Technology news

A close election is all about uncertainty. So it's not surprising that many Americans are relying on polls to offer comfort, or warning. Not all polls are created equal, however — and election experts caution that some are more impartial than others. Not only that, pollsters vary wildly in their level of outreach, and how much they adhere to industry norms regarding data accuracy.Take this poll released Wednesday by Quinnipiac University, which says Vice President Kamala Harris was ahead o

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Google is expanding “Help me write” to Gmail on the web, allowing users to whip up or tweak emails using Gemini AI. Just like on mobile, users will see a prompt to use the feature when opening a blank draft in Gmail.
Google’s “Help me write” feature is only available to users who subscribe to Google One AI Premium or have the Gemini add-on for Workspace. In addition to generating an email draft, “Help me write” can

“We’re not competitor obsessed, we’re customer obsessed. We start with what the customer needs and we work backwards,” Jeff Bezos, previously. | Laura Normand / The Verge The fallout from the non-endorsement of Kamala Harris at The Washington Post is here: more than 200,000 canceled subscriptions, NPR reports. This is about 8 percent of the paid subscriber base, and the number of cancellations is still growing.
To put that in perspective, in an Oct. 15th story about Post

Image: Epic Games Fortnite is bigger than a battle royale now, and to help make progressing through the various available battle passes a little bit more streamlined, Epic Games is going to allow XP from any experience apply to any of those passes.
Currently, XP you earn across various modes in Fortnite doesn’t help you progress through the special passes for Lego Fortnite and the music-themed Fortnite Festival. Instead, you progress by earning “studs” and “festival point

Illustration: Nick Barclay / The Verge Meta is working on an AI-powered search engine to decrease its dependence on Google and Microsoft, according to a report from The Information. The search engine would reportedly provide AI-generated search summaries of current events within the Meta AI chatbot.
The Meta AI bot built into Instagram and Facebook currently uses Google — whose parent company, Alphabet, will report quarterly earnings tomorrow — and Microsoft Bing to answer questions

Illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photos by Getty Images The Open Source Initiative (OSI) has released its official definition of “open” artificial intelligence, setting the stage for a clash with tech giants like Meta — whose models don’t fit the rules.
OSI has long set the industry standard for what constitutes open-source software, but AI systems include elements that aren’t covered by conventional licenses, like model training data. Now, for an AI syst

UMG and AI company Klay are forming their own foundational Music-generating AI model. | Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photo from Getty Image Universal Music Group (UMG) announced a new deal centered on creating an “ethical” foundational model for AI music generation. It’s partnered with a company called Klay Vision that’s creating a “Large Music Model” named KLayMM and plans to launch out of stealth mode with a product within months. Ary Attie, its founder and C

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge Apple Intelligence has finally launched in US English, and if you’re in the EU, you’ll be able to use the new AI features on your iPhone and iPad starting in April, according to an Irish Apple newsroom post.When the features roll out to iPhones and iPads in the EU, they’ll include “include many of the core features of Apple Intelligence, including Writing Tools, Genmoji, a redesigned Siri with richer language understanding, ChatGPT integra

“We take pride in the fact that we are expanding the market by welcoming new investors into the financial system.” - Robinhood’s S-1 | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge US citizens can gamble on the upcoming election on Robinhood, the financial nihilism app announced. Robinhood has termed this “unlocking a new asset class that democratizes access to events as they unfold.”
Let’s pause — I would like to reflect on this incredible phrase, about an as

Dwyane Wade is the latest athlete to suffer the slings and arrows of the internet's jokes after having the bad fortune of a bewilderingly unrecognizable statue. In the annals of the internet, typically speaking, you see the word "unrecognizable" to describe a celeb whose weight fluctuated or hair changed. But in this case, I'd wager it'd be hard to decipher if this statue was intended to be Wade, were it not for the Miami Heat jersey. It was unveiled Sunday in front of Miami's Kaseya Center, hon

Elon Musk's dubious $1 million voter lottery is getting a dose of legal scrutiny, as the city of Philadelphia sues the billionaire and X owner to stop the swing state payouts.The city's district attorney Larry Krasner is accusing Musk of trying to influence voters and running an illegal lottery, opening up the business owner to local prosecution under the state's strict lottery regulations. Krasner has asked a judge to order Musk stop the giveaway immediately, with more than 280,000 Pennsylvania

As part of its big week of Mac announcements, Apple let slip on Monday morning that the first wave of Apple Intelligence features have been let loose unto the world immediately. Of course, that doesn't mean anyone with a newer iPhone, iPad, or Mac can just use Apple Intelligence right now. It would be silly to simply allow people to use features that are out. Instead, you need to go through a (hopefully quick and painless) process to get Apple Intelligence activated on your iPhone. Here's how it

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge Microsoft is taking its gloves off today. The software giant is accusing Google of being behind what it calls “shadow campaigns” to discredit Microsoft’s cloud business. In a scathing blog post, Microsoft deputy general counsel Rima Alaily reveals that Google is about to launch a new “astroturf” group this week.
“It is designed to discredit Microsoft with competition authorities, and policymakers and mislead the public,”

Wondering about the Apple Intelligence release date? I've got some good news and some bad news.The good news is that Apple Intelligence is available now on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. You can play around with new features like notification summaries, AI-powered writing tools, and an updated Siri that's more tolerant of disfluencies.However, some of the more highly anticipated Apple Intelligence features, like Genmoji and Image Playground, are not out yet. Fortunately, they will be headed our way soon

Apple’s iMac refresh brings a new processor, more colors, and double the RAM. | Image: Apple Between new M4-based Macs and the long-awaited arrival of Apple Intelligence in macOS, Apple is taking the entire week to drip-feed us news regarding its new Mac lineup. The 24-inch iMac with M4 is the first up. You can preorder it now from Apple starting at $1,299 with a November 8th release date, and we’re expecting Apple to reveal new silicon for the MacBook Pro and Mac Mini in the days to

Illustration: The Verge Google’s AI Overviews are expanding across more than 100 countries this week. The AI-generated search summaries will appear for users in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Colombia, Chile, the Phillippines, Nigeria, and many more locations. You can view the full list of countries on Google’s website.
In each country, AI Overviews will now appear in any supported language, including English, Hindi, Indonesian, Japanese, Portuguese, and Spanish. That

Google is selling refurbished Pixels, including the Pixel 7 and 7 Pro. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Google now sells refurbished Pixel 6, Pixel 6A, and Pixel 7 phones in a special section of the Google Store. The company says that these phones will be of like-new quality with phones, screens, and batteries that technicians “carefully inspect” and are offered at up to a 40 percent discount versus their original price. The phones also come with the same 1-year limited

It's not often a talk show goes silent. After all, it's right there in the name — it's a talk show. But actor Saoirse Ronan did just that on a recent episode of The Graham Norton Show, the British talk show that typically features a roundtable discussion among famous folks. Ronan was the lone woman on the panel, which also featured actors Denzel Washington, Paul Mescal, and Eddie Redmayne and the host, Norton.SEE ALSO:'The Outrun' review: Saoirse Ronan leads a tender and poetic addiction d

On Sunday afternoon in New York City's Washington Square Park, Timothée Chalamet "did the funniest thing possible" by showing up to his own lookalike competition. SEE ALSO:What is facial contrast makeup? It's the latest TikTok trend dictating how to feel beautiful.
Over 1,000 people gathered in the park after signs advertising a Chalamet lookalike competition with a $50 cash prize appeared all over Lower Manhattan and social media. The sign directed potential Timmys and attendees to a Par

The fediverse is growing.Loops, an open-source TikTok clone, has started to accept sign ups, as first reported by TechCrunch.The short form, looping video platform will provide an open-source alternative to TikTok in the same way that Mastodon provides an alternative option for X, formerly Twitter. Loops was created by Daniel Supernault, the founder of the open-source Instagram alternative Pixelfed. The project is being financed by user-support.For those unfamiliar, the fediverse is a group of s

Google's AI Overviews are rolling out to over 100 more countries today, including Australia and New Zealand, bringing the algorithmically generated search summaries to millions more users five months after its US launch. It seems pretty safe to say the search giant considers the feature a success."We can actually do better than what's on your Search page," Hema Budaraju, Google's Senior Director of Product Management for Search, told Mashable.SEE ALSO:The new Google AI Overview layout is a small

It’s finally glow time. Apple Intelligence has finally arrived, and like most AI on smartphones so far, it’s mostly underwhelming.
The debut features of Apple Intelligence are all very familiar: there are glowing gradients and sparkle icons that indicate the presence of AI; writing tools that make your emails sound more professional; and an AI eraser in Photos that blots away distractions. It’s all here, and it all works okay. But none of it is even close to the time-saving com

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Apple’s much-anticipated Apple Intelligence suite is finally rolling out with iOS 18.1, bringing a range of AI-driven features straight to your iPhone. The free update is live as of today, though some of the more advanced tools are slated to drop in December, per Apple’s latest announcement.SEE ALSO:Every Apple Mac announcement so far
Leading off the announcement was Apple’s new Writing Tools—a versatile assistant designed to elevate your writing across the board. Writing

A new era of fandom has entered the villa: Netflix will now let you save and reshare your favorite scenes directly to your friend and followers. That's right. No more black screens or scrounging the timeline for ripped clips to share to your stan account, the app will do it for you.Introduced to iOS users exclusively on the Netflix app, the new Moments feature allows users to pause their content, save a clip of what they just watched to their account (to revisit over and over again, of course),

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner is suing Elon Musk and his Donald Trump-supporting America PAC. Filed Monday in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court, it’s the first legal action against Musk’s $1 million daily award offered to registered voters.
As reported previously by CNN and the Philadelphia Inquirer, the lawsuit argues that all lotteries in Pennsylvania must be run by the state and calls the arrangement deceptive, saying tha

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Solo 3 owners have plenty of reasons to consider upgrading. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge One of the best deals on wireless headphones during Prime Day earlier this month is back. The Beats Solo 4 headphones, which only launched in April, are 50 percent off at $99.99 ($100 off) from Amazon, Best Buy, and Target, matching their all-time low. If you prefer over-ear headphones or need active noise cancellation, the Beats Studio Pro fit the bill and are also matching their record low price of $

Where to pre-order the M4 iMacApple StoreApple iMac (M4)Starting at $1,299Pre-order here
Mac Week is officially here, and Apple's kicked it off with an iMac announcement.As of Oct. 28, the M4 Apple iMac is available for preorder, starting with 16GB of unified memory, 256GB of storage, and an 8-core CPU and GPU for $1,299. So far, you can pre-order the Apple desktop from the Apple's online store, but we'll be updating this post as it becomes available from more retailers. The computer officially

Image: Apple Apple did more than put out a series of press releases when it announced the new iMac with M4 and the release of its Apple Intelligence software updates. The company also made a video to go with them — although it took a keen eye to spot it at first, as it was tucked away in a “Watch the announcement” link on the company’s splashy iMac page.Apple has since released the 10-minute video on YouTube as well. In it, Apple Intelligence product manager Allegra Teppe

Photo: Allison Johnson / The Verge Google’s upcoming Pixel phones could come with an upgraded Tensor chip that powers several new AI features, according to leaked documents seen by Android Authority. One feature reportedly coming to the Pixel 11 includes a more advanced, on-device version of the Pixel’s Video Boost with Night Sight feature that brightens up videos shot in the dark.
The Pixel’s existing low-light feature uses AI to automatically adjust the exposure of your video

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Yup, it’s still there. | Image: Apple Apple’s new USB-C-equipped Magic Mouse somehow still has the charging port on the bottom. While Apple could have used the launch as an opportunity to move the charging port from the underside of the device — where the port has remained for nearly a decade despite other updates to the mouse and being mocked for the decision — the port is still there.
This new $99 Magic Mouse means that, for the foreseeable future, Apple still thinks th

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We're exactly one month out from Thanksgiving, which means Black Friday season is creeping up on us. Honestly, though, there

Last week, Apple promised a week of new Mac announcements in the near future. Well, the future is now, and Apple has unveiled a new Mac device and released Apple Intelligence.Let's not waste any time. Here are all of the announcements Apple made this week.SEE ALSO:Remember the legendary iMac G4? Apple's smart display might look just like it
Apple Mac week: Every announcement madeApple isn't disappointing with its week of announcements. Here's what we know about so far.Apple Intelligence is out n