Technology news

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes filed two new lawsuits against Amazon on Wednesday, bringing similar complaints to those the company is already facing from the Federal Trade Commission.
Both of the lawsuits are brought under Arizona’s own state statutes in the Superior Court of Arizona. One of the lawsuits accuses Amazon of engaging in deceptive business practices that violate the state’s Consumer Fraud Act by allegedly using design tricks

Image: Google Alongside Google’s ongoing developer-focused I/O conference comes the latest release of Android 15, which is now in its second beta. It’s got some cool new features, like the ability to now hide a collection of apps inside a “private space,” customizable vibrations so you can notice different types of notifications just by feeling, and also richer widget previews.
The new private space function is the most interesting of the bunch: it can hide apps you don&r

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella delivers a speech during an event called Microsoft Build: AI Day in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on May 2nd, 2024. | Photo by MOHD RASFAN / AFP via Getty Images Microsoft’s producing a lot more planet-heating pollution now than it did when it made a bold climate pledge back in 2020. Its greenhouse gas emissions were actually around 30 percent higher in fiscal year 2023, showing how hard it could be for the company to meet climate goals as it simultaneously races to b

Illustration: The Verge AST SpaceMobile has ramped up demonstrations of voice calls, texts, and video calls via satellite over the last year, using 4G LTE and 5G connections with download bandwidth reaching 14Mbps. Now the company says that a previous memorandum of understanding with AT&T to work on a space-based broadband network for phones has become a “definitive commercial agreement,” just in time for AST’s first five commercial satellites to launch this summer.
The FCC

Image: ByoWave On Wednesday, Microsoft announced the Proteus Controller, a $299 modular video game controller kit that lets Xbox gamers with disabilities customize their controllers.Created by peripheral company ByoWave as part of the Designed for Xbox program, the wireless controller consists of small cubes with interchangeable faceplates that include controller buttons, a directional pad, and analog sticks.The “snap and play” parts connect together so gamers can build more than 100

Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge Netflix’s expansion into an ad-supported model seems to be a hit. Today, at its 2024 upfront presentation, the streamer said that it now has 40 million monthly users on its ad-supported tier globally. That’s up from 23 million earlier in the year; it took six months for the option to hit 5 million users after it launched in 2022. As of April, the service had a total of 270 million subscribers across all tiers. Netflix also said that, in region

Image: Netflix 3 Body Problem is getting a second season. Netflix announced the news that its adaptation of Cixin Liu’s award-winning sci-fi trilogy is getting more episodes, with David Benioff, D.B. Weiss, and Alexander Woo returning as executive producers and writers.
3 Body Problem follows a group of scientists as they struggle with the realization that humanity isn’t the only species in the universe and that its nearest neighbors are far more technologically advanced and very mea

Screenshot: PPSSPP It’s the PlayStation Portable’s turn to get an emulator on the iOS App Store thanks to PPSSPP, which just went live today. This emulator, from developer Henrik Rydgård, has been in development for more than a decade, and it’s free to download for the iPhone and iPad.
Rydgård says in a blog post that the version approved this morning has some limitations versus previous builds of the app that were available through various exploits and workarounds.

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge Another emulator with tons of history and development, RetroArch, is now freely available on the iOS App Store today. This is great news for retro gaming fans with iPhones because it can emulate a truly eye-crossing number of retro consoles once installed.
In fact, there are too many to list here. But some notable emulation cores — the actual separately developed emulation software — included in this version of RetroArch are the NEC PC Engine, Nintend

Photo by Kevin Dietsch / Getty Images The Senate Rules Committee passed three bills that aim to safeguard elections from deception by artificial intelligence, with just months to go before Election Day. The bills would still need to advance in the House and pass the full Senate to become law, creating a time crunch for rules around election-related deepfakes to take effect before polls open across the country in November.
The vote happened on the same day that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schume

Illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photo from Getty Images For years, autonomous vehicles have operated in relative obscurity. With few vehicles on the road and a laissez-faire attitude among government regulators, automakers and big tech firms have been free to test — and even commercially deploy — with little oversight.Well, those days are done. In rapid succession, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has opened investigations into almost all the maj

Airbus taking its “Racer” aircraft for a test flight. | Image: Airbus Airbus has a new aircraft that’s half helicopter and half airplane, designed to speed up flight times for emergency responders. The company calls it the Racer: it has wings like a plane, forward-facing rotors, plus top helicopter blades that seriously make it look like a baby of two aircraft.
Today, Airbus is sharing its one-off working demonstration model of the Racer in France’s southern port city of

Wear OS 5 is on the way. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Wear OS 5 is on its way, and with it, Google says Android smartwatch users ought to see even better battery life. Running a marathon, for example, will purportedly consume 20 percent less battery than on Wear OS 4.
This emphasis on battery life is similar to last year’s Wear OS 4 announcement — and for good reason. Wear OS 4 helped the Pixel Watch 2 last an entire day, something the original struggled to do. That improved b

Quilt uses ductless heat pump-powered mini-split units combined with touchscreen remote controls to heat and cool your home. | Image: Quilt (Cayce Clifford) A new company founded by three former Googlers is looking to disrupt the somewhat staid mini-split industry. Quilt is a new “home climate system” — a ductless HVAC system that uses heat pump-powered mini-split units to heat and cool your home.Two things make Quilt stand out from the start: it’s smart and pretty. The s

Image: Ford Google is adding several new apps to its in-car infotainment platforms, while also making it easier for developers to get their apps approved faster and with fewer complications.Google said that two new streaming services, Max and Peacock, are coming to cars with Google built-in. These include models from companies like Nissan, Ford, Acura, Renault, Honda, Polestar, and Volvo.In addition, cars with Google built-in are getting the Angry Birds game, so you can enjoy all the brick smash

Image: Daniel Golson Google is lowering the barriers for new apps to be added to Android Auto and cars with Google software built-in, making it easier for developers of gaming and streaming apps to get them added to those platforms. It is also releasing new guidelines for developing apps for various screen sizes and shapes.Google is launching a new program for car-ready apps, essentially expediting the process for developers to get their apps approved for in-car platforms. As part of this progra

More security features on more Android phones. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Google is announcing an array of new security features as it releases its second Android 15 beta, including a feature that can detect the moment your phone is swiped from your hands. Some of these updates will be included with Android 15 when it arrives this fall, but theft detection and a number of other features will be available to phones with much older OS versions, too — bringing them to many more

Raspberry Pi prepares for a $630 million IPO. | Photo by Emma Roth / The Verge British minicomputer manufacturer Raspberry Pi has announced plans to file for a UK stock market listing, saying the initial public offering would allow the company to expand its current talent pool and product offerings.
Raspberry Pi is best known for making highly affordable microcontrollers and credit card-size single-board computers — the cheapest of which costs just $15. They can be used to make all sorts o

Image: Ubisoft The next entry in the Assassin’s Creed franchise is almost here: Ubisoft debuted the first trailer for Assassin’s Creed Shadows, which launches later this year.
The trailer is decently meaty for a world premiere, taking its time to introduce the game’s two protagonists. One is the samurai Yasuke, an African man who became a retainer in service to Japanese warlord Oda Nobunaga. The second protagonist is Naoe, a shinobi character whose opposition to Nobunaga’

Image: The Verge Microsoft started to preview mouse and keyboard support for Xbox Cloud Gaming in March, and it’s now rolling out to everyone as a beta today. You’ll be able to start streaming and playing Xbox games with a mouse or keyboard in Edge or Chrome over at xbox.com/play.
In total, 26 games will be supported at the launch of this beta, including Fortnite, Sea of Thieves, and Halo Infinite. Microsoft is also planning to let PC owners use the Xbox app later this month to selec

Photo: Wes Davis / The Verge Apple appears to have a bug that’s dredging up data that iPhone owners thought was gone. Some iPhone owners are reporting that, after updating their phones to iOS 17.5, their deleted photos — some quite old — are popping up again, according to a Reddit thread that MacRumors spotted. iOS beta testers had the same complaints about the bug last week.
People reporting the apparent bug say that they’re seeing old photos appear in their Recents albu

Photo by Andrew Harnik / Getty Images Four top Senators unveiled a proposed roadmap for artificial intelligence regulation on Wednesday, calling for at least $32 billion to be spent each year for non-defense AI innovation.
The members of the AI Working Group — Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Mike Rounds (R-SD), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), and Todd Young (R-IN) — released the long-awaited proposal after months of hosting AI Insight Forums to inform their colleagues about the

Amazon Web Services (AWS) today confirmed plans to launch its European “sovereign cloud”, aiming to enhance data residency and security across the EU. The city of Bradenburg in Germany will be the first region to host the cloud servers, which are set to power up by the end of 2025. AWS will invest €7.8bn through 2040. According to the tech giant, the European sovereign cloud will have its entire infrastructure within the EU and will operate independently from existing clou

Eve, makers of smart home devices such as the Eve Energy smart plug, will soon launch an Android app. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge After announcing that it would be bringing an app to Android way back in 2022, Eve is finally close to launching its Android app, possibly by this fall. Android users will be able to control Eve’s smart home products natively — including smart plugs, smart lights, and smart shades. They will be able to access features such as energy manag

ADT’s new smart security system includes the option to use facial recognition to allow a “trusted neighbor” temporary access to your home when you’re away. | Screenshot: Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge ADT has confirmed to The Verge that it’s rolling out a big upgrade to its ADT Plus home security system. The all-new hardware and software platform for ADT Plus features new ADT hardware, deeper integration with Google Nest hardware, and the ability to automatical

Image: Apple Apple just announced a slew of new accessibility features coming to its software platforms in the months ahead, including eye tracking, which the company says uses artificial intelligence to let people with physical disabilities more easily navigate through iOS and iPadOS.A new “music haptics” option will use the iPhone’s Taptic Engine vibration system to “play taps, textures, and refined vibrations to the audio of the music” for supported Apple Music t

Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge Just 11 months ago, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos said the streamer was “super excited about the success of our sports-adjacent programming,” but it’s going from adjacent to all in now, announcing a new three-year deal with the NFL to stream Christmas Day games. The NFL will announce its 2024 schedule tonight at 8PM ET, which is when we’ll learn which two games will be on Netflix this year.
As we’ve seen with previous NFL games

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Uber announced several new mobility products as part of its annual Go-Get conference, including shuttle service for airports and concert events and scheduled carpool trips.Uber Shuttle, which is coming soon to select cities, allows customers to use the Uber app to book a seat in a shuttle bus when traveling to an airport or concert destination. The company says the fare will be “a fraction” of the price of a normal Uber ride.The ridehailing and

Image: Intel Why can’t you just plug a USB cable between two PCs, drag your mouse cursor between their screens, and drop files between them, as if they were a single machine? Well, you can and have for years — but Intel may be about to turbocharge that idea with Thunderbolt Share.It’s a proprietary app that Intel will be licensing to laptop, desktop, and accessory manufacturers to bundle with new hardware. Install it on two Thunderbolt 4 or 5 computers, connect them with a Thun

Chromecast with Google TV will soon become a Google Home hub to control local and cloud-based smart home devices. | Photo: Chris Welch / The Verge Google has announced that it’s opening up API access to its Google Home smart home platform. This means that any app maker — smart home-related or not — can access the over 600 million devices connected to Google Home and tap into the Google Home automation engine to create smart solutions for their users inside their own app.The Hom

Image: Max Max is going way back in time for its upcoming Dune prequel show. The streamer just released the first trailer for the limited series — dubbed Dune: Prophecy — which is set 10,000 years before Paul Atreides set foot on Arrakis in the movies. The show is slated to start streaming later this fall, though it doesn’t have a specific date just yet.
The story is focused on the formation of the Bene Gesserit, the clandestine group that set many Dune universe-defining events

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge I’m excited to announce Notepad, a new weekly newsletter I’ll be writing at The Verge.Notepad is an inside look at my notes on Microsoft, a company I’ve spent the past 20 years trying to make sense of through my reporting, scoops, and analyses. This newsletter is designed to uncover the secrets and strategy behind Microsoft’s era-defining bets on AI, gaming, and the future of computing.
Whether it’s Windows, a new AI Copilot, the nex

Image: Netflix Netflix has finally named and dated its new anime series Terminator Zero, releasing worldwide on August 29th. If you recall your convoluted time-traveling, skin-wearing cyborg apocalypse history, you’ll realize that’s the 27th anniversary of the series’ Judgment Day, when the machines begin their conquest of humanity. Well, one of them, anyway.The show is mainly set in 1997 Tokyo, and according to its writer, it won’t be ignoring the movies — any of t

Mike Krieger has a long history in tech and AI. | Photo by Jerod Harris / Getty Images for Vox Media As Anthropic tries to take on the AI giants, it has a new big-name executive on board: the company announced this morning that Mike Krieger is its new chief product officer. Krieger, of course, was one of the co-founders of Instagram and spent the last few years working on Artifact, an AI news-reading app that was recently acquired by Yahoo.
Krieger will oversee all of Anthropic’s product e

Mike Krieger has a long history in tech and AI. | Photo by Jerod Harris / Getty Images for Vox Media As Anthropic tries to take on the AI giants, it has a new big-name executive on board: the company announced this morning that Mike Krieger is its new chief product officer. Krieger, of course, was one of the co-founders of Instagram and spent the last few years working on Artifact, an AI news-reading app that was recently acquired by Yahoo.
Krieger will oversee all of Anthropic’s product e

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge I’m excited to announce Notepad, a new weekly newsletter I’ll be writing at The Verge.Notepad is an inside look at my notes on Microsoft, a company I’ve spent the past 20 years trying to make sense of through my reporting, scoops, and analyses. This newsletter is designed to uncover the secrets and strategy behind Microsoft’s era-defining bets on AI, gaming, and the future of computing.
Whether it’s Windows, a new AI Copilot, the nex

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge; Getty Images Every Met Gala has some sort of controversy, whether it’s about the dress code and theme, the guest list, or a now-infamous brawl in an elevator at an afterparty. Because this is 2024, it’s only fitting that the outrage began this year because of a TikTok audio track.
In a now-deleted video, an influencer named Haley Kalil shows off her elaborate floral dress and headpiece as she prepares to host a pre-Met Gala red carpet event. Her miss

Image: The Verge Google I/O introduced an AI assistant that can see and hear the world, while OpenAI put its version of a Her-like chatbot into an iPhone. Next week, Microsoft will be hosting Build, where it’s sure to have some version of Copilot or Cortana that understands pivot tables. Then, a few weeks after that, Apple will host its own developer conference, and if the buzz is anything to go by, it’ll be talking about artificial intelligence, too. (Unclear if Siri will be mention

Image: The Verge Google I/O introduced an AI assistant that can see and hear the world, while OpenAI put its version of a Her-like chatbot into an iPhone. Next week, Microsoft will be hosting Build, where it’s sure to have some version of Copilot or Cortana that understands pivot tables. Then, a few weeks after that, Apple will host its own developer conference, and if the buzz is anything to go by, it’ll be talking about artificial intelligence, too. (Unclear if Siri will be mention