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Inscryption. The slow-burn rise of the roguelike deckbuilder Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/UDygVvW

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge The Steam Deck has a lot of buttons. There’s a D-pad, all the typical face buttons, two control sticks that also respond to capacitive touch and can be pushed down like buttons, two trackpads with haptic feedback that are also pressure-sensitive buttons, two shoulder bumpers, two analog shoulder triggers, and four buttons on the back of the device behind the grips. Somehow, they all feel like they’re exactly in the right place while you’re holding the device, and in writing the latest in our long-running Button of the Month series , you might think that I’d wax poetic about just one of them. But for me, the true magic of the Steam Deck is that any button can be the awesome button, thanks to the device’s excellent software. ... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/BFsvu39

Illustration by Jarett Sitter / The Verge The team at indie games studio RNG Party has always loved handheld gaming, particularly Nintendo’s quirky portable devices. So when they noticed a new handheld making waves on Twitter, one that looked a lot like a tiny yellow Game Boy, they knew they had to be a part of it. “With pretty much every major console maker now gone from this space, unless you count the Nintendo Switch, this kind of thing might only ever be possible for us once,” explains RNG’s Ben Busche. “And we didn’t want to miss out.” That device was the Playdate , a handheld from longtime Mac software developer Panic, which is defined both by its miniature stature and the crank sticking out of its side. It finally released earlier this year, and those who purchased one... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/5BsfZjp

Illustration by Jarett Sitter / The Verge Annemarie Rose is bent over a sheet of glass, hair tucked into a messy half ponytail, tracing the outline of a heart into its glossy surface. She breaks it apart, sands the edges, and etches a simple message across its smooth surface: spit in my mouth. “Something hot for Valentine’s Day,” the description reads on her TikTok video. Commenters go wild, a chorus of desire filling the section. “WHERE CAN I BUY,” writes one enthusiastic viewer with a grip on their caps lock. Another helpfully adds a backstory: “I NEED THIS because I got blocked for telling my crush to spit in my mouth and pull my hair so sad.” Back in the real world, a dumbfounded Annemarie watches as the numbers on her video skyrocket. Refresh. 100 new followers. Refresh.... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/MpDKdiq

Amazon sponsors LGBTQ issues in the US, including this Pride float from NYC in 2018. | Photo by Rob Kim/Getty Images Amazon has restricted search results and inventory related to LGBTQ topics in the United Arab Emirates after being pressured to do so by the government, reports The New York Times . Same-sex relationships and sex acts are illegal in the UAE, and are punishable by fines and imprisonment. A number of books related to LGBTQ topics were removed from sale in the UAE (including Roxane Gay’s Bad Feminist and Maia Kobabe’s Gender Queer: A Memoir ), and search results have been hidden for more than 150 keywords. These include broad search terms like “lgbtq” and “pride,” as well as targeted queries like “transgender flag” and “chest binder for lesbians.” The Times notes that it’s not clear what penalties Amazon was threatened with by the UAE... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/nQUWNs3

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Developers of apps released in Apple’s South Korean App Store no longer have to use the company’s own in-app payment system, the iPhone maker has announced in a developer update . Instead, developers will be able to take payments using the third-party service providers pre-approved by Apple. The change comes in response to an amendment to South Korea’s Telecommunications Business Act passed last year , which prevents large platform holders like Apple and Google from forcing developers to use their first-party in-app payment systems. Both Apple and Google opposed the legislation, with Apple arguing that it would make it harder for its users to manage their purchases, undermine their privacy protections, and put them at risk of fraud. D... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/l2tzL0n

Illustration by Jarett Sitter / The Verge Software like Aim Lab and KovaaK’s are key parts of the esports ecosystem Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/ICrkZha

Millie Bobby Brown at the Stranger Things season 4 premiere. | Photo by Roy Rochlin/Getty Images Stranger Things’ Millie Bobby Brown will star in a new Netflix film from the Russo brothers, directors of Avengers: Endgame and Avengers: Infinity War . The Electric State is a retro-futuristic sci-fi movie that follows Brown, a robotic companion, and an “eccentric drifter” as she travels through the American West in search of her brother, Netflix said in its casting announcement . Away from the involvement of Brown and the Russo brothers, the most interesting aspect of The Electric State is that it’s based on an illustrated book by Simon Stålenhag. Stålenhag is the artist behind some incredible retro futuristic illustrations, and his other books include Tales from the Loop, which Amazon recently adapted into a TV series of its own. M... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/CJul27G

The audio brand’s new noise-canceling headphones can hang with the very best Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/Q50Jagk

The Ioniq 6. | Image: Hyundai Hyundai is offering an early look at its upcoming all-electric sedan, the Ioniq 6 . It comes as Bloomberg reports that the company’s EV market share is quietly surging in Europe and the US , causing even Tesla’s Elon Musk to take notice . If last year’s all-electric Ioniq 5 crossover SUV took inspiration from 70s designs, then Top Gear says that the 6 draws inspiration from streamlined vehicles from the 20s and 30s like the Stout Scarab . If you liked the look of Hyundai’s Prophecy concept car from 2020 , then the Ioniq 6 is the vehicle it’s morphed into. The South Korean automaker is focused on showing off the design of the Ioniq 6 rather than its technical specifications for now, so there are no firm details on its battery size or range.... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/0JKn5j1

Photo by Mohssen Assanimoghaddam/picture alliance via Getty Images Brazil’s telecoms regulator Anatel has launched a public consultation on a proposal to make USB-C chargers mandatory for all smartphones sold in the country. It’s the latest example of lawmakers and regulators turning to USB-C as a common charging standard for phones. The EU passed a law on the matter earlier this month , making USB-C mandatory for a range of electronic gadgets (including smartphones) by the end of 2024, and in the US some Democrat politicians are pushing for similar legislation . “Aware of the aforementioned movements in the international market, Anatel’s technical area evaluated the topic and presented a proposal with a similar approach for application in the Brazilian market,” said Anatel in a blog post (English... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/ILCYQAw

Illustration by Jarett Sitter / The Verge It’s easy to compare Comradery to Patreon. Both allow creators to collect money from subscribers, and both allow them to offer content, bonuses, and updates in return. But where Patreon is beholden to venture capital, Comradery is controlled democratically by the people who use it. “The one thing a venture capital tech company can never deliver is long-term stability,” says Ty Underwood, a developer at Comradery. When funded by investors, platforms often squeeze creators by taking increased cuts. Patreon raised its fees in 2019. In April, Etsy creators went on strike after they announced that transaction fees would be rising . According to recent Bloomberg reporting, Twitch is looking to lower its revenue share with top creators from 70... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/QzAImGp

A remote office taken to the extreme. | Photo by Thomas Ricker / The Verge 58 percent of US workers now have the option to work where they want at least one day a week, while 35 percent can work remotely up to five days a week, according to a new survey conducted by management consulting company McKinsey . The report concludes that flexible work arrangements implemented in response to the COVID-19 pandemic are here to stay. “After more than two years of observing remote work and predicting that flexible working would endure after the acute phases of the COVID-19 pandemic, we view these data as a confirmation that there has been a major shift in the working world and in society itself,” reads the report. The survey found that when given the choice, 87 percent of workers embrace the opportunity to work remotely... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/eSLsbjV

Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images Elon Musk just passed the 100 million follower mark on Twitter, becoming the sixth user on the platform to reach a nine-digit follower count. According to SocialBlade , Musk hit the milestone sometime between June 26th and June 27th, gaining over 150,000 followers between the two days. As of this writing, Musk now has 100,059,886 followers. Hitting the milestone is interesting for a couple of reasons. First is the obvious fact that Musk is currently in the process of buying Twitter for $44 billion , which could eventually put him in the unique position of being the only leader of a major social media network who’s actually good at using their social media network. In contrast, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook page is broadly a feed of... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/YiVMfdP

An artistic rendering of CAPSTONE in orbit around the Moon | Image: NASA Early this morning, a small NASA spacecraft about the size of a microwave embarked on the beginning of a four-month-long journey to the Moon , where it will eventually insert itself into a unique, elongated lunar orbit that no NASA mission has visited before. The spacecraft’s goal is simple: test out this particular orbit and see what it’s like. That’s because it’s the same orbit that lunar-bound astronauts could use in the coming decade. This distinctive orbit is called “near rectilinear halo orbit,” or NRHO for short. It’s a special seven-day path that spacecraft can take around the Moon, bringing vehicles relatively close to the lunar surface for one day before they swing out far from the Moon for the other six. NASA is considering... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/F7YPunE

Image: Airbnb In 2020, Airbnb introduced a temporary ban on house parties and events to better follow social distancing restrictions with the pandemic. Now, the company says it’s been so pleased by the outcome of the ban that it’s making it permanent and codifying its rules. “Over time, the party ban became much more than a public health measure,” said the company in a blog post. “It developed into a bedrock community policy to support our Hosts and their neighbors.” The ban prohibits “all disruptive parties and events,” with a particular focus on open-invite gatherings (those advertised on social media) and “party house” properties. Disruptive parties and events are essentially defined as those that attract complaints from neighbors. Airbnb says it... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/BXs31Vk

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Uber’s plan to electrify its driver fleet by 2030 seems to be off to a good start. The ride-hailing company announced today that over 15,000 Uber drivers have signed on to rent Tesla vehicles through its partnership with car rental company Hertz. Uber claims the deal is its “largest-ever expansion” of EVs on a mobility platform in North America and that there have already been more than 5 million Tesla rides driving over 40 million miles since the program started last year . The popularity and demand for electric vehicles are at an all-time high for consumers, especially with the increased cost of gas. The same is true for Uber drivers, who are responsible for the costs associated with refueling the vehicles no matter what it runs on.... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/H3JNs0f

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge The Nexus Q had a standout design, but everything else about it was a miss Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/cLEy3Dd

Apple has put a 2022 CPU in a 2016 computer Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/6fqmzXn

It’s not one of the prettier benchmarks to be sure. Over the past few weeks, we’ve been showing you how you can run some of the benchmarks that we run in our laptop reviews to see how well your PC stacks up to others on the market. Today, we’re looking at PugetBench for After Effects , created by the PC manufacturer Puget Systems, which will measure how well your computer can handle VFX and graphics work. It’s important to note that this benchmark is still in beta. It is a bit more glitchy than some of the other Puget benchmarks (including the one for Photoshop , which we talked about earlier). If you’re running into problems, Puget Systems has a long list of troubleshooting steps to try. It’s doubly important that you don’t use the system (even bump the mouse) while PugetBench for After... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/vkR4Eib

Illustration by Jarett Sitter / The Verge Last year, Fortnite developer Epic Games launched a big partnership with high fashion house Balenciaga. In addition to a collection of skins decked out in Balenciaga gear available to purchase, Epic also promoted a Balenciaga-themed zone players could visit. It looked like a virtual city square dropped into Fortnite , but at the heart was a recreation of a Balenciaga retail store. It’s an impressive world, and feels almost like something plucked from the Fortnite battle royale island. But it was actually made by just three creators who are full-time Fortnite Creative experts that have formed their own company to build in-game worlds for brands. “I don’t think my parents would ever think that would be a thing.” “The fact that I can build... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/GuiRXqp

Illustration by Jarett Sitter / The Verge Traditional techniques meet the modern web Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/YeBMQWK

Image: Google Despite being a more affordable counterpart to last year’s flagship, it’s starting to look like the upcoming Pixel 6A might offer a key improvement over the Pixel 6 series: a faster fingerprint sensor. That’s according to Fazli Halim , a Malaysian YouTuber who appears to have gotten his hands on Google’s upcoming device a month ahead of its official launch on July 28th . We spotted the video via 9to5Google . It’s potentially good news after the Pixel 6 series’ fingerprint sensors ended up being a surprising weak point for the devices, and were noticeably slower to authenticate than other phones. “The fingerprint scanner is the only biometric authentication available, and it’s just not very good,” Dan Seifert wrote in our review . A Google... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/dsgYyec

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Apple’s poised to release a slew of new devices between this fall and the beginning of 2023, according to a report from Bloomberg ’s Mark Gurman . What Gurman describes as a “deluge” of products will reportedly include four iPhone 14 devices, a set of new iPads, three Apple Watches, several M2 / M3-upgraded Macs, a pair of refreshed AirPods Pro buds, a new HomePod, and a spec-boosted Apple TV model. Let’s break down these predictions. Although Apple announced two new Macs with its flagship M2 processor at its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) earlier this month, Gurman expects to find the chip — and its variations — in several other devices. This includes an M2 Mac mini, M2 Pro Mac mini, M2 Pro / M2 Max 14 and 16-inch MacBook Pros,... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/EDskcGL

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Apple’s mixed reality headset has been shrouded in rumors for months now, and a new report from Bloomberg ’s Mark Gurman indicates that it could come with Apple’s flagship M2 processor . According to Gurman, Apple’s most recent version of the device, which is reportedly capable of delivering augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) experiences, includes a base M2 chip and 16GB of RAM. This deviates from supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo’s previous prediction that Apple’s headset will have one processor with the capabilities of an M1 chip and an additional lower-end processor dedicated to handling data from the device’s sensors. While Gurman doesn’t mention the purported secondary chip in this report, a multiple chip setup has also... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/r3Mg9js

Check out that wear and tear. | Image: Andrew Webster Back in November 2009, I was getting ready to attend the Montreal International Games Summit, and I panicked — it was my first major event as a member of the press, and I had no way to record an interview. This was a problem because I was scheduled to talk with Yoichi Wada, then president of Square Enix, along with several other notable industry people. So I rushed to Radio Shack and picked the cheapest voice recorder I could find, a little grey rectangle made by RCA that was locked up in a glass display case. I have no idea what model it is, but it went on to follow me through my entire professional career to date — now, nearly 13 years later, it’s finally being retired. I hung on to that gadget for one main reason: I trusted it . The... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/KwSHLv5

Photo by Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for Spritz Society Spotify has a brand new original topping its podcast chart, but it would probably prefer if you didn’t know about it. Last week, Spotify launched a new pop culture show, Breaking Bread , on Spotify Live. Breaking Bread ’s recordings now rank at number 11 on Spotify’s top podcast chart after holding the number two spot for most of the week, putting it just behind Joe Rogan. The show’s popularity — and the reason the company might be staying quiet about its new hit — is due to its two hosts: Jackie Oshry Weinreb and Claudia Oshry (aka Instagram’s girlwithnojob ), who come with a huge built-in audience. While the sisters have delivered their massive fanbase to the app, they have a controversial history that could be problematic for Spotify at... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/ZTx9OUI

It isn’t a fantastic TV or monitor, but it’s a good compromise for people who want both in the same package Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/BAIMi8D

It took a while. My review of the M2 MacBook Pro went up last Wednesday. But as soon as I got my hands on the device on the prior Thursday, it was clear that running down the battery — one of the most important things a laptop reviewer needs to do — was going to be a Whole Thing. Reader, I tried. I would use the device all evening and leave it running all night, but it would still have plenty of charge left in the morning, and I’d have to plug it in for testing, abandon it to film, or give it to our video and photo teams for shooting before I could fully drain it down. I did not have a long enough interrupted span of time to continuously use the device. That’s how absurdly long this laptop lasts. But, with the written review and the video review both... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/E2skOSX

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge A sophisticated spyware campaign is getting the help of internet service providers (ISPs) to trick users into downloading malicious apps, according to research published by Google’s Threat Analysis Group (TAG) (via TechCrunch ). This corroborates earlier findings from security research group Lookout , which has linked the spyware, dubbed Hermit, to Italian spyware vendor RCS Labs. Lookout says RCS Labs is in the same line of work as NSO Group — the infamous surveillance-for-hire company behind the Pegasus spyware — and peddles commercial spyware to various government agencies. Researchers at Lookout believe Hermit has already been deployed by the government of Kazakhstan and Italian authorities. In line with these findings, Google has... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/qU3JM2t

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Apple Music has raised the subscription price of its student plan in the US, UK, and Canada, as first reported by 9to5Mac (via TechCrunch ). While it’s increasing the price from $4.99 to $5.99 / month in the US and Canada, student users in the UK can expect a similar jump from £4.99 to £5.99 / month. Apple hasn’t acknowledged the changes yet, but the new pricing information is currently available on Apple Music’s webpage . Students subscribed to Apple Music have also started seeing the price increase on their iPhones and iPads’ subscription pages. It’s unclear when exactly Apple implemented these changes, but, as 9to5Mac points out, it was likely rolled out sometime between June 21st and the 23rd — an archived Apple Music webpage shows the... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/WcAXudm

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Intel is postponing the groundbreaking ceremony for its planned chip-making facilities in Ohio because the US government hasn’t yet provided it with funding, the company confirmed to The Verge (via The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal ). The ceremony, which was originally set to take place on July 22nd, has been delayed indefinitely in a likely bid to push the US government towards passing the CHIPS Act. Intel announced its $20 billion plan to build two semiconductor plants in New Albany, Ohio earlier this year, noting that its expansion to potentially include up to eight plants will “depend heavily on funding from the CHIPS Act.” The CHIPS Act reserves $52 billion in funding for semiconductor companies, including Intel, to... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/ojvVPw6

Photo Illustration by Grayson Blackmon / The Verge We found the best cameras for your budget and needs Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/fQFNjz9

Illustration by William Joel Yesterday, the Supreme Court voted to uphold a Mississippi abortion ban and overturn Roe v. Wade , ending abortion access in some states and triggering impending bans in others. The decision won’t end abortion in America, but in many places it will move the procedure underground and, based on recent history , online. Understandably, abortion advocates have focused on surveillance issues in the immediate aftermath of the ruling, concerned about states using online records for criminal prosecutions. But there’s also a fight brewing over how and where advocates will be able to share abortion information online. If a procedure is illegal, then states could claim content enabling that procedure is illegal too — raising thorny questions for... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/t31bfwp

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge From time to time, I’ll grab a random device out of the Verge reviews closet and spend a week or two with it. It’s mostly out of random curiosity and for the sake of comparing “old” products against the latest and greatest. Most recently, I was drawn to Google’s Pixel 5. So I gave it a factory reset, updated the phone to Android 12, and have been using it as my daily driver for the past several days. The experience has been fantastic. I’ve got very large hands — an iPhone 13 Pro Max doesn’t look out of place in them — and I prefer large screens, so I don’t think I could fully switch over to the Pixel 5. But it’s such a good “small” phone (by 2022 standards) that I’ve certainly been tempted. The Pixel 5 makes it easy to do anything I... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/gSirUD3

Stay connected while disconnecting Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/jUowPRM

Polestar is the latest electric vehicle company to go public, listing its stock on the Nasdaq exchange Friday after successfully merging with a special-purpose acquisition company, or SPAC. The company plans on using the $850 million in fresh capital to fund its three-year plan to make several new electric models and become profitable. The Swedish company, which is a joint venture between Volvo and its parent company Geely, is going public amid broader uncertainty around EV stocks. Several EV startups have gone the SPAC route to becoming publicly traded only to see their stock price tank after early stumbles. Polestar is slightly different, having been selling and delivering its Polestar 2 electric fastback sedan to customers in the... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/vIUHacC

Photo Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge; Photos by DankPods DankPods has turned finding old MP3 players into a hit YouTube show Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/mTFMZ8S

The bZ4X’s gobbledygook name is the least of its problems. Toyota’s first all-electric crossover could have been so much more Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/RoQdjcP

Photo by Mitchell Clark / The Verge Hey — remember last year when we published a bunch of essays and called it Next Gen ? Well, we’re doing it again. In early August, The Verge will be running another special issue focused on young people and technology — and if you’re a young or unpublished writer, then we want you to be a part of it. In particular, we want to hear about the piece of tech that’s meant the most to you: it could be an online community, a little-known tool, or a particular piece of media that’s been a positive presence in your life. To be clear, we’re looking for stuff you like, but the tech itself is just a starting point. We want to hear what it means to you and why. Be creative; surprise us! To give you an idea of what we’re looking for, here are the four... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/ZKBt1HW

There’s a lot going on in Air Twister. The arcade-style shooter from legendary designer Yu Suzuki is out today on Apple Arcade, and it pushes players through a strange fantasy world full of armored birds, flying squids, skeletal dragons, floating cities, and evil clocks. For Suzuki, who is best known for his work at Sega on games like Space Harrier , Shenmue , and Virtua Fighter , it was a chance to build a fantasy universe full of things he loved. “It’s an amalgamation of all of the different things that I would like to see in a fantasy world,” he tells The Verge . Air Twister is a classic rail shooter — think Space Harrier or Panzer Dragoon — where players take on the role of a sci-fi princess fighting to save her home world. It has 12... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/gnqdpCJ

Sarandos onstage at the Cannes Lions advertising festival. | Photo by Eamonn M. McCormack/Getty Images for Cannes Lions Netflix’s co-CEO Ted Sarandos has confirmed that the company plans to introduce an ad-supported tier to its streaming service in an interview at the Cannes Lions advertising festival, reports The Hollywood Reporter . The New York Times reported last month that the company is aiming to roll out the new tier by the end of 2022. “We’ve left a big customer segment off the table, which is people who say: ‘Hey, Netflix is too expensive for me and I don’t mind advertising,’” Sarandos said. “We [are] adding an ad tier; we’re not adding ads to Netflix as you know it today. We’re adding an ad tier for folks who say, ‘Hey, I want a lower price and I’ll watch ads.’” The streaming service has been widely expected to launch an ad-supported subscription... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/aAN6BvX

Urban Sky, a Colorado-based company focused on collecting images and data of the Earth using small stratospheric balloons, says it is officially entering commercial operations after three years of operating partly in stealth and raising funding . The company says it is ready to start serving customers with its balloons, which can be deployed from the back of a pickup truck and ascend into the sky in just minutes. Specifically, the company offers what it calls “microballoons, ” high-altitude balloons that can float to the stratosphere carrying a small payload and maintain a constant position over an area. About the size of a Volkswagen bus at launch, these balloons ultimately inflate to be the size of a small car garage in the air. That’s... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/pCP91oW

How edited messages are supposed to look. | Image: Apple The ability to edit and unsend messages was one of the flagship features of iOS 16 announced earlier this month , but the functionality may not work well if you’re messaging anyone who’s not using the latest version of Apple’s software. The latest iOS developer beta 16 includes a messy workaround to allow newly editable iMessages to be received on iPhones without iOS 16, 9to5Mac reports . It could prove annoying for anyone in an iMessage group chat using an older iPhone or Android. Rather than simply seeing the edited version of a message, if someone running iOS 16’s second beta tries to edit an iMessage sent to a device with an older version of the software, then the latter will receive the edit as a second text, preceded by the words... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/SOLc8KY

Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge Amazon has revealed an experimental Alexa feature that allows the AI assistant to mimic the voices of users’ dead relatives. The company demoed the feature at its annual MARS conference, showing a video in which a child asks Alexa to read a bedtime story in the voice of his dead grandmother. “As you saw in this experience, instead of Alexa’s voice reading the book, it’s the kid’s grandma’s voice,” said Rohit Prasad, Amazon’s head scientist for Alexa AI. Prasad introduced the clip by saying that adding “human attributes” to AI systems was increasingly important “in these times of the ongoing pandemic, when so many of us have lost someone we love.” “While AI can’t eliminate that pain of loss, it can definitely make their memories last,”... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/vu2r1w0

TikTok on a Vizio TV. | Image: Vizio Vizio has become the latest smart TV manufacturer to get a TikTok app, allowing owners to watch the short-form focused video platform on the big screen. It’s just the latest manufacturer to add TikTok to its TV platform, after the app came to Samsung and LG’s TVs, Android TV , and Amazon’s Fire TV platforms last year. Vizio says you’ll be able to browse TikTok’s Discover feed, or link an account to watch video content from the For You and Following feeds. The apps are arriving as TikTok is allowing users to upload longer and longer videos to its historically short-form service. In February, TikTok expanded its maximum video length to 10 minutes , at which point it probably makes sense to watch it on the big screen. That said, TikTok’s... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/A14NaCP

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Instagram is testing new methods for users to verify their age, including an AI tool built by a third-party company, Yoti, that estimates how old you are just by scanning your face. Officially, you have to be at least 13 years old to sign up for an Instagram account, but for years the company made little effort to enforce this rule. Until 2019 , it didn’t even bother to ask new users their birthdate, let alone try to verify this information. After being raked over the coals by privacy and child safety experts, though, Instagram has introduced more and more age-verification features , as well as methods to separate younger users from adults. Users can ask friends to verify their age, or have their face scanned by AI Currently, Instagram... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/UGLjsyv

What better time for this announcement than Pride Month? | Image: Google Google is adding a label to Maps that lets people identify their business as being LGBTQ-plus-owned, joining Yelp, which has a similar label . While Google Maps has had labels like LGBTQ-friendly and Transgender Safe Space for years , the company says that the new business identity attribute will help people who choose to support diverse businesses and could help queer people find nearby communities. Just like with Google’s other labels for Black-owned, Latino-owned, veteran-owned, and women-owned businesses, the LGBTQ-plus-owned label has to be added by the verified owner of the business profile. (It’s not like other Maps metadata, which can be added by community members.) The labels can show up throughout the Google Maps interface, and... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/ytPs7pY

Image: Twitter Twitter is partnering with Shopify on an integration that will keep a seller’s Twitter profile page updated with direct links to the products they have for sale. Shopify users who install the new Twitter add-on can connect their Twitter account with Shopify and then start building out a store on Twitter with the platform’s Shop Module . The new add-on automatically loads a merchant’s products from Shopify onto Twitter, which then appear in a carousel on the Twitter profile. Users can browse through or expand the carousel to view up to 50 products — selecting a product redirects users to the merchant’s website for purchase. Image: Twitter The integration with Shopify lets merchants sync products with Twitter. S... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/leKSrPM

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Microsoft is preparing to add mouse and keyboard support to its Xbox Cloud Gaming (xCloud) service that streams Xbox games to TVs, PCs, mobile devices, and more. The software giant teased the addition earlier this year, and now it’s encouraging game developers to get ready for mouse and keyboard support and some big latency improvements on Xbox Cloud Gaming soon. “Xbox has been supporting keyboard and mouse for a few years now, and we’re working on adding it to streaming for PC users,” explains Morgan Brown , a software engineer on Microsoft’s Xbox game streaming team. “But you can start adding it to your game right now and your console keyboard and mouse users will appreciate it. It will light up in streaming once we’ve finished adding... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/xgNpXG8

Maximum efficiency, major annoyance Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/H43Xqyb

The new-look Google News makes local news and custom topics easier to find. | Image: Google Google News has been given a fresh lick of paint for desktop users on its 20th birthday, with a redesign that gives more prominence to local news and personalized content. Users can now more easily customize the topics they’re shown by hitting the blue “customize” button in the right hand column (it appears just below “Picks For You”). They can also add multiple locations to the “Local News” section by hitting the settings button to the right of the Local News header. In practical terms, the biggest change is that various categories of news — like world, business, science, and health — have been moved from the left-hand side of the screen to a menu bar at the top. You can compare the before and after in the screenshots of the new... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/m8Da19i

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Last November, Uber launched a pilot of its Uber Pool replacement, dubbed UberX Share , in Miami, Florida. Today, the company says shared rides have returned to nine cities: New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Phoenix, San Diego, Portland, Indianapolis, and Pittsburgh. Like Lyft, Uber paused its Uber Pool service in March 2020 with the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. Lyft Shared rides resumed in several cities over the last few months, and now, UberX Share is following a similar rollout. According to Uber senior vice president of mobility Andrew Macdonald , the feature will only match riders headed in the same direction and is designed to add no more than eight additional minutes to your trip’s arrival time. ... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/qMmXegl

A home workspace teeming with tech, toys, and the occasional cat. Gaming tech, fan collections, and cats and dogs Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/pzFXc3Q

Courtesy of Netflix It’s taken nearly three years of work, but The Verge ’s first Netflix show — The Future Of — is finally here, with a second set of episodes coming on June 28th. The Future Of is an ambitious look at how everything around us might change over time, narrated by Jurnee Smollett. And it really is a show about everything : our episodes focus on subjects from cheeseburgers and dogs to skyscrapers and life after death. We did our best to envision how these things might change in our lifetimes, the near future, and then the wildest far futures we could imagine. And we did it by talking to the people working on these ideas now — and a few Verge reporters along the way. Think of it like a documentary for the future. We wanted the predictions in The... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/qM6Tv85