ability to understand what’s onscreen, along with features it introduced at WWDC in June, which include an upgraded Siri , image generation, AI rewrite, and call recording and transcription abilities. The word “glowtime” is likely a reference to the glow effect that appears around the edges of the screen when Siri is activated in the latest developer betas of iOS 18 .... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/4/24232248/apple-event-september-iphone-16-date-time-live-stream-watch-how-to-rumors

These new Aukey wireless chargers come with cooling fans

Image
AUKEY Aukey debuted three new magnetic wireless chargers at IFA in Berlin that come with fans to keep your phone cooler while it’s charging. The company says that means the chargers, called the MagFusion 3-in-1 Pro , the MagFusion GameFrost , and the MagFusion Dash Pro , will charge your phone faster, too. All three use the Qi2 standard, which means up to 15-watt charging for compatible phones and backward compatibility with normal Qi devices. Aukey claims they can drop charging temperatures as much as 68 degrees Fahrenheit compared to “traditional wireless chargers.” The MagFusion 3-in-1 Pro stand can simultaneously charge an iPhone, AirPods, and an Apple Watch. It can tilt up and down over a 30-degree range, also. The MagFusion GameFrost is,... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/8/24239204/aukey-omnia-frez-wireless-charger-cooling-fans-iphone-magsafe

Researchers say a bug let them add fake pilots to rosters used for TSA checks

Image
Illustration by Carlo Cadenas / The Verge A pair of security researchers say they discovered a vulnerability in login systems for records that the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) uses to verify airline crew members at airport security checkpoints. The bug let anyone with a “basic knowledge of SQL injection” add themselves to airline rosters, potentially letting them breeze through security and into the cockpit of a commercial airplane, researcher Ian Carroll wrote in a blog post in August. Carroll and his partner, Sam Curry, apparently discovered the vulnerability while probing the third-party website of a vendor called FlyCASS that provides smaller airlines access to the TSA’s Known Crewmember (KCM) system and Cockpit Access Security System (CASS). They found that... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/8/24239026/airline-security-bug-tsa-security-database-sql-injection-hack

Nanoleaf finally launches a smart switch after eight years of trying

Image
Nanoleaf’s Sense Plus Smart Switch wirelessly controls Nanoleaf’s lights, including its new ceiling light. | Image: Nanoleaf After nearly a decade of development, Nanoleaf’s smart switch is finally here. You can pre-order the $30 Sense Plus Smart Wireless “Anywhere” Switch today, and it should ship in October. But to get to this point, Nanoleaf had to pivot from its adoption of Thread and create a new, proprietary protocol called Litewave . The battery-powered device brings physical control to Nanoleaf’s smart lighting system, allowing you to press a button to turn lights on or off, dim or brighten, or change colors. Plus, built-in motion and light sensors let the Sense adjust your lighting based on room conditions. “We needed to make sure that our products would work reliably with less dependence on the platforms,” Gimmy Chu The Sense, a version of which was f... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/7/24235620/nanoleaf-sense-plus-smart-switch-thread-

TIFF 2024: all the latest movie reviews from Toronto

Image
Photo by Mathew Tsang / Getty Images A regularly updated stream of everything we see. Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/7/24235914/tiff-2024-toronto-movie-reviews-trailers

Disney and DirecTV head into a big sports weekend with no carriage deal

Image
The Verge Negotiations for a new carriage deal between Disney and DirecTV are continuing into this weekend, reports Deadline . Meanwhile, the two are lobbing messaging at customers who are left out in the cold as the first NFL weekend kicks off. It’s been a week since DirecTV customers have been able to watch channels like ABC or ESPN. Disney published posts on Instagram and elsewhere, Variety wrote , pointing DirecTV viewers to alternatives like Spectrum or Disney’s own Hulu with live TV subscription to watch things like the US Open tennis tournament or the upcoming Monday Night Football game between the Jets and the 49ers. Last week , Disney accused DirecTV of “an agreement that undervalues our portfolio,” while DirecTV insisted that Disney is... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/7/24238351/disney-directv-carriage-dispute-nfl-monday-night-football-us-open-tennis-alternatives-hulu-spectrum

Astro Bot is the game you buy a PS5 for

Image
Image: Team Asobi The sequel to a simple pack-in game is a flawless love letter to both PlayStation’s history and video games in general. Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/24237778/astro-bot-review-ps5-game-of-the-year

Here are the best Kindle deals right now

Image
Amazon’s discounting the Kindle Scribe when you buy it as a part of a bundle. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge When it comes to finding a device to read ebooks, you have a few options to choose from. You can always buy a tablet or use your phone, but those devices are multipurpose and can be used for a ton of things, like surfing the web or doom-scrolling on X. If you are looking for something to strictly read books, e-readers, while niche, are designed to store all of your books in a virtual library with limited functionality. Amazon, one of the pioneers of the e-reader, has dominated the space for years with its ever-expanding Kindle lineup, which consists of several unique models with their own pros and cons. The bulk of the devices function as simple ebook readers; however, with the Kindle Scribe , Amazon looks to be moving beyond books and... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/21539047/best-amazon-kindle-deals

Roblox will start sharing more revenue with creators

Image
Illustration: The Verge As Roblox marches toward its ultimate goal of 1 billion users, the company is finding new ways to share revenue with the developers who have made millions of games on the platform. During the company’s annual developers conference in San Francisco on Friday, CEO David Baszucki announced that creators of these games, which Roblox calls experiences, will be able to keep between 50 and 70 percent of revenue from their paid titles when they’re purchased in real currency on desktop computers. That’s significantly more than the roughly 30 percent revenue split Roblox gives developers for purchases made with its native Robux currency inside freemium experiences. The move could help incentivize the creation of more premium games as Roblox looks... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/6/24237039/roblox-share-revenue-creators-paid-experiences-rdc-2024

Telegram disables ‘misused’ features as CEO faces criminal charges

Image
Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images In a post on Telegram Friday, founder and CEO Pavel Durov set out a new approach for the app and announced it’s disabled some “outdated” features. The first changes to the app following his arrest in France last month affect its built-in blog posts and a “People Nearby” location-based feature. The changes come as Durov attempts to reverse Telegram’s reputation as a hotspot for criminal activity that came as a result of lax moderation policies . In late August, French authorities arrested and charged Durov with enabling legal transactions and complicity in the distribution of child sexual abuse material. Durov’s first post-arrest statement Thursday said, “Telegram’s abrupt increase in user count to 950M caused growing pains that made it... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/6/24237526/telegram-pavel-durov-telegraph-location-features-moderation

Waymo thinks it can overcome robotaxi skepticism with lots of safety data

Image
Image: Waymo How do you convince a skeptical public that your autonomous vehicles are not only safer than human drivers but also a better way to get around? If you’re Waymo, the answer is data — and lots of it. The Alphabet-owned company revealed a new safety hub today, complete with glossy graphics and a multitude of charts that will be periodically updated, with the overarching message that its autonomous vehicles are not to be feared . The move comes as Waymo seeks to expand its footprint, win over new customers, and cement its lead in the race to deploy more driverless cars. It also comes as safety regulators have begun to take a harder look at the whole autonomous vehicle industry — including Waymo . “This matters a lot to us” “This matters a lot... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/5/24235078/waymo-safety-hub-miles-crashes-robotaxi-transparency

Nanoleaf’s new wall panels can show off your plants and Funko Pops

Image
Nanoleaf’s Blocks come in two sizes and can integrate with fabric panel covers, pegboards, and shelves. | Image: Nanoleaf Nanoleaf is giving its popular smart lighting panels a major refresh. The Nanoleaf Blocks (starting at $199.99) feature edge-to-edge lighting that the company says eliminates hot spots and dark corners, bringing a smoother, more even look. The new Blocks can also be customized with pegboards, shelves, and textured light panels to bring more function to your wall art. They’re available for preorder now and ship in October. The company announced the new panels during its Nanoleaf Live event on YouTube and will show them off at the IFA tech show in Berlin this week. Nanoleaf is also adding two new features to its desktop app that work with the Blocks, as well as its entire line of smart lights, to offer more immersive lighting experiences.... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/5/24233728/nanoleaf-blocks-wall-panels-smart-lighting-ifa

Panasonic TVs return to the US with a huge 85-inch Mini LED screen

Image
Panasonic returns to the US market with a pair of OLED TVs plus a Mini LED model. | Image: Panasonic Panasonic’s TVs are returning to the US , starting with a small lineup that includes both OLED and Mini LED models. The company stopped selling its TVs in the US in 2016, three years after ending production of its well-regarded plasma screens . The company is now bringing its TVs back to meet the demands of “consumers seeking the highest possible picture quality.” Three models are now available in the US : 55- and 65-inch OLED options and a Mini LED TV that goes up to 85 inches for those wanting to go big. Panasonic already sells them internationally with “minor regional differences,” but in the US, they will continue to run Amazon’s Fire TV OS. Image: Panasonic The Panasonic Z95A OLED TV is only available in a... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/4/24235680/panasonic-tv-oled-mini-led-amazon-fire-tv

Microsoft’s Copilot AI features are coming to new Intel laptops in November

Image
Image: Microsoft Intel says that Microsoft’s new Windows AI features will start arriving on some of its laptops in November. AMD has already launched laptops that are capable of meeting Microsoft’s Copilot Plus PC hardware requirements for Windows AI features, but the features have so far only been available on new Qualcomm-powered devices. Intel is announcing new Intel Core Ultra 200V processors today, codenamed Lunar Lake, which will start getting Copilot Plus PC features later this year. “All designs featuring Intel Core Ultra 200V series processors and running the latest version of Windows are eligible to receive Copilot Plus PC features as a free update starting in November,” says Intel in a press release . Microsoft previously told us that Intel... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/3/24234687/microsoft-co-pilot-plus-pcs-intel-features-release-date

Intel reveals first Lunar Lake laptop CPUs: everything you need to know

Image
A graphical representation of Intel’s Lunar Lake chip. | Image: Intel Do good things come to laptop buyers who wait? Today, Intel is revealing its first nine answers to Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite and AMD’s Strix Point laptop chips — and the company claims the new Core Ultra 200V lineup, formerly known as Lunar Lake , can meet or beat them in almost every way. When the first wave of laptops ship on September 24th, they’ll have “the fastest CPU core,” “the world’s best built-in GPU,” and “the best AI performance,” according to Intel. Where Qualcomm versus AMD was a question of battery life versus graphical performance, Intel claims its new chips do it all. For example, Dell is just now announcing a new version of its flagship $1,400 XPS 13 laptop with Lunar Lake that’s basically identical to the current... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/3/24233957/intel-lunar-lake-core-ultra-200v-launch

Volvo EX90 first drive: not fully baked

Image
The Volvo EX90 is a year delayed and still won’t arrive with all its promised features. | Image: Abigail Bassett Volvo’s new flagship EV has plenty of luxury bells and whistles, but some of its technology is still TBA. Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/3/24233412/volvo-ex90-hands-on-specs-range-tech-lidar

Brazilian Supreme Court panel upholds X ban, while Starlink refuses to comply

Image
Image: The Verge A panel of five Brazilian Supreme Court justices voted Monday to uphold a decision ( PDF ) requiring the National Telecommunications Agency (Anatel) to limit access to X, the service formerly known as Twitter. Justice Alexandre de Moraes issued the ban on Friday in response to X owner Elon Musk’s refusal to comply with court orders to block certain accounts and to identify a legal representative in the country. Four other justices have now backed the decision. Poder360 and The Globe report that three justices, Cristiano Zanin, Flávio Dino, and Cármen Lúcia, fully supported de Moraes’ ruling, while a fourth, Luiz Fux, noted reservations about a fine for people who circumvent the ban with a VPN, saying only people who post criminal messages... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/2/24234349/x-twitter-ban-brazil-supreme-court-elon-musk-moraes

Jacob Wohl is running an AI lobbying company under a pseudonym, Politico reports

Image
Alex Castro / The Verge Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman are far-right activists , convicted felons , and engineers of questionable political stunts . Politico reports that they are now also running LobbyMatic , a company that sells an “ AI automation platform for lobbyists .” LobbyMatic claims on its website that its AI-powered software can do everything — like automatically monitor congressional hearings or “supercharge research” into legislative and regulatory issues. Jumping on the AI hypewagon is a perfectly respectable career move. The problem is that sources have told Politico that Wohl and Burkman are running the firm under the pseudonyms “Jay Klein” and “Bill Sanders.” LobbyMatic has no leadership listed on its official website. A company by the name of... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/2/24234231/jacob-wohl-jack-burkman-ai-lobbying-lobbymatic-politico

Oasis ticketing chaos prompts probe into dynamic pricing

Image
The tour marks the first reunion for Oasis since Liam (left) and Noel Gallagher split the band in 2009. | Photo by Gie Knaeps/Getty Images The British government has pledged to investigate the use of dynamic pricing by ticketing websites after Oasis fans got priced out of the band’s surprise reunion tour. The UK’s advertising regulator told BBC News it had received 450 complaints regarding misleading ticket prices and availability, with many tickets more than doubling in price. Sales began on Saturday and sold out within hours after thousands of hopeful buyers spent the day in online queues. On Ticketmaster, the cost of some tickets increased from £135 (about $177 USD) when sales began, to over £350 (about $460 USD). UK Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy told ITV News that the government will “include issues around the transparency and use of dynamic pricing, including the... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/2/24234149/oasis-reunion-tour-tickets-dynamic-pri

Lenovo leak reveals cheaper Copilot Plus PCs are coming this month

Image
Image: Microsoft Lenovo appears ready to launch new more affordable Copilot Plus PCs. Reliable leaker Evan Blass has published a press release from Lenovo that details a variety of Copilot Plus PCs that will be announced at the IFA trade show later this week, including two that are powered by an unannounced 8-core Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus chip. The new Qualcomm-powered Copilot Plus PCs from Lenovo include the IdeaPad 5x 2-in-1, a convertible with a 14-inch OLED display, and the IdeaPad Slim 5x, a full-metal clamshell laptop with the option to pick a 14-inch OLED display. Both feature a new Snapdragon X Plus 8-core chip, instead of the regular 10-core version. Image: Evan Blass (X) The IdeaPad 5x 2-in-1 comes with an OLED... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/2/24234003/lenovo-leak-copilot-plus-pcs-ifa-2024

Disney blocks ESPN, ABC, and other channels for millions of DirecTV subscribers

Image
Disney and DirecTV both blame each other for causing the blackout. | Image: The Verge Disney-owned channels including ABC and ESPN were pulled from DirecTV’s lineup on Sunday after talks to reach a new distribution deal between the companies collapsed. The blackout started midway through ESPN’s broadcast of the US Open tennis tournament, and just ahead of the NFL season opener this coming weekend. DirecTV and Disney are both blaming each other for causing the blackout. The only thing for certain is that DirecTV’s roughly 11 million subscribers are the ones suffering. DirecTV says it’s being prevented from offering more flexible packages that can more closely cater to consumer interest, and that Disney is “herding consumers away” from network TV by shifting content to Disney-owned streaming services like Hulu and Disney... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/2/24233997/disney-directv-blackout-espn-abc-carriage-dispute

Microsoft says its Recall uninstall option in Windows 11 is just a bug

Image
Image: Microsoft While the latest update to Windows 11 makes it look like the upcoming Recall feature can be easily removed by users, Microsoft tells us it’s just a bug and a fix is coming. Deskmodder spotted the change last week in the latest 24H2 version of Windows 11, with KB5041865 seemingly delivering the ability to uninstall Recall from the Windows Features section. “We are aware of an issue where Recall is incorrectly listed as an option under the ‘Turn Windows features on or off’ dialog in Control Panel,” says Windows senior product manager Brandon LeBlanc in a statement to The Verge . “This will be fixed in an upcoming update.” The controversial Recall AI feature, which creates screenshots of mostly everything you see or do on a computer, was... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/2/24233992/microsoft-recall-windows-11-uninstall-feature-bug

Boeing’s Starliner started making a repeating ‘pulsing’ sound yesterday

Image
Image: NASA US astronaut Barry Wilmore called NASA ground crew on Saturday, asking for help with a repetitive knocking sound that was coming from the Boeing Starliner craft. The interaction was captured by a NASA Space Flight forum member, who included a recording of it in a post that was spotted by Ars Technica . In the recording, Wilmore asks NASA crew in Houston to configure their call so that he could show them the noise, which he says is coming from the speaker inside Starliner. Then, a repetitive clanging sound with slight there’s-something-on-the-wing vibes can be heard. The Earthside crew member describes it as sounding “almost like a sonar ping.” Starliner crew reports hearing strange "sonar like noises" emanating from their craft. This is... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/1/24233669/boeing-starliner-strange-noise-nasa-iss-sonar-ping