Technology news

Just look at those eyes. | Image: Sony After initially selling out, Sony’s limited-edition Astro Bot DualSense controller for the PS5 is available for preorder once again for $79.99. The forthcoming gamepad, which initially sold out but is now available from Walmart and Antonline, will launch alongside the next Astro Bot game on September 6th, giving those who’ve secretly been wishing their peripherals had more, huh, eyes, another option to consider.This isn’t the first time So

Illustration: The Verge OpenAI says that more than 200 million people use ChatGPT each week, as first reported by Axios. OpenAI spokesperson Taya Christianson confirmed the number to The Verge, which is now double the 100 million weekly active users OpenAI reported last November.
Additionally, Christianson says that 92 percent of Fortune 500 companies are using OpenAI’s products, while API usage has doubled following the release of the company’s cheaper and smarter model GPT-4o Mini.

Looks like a Dreamcast. Needs more arrows. | Image: EmuDeck Valve once dreamt of building Linux-based game consoles called Steam Machines. They flopped — but the dream eventually became reality as the handheld Steam Deck instead. Now, a particularly noteworthy Steam Deck enthusiast is reviving the idea of a console-sized Steam Box, one with his own retro gaming twist.
Rodrigo Sedano is the founder of EmuDeck, a program beloved by the Steam Deck community. It automatically installs, configu

Apple is reportedly in talks with OpenAI for investing in its latest fundraising round. According a report from The Wall Street Journal, Apple is expected to invest in the ChatGPT maker. Venture capital firm Thrive Capital is leading the investment round, which would make OpenAI's valuation above $100 billion. Apple analyst Mark Gurman also reported the rumored investment and added that Nvidia and Microsoft would also be participating. So yes, the three most valuable tech companies in the world

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge Spotify users on iPhone will no longer be able to control the volume on connected devices using their physical volume buttons. In an update to its support page, Spotify said Apple “discontinued” this technology, forcing iPhone owners to use an annoying workaround.
This change only affects Spotify Connect, a feature that lets users use their phones to control Spotify on nearby speakers, game consoles, smart TVs, computers, and other devices. Now Spotif

Meta is cracking the door back open for minors interested in the company's virtual offerings, with new parent-approved entry to the platform's Horizon Worlds. Children (or "preteens," as Meta refers to them) between the ages of 10 to 12 on parent-managed Meta accounts will be able to request access to specific virtual experiences, most of which are social hangout rooms. The age-appropriate designed "worlds" include areas like "The Space Station," a futuristic space where users don astronaut gear

Image: The Verge OpenAI is reportedly gearing up for a huge round of funding, and Apple and Nvidia might be among the investors.
On Thursday, The Wall Street Journal reported that Apple, which is planning to integrate ChatGPT into iOS, is in talks to invest. Soon after, Bloomberg also reported that Apple is in talks but added that Nvidia “has discussed” joining the funding round as well. The round is reportedly being led by Thrive Capital and would value OpenAI at more than $100 bill

Toei Animation For years, The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) has worked with Hollywood’s Motion Picture Association (MPA) to crack down on digital piracy, and this week, it seems like the organizations took a huge step towards reaching their goal.
Today, ACE — a coalition of over 50 major entertainment companies and production studios including Amazon, Disney, and Warner Bros. — took partial credit for the shuttering of Fmovies, a popular network of streaming s

"Google is a monopolist." Those were the words written by U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta earlier this month in his landmark ruling against the search giant in the antitrust case brought to the court by the U.S. Justice Department.While that case against Google pertained to its $20 billion deal with Apple regarding Google Search maintaining its default dominance on the iPhone, it seems that the DOJ lawsuit may have just opened the floodgates.On Wednesday, local business review platform Yelp filed

In what may be the most bonkers news we've heard in 2024, billions of Americans had their most personal, sensitive info swiped by hackers earlier this year — and the breach didn't get disclosed until August. The devastating data leak at the hands of National Public Data is a nightmare, exposing three decades’ worth of Social Security numbers on the online black market. Yep, it’s as bad as it sounds.So, what now? Well, don’t hold your breath for financial compensation just

Apple dropped the iOS 18.1 beta 3 for developers — and it added a new Apple Intelligence feature to the mix: the AI-powered Clean Up tool.We've all been there. You take a photo, you're excited to share it with friends or post it on social media, but there's just one little obstruction that diminishes the photo's visual appeal. Maybe it's an awkward photobomber — or perhaps there's an unsightly thingamajig that's stealing the spotlight. In these situations, Apple Intelligence is here

The Nintendo Switch is still a good handheld, even if the Steam Deck and more powerful options exist. | Photo by James Bareham / The Verge Nintendo recently confirmed it’ll announce a next-gen Nintendo Switch next year, but beyond that, the company hasn’t revealed much about the forthcoming console (including how much it will go for). If you’d rather not wait and see, the standard Nintendo Switch is currently receiving a rare discount at Amazon, where you can buy it with blue a

Image: Universal Pictures Universal Pictures has announced that Jurassic World Rebirth will come to theaters in 2025. The studio didn’t release any trailers to accompany the news, leaving us with production stills starring Scarlett Johansson, Jonathan Bailey, and Mahershala Ali.Jurassic World Rebirth. In theaters July 2025. pic.twitter.com/CLUdLQPPfO— Jurassic World (@JurassicWorld) August 29, 2024
According to Variety, Jurassic World Rebirth takes place five years after the events o

Google Meet knows it can be challenging to stay on a single tab during meetings, and it's here to help. For all you habitual tab-shifters out there — I count myself among your ranks — Google Meet recently made a picture-in-picture feature an automatic part of its service. What does that mean? As I discovered this morning, when you leave the tab while in a Google Meet, the call will automatically shrink to a smaller size and appear in the bottom-right part of your screen. SEE ALS

Elon Musk's AI company has caught the attention of environmentalists in Memphis, Tennessee for reportedly operating gas turbines without a permit. On Monday, environmentalist groups Memphis Community Against Pollution, Young, Gifted & Green, Sierra Club Chickasaw Group, and Sierra Club Tennessee Chapter sent a letter to the Shelby County Health Department calling for an investigation of the xAI data center, which powers the X chatbot Grok.SEE ALSO:Elon Musk's Grok heeds misinformation concer

Control. | Image: Remedy Entertainment Remedy Entertainment is teaming up with Annapurna Pictures to expand the world of Control. The most concrete part of the news is that Annapurna — which also has an indie game publishing arm — will be funding half of the development budget for the previously announced Control 2.
Beyond that, there’s the potential for Annapurna to create film and TV adaptations of both Control and Alan Wake, which just got a long-awaited sequel last year. No

If a post is being shared as part of a dogpiling effort, Bluesky users can now limit people from linking to them directly. | Image: Bluesky Bluesky has introduced a bunch of new “anti-toxicity” features that aim to help users protect themselves against harassment and dogpiling. Announced via a recent blog post, version 1.90 of the decentralized social media platform adds tools that can limit exposure to unwelcome interactions with other users, such as an option to detach your post fr

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Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge Verizon is the next big phone company to launch a satellite messaging service — and it’s coming soon. Starting this fall, the service will let “certain smartphones” access emergency messaging and location sharing via satellite in a partnership with Skylo — which is also powering Google’s recently announced Satellite SOS feature.Sometime next year, Verizon says customers will also be able to send text messages via satellite.
Ver

Image: Apple The Apple Sports app is gearing up for football season with an update that brings live scores and play-by-play information for NFL and college football games to your iPhone’s lock screen. With Live Activities support “for all teams and leagues available in the app for the first time ever” in iOS 18 and watchOS 11, now you can keep tabs on your team’s scores from the lock screen on your iPhone or Apple Watch.
In addition to North American football, Apple Sport

A rendering of Sage Geosystems’ geothermal energy project. | Image: Sage Geosystems Meta announced a new partnership this week in the hopes that geothermal energy can help it reduce its greenhouse gas emissions.
Meta and startup Sage Geosystems struck up a deal to develop new geothermal power plants. If they make it to the finish line, the plants would provide carbon pollution-free energy that Meta needs for new data centers in the US.The company has struggled to keep its carbon pollution

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After a few quiet months, rumors about Sony's alleged upcoming "PS5 Pro" console are flooding the internet again. This time, we may have gotten a glimpse at what the console looks like.Leaker billbil-kun, writing for the French website Dealabs, claims to have seen the final packaging for the not-yet-released console. PS5 Pro designAccording to the leaker, the PS5 Pro is slightly thicker than the current model, but otherwise retains the same basic size and shape. Tweet may have been deletedThe bi

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Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge; Jools Lebron At this point, you either already know about the “very demure, very mindful” meme that originated on TikTok, or you have neither the interest nor the capacity to understand. It is simply A Thing, a viral catchphrase that may become as ubiquitous in the 2020s as “eyebrows on fleek” was in the 2010s. And that is why every tabloid in America is running a story about a dispute over an application to register “Very Demure&he

Image: The Verge OpenAI and Anthropic have agreed to let the US government access major new AI models before release to help improve their safety.
The companies signed memorandums of understanding with the US AI Safety Institute to provide access to the models both before and after their public release, the agency announced Thursday. The government says this step will help them work together to evaluate safety risks and mitigate potential issues. The US agency said it would provide feedback on s

The Wyze Cam 4. | Image: Wyze Wyze is making it easier to find out which of your cats knocked over your planter while you were gone. It’s testing a new AI search feature for Cam Unlimited subscribers that lets you search through footage using keywords, rather than scrolling through all recorded events, as spotted by GeekWire.
With the feature, you can search for things that might’ve been caught on camera, like “truck” or “delivery person.” You can even add mor

Deep in Sweden’s icy north sits a small factory where the country’s largest industrial players have been steadily validating a new technology that could clean up one of the dirtiest industries on Earth.  Energy giant Vattenfall, steel-maker SSAB, and mining firm LKAB built the facility — located in the small town of Luleå — in 2020, as part of the HYBRIT project. The initiative aims to prove that steel can be made on an industrial scale using hydrogen and clea

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Sure, it’s skinny, but it’s also blocking the second wall outlet in this image. | Image: Genki If you’re in need of a compact and portable USB-C charger, then Genki’s TurboCharger might fit the bill. The gaming accessory maker says its new gallium nitride (GaN) accessory is the “flattest” 100W wall charger on the market, capable of folding to a thickness of 18 millimeters (0.7 inches) to make it easier to pack.
The TurboCharger is compatible with Power Deliver