~theverge | Bookmarks (635)

Anthropic is getting ready to introduce a new “voice mode” feature that could rival OpenAI’s similar option within ChatGPT, according to Bloomberg. The AI voice assistant will reportedly live within its Claude AI chatbot and could start rolling out “as soon as this month.” According to Bloomberg, Anthropic plans to roll out three English-language voices […]

Hermès handbags, Birkenstocks, Tide Pods, Lululemon activewear, and mountains of luxury furniture — what if I told you you could cut out the middleman and buy it straight from the source for a fraction of the cost? So goes a genre of viral videos cropping up on social media that claim to show Chinese manufacturers […]

Google announced Tuesday that it’s going to redirect country code top-level domain names (ccTLD) for Google Search to google.com over the coming months to “streamline people’s experience on Search,” according to a blog post. The change means that if, for example, you used google.ng (for Nigeria) or google.com.br (for Brazil), you’ll see google.com in your […]

Players looking to harness desert power will have to wait as Dune: Awakening has been delayed. Funcom, developers of the MMORPG based on Frank Herbert’s Dune sci-fi series, announced the news saying the game will be pushed back from its May release date to June 10th. Players who have pre-purchased one of the game’s deluxe […]

If you want a mental escape from today’s constant bombardment of alarming news, one method is to lose yourself in a good book — and an excellent way to do that is to read that good book on one of Amazon’s Fire tablets.  Amazon has put many of the latest Fire HD tablets on sale […]

The Star Wars strategy game announced in 2022 finally has a name: Zero Company, as EA revealed today. A website about the game describes it as a “single-player turn-based tactics game,” includes an image, and says that a “first look” will be shown at Star Wars Celebration Japan on April 19th. The game will be […]

Apple says it’s found a way to make its AI models better without training on its users’ data or even copying it from their iPhones and Macs. In a blog post first reported on by Bloomberg, the company outlined its plans to have devices compare a synthetic dataset to samples of recent emails or messages […]

President Donald Trump wants to expand his already chaotic and cruel mass deportations. On Monday, he told reporters that he’s looking into the possibility of sending US citizens to a megaprison in El Salvador. “I’d like to go a step further,” Trump claimed at a press conference with Salvadoran president Nayib Bukele on Monday. “I […]

So, you’re thinking of buying a smart ring. Well, some good news. Picking the best of the lot is incredibly easy right now. The “bad” news is that, as far as trustworthiness and reliability, your choices are somewhat limited, as this is still a niche and emerging gadget category. Smart rings are in the middle […]

OpenAI has introduced GPT-4.1, a successor to the GPT-4o multimodal AI model launched by the company last year. During a livestream on Monday, OpenAI said GPT-4.1 has an even larger context window and is better than GPT-4o in “just about every dimension,” with big improvements to coding and instruction following. GPT-4.1 is now available to […]

Want a premium pair of earbuds without having to pay a premium price? Right now, Sony’s noise-canceling WF-1000XM5 are on sale at Amazon and Target for $179.99 ($120 off), their best price to date. It’s possible Sony could release the WF-1000XM6 sometime later this year, but for now, few wireless earbuds offer as much value […]

Meta has announced that it’s preparing to train AI on the data of EU users of its apps, including Facebook and Instagram. The company says that includes things like public posts, comments, and their chat history with Meta AI, but won’t include “private messages with friends and family.” It also only applies to those who […]

Samsung has announced new versions of its rugged tablets and smartphones designed for use in environments where they’re going to get dirty, wet, and knocked around. Both the Galaxy XCover7 Pro and Galaxy Tab Active5 Pro feature improved battery life, but the tablet goes one step further with a “dual hot-swap” feature allowing the battery […]

After weeks of speculation, Warner Bros. Discovery has officially announced the first cast members who will appear in its upcoming Harry Potter TV adaptation. The casting confirmations, focused around some of the most notable adult characters from the Harry Potter novels, are one of the most reassuring signs of life for the wizarding world series […]

Nvidia has brought some of its chip production stateside. On Monday, Nvidia announced that it has started producing its Blackwell AI GPUs at TSMC’s plant in Phoenix, Arizona, while companies within the state package and test them. TSMC, or Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., is the world’s biggest chipmaker and announced a $100 billion investment in […]

The Trump administration has excluded “smartphones, computers, and other electronics,” even those imported from China, from tariffs it levied last week, reports Bloomberg. The exemptions don’t free them from all tariffs, though, as the outlet says others from before Trump’s April 9th tariffs still apply. Late last night, US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) updated […]

The creators of Halo and Destiny are finally ready to show off their next big project: Marathon. It’s a long-awaited title from Bungie and revives the classic Marathon IP in the form of a PvPvE extraction shooter. After a teaser nearly two years ago, the Sony-owned studio just spent an hour showing off Marathon gameplay […]

Mythic Quest, the Apple TV Plus comedy about a game studio, isn’t getting a fifth season, reports Variety. And, like a developer issuing a farewell patch, Apple is updating the final episode of season four with a new “goodbye” ending next week. Variety published a statement from Mythic Quest’s executive producers: “Endings are hard. But […]

Few brands are as synonymous with outdoor sports as Garmin. You’ll find these fitness trackers and smartwatches on dozens of wrists at any 5K, marathon, or Ironman. You’ll also find Garmin devotees among divers, thru-hikers, golfers, kiteboarders — you name it. But these devices aren’t just for athletes. The company’s made significant strides in its […]

In December 2024, actor and fashion icon Julia Fox stepped out on the street with a flip-phone buckle strapped across her chest, wires on her nails, and an old Discman-turned-compact mirror hanging from her wrist.  Fox didn’t start the retro-tech fashion trend. Celebrities and internet fashionistas were already wearing iPod Shuffle Minis as hair clips […]

I know, I know. It’s become a bit of a faux pas to describe one game using another and yet I am compelled. After a few hours with Blue Prince, I realized this game elicits the same feelings in me as Balatro. Not because it has anything to do with cards or passive-aggressive clowns named […]

For a while, it looked like President Donald Trump was going to have Big Tech’s back. Now, the tech industry is collateral damage in his global trade war. On Thursday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen floated the idea of placing “a levy on the advertising revenues of digital services” if tariff negotiations with […]

Netflix is starting to test search that’s powered by OpenAI, according to Bloomberg. The new search engine will let users “look for shows using far more specific terms, including the subscriber’s mood, for example, the company said,” per the report. This OpenAI-powered search will also allow users to make queries that “go well beyond genres […]

Baldur’s Gate 3’s Patch 8, which brings changes like 12 new subclasses, crossplay, and a photo mode, launches on April 15th, developer Larian Studios announced on Friday. The patch, set to be the game’s last major update, was originally announced in November 2024, so it’s been a long time coming (though Larian has been stress […]