Technology news

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Turbosquid Tesla has been testing a robotaxi service in the Bay Area for the past few months, Elon Musk said during the company’s earnings call Wednesday.The company’s employees have been able to summon an autonomously operated Tesla vehicle for trips using the company’s prototype ride-hailing app, Musk said. The vehicles arrive with safety drivers behind the wheel, ready to intervene in case anything goes wrong.But Musk said the vehicles are o

The Bookcase undoes years of smartphone makers working hard to reduce the size of screen bezels. | Image: Astropad Astropad’s new Bookcase is a smartphone accessory designed to make reading on a smartphone feel more like reading on an e-reader. No, it doesn’t give your phone an easy-on-the-eyes screen, longer battery life, or any other features that have made devices like the Kindle popular. Instead, for $50 the Bookcase is really just designed to make a smartphone easier to hold lik

Illustration: The Verge Google’s SynthID text watermarking technology, a tool the company created to make AI-generated text easier to identify, is now available open-source through the Google Responsible Generative AI Toolkit, the company announced on X.“Now, other [generative] AI developers will be able to use this technology to help them detect whether text outputs have come from their own [large language models], making it easier for more developers to build AI responsibly,”

2024 Dodge Charger Daytonas. | Image: Stellantis Stellantis says it will put a “demonstration fleet” of Dodge Charger Daytonas on the road by 2026, equipped with solid-state battery technology that’s lighter, more energy-dense, and could eventually make for cheaper EVs. The company calls the demo fleet a “key next step” toward making solid-state EVs that you can actually buy.
The cars will be built on its STLA Large EV platform, which is meant to underpin more than

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Humane is dropping the price of the AI Pin by $200 in an attempt to reverse the AI gadget’s very poor sales. The product launched earlier this year at $699, but now, you can buy one starting at $499.
This $499 version is the “eclipse” model that is a matte black anodized aluminum, and it doesn’t come with an extra battery or the charge case. The latter makes some sense given that the company warned AI Pin owners not to use the c

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images On the heels of its highly anticipated but ultimately disappointing robotaxi event, Tesla published its third quarter earnings report, in which it said it would launch a “more affordable” electric vehicle in the first half of 2025.“In order to continue accelerating the world’s transition to sustainable energy, we need to make EVs affordable for everyone, including making total cost of ownership per mile competitive with all f

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images On the heels of its highly anticipated but ultimately disappointing robotaxi event, Tesla published its third quarter earnings report, in which it said it would launch a “more affordable” electric vehicle in the first half of 2025.“In order to continue accelerating the world’s transition to sustainable energy, we need to make EVs affordable for everyone, including making total cost of ownership per mile competitive with all f

The iOS 18 updates keep rolling. | Photo: Allison Johnson / The Verge When Apple said that iPhone owners in the EU would be able to set new default apps for things like calling and messaging, it sounded a lot like only people in the EU would get that option.That’s not the case, though: a note on Apple’s developer website states that all users worldwide can set new default apps for calling and messaging in iOS 18.2. Maybe the continental divide between iPhones in the US and EU won&rsq

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Apple plans to release MacBook Airs with M4 chips in early 2025, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports. The company just refreshed the lineup with M3 chips this spring, but the M4 update will “likely” launch between January and March 2025, Gurman says. Both the 13-inch and 15-inch models will apparently get the M4 update, and they’ll have a similar design to the M2 MacBook Air.
The potential spring launch for M4-equipped MacBook Airs

Image: Microsoft Microsoft has made Windows Update significantly faster in its latest big update to Windows 11. Version 24H2 started rolling out earlier this month with lots of useful improvements, but now Microsoft is revealing this big update also reduces install time, restart time, and even CPU usage for monthly Windows updates.
Microsoft typically distributes monthly cumulative security and non-security updates, which are designed to roll out new features or protect against new threats. Wind

Amazon is sweetening the Prime deal. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Amazon Prime members are getting a new perk: extra savings at the pump. By linking your Amazon account with BP’s loyalty program, you’ll be able to save 10 cents a gallon whenever you fuel up at a participating BP station. Incidentally, it’s a discount much like the one Walmart offers at Exxon stations through its Prime competitor program, Walmart Plus.
Naturally, you need to agree to let BP collect

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge An investigation conducted by a data privacy group has revealed a vast tracking network that can follow the movements of a person’s phone, according to reports from 404 Media and Krebs on Security. The people-tracking service, called Locate X, reportedly lets users follow a device using its mobile advertising identifier, a unique number assigned to phones.
The New Jersey-based Atlas Data Privacy Corp, which aims to help people remove their personal i

Image: Apple Apple is now letting developers try more Apple Intelligence features. The company has released the first developer beta of iOS 18.2, and it adds tools like the ability to generate emoji with Genmoji and images with Image Playground, more AI-powered writing features, integration with ChatGPT, Visual Intelligence to search with your camera on iPhone 16 phones, and more, according to 9to5Mac. With this beta, Apple Intelligence is now supported in more regions, too.
iOS 18.2 will bring

In a simulation of Mars, a space rover is testing a control system with an unusual inspiration: insect brains. The software was created by Opteran, a startup based in the UK. But the idea originated from research on bugs. Scientists at the University of Sheffield had been studying the brains of insects. They discovered remarkable neurological efficiency. A honeybee’s brain, for instance, only contains about 1 million neurons. A human brain, by contrast, has around 86 billion. Bu

Illustration: The Verge The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has announced fines totaling $89 million against Apple and Goldman Sachs because the companies “illegally mishandled transaction disputes and misled iPhone purchasers about interest-free payment options” with the Apple Card. The CFPB says the issues affected “hundreds of thousands of Apple Card users.”
Apple didn’t send “tens of thousands” of Apple Card transaction disputes to Goldma

Samsung’s Galaxy Watch Ultra, one of our favorite fitness trackers, is up to $150 off at Amazon right now. | Photo by Victoria Song / The Verge Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 7 is a good Android smartwatch, especially if you’re already embedded in Samsung’s ecosystem, but it’s best suited for casual fitness tracking. If you’re the outdoorsy type or simply want the most full-featured Samsung smartwatch on the market, Samsung’s Galaxy Watch Ultra is the better cho

The Lomo’Instant Wide Glass features a 90mm multi-coated glass lens for sharper instant prints. | Image: Lomography Lomography has announced an upgraded version of its Lomo’Instant Wide Camera that swaps the original’s 90mm plastic lens for one made with multi-coated glass. The company says its new Lomo’Instant Wide Glass is the “sharpest instant camera on earth,” but while it probably outperforms other Lomography offerings, it’s up against instant alter

The Boox Palma looks slick in either black or white. | Image: Boox Kindles and Kobos are relatively comfortable to use, but if those are too big and restrictive, the smartphone-like Boox Palma is a fantastic alternative that’s grown on us considerably. A new model is on its way, but if you don’t need the smoother performance it promises, you can save a bit on the original today. It’s down to $245.99 ($34 off) at Amazon, which is a new all-time low price.The Palma’s hardwa

The Climeworks AG Mammoth carbon removal plant in Hellisheidi, Iceland, on May 8th, 2024.  | Photo: Getty Images Tech companies think they can reverse climate change with fancy new tools to take carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. But new research throws cold water on the idea that cooling the planet after it has already heated beyond a key turning point can avoid serious damage. Much of the toll climate change takes — from rising seas to lost homes — can’t be undone, re

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SAVE 10 CENTS A GALLON: As of Oct. 23, Amazon Prime members can save 10 cents a gallon at select gas stations when they link their Amazon account to Earnify.Opens in a new windowCredit: Amazon Save 10 cents a gallon at select gas stationswith Amazon PrimeGet Deal
If you’re a daily driver, then you’re probably well aware of the ever-fluctuating price of gasoline. It’s ridiculous that a gallon of gas costs more than a grande Starbucks beverage these days, but that's the reality w

Image: Hello Games The latest No Man’s Sky event will have players straddling the boundary between this world and the next. The Cursed expedition event runs for the next two weeks and features new bosses, new gear, a flying saucer, and a UFO players can make their own.
As with every new NMS event, the developers at Hello Games are changing up how the game works. The Cursed takes place in a new universe where the line between life and... unlife?? is perilously thin. The exosuit, which norma

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge A new report from The Information cites “multiple people” involved in making parts for Apple’s Vision Pro headset to say that production plans have been scaled back in recent months. This follows a Tim Cook interview published this weekend by WSJ. Magazine, where he said, “obviously I’d like to sell more,” but acknowledged that “At $3,500, it’s not a mass-market product.”
That aligns with The Information&rsqu

TL;DR: Live stream Galatasaray vs. Elfsborg in the Europa League for free on Tabii. Access this free streaming platform from anywhere in the world with ExpressVPN.The Europa League doesn't get the same level of attention as the Champions League, but there are some really interesting matchups in this year's competition. Galatasaray are unbeaten after two Europa League games, and next they face Elfsborg at home. The Turkish side will be favorites to win this one, with much expected of star striker

Eero Outdoor 7 is the company’s first outdoor-rated Wi-Fi access point. | Image: EeroMesh Wi-Fi pioneer Eero is tackling a new frontier: the outdoors. Today, the Amazon-owned company announced the Eero Outdoor 7. Starting at $349.99, the dual-band 2.4 and 5Ghz Wi-Fi 7 access point boasts an IP66 rating and can provide up to 15,000 square feet of outdoor coverage with speeds of up to 2.1Gbps. That should be enough to stream movies to your outdoor TV or projector, get good connectivity for y

Connections: Sports Edition is a new version of the popular New York Times word game that seeks to test the knowledge of sports fans. Like the original Connections, the game is all about finding the "common threads between words." And just like Wordle, Connections resets after midnight and each new set of words gets trickier and trickier—so we've served up some hints and tips to get you over the hurdle.If you just want to be told today's puzzle, you can jump to the end of this article for

For an extra $700 you buy a matching wooden tripod for Marantz’s new wireless speakers. | Image: Marantz Marantz, a 70-year-old brand best known for high-end audio gear like amplifiers and receivers, announced its first speakers this week. The Marantz Horizon and Grand Horizon both pair an array of drivers with a central subwoofer and feature robust wireless connectivity with direct access to streaming services.
Both speakers will be available starting on January 14th, 2025, in three diffe

Netflix's Territory provides an apt metaphor for itself during its first episode, as cold-eyed scavengers circle injured prey. Though their victim fights for survival, the opportunistic carnivores stand poised to finish it off and fill their bellies from its carcass.Having seen two episodes of Netflix's new Australian series, it's too early to say whether Territory's Marianne Station will emerge unscathed from the power struggles and predators that threaten it. No matter how it ends, it could ea

Image: Apple Like a lot of tech companies, Lumon Industries is instituting a return-to-office policy for employees, but of course, this version looks a little scarier than real life. At least, that’s how it seems based on the first proper trailer for season 2 of Severance.
Following last season’s incredibly tense finale, the show picks up with Mark S (Adam Scott) heading back to Lumon to find things a little different than he remembers them, including a number of his coworkers. But s

Are you a fan of Wordle? We've got good news for you: Netflix is launching a similar game that you can play on your phone. Yes, that's another potentially huge timesink in your life. Yes, we're sorry. The news comes via Netflix itself which revealed on its official blog that it teamed up with TED (yes, the non-profit TED organization) to create a game called TED Tumblewords. Topics will revolve around heatlh and science. Credit: Netflix
The game, which is designed for players of all ages, will b

Image: Adobe Adobe is attempting to lure illustrators to join its creative software platform by making its dedicated drawing and painting app entirely free for everyone. Fresco is essentially Adobe’s answer to apps like Procreate and Clip Studio Paint, which all provide a variety of tools for both digital art and simulating real-world materials like sketching pencils and watercolor paints.
Adobe Fresco is designed for touch and stylus-supported devices, and is available on iPad, iPhone, an

Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge Anyone who has followed a social network knows that sometimes the most innocuous post can attract unpleasant responses, especially on apps like Instagram, where your content — whether video, image, or text — can be out there for anyone to see. There are any number of reasons you might want to set your account to private, even if only temporarily. It would make it so that only people you approve can follow you and see the stuff you post on your