~theverge | Bookmarks (628)

Federal Communications Commission chair Brendan Carr said companies looking for regulatory approval should “get busy ending any sort of their invidious forms of DEI discrimination,” according to an interview with Bloomberg. Carr reportedly brought up Paramount’s merger with Skydance, Verizon’s purchase of Frontier Communications, and T-Mobile’s plans to acquire most of US Cellular as potential […]

Lyft will let users in Atlanta catch robotaxi rides starting this summer, as reported by NBC News. “Atlanta riders will have the opportunity to be matched with a fleet of autonomous Toyota Sienna minivans equipped with May Mobility’s autonomous technology, a deployment that Lyft and May Mobility aim to scale over time across multiple markets,” […]

Congress’ least favorite law is once against facing an existential challenge by bipartisan opponents.  Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Dick Durbin (D-IL), the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, are planning to reintroduce a bill to sunset Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act in two years. Repealing the bill, first reported by The Information, […]

Wireless charging is less efficient than plugging in a wire, but it’s certainly convenient — especially when you add magnets. Most people who have an iPhone 12 or later (except the 16E) and want a magnetic charger should get a Qi2 charger. Any Qi2-certified charger will charge a MagSafe iPhone up to 15W — just […]

On March 18th, Chetan Nayak, a physicist leading Microsoft’s quantum team, presented new data on the company’s quantum computing chip at the American Physical Society’s Global Physics Summit in Anaheim, California. It was meant to calm a raging debate among physicists, but researchers remain skeptical of the results. “I never felt like there would be […]

While the best iPad deals usually land during major sale events like Black Friday and Amazon Prime Day, many great iPad deals are attainable outside those times. The day-to-day discounts may come and go like changing winds, but there’s often something to be saved, particularly on the more affordable iPads. The most recent iPad Pro and iPad […]

The world has a more detailed map of the seafloor than ever before thanks to observations taken from space. NASA published a video this week showing a remarkably clear picture of the bottom of the ocean made possible thanks to new satellite technology. The face of the moon has been more thoroughly mapped than the […]

Google’s Gemini app now lets you generate Audio Overviews based on Deep Research. That means you can turn the in-depth reports generated by Gemini into a conversational podcast featuring two AI “hosts.” Since launching Audio Overviews within its AI note-taking app NotebookLM last September, Google has been steadily adding to the feature by letting you […]

Meta has aggressively pushed to discredit and silence Sarah Wynn-Williams, the author of Careless People, her memoir about working at the company as a policy director. Now, she’s fighting back.  Attorneys for Wynn-Williams this week filed an emergency motion seeking to dismiss the gag order that Meta won via an arbitrator. A copy of her […]

After immigration agents detained Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil over his involvement in pro-Palestine protests on campus, President Donald Trump promised it was just the beginning. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has since arrested at least two more students who are in the country on visas — one of whom had recently sued […]

Newsletter platform Ghost switched on its fediverse connectivity this week, allowing bloggers to share their works across the various social platforms that support the open ActivityPub protocol. Ghost initially promised the feature would go live in 2024. But it’s available now in beta for Ghost(Pro) users, TechCrunch reports. With ActivityPub, users on platforms such as […]

A legal permanent resident claims he was tortured by customs agents after returning home from a trip to Europe. A doctor with a work visa was denied entry into the country — then flown out of the US in spite of a court order halting her deportation. Two German tourists were hassled at a port […]

This deal caught my eye last night. Google is knocking $200 off its flagship Pixel 9 Pro and Pixel 9 Pro XL, which means the smaller model now starts at $799, or the same price as the regular Pixel 9. That’s a no-brainer right there. Or, you can head to Best Buy where it starts at […]

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is moving the company’s HR chief, Kathleen Hogan, into a new role focused on corporate strategy. Announced in an internal memo to Microsoft employees this morning, Hogan will report directly to Nadella and be responsible for strategy and transformation. Hogan has been at Microsoft for more than 20 years and spent […]

Netflix is making a big push into video games. The company first dabbled in games with interactive titles like Black Mirror: Bandersnatch and a Carmen Sandiego game. But starting in 2021, it made gaming a much bigger priority — Netflix hired a former EA exec and let people play a selection of mobile games for free as […]

Netflix just announced Spirit Crossing during a press event at GDC 2025. Spirit Crossing represents a first for Netflix, becoming the service’s first MMO offering. It was developed by Spry Fox, one of Netflix’s in-house game studios, and will launch sometime later this year. Spirit Crossing is described in the press release as a “cozy […]

Andor showrunner Tony Gilroy told Collider he has killed plans to publish the critically acclaimed show’s scripts, despite having the 1,500-page collection ready to go, due to fear that the material would become training fodder for artificial intelligence systems. At an Emmy event in 2023, Gilroy announced plans to launch a free website featuring all […]

Verizon’s previously announced satellite messaging service is now available to owners of some Android smartphones, the company said in a statement today. It comes at no extra charge to Verizon customers, though you’ll need a Google Pixel 9 or Samsung Galaxy S25 series phone to take advantage of it. The service allows people to send […]

Nvidia showed off its own Grace Blackwell-powered “personal AI supercomputers” yesterday, but it also made another announcement: third-party manufacturers can come and make their own versions as well. So far, Asus, Dell, and HP have come forward showing their own mini PC designs that tout the same GB10 super chip present in the Nvidia DGX […]

Apple fixed a bug in the iOS 18.2 Passwords app that, for three months starting with the release of iOS 18, made users vulnerable to phishing attacks, according to an Apple security content update spotted by 9to5Mac. Here’s how Apple describes the bug and its fix:  Impact: A user in a privileged network position may […]

It has been years since the excellent sci-fi improv comedy podcast Mission to Zyxx ended, but the crew of the Bargarean Jade are getting back together for a new adventure. While Mission to Zyxx’s original Star Wars / Star Trek-lampooning story came to a dramatic close with the show’s fifth season, Maximum Fun announced today […]

Atari is now selling a smartwatch that prioritizes fun over functionality. The watch’s user interface can be customized with Atari 2600-themed artwork and sound effects. But pushing it squarely into impulse purchase territory is the watch’s ability to play Centipede, Pong, Super Breakout, and Missile Command using the touchscreen or the watch’s crown dial functioning as […]

Business is still booming for music streaming services, which crossed the 100 million US subscriber mark in 2024, according to the Record Industry Association of America’s (RIAA) latest revenue report. Overall sales were also bolstered by physical media, which is growing at a slightly faster rate than digital, thanks in large part to continually increasing […]

Nvidia has announced that Isaac GR00T N1 — the company’s open-source, pretrained but customizable foundation model that’s designed to expedite the development and capabilities of humanoid robots — is now available. “The age of generalist robotics is here,” says Nvidia founder and CEO, Jensen Huang. “With Nvidia Isaac GR00T N1 and new data-generation and robot-learning […]