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The first thing I noticed about the Fujifilm X Half is just how small and light it is. The camera is designed to give you no excuses - you should be able to bring it with you everywhere. And after spending a few hours walking around LA with the camera, I'm starting to understand why you'd want to. Fujifilm's latest doesn't necessarily impress on paper. The X Half is an $850 camera with a vertically oriented 1-inch sensor capable of taking 18MP photos. There's no electric or hybrid viewfinder, no stabilization, no hot shoe, and it can't even take RAW photos. It's very easy to look at that list of missing features and disregard the camera altogether. But the X Half's simplicity is very much the point. This is a camera for taking scrappy, quick photos and capturing memories. A lot of its flaws are masked with film simulations, filters, and superimposed grain. Its limitations are a feature, not a bug. The camera comes with a fixed 32mm equivalent...

A Microsoft employee has managed to circumvent a block instituted earlier this week that limited mentions of "Palestine," "Gaza," and "Genocide" in email subject lines or in the body of a message. Nisreen Jaradat, a senior tech support engineer at Microsoft, emailed thousands of employees on May 23rd with the subject line: "You can't get rid of us." "As a Palestinian worker, I am fed up with the way our people have been treated by this company," the note, a copy of which was obtained by The Verge , reads. "I am sending this email as a message to Microsoft leaders: the cost of trying to silence all voices that dare to humanize Palestinians is far higher than simply listening to the concerns of your employees." It's not immediately clear how Jaradat got around the block. The email calls on Microsoft employees to sign a petition by the No Azure for Apartheid (NOAA) group, which urges Microsoft to end its contracts wi...

When Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella ran into Meta's former engineering chief, Jay Parikh , at a conference last summer, he had the future of AI top of mind. The pair have known each other for around 15 years, but this meeting was different, and Nadella called Parikh shortly after bumping into him to dig into what was really on his mind. "We were chatting about the future and chatting about all the stuff he needs to do here and that the team needs to do around AI," Parikh, now head of Microsoft's CoreAI team, tells The Verge . "That's when he said, 'Hey, why don't you come join and help me transform the company around all of this AI stuff?'" Nadella regularly talks about Microsoft being part of a new AI era, but he now wants the company to overhaul how it builds software to meet this new era head-on. Parikh, who transformed Facebook engineering teams, now leads a transformation that he describes as building an AI "agent factory" for...

Google’s AI search results are about to get even more ads. On May 21st, the company announced that it’s going to start testing ads in AI Mode, the new AI-powered search feature that just rolled out to everyone in the US . AI Mode is the new tab in Google Search that opens an AI chatbot-like interface, where you can get a rundown of what you’re searching for, along with links to relevant websites. But these answers could soon have product recommendations and other ads. As an example, Google says if a user asks AI Mode for tips on how to build a website, the feature will surface a step-by-step guide on how to get started. It might even show a “helpful ad” for a website builder, which will have a “sponsored” label on it. Google says it’s testing search and shopping ads in AI Mode for users on desktop and mobile. The search giant is also expanding its ads in AI Overviews — the AI-generated summaries that appear at the top of some search results — from mobile to desktop devices. Now, ...

Fender has released a free new recording app called Fender Studio that seems pretty powerful. The app, available on iOS, Android, macOS, Windows, and Linux, supports multitrack recording and offers a host of effects that emulate guitar pedals and several of the company’s iconic amplifiers over the years.  Some of the simulated amps include a 1965 Fender Twin Reverb and a 1959 Fender Bassman, but you can get more, like a Fender Super-Sonic or Tube Preamp, if you connect the app to a free Fender Connect account. It’s the same story with pedals: you get options like Overdrive and Small Hall Reverb to start, but you can unlock others like a Stereo Tape Delay and Vintage Tremolo by registering. In addition to the simulated amps and pedals, the app has a variety of basic effects like reverb, delay, compression, and vocoder. You can use up to eight tracks for multitrack recording, but registering the app gets you up to 16 tracks.  The app also comes with a few pre-recorde...

Google I/O starts today, and would you believe it? They’re going to talk about AI. After getting everything Android out of the way in last week’s dedicated Android Show , we’re expecting today’s I/O developer conference keynote to be one big AI show . Gemini, Project Astra, and everything in between are likely to be the focus as Google tries to prove it’s the biggest player in the industry. Android XR is also set to get a mention, with the promise of new demos and more details. We’re hoping that includes closer looks at Google’s prototype smart glasses and Samsung’s Project Moohan , and maybe even new hardware reveals. It all starts at 10AM PT / 1PM ET , and you can also follow along with our event liveblog right here . Read below for all of the news and updates from Google I/O 2025 . All about AI. Reporting for live blog duty, it’s your I/O crew. Google I/O 2025 live blog: Gemini takes center stage First. A few things to look out for at Google I/O today: We’re kick...

Microsoft’s four-day Build conference kicks off on Monday, May 19th, with a livestream starting at 9AM PT / 12PM ET . Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella will be on stage to present all the latest Windows, Office, and AI news, followed by developer sessions that will be free for anyone to register and watch online. Build is Microsoft’s annual developer conference, where the company holds in-depth sessions for developers and professionals alike to hear the latest features for Windows, Office, Azure, and much more. We’re expecting to hear a lot about AI this year, particularly Microsoft’s vision for AI agents. Read on for all the latest Build news. Microsoft is opening its on-device AI models up to web apps in Edge Microsoft Edge is adding translation for PDFs. Microsoft is now hosting xAI’s Grok 3 models Microsoft’s Windows Subsystem for Linux is now open-source Windows is getting support for the ‘USB-C of AI apps’ GitHub’s new AI coding agent can fix bugs for you Microsoft’s ...