Technology news

Imagen 3 created this image of Google’s logo. | Image: Emma Roth / Imagen 3 Google has released the latest version of Imagen 3, its AI text-to-image generator, to users in the US, as spotted by VentureBeat. The tool, which you can access on Google’s AI Test Kitchen, is supposed to generate images with “better detail, richer lighting, and fewer distracting artifacts” compared to Google’s previous models.
Google first announced its updated Imagen 3 tool during I/O in

This is a screenshot from Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas – The Definitive Edition. We never saw footage of the VR port. | Image: Rockstar Games The Quest version of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, which was first announced nearly three years ago, is “on hold indefinitely,” Meta confirmed to IGN and in a comment on a YouTube video. “GTA: San Andreas is on hold indefinitely while we both focus on other projects,” the Meta Quest VR account said in response to a comment o

With the right hardware, you can now connect the Meta Quest to devices HDMI or DisplayPort output. | Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge Meta has released a new app for the Quest 3, 2, and Pro, letting you use the headsets as a screen for consoles, laptops, or any device with video out capabilities. Using the free Meta Quest HDMI Link app does require additional hardware, but it’s still a relatively cheap way to repurpose the headset, instead of buying single-purpose video glasses that

Illustration: The Verge Some California residents will be able to add their driver’s licenses and state IDs to Apple Wallet soon, Apple announced Thursday.
Apple’s announcement doesn’t say when the mobile driver’s licenses will be rolled out, just that it will happen “this fall” as part of California’s mobile driver’s license (mDL) pilot. The pilot, which will be limited to 1.5 million participants, will let users traveling through certain terminal

Attendees during a media tour of the Revolution Wind construction hub at the Port of Providence in Providence, Rhode Island, US, on Thursday, June 13, 2024.  | Photo: Getty Images Offshore wind energy giant Ørsted is pushing back the start date for Revolution Wind, the project it’s building off the coasts of Rhode Island and Connecticut.
It’s a another setback to the Biden administration’s hopes of sourcing clean energy from new offshore wind farms that have faced a

OpenAI It’s strange to sit down at my desk and talk to an AI about my life — but that’s what I spent my Tuesday doing.
I’d gotten access to OpenAI’s Advanced Voice Mode, the new ChatGPT feature that sounds strangely like a human. When counting quickly, it’ll pretend it’s out of breath. It says “um” and “uh.” It laughs. It changes tone when talking about difficult or upbeat topics. After messing around with it, I felt equal parts a

Sonos’ midrange Beam soundbar might not sound as immersive as the Arc, but it’s a step up from the built-in speakers on your TV. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge It’s been a rough few months for Sonos fans, but there has been at least some good news sprinkled in with the bad. Sonos might be relaunching its old app, for one, and right now, Woot is offering steep cuts on several Sonos products. The ongoing “Random Audio” sale includes the Sonos Five speaker and the

A menacing asteroid, some six miles wide, triggered Earth's last mass extinction. Now, scientists have found where it originated.Unlike most space rocks that impact our planet today, this behemoth object came from beyond the gas giant Jupiter. It was a "C-type asteroid" — which are the dark, carbon-rich leftovers of the outer solar system — and the impact scattered the fateful object's remains all over Earth, some 66 million years ago.It was "a projectile originating at the outskirts

"I want grandkids." The best I can do is this article.There's a new trend on X, formerly known as Twitter, in which users are responding to their parents' hypothetical requests for grandchildren. It should come as no surprise that young people of child-rearing age aren't prioritizing having children. The cost of raising a child has increased significantly in recent years, including housing, education, and healthcare. Overpopulation and the environmental impact of bringing additional people into

Illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photos from Getty Images Probably you have already heard that astronauts Barry ”Butch” Wilmore and Sunita Williams may not be able to leave on the Boeing Starliner that brought them to the International Space Station. I have been thinking about it in quiet moments — when I wake up in the morning, on hikes, in the shower.Those guys popped up there on June 5th, and they were supposed to spend a week on the ISS doing normal astronaut stu

Let's say a server gives you food you repeatedly said you're deathly allergic to, and let's say you die. What if your spouse then tries to sue for wrongful death, but the lawyers for the company they're suing try to get the case thrown out because of the terms of service of a streaming service they (the spouse, not you) signed up for years earlier? This hypothetical sounds like a dark, dystopian joke, but it's also allegedly an actual chain of events involving Disney.Jeffrey Piccolo include

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge; Getty Images Most Google Pixel phones sold since September 2017 included software that could be used to surveil or remotely control users’ phones, according to a new report from the cybersecurity company iVerify.
The vulnerability was discovered after iVerify’s endpoint detection and response (EDR) scanner flagged an insecure Android device at Palantir Technologies, an iVerify client. After launching a joint investigation, iVerify, Palantir, and Trai

Image: Threads Meta is testing a handful of new features on Threads, its X competitor, the company announced today.
The new additions range from options that the average Threads user might appreciate to content management tools that feel more directly aimed at brands. Threads, which just passed the one-year mark since its official launch on July 5th, 2023, now has more than 175 million monthly active users, including some celebrities and brand accounts.
The most useful new feature, in my opinion

Image: Activision Call of Duty games have famously giant file sizes, but ahead of the October 25th launch of Black Ops 6, Activision is going to make some changes so that Call of Duty titles don’t take up as much space on your hard drive — including separating Warzone from the default download for the annual games.
The default separation of Warzone is happening soon: on August 21st, alongside the launch of Season 5 Reloaded. As part of that, when you download an annual Call of Duty g

The Momentum Sport earbuds come in a few different color options, but the only vibrant hue is olive. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge The Sennheiser Momentum Sport earbuds are a pretty unique piece of tech, as the noise-canceling buds feature an embedded heart rate tracker for monitoring your performance during runs and exercises. They’re also normally on the pricey side at $329.95, but right now, the olive and graphite colors are discounted to a new low of $254.06 (a savings

SAVE $100: As of August 15, the Google Pixel Watch 2 is on sale for $249.99 at Amazon. That's a discount of 29% and the lowest price we've seen. Opens in a new windowCredit: AmazonGoogle Pixel Watch 2$249.99 at Amazon $349.99 Save $100.00Get DealGoogle just debuted its new Pixel Watch 3 during this week's Made by Google event. It's fun to nab the latest and greatest tech, especially when it comes to iterative devices like phones and smartwatches. But if you don't want to keep up with the Joneses

One thing about Mark Zuckerberg is that man wants to be a Roman emperor so badly.The Meta CEO recently commissioned a giant sculpture of his wife, Priscilla Chan, saying in an Instagram caption that he's "bringing back the Roman tradition of making sculptures of your wife." The statue, made by Daniel Arsham, presents Chan midstride in green with a flowing silver cloak. It is beautiful, but it is not a particularly Roman work of art. Romans definitely erected plenty of pietas, which did take off

The Federal Trade Commission has announced a new rule that should theoretically make online user reviews of products more useful. In a press release, the FTC announced a finalized set of guidelines aimed at taking down fraudulent or misleading product reviews on the internet. Among the things that will be prohibited once the rule goes into effect are paid reviews and those generated by artificial intelligence. The maximum penalty for transgressions is $51,744 per violation.“Fake reviews no

Check out the best camping gear deals the week of August 15 to get you prepped for fall adventures.Our top picks:Best tent dealColeman Evanston Screened Camping Tent (8 person)$138.28 at Amazon(save $151.71)Get DealBest cooler dealIgloo 110-quart Glide Cooler (white)$129.99 at Amazon (save $36.02)Get DealBest portable Bluetooth speaker dealSoundcore Motion 300 (black)$59.99 at Amazon(save $20)Get DealBest backpacking dealLifeStraw Go Series Water Filter Bottle (Laguna Teal, 1L)$43.99 at Amazon(s

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August 15 may not sound like a major day for discounts, but I can assure you there are deals to add to your cart. We've already done t

Google's AI Overviews got off to a rocky start, but it hasn't deterred the tech giant from charging ahead with foisting AI-generated summaries upon your search results, like it or not. On Thursday Google announced new updates to AI Overviews, some of which might make publishers a little happier. As of today, Google is moving the relevant sites section of its AI Overviews to the righthand side of the page. This is a change from the previous interface which was below the AI-generated summary and f

Image: Rivian Rivian is selling a travel kitchen accessory for the first time. This is not the comprehensive campsite device it advertised years ago (but never released) that slid out the side of the company’s electric R1T trucks. Instead, this new one is compact and lightweight, designed to sit on a vehicle’s tailgate.
Simply called the Travel Kitchen, it folds out to span the length of the tailgate and features two induction burners, a cutting board that stows away in an organizer

Image: BioWare BioWare is announcing the release date for Dragon Age: The Veilguard and sharing a new trailer to commemorate the occasion. Players will be able to return to Thedas — the name of the game’s world that is simultaneously a clever acronym for The Dragon Age Setting — on October 31st, more than 10 years after the release of the previous game, Dragon Age: Inquisition.Oh man, there’s some lore going on in this new trailer. Up until now, fans assumed that Solas, a

A great philosopher once said, "You're not hardcore unless you live hardcore." Elon Musk is finding that out the hard way. If you'll recall, back in Nov. 2022, Musk sent what we here at Mashable called "his weirdest email so far." The email, titled "A Fork in the Road," followed a string of odd choices from the billionaire after he bought and began running the platform then known as Twitter. In that email, Musk issued an ultimatum demanding employees click yes to working "extremely hardcore." We

Save with this week's best skincare deals on toner, moisturizer, and more.The best skincare deals of the week at a glance:Best Essence DealCOSRX Snail Mucin 96% Power Repairing Essence$14.99 at Amazon(Save $10.01)Get DealBest Toner DealI'm From Rice Toner$17.50 at Amazon(Save $13.50)Get DealBest Moisturizer DealCOSRX Full Fit Propolis Light Cream$11.20 at Amazon(Save $20.80)Get Deal
The glass skin beauty trend is all about healthy, glowing skin that's bouncy, dewy, and clear. You need to drink p

British police will experiment with uncrewed aircraft as part of new drone trials in the UK. Britain’s aviation regulator has backed the project, which the National Police Air Service (NPAS) will lead. The tests will focus on flights “beyond the visual line of sight” — meaning the operators won’t see their drones. The police will instead rely on tech for navigation, control, and detection of other aircraft.  NPAS has high hopes for the approach. In 2021, the s

Image: Kristen Radtke / The Verge Antisemitic streamer, Holocaust denier, Charlottesville rally attendee, and January 6th instigator Nick Fuentes disavowed Donald Trump’s presidential campaign last week, claiming the America First movement had been “hijacked” by “consultants, lobbyists, & donors.”The news that Fuentes had declared a “groyper war” on his preferred presidential candidate has sparked some claims that Trump is losing support among a core

Zero Zero Robotics hasn’t yet revealed pricing or a ship date for the HoverAir X1 Pro and X1 Pro Max selfie drones. | Image: Zero Zero Robotics One of the shortcomings of the recently reviewed HoverAir X1 selfie drone was that its camera could only capture video at 2.7K/30fps resolutions. Zero Zero Robotics will soon resolve this issue with two upgraded versions of the drone that it’s been teasing on its website, as spotted by DIYPhotography.
The HoverAir X1 Pro will be able to captu