Technology news

Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge TikTok is planning to release a new photo-sharing app that could take on Instagram. In a notification sent to users, TikTok says it’s launching “a new app for photo posts” called TikTok Notes, as reported earlier by TechCrunch.
The notification says it will share “existing and future public TikTok photo posts” to TikTok Notes while also giving users the ability to opt out. A new photo.tiktok.com URL (archived version) spotted

Photo by Amelia Holoway Krales / The Verge The Humane AI pin promises to give users a way to use generative AI in the physical world. You can clip the pin to your shirt, talk to it, and project answers from chatbots onto any surface, most often your palm. We know a little bit about what powers the tiny square pin, and thanks to a new report, we have a much better view of what goes on under the hood.The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) included a photographic teardown of the AI pin in a ne

If you walked outside during the middle of the day on Monday, April 8, you may have noticed something peculiar: It was a whole lot darker than it usually is.Millions of people watched the solar eclipse on April 8, particularly those within the celestial event's "path of totality" — a.k.a. when the moon's shadow completely covered up the sun. It was a spectacular showing of nature's most incredible forces. Unsurprisingly, the internet reacted with some good posts.Starting with @NASAMoon, th

Forgot to pick up your eclipse glasses and didn't have any cereal boxes around? Couldn't get out of that meeting, or stuck in the subway?If you missed this year's solar eclipse — or are gutted you weren't in the path of totality — you still have another chance to view the celestial event. You just have to wait a few... well, maybe more than a few... years. SEE ALSO:Live: Jaw-dropping images of the 2024 Solar Eclipse
When is the next solar eclipse?Solar eclipses of some variety happen

Image: Clock Work Tea Party Before today, I had never heard of Japanese thermal paste maker Clock Work Tea Party. But I’ll never forget them thanks to this Tom’s Hardware article; the company makes limited-edition scented thermal paste. It previously released apple- and strawberry-scented pastes, and on April 12th, it’s releasing a new scent that supposedly smells like an Osmanthus plant in full bloom. All its scented pastes are part of the company’s Ekusuri Mugurisu seri

Google’s smart home security system Nest Secure will stop working today, April 8th. | Image: Google Nest As we’ve warned you, on April 8th, Google is turning off support for its once-excellent Google Nest Secure home security system. This means that, as of today, your Nest Secure will no longer connect to the internet, and you won’t be able to control it from the Nest app or receive notifications from the alarm system. It’s basically a paperweight (albeit one that can be

Evil is soon set to return to Paramount+ for its fourth and final season. From the looks of the first trailer, it's going to be another wickedly entertaining time of horror and very dark humor. Katja Herbers, Mike Colter, Aasif Mandvi, Michael Emerson, Andrea Martin, Kurt Fuller and Christine Lahti are all back in the habit (as it were). In the wake of religious horror hitting theaters in the form of Immaculate and The First Omen, you might feel a little worn out on tales of devout Catholic

Image: Android Headlines Consumer tech startup Nothing, which is expected to launch its newest earbuds later this month, will also debut a new color variant that evokes a certain yellow handheld, according to leaked renders shared by Android Headlines. Nothing previously announced that it would be dropping numbers in its naming strategy, so instead of the Ear 3, the successors to the Ear 2 will be simply called the Nothing Ear and Nothing Ear (a).
According to the images, both earbuds will inclu

The highly anticipated 2024 total solar eclipse has begun its path across North America. It will make its way across the continent on Monday, April 8, spanning from Mexico to Canada. Mashable has all the info on its path of totality and the time the eclipse will reach each area, which began in Mexico around 11 a.m. ET and will continue to make its way north throughout the afternoon. The further north the location, the later the eclipse will take place. SEE ALSO:The solar eclipse is today —

View of the solar eclipse from the Dudley Observatory on Monday, August 21st, 2017, in Schenectady, New York. | Photo by Lori Van Buren / Albany Times Union via Getty Images You don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone, and the total eclipse is a stark reminder of that adage when it comes to the key role solar energy currently plays in the US.
More than 31 million people — nearly 10 percent of the population in the US — live in an area that will experience the tot

Roborock’s entry-level robot vacuum is down to just $260, which is a new all-time low. | Image: Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge If you’re looking for a way to quickly wrap up your spring cleaning, robot vacuums make for great cleaning assistants that can help you do so with just the press of a button. And right now, one of our favorite models has plunged to a new all-time low, with both Amazon and Roborock selling the Roborock Q5 Pro for $259.99 ($170 off).The midrange Q5 Pro is

Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images The rise of free, ad-supported streaming television (FAST) seems to have little to do with what’s playing — and more like how it’s playing. Metrics compiled by Bloomberg suggest that people really do just like to leave their TVs running in the background while working around the house or scrolling through social media.
As shown in the below chart from Bloomberg, viewers are spending more time watching Tubi, the FAST servi

Save $150: As of April 8, you can grab the 13.6-inch MacBook Air (M2, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD) at Amazon and Best Buy for just $849 — a new record low that saves you 15% on its $999 MSRP. Opens in a new windowCredit: AppleMacBook Air (M2, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD)$849.00 at Amazon and Best Buy $999.00 Save $150.00Get DealOne of the best ways to save on a MacBook — or any laptop for that matter — is to remain open to buying older generations. Case in point: the M2 MacBook Air, which came o

The iPhone 16 Plus might be the black sheep of this year's iPhone family.Well, that's maybe a little dramatic, but a recent leak paints a somewhat concerning picture regarding its battery size. SEE ALSO:iPhone 16 rumors: Release date, price, specs, features, and more
iPhone 16 reported battery sizesSomeone going by "OvO Baby Sauce OvO" on the Chinese social media platform Weibo (spotted by Phone Arena) posted leaked battery sizes for all four new iPhones set to come out this year. Here's what we

New rumors suggest that Apple may be revamping its Apple TV experience by introducing a built-in camera capable of video calling and hand gestures.SEE ALSO:Apple TV+ is getting a price hike
Apple TV may be controlled via hand gestures soonAccording to a report by Bloomberg journalist Mark Gurman's Power On newsletter, these features are part of Apple's broader ambition to enhance its smart home offerings. This would mark a significant shift from requiring an iPhone to conduct FaceTime calls on A

Image: Getty Images A pair of bipartisan lawmakers released a new comprehensive privacy proposal on Sunday, the first sign in years that Congress could have a shot at breaking the long-standing impasse in passing such protections.
Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) unveiled the American Privacy Rights Act, the most significant comprehensive data privacy proposal introduced in years. The draft bill woul

UP TP 42% OFF: Now through April 9, HBO's Max streaming service is offering new, returning, and existing customers the chance to get up to 42% off its yearly subscription plans. Opens in a new windowCredit: MaxMax streaming subscription Get up to 42% off a yearly subscription Get DealWhether you're a sports fan, news junkie, or cinephile, Max's limited-time subscription offer is a deal you don't want to miss. Through April 9 (that's tomorrow!), you can score up to 42% off an annual subscription

Illustration: The Verge Microsoft says it’s figured out how to improve error rates in quantum computing, bringing quantum computing closer to a commercial state.The company worked in collaboration with quantum computing hardware maker Quantinuum to improve the performance of the qubit — the very basic unit of quantum computing. Qubits work by holding two different phases at once (instead of just a one and a zero, it’s both), but they aren’t very stable, making it easy for

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Microsoft is getting ready to fully unveil its vision for “AI PCs” next month at an event in Seattle. Sources familiar with Microsoft’s plans tell The Verge that Microsoft is confident that a round of new Arm-powered Windows laptops will beat Apple’s M3-powered MacBook Air both in CPU performance and AI-accelerated tasks.
After years of failed promises from Qualcomm, Microsoft believes the upcoming Snapdragon X Elite processors

Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge Google’s Pixel 8 series phones can now be located even when they’re powered down or after their batteries have run down. The convenient new capability was announced as part of today’s rollout of the upgraded, more advanced Find My Device network. Google says this offline tracking is made possible by “specialized Pixel hardware” in its latest two phones, and I’ve asked for more details on that.
Hopefully, the company will ex

A wide range of Android devices will get offline finding, but the Pixel 8 gets a special feature. | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge We had plenty of signs it was coming; now, Android’s enhanced Find My Device network is officially here. It’s rolling out starting today, and it uses a crowdsourced network to help Android device owners find their stuff — much like iOS’s Find My network.With the update, you’ll be able to find your phone even if it’s offline b

The solar eclipse 2024 is today, and if you're anything like me, you're curious about what time — specifically — the highly anticipated celestial event will swing by your location.If you're not sure if you're within the path of the solar eclipse, check out our 2024 solar eclipse calculators. (As for me, I live in New York, so while I won't get to see a total solar eclipse, I'll witness a partial one.)Now that you know whether you're within its path, you can check out our page of sola

US pressure to block ASML from servicing the chip-making machines it has sold to China is increasing the Netherlands’ entanglement into an escalating geopolitical race for tech supremacy. Implementing a clear technological and economic decoupling strategy from China, the Biden Administration has introduced a series of thorough export rules aiming to restrict Beijing from obtaining key chip technology. But as the world’s only manufacturer of equipment for advanced chips, ASLM ha

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Another week, another slew of top-notch deals from Amazon. With Target's Circle Week running from April 7 through 13, we're expecting Amazon to offer some co

Image: Nintendo The release of Animal Crossing: New Horizons couldn’t have been better timed, very specifically for me. The Christmas before, my partner bought me a Switch, and for about a decade before that, the only console I’d owned was a modded Wii because I’d sold the roughly two dozen systems I’d collected in an effort to reset my relationship with gaming.But there was also the fact that just days before, I was furloughed from my job at a brewery because of a pandem

Image: The Verge Nintendo is officially closing the chapter on the Wii U and 3DS. Today is the final day to play online on either console, and it’s kind of making me want to dust off the Wii U just to play the original Splatoon online one last time.
The Wii U was far from Nintendo’s most popular console, but I still have a lot of great memories with the machine. It was the first console I used to play competitively. As someone who never really liked the pressure of playing with compl

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Target Circle Week is here, bringing with it tons of dea

SAVE UP TO 40%: Target Circle Week is here! Now through April 13, you can save up to 40% on floor care, outdoor living, toys, and more.Our top picks: Best vacuum deal Dyson V8 Origin cordless vacuum$329.99 at Target (save $100 ) Get DealBest electronics deal Beats Studio Pro Bluetooth wireless headphones$199.99 at Target (save $150) Get DealBest toy deal Lego Creator 3-in-1 Mighty Dinosaurs Model Building Set (31058)$8.39 at Target (save $3.60) Get DealBest kitchen dealKitchenAid 5.5 Quart Bowl-

Image: Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images Brazil has opened an investigation into Elon Musk over a potential obstruction of justice after the X owner said he reactivated accounts on the social media platform Brazil had ordered the platform to block.
The inquiry opened by Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes on Sunday follows a string of heated interactions between Musk and the Brazilian government. On Saturday, X’s global government affairs team announced that “c

I learned that my iPhone 15 Pro Max and the upcoming 2024 total solar eclipse do not mix. I stumbled upon BGR's article, which warned sky gazers about using their phones to take pictures of the imminent cosmic event.If you're like me, you may be wondering "Why?" After all, who wouldn't want to snap a photo of such an awe-inspiring celestial occurrence?As it turns out, taking a photo of the 2024 solar eclipse could damage your iPhone's camera hardware.SEE ALSO:How the 2024 solar eclipse will be d

Cath Virginia / The Verge A new proposal from Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) would require videoconferencing and messaging tools used by the federal government to be able to communicate with each other, even if made by different companies. It would also enforce high security standards for government collaboration tools, including end-to-end encryption.
The Secure and Interoperable Government Collaboration Technology Act, a discussion draft shared exclusively with The Verge, would make it so that a govern

Image: A24 It’s shaping up to be a promising summer of horror. Last week, we got a first glimpse at Tilman Singer’s Cuckoo, which comes out in August, and this week is starting off with the first trailer for Ti West’s Maxxxine. The movie will round out a trilogy that kicked off in 2022 with the release of both X and its prequel Pearl; it hits theaters on July 5th.
As the title implies, the new movie follows aspiring actress Maxine Minx (Mia Goth) as she attempts to make it big

VHS tapes spattered with blood and big hair-sprayed hair will plunge you into '80s horror in the MaXXXine trailer.A24 horror empress Mia Goth is back in the third instalment Ti West's horror trilogy following the writer and director's X and Pearl. This time set in the 1980s, the film follows adult film star and Hollywood hopeful Maxine Minx (Goth), who, after surviving a massacre, finally gets a role that could be her big screen breakthrough. But there's a serial killer called the Night Stalker

Spotify is further tapping AI to boost its services with a new feature that enables users to create playlists using text prompts. Dubbed AI Playlist, the feature is currently in beta and available on Android and iOS devices for premium subscribers in Australia and the UK. Interestingly, the new tool goes beyond standard playlist creation requests based on genre or artists. Instead, prompts can include activities, colours, places, and emojis. At the same time, users can get as creative as asking