Technology news

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge YouTube says it has expanded its AI-powered auto-dubbing to “hundreds of thousands of channels” in the YouTube Partner Program that are “focused on knowledge and information.” YouTube says it will bring the feature to “other types of content soon.”
What the dubs consist of depends on the language used in the original video. If it was in English to start, it’ll be translated into French, German, Hindi, Italian, Span

In 2018, Elon Musk put a Tesla in space. Like many of the billionaire’s antics, it was a publicity stunt. However, it pointed to an undeniable truth: the future of space travel is electric.   Most spacecraft today — like cars and trucks back on Earth — burn chemicals to get around. But space agencies like NASA, ESA, and France’s CNES have been experimenting with electric thrusters for decades, in a bid for a cleaner, more efficient way to propel satellites. A f

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The YouTube Kids mobile app is getting a redesign that both makes it look and behave more like the standard YouTube app and lets kids browse through videos in portrait mode for the first time. It’s rolling out over the next few weeks on iOS and Android, while the web and smart TV experiences stay the same.
YouTube Kids launched nearly a decade ago, and its look hasn’t changed much since its last major redesign in 2017. As the company said last

Illustration: The Verge In what it’s calling a “first-of-its-kind partnership,” Google will collaborate with developers to build data centers powered by renewable energy generated on-site.
It’s partnering with energy company Intersect Power and investment firm TPG Rise Climate on a $20 billion initiative to develop an unspecified number of “industrial parks” across the US this decade. The first one is supposed to be partially operational by 2026 and completed

Image: The Verge Microsoft is changing up how Copilot works on Windows yet again. After demoting Copilot to a Progressive Web App (PWA) earlier this year, Microsoft is now rolling out an update to Windows testers that replaces the PWA version of Copilot with a “native” experience that includes a new keyboard shortcut and quick view UI.
The new quick view for Copilot floats above the taskbar, much like Microsoft’s new Companion apps that it’s currently testing for files, c

Photo by Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images General Motors said it would no longer fund its Cruise robotaxi service as it seeks to focus autonomous vehicle development on personally owned vehicles.GM said Cruise employees would be combined with its internal teams working on advanced driver assist systems, as well as its project to develop personally owned autonomous vehicles.“Consistent with GM’s capital allocation priorities, GM will no longer fund Cruise’s robotaxi developmen

Photo by Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images General Motors said it would no longer fund its Cruise robotaxi service as it seeks to focus its spending on autonomous vehicle development specifically for personally owned vehicles. Now Cruise employees will be combined with GM’s internal teams working on advanced driver assist systems, like Super Cruise, as well as its project to develop autonomous vehicles to sell to customers for personal use.Ultimately, the project became too expensive for

Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge Even with the abundance of streaming services we’re using now, Windows PC storage can still fill up quickly. Games, photos, movies, and apps can take up significant chunks of room, and before you know it, that SSD is starting to run low on free space. And a cluttered PC drive can impact performance as well as Windows updates.
You don’t have to accept the slow decline of available storage space on Windows, though — there’s plenty yo

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Apple enabled non-emergency satellite messaging from iPhones earlier this year. According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, it may do the same for the next Apple Watch Ultra in addition to adding the long-rumored blood-pressure monitoring feature.Satellite messaging on the Watch Ultra has been rumored since before we even knew what Apple’s XL-sized sporty take on its smartwatch line would be called. According to Gurman’s description, it would wor

In response to the utterly baffling discussion as to whether people should be allowed to sing along with Wicked in theaters (absolutely not), Universal is rolling out a bunch of screenings specifically for the folks who fancy themselves background vocalists.
Universal announced today that special interactive, sing-along Wicked screenings are making their way to theaters in the United States, Canada, and select international markets beginning December 25th. In addition to on-screen lyrics for pe

Image: Lucid Lucid Motors began manufacturing its Gravity SUV last week, and now the EPA has finalized the vehicle’s all-electric range, which is 450 miles on a full charge. The new official estimate is slightly above the 440 miles originally advertised by Lucid. The company’s Air sedan can go up to 512 miles, depending on the trim.
Lucid CEO Peter Rawlinson announced the updated Gravity range figure today via LinkedIn and also boasted that the vehicle only uses “half of earth&

Image: CD Projekt Red Cyberpunk 2077’s new 2.2 update is out now, and it adds a lot of new ways to customize your character and your cars as well as some improvements to photo mode.
For character customization, developer CD Projekt Red is introducing a bunch of additional options to make your V, as detailed in a blog post. One of those changes is an option to have horrifying / awesome double eyes: Image: CD Projekt Red
The character creator is getting an improved randomizer that has a &ldq

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Google Docs is rolling out 40 new templates to make your documents more visually appealing. The new pageless templates cover a wider range of scenarios, whether you’re writing a blog post, creating a project roadmap, or making an interview guide.
Google says its “high-quality, visually modern” templates come with preset layouts and styles. They also make use of some of the newer features within Google Docs, such as tabs to better organize

Netflix We’ve known for some time that the second season of Castlevania: Nocturne was scheduled to hit Netflix some time in the new year, but we finally have a solid release date and a bloody new trailer to boot.
Though the sun is shining bright in Nocturne’s new trailer, the fact that vampire god queen Erzsebet Báthory (Franka Potente) is still out there plotting has Annette (Thuso Mbedu) convinced that all hope is lost. Annette’s feelings seem reasonable considering ho

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The US Commerce Department announced it has awarded memory chip maker Micron Technology with “up to $6.165 billion in direct funding” derived from the CHIPS Act.The new funding will go towards multiple semiconductor manufacturing projects in the US, including an Idaho plant and a Syracuse, New York “mega-fab” facility, both announced in 2022. Between them, the Commerce Department says they’ll create about 20,000 jobs.The grant

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge Chatbot service Character.AI is facing another lawsuit for allegedly hurting teens’ mental health, this time after a teenager said it led him to self-harm. The suit, filed in Texas on behalf of the 17-year-old and his family, targets Character.AI and its cofounders’ former workplace, Google, with claims including negligence and defective product design. It alleges that Character.AI allowed underage users to be “ targeted with sexually explicit,

Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge Instagram is allowing creators to test their reel ideas on new audiences before sharing them with followers. Trial reels will be shown to non-followers first, providing engagement data including views, likes, comments, and shares approximately 24 hours after publishing to help creators determine whether it’s worth sharing with people following their account.
The feature aims to help users try out new ideas and expand their audiences without negati

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge A new California bill could require social media platforms to display warning labels about the potential risk to kids and teens. The bill (AB 56), introduced by Assembly member Rebecca Bauer-Kahan and California Attorney General Rob Bonta, is meant to help address “the growing mental health crisis” among young people.
If passed, social networks would have to show a “black box warning” to all users, regardless of age, during thei

Today, for the first time, you can buy a car — yes, a whole car — on Amazon. Same-day delivery not guaranteed.The e-commerce giant’s first foray into car shopping is called Amazon Auto. The company is partnering with Hyundai dealers in 48 cities in the US to list vehicles on the site. Customers can browse, order, find financing, and arrange delivery — all within the familiar confines of Amazon’s online ecosystem.Of course, if you’re looking for anything other

Genki’s Moonbase charger can delivery up to 140W of power through one of its USB-C ports. | Image: Genki Genki has announced its first power strip, capable of charging up to seven devices simultaneously using three AC outlets and four USB-C ports. The Moonbase can deliver up to 240W of power through its USB-C ports — maxing out at 140W to a single device — and will be available with custom USB-C cables featuring built-in lighting, making it easier to plug devices in when it&rsq

Image: Solos Solos’ camera-equipped smart glasses have arrived to provide some much-needed competition against Meta’s Ray-Bans. The AirGo Vision is available now starting at $299 — the same price as the Ray-Ban Meta eyewear tech — and features integration with OpenAI’s GPT-4o AI model to identify and answer questions about the people, objects, and text seen by the camera.
That allows the AirGo Vision to do things like translate text into different languages, provide

Image: Epic Games Fortnite players have finally started receiving refunds as part of a settlement Epic Games reached with the Federal Trade Commission, which claimed the developer tricked players into making in-game purchases. So far, the FTC says it sent out more than 600,000 payments totaling $72 million, and many players, including some of us here at The Verge, have already reported receiving payments.
In 2022, Epic Games agreed to pay $245 million to compensate players affected by Fortnite&r

Image: Alex Parkin / The Verge Every once in a while, we turn The Vergecast inward. Not only are we constantly covering and discussing what’s happening in the tech and media worlds, we’re also living it ourselves. We’re trying to navigate changes in platforms and economies, and figure out the best ways to do our work and share it with you. And it’s complicated! So, once a year or so, we get into the weeds of how it all works for us here at The Verge.
On this episode of Th

Sony It feels like we only just heard that Danny Boyle and Alex Garland’s 28 Years Laterwas in development, but the long-awaited sequel already has a full-length trailer and a solid release date.
Set almost 30 years after the initial outbreak of the rage virus, 28 Years Later focuses on the lives of a new group of survivors who have managed to find a modicum of safety living on an isolated, tied island. Because the island is only connected to the mainland by a long, thin, heavily-guarded p

Image: Yelp Yelp is introducing some new AI features that aim to help users discover new establishments and narrow down customer reviews. The AI-powered “Review Insights,” announced today as part of Yelp’s end-of-year product release, quickly summarize how customers feel about certain aspects of a business, such as food quality, service, ambiance, and wait times.
Review insights are aggregated sentiment scores that provide a quick overview of topics using facial icons— po

December is a good time to think about your next career move. Your colleagues may be on a go-slow when it comes to getting projects over the line ahead of the Christmas holiday period, but for those with an eye on 2025’s job-hunting prize, this month can be a really fruitful time to look for a new opportunity. Bonnie Dilber, who is a recruiting leader at Zapier and an HR influencer on TikTok, explains why, based on her nine-plus years of hiring experience. “Basically you have a situ

UK and Luxembourg-based startup Uplift360 has landed €1mn in pre-seed funding to scale up a greener method for recycling advanced materials like Kevlar. Uplift360’s patent-pending process breaks down Kevlar and other composites without compromising the integrity of the fibres and resins. These raw materials can then be reused to make new products. It does this using safe chemicals and at room temperature — making it greener and more energy-efficient than traditional methods, th

Image: Warner Bros. Games Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League only came out in February, but the game’s final season, which starts tomorrow, is going to be its last. Season 4 Episode 7 launches on Tuesday, and Episode 8, which is set to release on January 14th, 2025, will “serve as the last seasonal Episode for Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League,” developer Rocksteady announced on Monday.
After the release of the final content, the game will still be available to play on

Image: Google Google’s quantum computing lab just achieved a major milestone. On Monday, the company revealed that its new quantum computing chip, Willow, is capable of performing a computing challenge in less than five minutes — a process Google says would take one of the world’s fastest supercomputers 10 septillion years, or longer than the age of the universe.
That’s a big jump from 2019 when Google announced its quantum processor could complete a mathematical equation