Technology news

Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge TikTok mistakenly posted a link to an internal version of its new AI digital avatar tool without guardrails, letting users create videos that say just about anything. The hiccup was first spotted by CNN and allowed the outlet to generate videos containing quotes from Hitler and a message telling people to drink bleach, among other phrases. TikTok has since taken this version of the tool down, while the version TikTok intended to launch remains available.

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The National Labor Relations Board has filed a complaint against Amazon in Seattle that alleges the company “unlawfully disciplined and terminated an employee” after they assisted in organizing walkouts last May in protest of Amazon’s new return-to-work directives, issued early last year.
In February 2023, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy sent an email to the company’s staff outlining new return-to-work guidelines. Previously, individual teams

Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge The Biden administration announced sanctions against 12 executives and senior leaders of Kaspersky Lab, a Russia-based cybersecurity company, on Friday. The announcement comes on the heels of the Commerce Department’s ban on the sale of Kaspersky’s antivirus software in the US, citing national security concerns.
“Today’s action against the leadership of Kaspersky Lab underscores our commitment to ensure the integrity of our cyber

UPDATE: Jun. 21, 2024, 4:00 p.m. EDT This guide has been updated to include new streaming details for Prime Video, as well as information on 'Oppenheimer's' Oscars wins.The best ways to watch 'Oppenheimer' at a glance:BEST ON-DEMAND OPTIONRent or buy on digital$3.99 or $14.99 at Apple TVGet DealBEST STREAMING OPTION FOR MOST PEOPLEPrime Video only$8.99 per monthGet DealBEST FOR NEW PRIME MEMBERSPrime MembershipFree 30-day trial, then $14.99 per monthGet DealBEST FOR STUDENTSPrime StudentFree 6-

Traffic moves along Highway 11 near the airport as viewed opposite Volcanoes National Park on December 12th, 2016, in Hilo, Hawaii. | Photo by George Rose/Getty Images A group of young plaintiffs reached a historic climate settlement with the state of Hawaii and Hawaii Department of Transportation in a deal that will push the state to clean up tailpipe pollution.
The 13 youth plaintiffs filed suit in 2022 when they were all between the ages of 9 and 18. In the suit, Navahine F. v. Hawaii Departm

OpenAI has made its first acquisition and it's an analytics startup called Rockset. The ChatGPT maker announced the deal on Friday, saying "we will integrate Rockset’s technology to power our retrieval infrastructure across products." The company also said members of Rockset's team will join OpenAI. SEE ALSO:All the media companies that have licensing deals with OpenAI (so far)
As the ongoing battle to build the most capable AI models rages on, OpenAI seeks to gain a competitive edge again

Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge I have a bad habit of accidentally deleting files that I suddenly need a day later. Luckily, when files are “deleted,” they are actually not fully wiped from a system — and if they’re backed up to connected cloud storage services, well, those services have their own ways of handling deleted files. So it’s a good idea to know where to look.
This is also something to keep in mind if you’re selling or giving away a system

Illustration: Cath Virginia / The Verge Apple says upcoming features like its Apple Intelligence generative AI tools, iPhone mirroring, and SharePlay screen sharing may not be available in the European Union this year, as reported previously by Bloomberg.
Why? The Digital Markets Act (DMA), says Apple, citing the EU law that puts strict requirements on the “gatekeepers” that control massive online platforms to block anticompetitive behavior. Recently, rumors have indicated that Apple

Forgetting your 1Password account information just became a little bit less scary.The popular third-party password manager announced on Thursday that it is adding "Recovery Codes." These are special codes that can be used to recover your account if all other options fail. It's a new option for people who have forgotten their passwords and can't access their data anymore, but it's not one that 1Password will just automatically handle for you.SEE ALSO:Apple reportedly gives up on Vision Pro 2, foc

Anthropic has a new generative AI model to rival OpenAI's GPT-4o with intelligence, speed, and vision capabilities. On Thursday, the AI company that touts itself as the ethical and responsible alternative to OpenAI, announced Claude 3.5 Sonnet. Within Anthropic's family of models, Claude Sonnet is the middle child that combines speed and performance for most everyday tasks. By comparison, Claude Haiku is the lightest and fastest model, and Claude Opus is the industrial-strength model for complex

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Image: The Verge OpenAI has acquired Rockset, an enterprise analytics startup, to “power our retrieval infrastructure across products,” according to a Friday blog post.This acquisition is OpenAI’s first where the company will integrate both a company’s technology and its team, a spokesperson tells Bloomberg. The two companies didn’t share the terms of the acquisition. Rockset has raised $105 million in funding to date.
“Rockset’s infrastructure empowers

Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge TikTok is part algorithmic television, part Nextdoor group, and increasingly, part travel agent — a role the platform seems to be leaning into.
Users have been able to tag their geolocation for a while, but now, the company appears to have revamped the landing pages for certain locations like Boston, New York, and Texas. Now, instead of just showing videos that tag that location, TikTok has created categories like “food & drink,” &ld

In recent years, TikTok has had a remarkably significant impact on book sales, and 2024 is no different.BookTok has the power to make or break a bestseller, has its eponymous display tables at bookstores, and has turned authors into superstars. There's a constant debate over how to track your reads (Goodreads or Storygraph), whether audiobooks count as reading (they do), and how the most popular book should be cast if adapted into a film. But despite this consistent drama, BookTok stays reading.

Image: Alex Parkin / The Verge Meta is apparently deprioritizing VR and its Oculus business to focus on reproducing the surprising success of its Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses. And it makes sense — VR is out, AI is in, and Meta’s smart glasses are the absolute standout gadget thus far for AI. But in the same week that Alex Heath reported this shake-up in Command Line, The Information reported that Apple is focusing on a cheaper Vision headset in favor of a successor to the Vision Pro. S

Over the past few months, many website owners have reported losing traffic due to Google Search updates that dropped their site's rankings in search results.However, for at least one website, referrals due to Google's search changes have never been better. It appears the social platform Reddit has greatly benefited from Google's search engine updates. Multiple outlets have reported on Reddit's traffic gains. According to analytics company Similarweb, Reddit's traffic was up by nearly 40 per

SAVE 10%: As of June 21, get the new Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree DLC for 2022's Elden Ring from the Newegg for 10% off for Xbox and PC when you use promo code XPERDTREE. Opens in a new windowCredit: Newegg'Elden Ring' Shadow of the Erdtree$35.99 at Newegg $39.99 Save $4.00Xbox Digital CodeGet DealOpens in a new windowCredit: Newegg'Elden Ring' Shadow of the Erdtree$35.99 at Newegg $39.99 Save $4.00PC (Steam) Digital CodeGet DealElden Ring is a ridiculously popular game even now, two years a

Image: Nick Barclay / The Verge Spotify just announced that it would be increasing prices in the US, but on Friday, it announced a new Basic plan that brings back a $10.99 per month tier. This new offering gives you the same ad-free music listening perks you’d get on the $11.99 Premium Individual tier, but you won’t get the 15 monthly hours of audiobook listening that’s also included with Premium.Last year, Spotify bumped up the cost of Premium from $9.99 per month — the

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While Walmart's members-only sale turned out to be pretty underwhelming, Amazon came through this week to feed our hunger for deals. A

GET A GIFT CARD WORTH UP TO $150: Apple rarely has discounts on its products, but leading up to back-to-school season, it's offering $50 off iPads and $100 off laptops. Plus, with your purchase, receive a gift card worth up to $150.Opens in a new windowCredit: Apple$150 Apple gift card with purchase of MacBookGet DealHaving tested hundreds of laptops, our favorite is from Apple. MacBooks are sleek in design, easy to toss in a backpack, and they also have advanced processing power. They're the mo

Image: TC Sottek / The Verge After years of pursuing a group of piracy advocates for illegally hosting and streaming thousands of stolen TV shows, the Department of Justice doled out a series of convictions.
On Thursday, the Department of Justice announced that Kristopher Dallmann, Douglas Courson, Felipe Garcia, Jared Jaurequi, and Peter Huber — five men who were responsible for running Netflix knockoff Jetflicks — have been convicted on multiple counts of copyright infringement and

The TNW Conference grounds opened up yet again this morning for Day 2 filled with many participants coming back for more (some less fresh than others after last night’s karaoke cruise) and new speakers and participants who joined us for the first time, adding some unique perspectives to the mix. Here’s a wrap-up of five interesting talks and ideas that floated around throughout the day. Beyond green products: Change the system, not just the design In this eye-opening discussion, Bas

Illustration: Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Image: Getty Images Elon Musk, who has long touted claims about the world’s supposed depopulation crisis, had another child with an executive at his brain implant company Neuralink, according to a report from Bloomberg. Neuralink director Shivon Zilis reportedly had the child with Musk earlier this year.
Musk already has twins with Zilis, which Business Insider discovered in 2022 after digging up a court document. He has three children with the mus

UPDATE: Jun. 21, 2024, 10:32 a.m. EDT We've updated this post with the latest headphone deals and availability from day five of Walmart+ Week.Walmart+ Week kicked off June 17, in theory ushering in the summer savings season, but as of June 21, there aren't any standout deals from the sale itself.In years past, this sale served as the counter to Amazon's Prime Day (happening sometime in July this year), bringing deals on a wide array of products, from TVs to robot vacuums and headphones.Instead,

Tidal is dropping support for MQA. | Image: The Verge Big news for audiophiles: Tidal is shaking up its audio formats. Starting July 24th, Tidal will drop support for Master Quality Authenticated (MQA) and 360 Reality Audio formats. Going forward, the streaming service says FLAC will be the default for stereo, while Dolby Atmos will be the format of choice for immersive sound.
Tidal allows users to stream in three tiers of audio quality: low, high, and max. Low uses AAC files, which go up to 320

Samsung’s The Frame TV is a stylish 4K TV with some impressive specs, including a 120Hz refresh rate. | Image: Samsung If you plan on relaxing this summer by sitting back with a cold drink and streaming the Olympics and your favorite shows, it’s worth investing in a TV that isn’t an eyesore. Samsung’s The Frame TV is one of the most stylish TVs on the market, and through June 29th, you can buy the last-gen model from Woot in the 43-inch and 50-inch sizing for $687.99 ($30

Adobe has rolled out a new addition to its Lightroom photo editing platform called Generative Remove. It leverages Firefly, Adobe's generative AI model, to enable novice and hobbyist photo editors alike to select and erase elements from pictures, where the replacement content seamlessly fits in with its surroundings. Opens in a new windowCredit: AdobeLightroom$9.99 at Adobe MonthlyShop NowWith the recent arrival of Generative Remove, three major reasons emerge that make Lightroom a powerful

Antstream Arcade makes retro gaming on the iPhone easier with access to a library of licensed games. | Image: Antstream Apple opened the door for game streaming services in its App Store following the implementation of the European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) last year, but the first such service that will arrive on iOS and iPadOS next week will cater to hardcore retro gamers, as pointed out by Cult of Mac.
Antstream, which is already available on several platforms like Xbox, Windows

UPDATE: Jun. 21, 2024, 10:00 a.m. EDT We've pulled all of the best robot vacuum deals live on the fifth day of Walmart+ Week 2024 and will update the list if Walmart adds anything noteworthy throughout the weekend.Walmart's version of Prime Day didn't quite start with the bang that the internet was expecting. The first day of Walmart+ Week, June 17, unveiled far fewer member-exclusive deals than what we're used to (compared to 2023's Walmart+ Week or Walmart's Black Friday sales), seemingly foc

UPDATE: Jun. 21, 2024, 9:35 a.m. EDT We've pulled all of the best speaker deals live on the fifth day of Walmart+ Week 2024 at Walmart and other retailers.Walmart+ Week kicked off June 17, and to be honest, the deals just aren't dealing. We've had our eyes glued to Walmart.com waiting for the members-only sales event to wow us, and yet, we've been left scratching our heads.Typically a Prime Day rival, Walmart+ Week showcases deals on all sorts of products, including TVs, robot vacuums, headphon

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The directorial debut of Julio Torres, co-creator and co-star of the cel

Amazon launched its new Alexa-enabled Echo Hub in February. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge Last year, David Limp, Amazon’s former senior vice president of devices and services, hinted at charging for a more capable version of Alexa — and now we have an idea of how much it might cost. A report from Reuters suggests that Amazon’s AI-supercharged version of Alexa could cost anywhere from $5 to $10 per month on top of your Prime membership.
Sources tell Reuters that