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In August , Apple Music launched a tool for importing playlists from other streaming services. The bruhahah over Daniel Ek’s war profiteering was in full swing, and artists were starting to flee . The two things may have been unrelated, but the timing was certainly fortuitous. Now Spotify is launching its own playlist transfer tool , in hopes of winning over some defectors from other platforms. The feature isn’t something brand-new, built from the ground up. Instead, it’s a direct integration with TuneMyMusic , which lets you shuttle playlists between services like Tidal, YouTube Music, Qobuz, Beatport, and even Napster. Of course, TuneMyMusic is just one of several services that offer the same ability, including Soundiiz and SongShift, which powers Apple Music’s import feature. While you could go straight to these third parties to move playlists between services, often, there are limits on how many playlists and how long they can be at the free tier. Going directly through Spot...

The Xreal One look a bit like the glasses you get from the optician after having your pupils dilated. But they’re not as bulky or heavy as a VR headset. I’ll admit it, I thought AR glasses like the Xreal One were a joke when I first heard about them. But they clicked for me as a gamer when I realized they could be plugged into a Steam Deck or an iPad to have my own huge, private display no matter where I am. If you want to be fully immersed in your games and movies (without wearing a bulky VR headset), there are some great AR glasses on sale for their lowest prices ever for Black Friday. The Xreal One glasses are packed with features and cost $399.99 at Amazon and Best Buy , which is $180 off the original price. This model will look unassuming on your face, save for the USB-C cable you’ll attach to its ear hook to connect your device. The One supports a fast 120Hz refresh rate at 1080p, and its Micro OLED screens provide excellent contrast. The arms of the glasses have built-in B...

It took me a long time to become even halfway decent at Forestrike . The martial arts action game, from Olija developer Skeleton Crew , has a unique twist in that it lets you see what will happen in most battles and then practice your strategy accordingly. It turns the act of combat into a type of puzzle game, but one that still requires fast reflexes and precision decision-making to be successful. And it has successfully turned me into a solid fighter - at least in the realm of a pixelated video game. You play as a martial arts student named Yu, who, despite being relatively green, is tasked with ridding his homeland of an evil empire. To do … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/9Ik5lfW

Last week one of my big questions about Pluribus was whether our reluctant hero Carol (Rhea Seehorn) would find someone to help her save the world from the scourge of happiness. In episode 4, I got an answer - sort of. We're clearly introduced to a character who thinks much like her, but how they'll actually connect is still a big question mark. Welcome to our weekly discussion about Apple TV's latest sci-fi series Pluribus , which comes via Breaking Bad creator (and former X-Files writer) Vince Gilligan . In the show, most of humanity has become part of a hive mind that seems only capable of positive emotions, while the perpetually miserable … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/Vfsp8gi

The chunky grip doubles as a stand, and attaches using MagSafe. Apple has partnered with artist and designer Bailey Hikawa on a new MagSafe iPhone grip “designed with accessibility in mind from the ground up.” The $69.95 Hikawa Phone Grip & Stand is available from the Apple Store now, but is listed as a limited edition. The stand comes in either Brat green or a speckled stone finish from Apple , though there are also blue and swirly blurple options available from Hikawa’s own store , and is made out of soft-touch silicone. It attaches to the iPhone magnetically, doubles as both a grip and a stand, either horizontally or vertically, and was designed with “direct input from individuals with disabilities affecting muscle strength, dexterity, and hand control,” according to Apple. The grip was designed “to support varied ways of holding iPhone while reducing the effort needed to keep it steady,” Hikawa says, though acknowledges on her own site that “not every adaptive need can be...

Arizona's economy was once dominated by the "five C's" : cotton, cattle, citrus, copper, and climate. But a new C has emerged that could grow to overshadow the rest: chips. New semiconductor manufacturing facilities are springing up across the greater Phoenix area, stretching across blocks of new roads with names like "Processor Parkway" and "Transistor Terrace." Just outside the facilities, developers anticipating an influx of workers are planning mixed-use residential and industrial zones like mini modern-day company towns . "It should be the sixth C," says Thomas Maynard, senior vice president of business development at the Greater Phoen … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/HGT0WUB

The Gemini app produced this image of a second shooter hidden in the bushes with the Book Depository in the background. | AI Image: The Verge via Google Gemini It was really easy getting Google's Gemini app to make an image of a second shooter at Dealey Plaza, the White House ablaze, and Mickey Mouse flying a plane into the Twin Towers. We asked and it complied. There were few filters or guardrails, another sign that the battle over generative AI content moderation and copyright enforcement is not even close to being over. Gemini, which powers the newly enhanced Nano Banana Pro image generator and editor, is ordinarily heavily filtered to prevent exactly this kind of thing from happening. While there's no official list of banned content, requests for sexually explicit or violent material, as well … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/0xM6k8Q

Verizon is preparing to lay off more than 13,000 employees, or about 13 percent of its workforce. In a message to employees, Verizon CEO Dan Schulman says that the reductions come as part of plans to cut costs and “reorient” the company “around delivering for and delighting our customers,” as first reported by The Wall Street Journal . The company reported having around 100,000 full-time employees in September . Schulman writes in the memo that Verizon plans to “significantly reduce our outsourced and other outside labor expenses.” Verizon appointed Schulman — who previously headed up PayPal — as CEO last month as the company begins its “next phase” of growth. “As a customer-first culture, we have to align our teams and resources to create new value for customers and build a faster, stronger and more proactive Verizon,” Schulman writes. “To do that, we must simplify our operations to address the complexity and friction that slow us down and frustrate our customers.” Verizon’s most...

After one of the biggest telecom hacks in US history, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) moved to enforce strict standards on carriers' cybersecurity measures. On Thursday, the agency is set to vote to roll back those requirements, arguing they were an unnecessary overstep of its authority. The China-linked Salt Typhoon hack revealed last year impacted telecom companies including AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile and Lumen Technologies, The Wall Street Journal reported. The issue was so bad that US officials urged consumers in late 2024 to only communicate via encrypted apps, fearing adversaries may still be lurking in their carriers' networ … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/7iO9aeI

The Matter smart home standard is adding cameras to its latest spec. It's finally happening. Three years after Matter launched , the interoperability standard now includes the most popular smart home devices: cameras. The Matter 1.5 spec, announced today , adds support for all types of video cameras - from indoor and outdoor, wired and battery-powered cameras, to video doorbells , baby monitors, pet cams, and more. Matter support should be possible with an OTA update, so some of your existing cameras could become Matter-compatible. The new spec also adds garage door controllers, soil sensors, bi-directional charging for EVs, and more advanced integration with utilities for energy management. So far, cameras ha … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/HelV5bQ

Last year Qualcomm promised that games would “just work” on its Snapdragon X Elite laptops, but in my testing I found that was far from the case . Now, a year on, Windows on Arm is a lot more ready for gaming, thanks to emulator improvements, driver updates, a new Snapdragon Control Panel, and Qualcomm’s work on anti-cheat compatibility. Qualcomm is releasing its Snapdragon Control Panel this week, which automatically detects games you’ve installed on a Snapdragon X Elite laptop and then optimizes them. It’s very similar to the apps that AMD and Nvidia use for their own GPUs, with settings for frame rate caps, anti-aliasing, texture filtering, and much more. The Snapdragon Control Panel also allows you to install the latest Adreno GPU drivers, which are optimized for the latest games to improve stability and performance. Qualcomm says it has made fixes and improvements for more than 100 games since launch last year, with continued bug fixes for stability and performance. Alongsid...

After years of staring down the world’s biggest tech companies and setting the bar for tough regulation worldwide, Europe has blinked. Under intense pressure from industry and the US government, Brussels is stripping protections from its flagship General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) — including simplifying its infamous cookie permission pop-ups — and relaxing or delaying landmark AI rules in an effort to cut red tape and revive sluggish economic growth. The changes, proposed by the European Commission, the bloc’s executive branch, changes core elements of the GDPR, making it easier for companies to share anonymized and pseudonymized personal datasets. They would allow AI companies to legally use personal data to train AI models, so long as that training complies with other GDPR requirements. The proposal also waters down a key part of Europe’s sweeping artificial intelligence rules, the AI Act , which came into force in 2024 but had many elements that would only come into ...

There’s gold at the end of those AI travel queries. | Photo by Thomas Ricker / The Verge I was starting to doubt it would ever happen, but I finally found a regular, helpful use for AI: vanlife travel planner. I'm not a student and I don't code. I am, however, on day 48 of my van tour through Europe with my wife and dog. We travel without a specific itinerary, chasing the wind and sun while working our 9 to 5 jobs. AI's mastery of travel planning has made it an unexpected but irreplaceable expert. So much so that we've grown increasingly dependent upon the free versions of Gemini and ChatGPT to help choose our next destination. It all started with a simple query. Tired after a 25km hike with only a few hours left of daylight … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/egHBj95

It's not hard to understand the AI future Microsoft is betting billions on - a world where computers understand what you're saying and do things for you. It's right there in the ads for the latest Copilot PCs , where people cheerfully talk to their laptops and they talk back, answering questions in natural language and even doing things for them. The tagline is straightforward: "The computer you can talk to." "You should be able to talk to your PC, have it understand you, and then be able to have magic happen from that," Microsoft's Yusuf Mehdi told us in October . "The PC should be able to act on your behalf." And that has nothing on Micr … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/5bFGdl0

The Connectivity Standards Alliance has released Zigbee 4.0, an updated version of its wireless mesh networking standard with better security, improved battery life, and batch setup of new devices like smart lights, switches, and plugs. It’s also announcing a new feature called Suzi , which is short for Sub-GHz and Zigbee.  While Zigbee smart home devices typically operate on the 2.4GHz band, which can experience signal loss caused by obstacles like thick walls, Suzi-branded devices will be able to work on the European 800 MHz and North American 900 MHz frequency bands. That way, the group says they’ll offer coverage for smart devices installed outside and farther away from a home, without the need for additional hardware to extend the networks. Suzi is similar to other branded features that have been added to the 802.15.4-based spec over the years, like Zigbee Smart Energy usage monitoring gear, and the low-power / low-maintenance Zigbee Green Power devices that harvest energy ...

Roblox will soon require that users go through an age estimation process if they want to be able to chat with other people on the platform. The requirement will be in effect for all users starting in early January. Roblox has come under significant scrutiny over child safety on the platform, with multiple states filing lawsuits this year against the company. The plan to require age estimation for chats is just one of several safety-related announcements the company has made in recent months . Beginning in the first week of December, Roblox will require users in some markets, including Australia, the Netherlands, and New Zealand, to go through the age estimation process to be able to chat with others. In early January, the requirement will expand to other countries where you’re able to use Roblox’s chat. After going through the age estimation process, Roblox will assign users into groups: Under 9, 9–12, 13–15, 16–17, 18–20, and 21 plus. Users will only be able to talk to users...

At $380, MSI’s 27-inch 1440p QD-OLED gaming monitor is one of the best purchases Verge readers who want an awesome gaming upgrade can make now. That’s how much it costs in an online-only deal at Costco for membership holders through December 1st. In case you’re curious as to what kind of OLED monitor you can get for just $380, so was I. So I got MSI to send over a review unit, which I’ve been using for over a week.  This monitor (model MAG271QPX E2) doesn’t really differ from several other similarly-sized models. It offers a fast 240Hz refresh rate, fantastic viewing angles compared to cheaper panel types, and colors that really pop. It’s not typically one I’d suggest most people buy at its usual $599 sale price, but it becomes an extremely compelling value for $200 less. MSI MAG271QPX E2 1440p QD-OLED gaming monitor Where to Buy: $479.99 $379.99 at Costco MSI’s QD-OLED replaced an aging Acer 1440p IPS 144Hz monitor at my desk, and the difference was profound when I...

X has revealed Chat, an encrypted upgrade to the platform’s direct messaging service. It also includes support for video and voice calls, disappearing messages, and file sharing. The company announced Chat on Friday, and it’s available now on iOS and the web, with an Android version coming “soon.” It replaces X’s existing messaging system, though your old messages should be carried across. X says that Chat supports end-to-end encryption (E2EE) for both messages and files, though a support page notes that this doesn’t cover message metadata — such as who received it, or when it was sent. There’s also no protection against man-in-the-middle attacks, the company admitting that if “a malicious insider or X itself” compromised an encrypted conversation, there would be no way for users to know, though ways to verify message authenticity and device identity are coming. Other privacy features include disappearing messages, which can be set to automatically delete after a set period of ti...

The second-gen Nest Thermostat launched in 2012. Google officially turned off remote control functionality for early Nest Learning Thermostats last month , but it hasn’t stopped collecting a stream of data from these downgraded devices. After digging into the backend, security researcher Cody Kociemba found that the first- and second-generation Nest Learning Thermostats are still sending Google information about manual temperature changes, whether a person is present in the room, if sunlight is hitting the device, and more. Kociemba made the discovery while participating in a bounty program created by FULU , a right-to-repair advocacy organization cofounded by electronics repair technician and YouTuber Louis Rossmann. FULU challenged developers to come up with a solution to restore smart functionality to Nest devices no longer supported by Google, and that’s exactly what Kociemba did with his open-source No Longer Evil project . But after cloning Google’s API to create this custo...

Jeff Bezos is getting a new job. He’ll reportedly become co-CEO of Project Prometheus, a new startup that he’s partly funding. The company’s exact plans are still unknown, but its focus is on AI that could improve manufacturing in fields including computing, automobiles, and aerospace. The New York Times reports that Project Prometheus is already one of the better funded early-stage start-ups in the world, with $6.2 billion in investment, in part from Bezos himself. In addition to financing the venture, he’ll help run the company together with co-founder Vik Bajaj. He’s a physicist and chemist who once worked at Google X, the company’s experimental “moonshot factory,” before running health tech company Verily , an Alphabet-owned venture spun out of that division. Project Prometheus reportedly has nearly 100 employees already, including former staff from OpenAI, DeepMind, and Meta. With Bezos now among them, this will be his first formal operational role at a company since he stepp...

Quick: tell me how old you are by telling me which app you used to download free music. Was it Napster? Kazaa? Usenet? Gnutella? WinMX? Morpheus? The Pirate Bay? Were you, I don't know, sending your friends songs on AIM or BBM? The possibilities are endless. For a decade or so, if you were online, you were probably stealing music. For this episode of Version History , we're telling the story of one of the last big names in file sharing: LimeWire. If the era of mainstream access to free music (mostly on college campuses and other fast networks) starts with Napster, it almost certainly ends with LimeWire. LimeWire was, in many ways, design … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/pl2Uyk6

Each half is compact, and they fit together for easy travel. Hall effect gaming keyboards aren't uncommon. But Asus' ROG Falcata is the only one that's also a split ergonomic keyboard, aimed at alleviating wrist, hand, or arm pain. For the luxury of having it all, you'll pay $419.99, enough to buy a nice Hall effect keyboard and a split ergonomic one. It'd be worth it if the Falcata truly represented the best of both worlds, but I'm split. As a Hall effect board, it succeeds, offering a wealth of customization options, including the ability to let you adjust each key's actuation point by as little as a hundredth of a millimeter at a time. But if you're buying it for ergonomics, like me, then maybe n … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/0HO9QvK

This is The Stepback , a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more on Hollywood trends and streaming culture, follow Charles Pulliam-Moore . The Stepback arrives in our subscribers' inboxes at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepback here . How it started Once upon a time (read: a few years ago), there were a pair of upstart streaming services called Quibi and Go90 that were supposed to appeal to phone-addicted millennials. These platforms were supposed to compete with Netflix and Amazon by offering up short-form videos designed to be watched on the go. Both services were touted as being the future of entertainm … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/1cyX4Rv

Oh, how I want to break free. While there is plenty of criticism to be hurled at what music the algorithm serves to us , and how, the real problem with music discovery in the age of algorithmic recommendations is that listening has become a passive activity. It's too easy to press play and let a pile of code take the wheel. Whether that's creating a "station" based on a particular song or artist, firing up Discover Weekly, or just letting Apple Music autoplay into infinity after a particular album or song ends. With less involvement from the listener, less intentionality, it's easy for music to simply become background noise . Research suggests that younger generations a … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/A7kpSYq

The new Laptop 16 is a lot like the original on the outside, though here it’s shown with a prototype 3D-printed trackpad surround that’s a single piece. Framework did it again. It promised modular, upgradeable, and user-repairable laptops where other manufacturers dare not venture or have outright failed . And it's delivered. The 2025 version of the Framework Laptop 16 comes with not only new AMD Ryzen AI CPU options, but also Wi-Fi 7, a more powerful USB-C charger, redesigned cooling, and a new webcam - all of which are also sold separately, so existing owners can upgrade. But the biggest bump by far is a more powerful user-replaceable graphics card. The modular, removable GPU is what separates the Laptop 16 from any other laptop on the market . When it announced the Laptop 16, Framework ca … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/eb3HnpY

If you weren't clear on just what a miserable person Carol (Rhea Seehorn) is, episode 3 of Pluribus sure makes it obvious. It opens with a flashback, as Carol and her partner Helen (Miriam Shor) are on a dream vacation at an ice hotel in Norway, and all she can do is complain about how cold it is. When Carol sees a stunning aurora borealis, her only thought is "it looks like a screensaver." But that cynicism might also be her superpower as she prepares to solve the hive-mind apocalypse that has descended on Earth. Welcome! The two-episode premiere of Pluribus , the new Apple TV show from Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan , introduced a stra … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/vXRofeH

Microsoft keeps describing this model for the future of a game console that sounds great for players: it's as easy as a console, it can play a huge library of PC titles, and it even supports third-party stores. That'd be a wonderful product if someone could build it, and it sure looks like Valve has beaten Microsoft to the punch with its new Steam Machine. This week on The Vergecast , Nilay Patel, Jake Kastrenakes, Sean Hollister, and special guest Joanna Stern sit down to talk through Valve's ambitious new hardware initiatives - and what it means for Microsoft and Windows. Do consumers still use Windows in the future? Or are games (and an o … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/VUTcRlL

The microSD card slot on Valve’s new Steam Frame VR headset. The Steam Deck changed the way I buy and play games. Just like how the Nintendo Switch blew me away with how it let me play the latest and greatest Nintendo games on the go and on a TV, the Steam Deck has drawn me in with how it offers a vast catalog of PC games that I can play portably or on a big screen. And with the Steam Deck's microSD card slot, I can add a lot more storage just by tossing in a tiny memory card, meaning I can bring even more games around with me on the device. But with its new Steam Machine PC and Steam Frame VR headset, Valve is about to make any microSD cards you use with the Steam Deck even more useful. Like the Ste … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/rpteY3G

Meta is on the cusp of launching third-party integration with WhatsApp in Europe — something that’s required by the Digital Markets Act (DMA). It’s rolling out “over the coming months” with WhatsApp’s level of end-to-end encryption (E2EE) maintained. Meta says that  BirdyChat  and  Haiket  will be the first third-party services to implement messaging interoperability with WhatsApp. No, we haven’t heard of them either, but that’s what leveling the playing field looks like. WhatsApp users in Europe will eventually see a notification in the settings tab that will explain how to opt-in to third party messaging. It will work in WhatsApp for iOS and Android, but not on desktops, web, or tablets.  Meta says that “third-party messaging apps must use the same level of E2EE as WhatsApp,” and Meta can’t see encrypted messages in transit. Content can include text, photos, videos, voice messages, and documents. It will also only work for users with a WhatsApp account reg...

Valve has created a PC-based game console that lives under your TV. The Steam Machine takes everything that's great about the Steam Deck and adds the raw power to compete with the latest PlayStation and Xbox consoles. It also puts a huge amount of pressure on Microsoft to perfect its Windows and Xbox combination, as the Steam Machine brings Windows games to the living room in a way that Microsoft is dreaming up for its next-gen devices. The Steam Machine looks like an Xbox Series X that has been cut in half into a miniature box. The 6-inch cube runs Windows PC games through Valve's Linux-based SteamOS, and it should have enough power throug … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/uB3JSc8

The Neo 2 adds obstacle avoidance but still features prop guards as a backup. | Image: DJI After launching exclusively in China last month, DJI is announcing wider global availability for its Neo 2 selfie drone , including Japan, Canada, the UK, and other countries where the company sells its drones. But as with the Mavic 4 Pro and 8K Osmo 360 camera , the Neo 2 won’t be available in the US. “DJI remains committed to the US market and serving our US-based customers. Like many global companies, we’ve had to adjust our market strategies as the local conditions and industry environment have evolved,” DJI spokesperson Daisy Kong told The Verge in an emailed statement. The Neo 2’s upgrades include a lidar-based obstacle avoidance system to detect and avoid crash hazards, an improved following speed of nearly 27mph, better wind resistance, and a new gesture control system allowing the drone’s distance and position to be adjusted without a remote. For pilots who prefer a controller, the...

Google says that it’s softening its plan to require every Android developer — even outside of the Play Store — to verify their identity, a move which critics warned could kill sideloading for good. The company now says it’s developing a workflow to allow “experienced users” to install apps from unverified developers. Mandatory verification for developers even outside the official Play Store was first announced this August , and would require developers to provide their legal name, address, email, and phone number, and in some cases even upload government ID. It drew criticism from groups like the Keep Android Open campaign and the open source app repository F-Droid, which argued the move “ends the ability for individuals to choose what software they run on the devices they own.” That plan is still going ahead, with early access to the verification scheme launched yesterday, but Google has made an important concession. The company says it is now developing an “advanced flow that a...

The Samsung Movingstyle can be detached from its charging stand. Samsung has launched a new portable display that can be pushed around on a rollable stand or carried like a giant tablet. The $1,199.99 Movingstyle is a 27-inch touchscreen display that features a battery life of up to three hours, allowing you to stream content or show workplace presentations without being tied to a power source. The wheeled floorstand includes a height-adjustable arm that can swivel the Movingstyle between landscape and portrait modes, and charges the display when plugged into an outlet. Users can detach the screen from its stand via a sliding button on the back, and carry it around like a briefcase using the built-in handle. That handle also doubles as an adjustable kickstand that can be used to position the Movingstyle on flat surfaces like an artist’s easel, but only in a landscape orientation. Weighing almost 12 pounds without the stand, this won’t be easy for everyone to lug around, but it’s...