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Samsung’s flagship soundbar, the HW-Q990D, is being rendered useless for some owners after a faulty firmware update that the company rolled out this week. The sheer number of reports on Samsung’s community forums, Reddit, and AVSForum confirm that something has gone very wrong with the premium Dolby Atmos system in recent days. The issue isn’t limited to any specific region, with customers in the United States, Austria, the Philippines, Malaysia, and other countries all sharing in the frustration. Customers say the soundbar has gone unresponsive and that none of the usual factory reset methods are working; affected units are also inaccessible via Samsung’s SmartThings app. The device powers on, but appears to freeze on the TV eARC input — with no sound output to speak of. The culprit seems to be the latest firmware release, which is version 1020.7. Many Q990Ds are set to automatically install new updates, which has led to widespread complaints about the bad software over the last several days. If you’ve got a Samsung soundbar, it might be wise to disable automatic updates for the time being until this situation has cleared up. There are scattered reports of the same bug impacting other Samsung models like the HW-Q800D and HW-S801D, but the bulk of complaints pertain to the Q990D. It’s one of the most well-reviewed soundbars on the market, so this is an unfortunate development. The Verge has reached out to Samsung for comment. Apparently some customers have already been instructed to send in their Q990D hardware for repair. That seems like a worst case scenario, so hopefully Samsung will have an easier, at-home solution once it realizes the scope of this problem. Can the malfunction be resolved with another firmware update in the coming days? Stay tuned. Thanks for the tip, Eric.
Google is rolling out a Find My Device app feature update that shows a map of your friends and the family members who share their location with you, 9to5Google reports. The new feature was announced in the Android March feature update last week and is now available for more users. There’s already a way for friends and family to see each other’s shared locations in Google Maps. Now, the Android Find My Device app does double duty, making it easier to find both things and people in one place. The map also shows the locations of friends who share from Google Maps on iOS. In the app on Android, you can tap the new People tab to show the locations of any contacts that are sharing their location with you. You can also switch to a tab that shows who you’re sharing your location with and gives you options such as changing the duration you share your location with someone. Google’s interface is now more reminiscent of Apple’s Find My app, which features a similar split-screen UI with a map on top and devices or people on the bottom, depending whether you’re viewing items or people.
The Trump administration is embarking on a massive university speech crackdown, starting with Columbia University, where it’s demanding external control of entire departments and punishment for student activists. Its first test case, Mahmoud Khalil, a graduate student with a green card, offers a hint of what’s to come: a state of intentional chaos that undermines free speech and due process rights. Thus far, Columbia appears to be complying with the administration’s demands, even as its students gear up to fight back. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agents raided Columbia University’s campus on Thursday night, looking for students in two residential buildings, according to a university-wide email sent by Columbia’s interim president Katrina Armstrong. At a press conference on Friday, deputy attorney general Todd Blanche said the Justice Department is investigating whether student protesters at Columbia violated federal terrorism laws and that it would prosecute “any person engaging in material support of terrorism.†Hours before the raids, Columbia received a joint letter from three government agencies demanding that it punish student protesters; empower “in … Read the full story at The Verge.
Ashly Burch, the award-winning voice and performance actor behind Horizon Zero Dawn’s Aloy — one of the most prominent characters on PlayStation today — has some news and some very strong thoughts about the leaked Sony experiment that saw her character voiced and performed by AI technology instead of her or any other human being. The video, originally shared with The Verge by a tipster and later pulled off YouTube by a copyright enforcement company that counts Sony PlayStation as a client, was of an internal prototype — not necessarily something that’s in production for actual games, and Burch says that Horizon developer Guerilla proactively confirmed to her that it is not actively in development. Nor did it use her voice or facial data, Guerilla claimed. But Burch says having seen the demo, she is worried, and not just about her own career. “I feel worried about this art form,” she says. You can watch her video immediately below, or scroll down for a full transcript. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Ashly Burch (@ashlyburch) Here is a full transcript: Hi. Let’s talk about AI Aloy. I saw the tech demo earlier this week. Guerilla reached out to me to let me know that the demo didn’t reflect anything that was actively in development. They didn’t use any of my performance for the demo, so none of my facial or voice data. And Guerilla owns Aloy as a character. So all that said, I feel worried. And not worried about Guerilla specifically or Horizon or my performance or my career specifically, even. I feel worried about this art form. Game performance as an art form. We are currently on strike. SAG-AFTRA is on strike against video games because of AI. Because this technology exists, because we know that game companies want to use it, we’re asking for protections. So currently what we’re fighting for is that you have to get our consent before you make an AI version of us in any form. You have to compensate us fairly and you have to tell us how you’re using this AI double. And I feel worried not because the technology exists. Not even because game companies want to use it. Because of course they do. They always want to use technological advancements. I just imagine a video like this coming out that does have someone’s performance attached to it. That does have someone’s voice or face or movement. And the possibility that if we lose this fight, that person would have no recourse. They wouldn’t have any protections. Any way to fight back. And that possibility… it makes me so sad. It hurts my heart. It scares me. I love this industry and this art form so much and I want there to be a new generation of actors. I want there to be so many more incredible game performances. I want to be able to continue. It’s unusual for performers who have such a close relationship with game companies to speak out like this, but we’re also in an unusual moment: as she points out, video game actors are on strike right now, specifically because of AI, and the very idea that a company like Sony is explicitly building and demonstrating ways to potentially replace actors like Burch is exactly what the striking workers fear. In addition to starring in Horizon Zero Dawn, Burch has had minor roles in other Sony games including The Last of Us Part II and Spider-Man, but is otherwise best known for playing Chloe Price in the Life Is Strange games, Tiny Tina in Borderlands, and from the live-action D&D roleplaying series Critical Role and Apple TV Plus’s Mythic Quest, where she also serves as a writer.
It is hard to describe how utterly joyless and devoid of imaginative ideas The Electric State is. Netflix’s latest feature codirected by Joe and Anthony Russo takes many visual cues from Simon StÃ¥lenhag’s much-lauded 2018 illustrated novel, but the film’s leaden performances and meandering story make it feel like a project borne out by a streamer that sees its subscribers as easily impressed dolts who hunger for slop. While you can kind of see where some of the money went, it’s exceedingly hard to understand why Netflix reportedly spent upward of $300 million to produce what often reads like an idealized, feature-length version of the AI-generated “movies†littering social media. With a budget that large and a cast so stacked, you would think that The Electric State might, at the very least, be able to deliver a handful of inspired set pieces and characters capable of leaving an impression. But all this clunker of a movie really has to offer is nostalgic vibes and groan-inducing product placement. Set in an alternate history where Walt Disney’s invention of simple automatons eventually leads to a devastating war, The Electric State centers Michelle (Millie Bobby … Read the full story at The Verge.
OpenAI and Google are pushing the US government to allow their AI models to train on copyrighted material. Both companies outlined their stances in proposals published this week, with OpenAI arguing that applying fair use protections to AI “is a matter of national security.” The proposals come in response to a request from the White House, which asked governments, industry groups, private sector organizations, and others for input on President Donald Trump’s “AI Action Plan.” The initiative is supposed to “enhance America’s position as an AI powerhouse,” while preventing “burdensome requirements” from impacting innovation. In its comment, Open claims that allowing AI companies to access copyrighted content would help the US “avoid forfeiting” its lead in AI to China, while calling out the rise of DeepSeek. “There’s little doubt that the PRC’s [People’s Republic of China] AI developers will enjoy unfettered access to data — including copyrighted data — that will improve their models,” OpenAI writes. “If the PRC’s developers have unfettered access to data and American companies are left without fair use access, the race for AI is effectively over.” Google, unsurprisingly, agrees. The company’s response similarly states that copyright, privacy, and patents policies “can impede appropriate access to data necessary for training leading models.” It adds that fair use policies, along with text and data mining exceptions, have been “critical” to training AI on publicly available data. “These exceptions allow for the use of copyrighted, publicly available material for AI training without significantly impacting rightsholders and avoid often highly unpredictable, imbalanced, and lengthy negotiations with data holders during model development or scientific experimentation,” Google says. Anthropic, the AI company behind the AI chatbot Claude, also submitted a proposal – but it doesn’t mention anything about copyrights. Instead, it asks the US government to develop a system to assess an AI model’s national security risks and to strengthen export controls on AI chips. Like Google and OpenAI, Anthropic also suggests that the US bolster its energy infrastructure to support the growth of AI. Many AI companies have been accused of ripping copyrighted content to train their AI models. OpenAI currently faces several lawsuits from news outlets, including The New York Times, and has even been sued by well-known names like Sarah Silverman and George R.R. Martin. Apple, Anthropic, and Nvidia have also been accused of scraping YouTube subtitles to train AI, which YouTube has said violates its terms.
Anthropic is one of the world’s leading AI model providers, especially in areas like coding. But its AI assistant, Claude, is nowhere near as popular as OpenAI’s ChatGPT. According to chief product officer Mike Krieger, Anthropic doesn’t plan to win the AI race by building a mainstream AI assistant. “I hope Claude reaches as many people as possible,†Krieger told me onstage at the HumanX AI conference earlier this week. “But I think, [for] our ambitions, the critical path isn’t through mass-market consumer adoption right now.†Instead, Krieger says Anthropic is focused on two things: building the best models; and what he calls “vertical experiences that unlock agents.†The first of these is Claude Code, Anthropic’s AI coding tool that Krieger says amassed 100,000 users within its first week of availability. He says there are more of these so-called agents for specific use cases coming this year and that Anthropic is working on “smaller, cheaper models†for developers. (And, yes, there are future versions of its biggest and most capable model, Opus, coming at some point, too.) Krieger made his name as the cofounder of Instagram and then the news aggregati … Read the full story at The Verge.
Amazon is discontinuing a feature that allowed users of some of its Echo smart speakers to choose not to send their voice recordings to the cloud. According to an email the company sent to users that was posted on Reddit, it will disable the feature that allowed select Echos to process Alexa requests locally on the device on March 28th, 2025. The move appears to be connected to the launch of its generative AI-powered Alexa Plus, slated for later this month (March 28th, perhaps?). The email states, “As we continue to expand Alexa’s capabilities with generative AI features that rely on the processing power of Amazon’s secure cloud, we have decided to no longer support this feature.” View post on imgur.com Amazon confirmed the change in an email to The Verge. Spokesperson Lauren Raemhild provided the following statement: “The Alexa experience is designed to protect our customers’ privacy and keep their data secure, and that’s not changing. We’re focusing on the privacy tools and controls that our customers use most and work well with generative AI experiences that rely on the processing power of Amazon’s secure cloud. Customers can continue to choose from a robust set of tools and controls, including the option to not save their voice recordings at all. We’ll continue learning from customer feedback and building privacy features on their behalf.” As she states, you’ll still be able to have Amazon delete voice recordings after they’ve been sent to the cloud. If you have “Do Not Send Voice Recordings” option turned on, it will default to the “Don’t save recordings” setting on March 28th. This means your recordings will be sent to and processed in the cloud and then deleted after Alexa deals with the request. If you haven’t heard of this option, it’s not a surprise. Local processing of voice recordings was only available on three Echo devices – Echo Dot (4th Gen), Echo Show 10, and Echo Show 15 – and only for customers in the U.S. with devices set to English. Still, it’s a shame the option is going away, as it was a feature many would have liked to see expanded to more devices, not taken away, especially for smart home users who may only use the voice assistant to turn their lights on or adjust their thermostat. But it seems Alexa’s future, and to be fair, most of its past, is all about the cloud. For those looking for a non-cloud-dependent voice assistant, Home Assistant’s new Voice PE is worth considering.
In recent weeks, Apple has been unable to escape headlines about its slow progress with everything having to do with Siri and artificial intelligence. The company has officially delayed features first promised last June intended to modernize Siri and give Apple a much-needed boost in the AI race. We still don’t know when those Apple Intelligence capabilities will arrive, and if a recent all-hands meeting is anything to go by, neither does Apple itself. Bloomberg has the full scoop on what happened at a Siri team meeting led by senior director Robby Walker, who oversees the division. He called the delay an “ugly” situation and sympathized with employees who might be feeling burned out or frustrated by Apple’s decisions and Siri’s still-lackluster reputation. He also said it’s not a given that the missing Siri features will make it into iOS 19 this year; that’s the company’s current target, but “doesn’t mean that we’re shipping then,” he told employees. “We have other commitments across Apple to other projects,” Walker said, according to Bloomberg’s report. “We want to keep our commitments to those, and we understand those are now potentially more timeline-urgent than the features that have been deferred.” The meeting also hinted at tension between Apple’s Siri unit and the marketing division. Walker said the communications team wanted to highlight features like Siri understanding personal context and being able to take action based on what’s currently on a user’s screen — even though they were nowhere near ready. Those WWDC teases and the resulting customer expectations only made matters worse, Walker acknowledged. Apple has since pulled an iPhone 16 ad that showcased the features and has added disclaimers to several areas of its website noting they’ve all been punted to a TBD date. Apple has not publicly commented on the situation beyond last week’s statement, when it said the advanced Siri capabilities were “taking longer than expected.” But Walker told his staff that senior executives like software chief Craig Federighi and AI boss John Giannandrea are taking “intense personal accountability” for a predicament that’s drawing fierce criticism as the months pass by with little to show for it beyond a prettier Siri animation. “Customers are not expecting only these new features but they also want a more fully rounded-out Siri,” Walker said. “We’re going to ship these features and more as soon as they are ready.” He praised the team for its “incredibly impressive” work so far. “These are not quite ready to go to the general public, even though our competitors might have launched them in this state or worse,” he said of the delayed features.
So soon after Specter Divide, a multiplayer shooter developed by Mountaintop Studios, announced its pending shut down which will take its studio with it, is yet another live-service game going offline. Today, Star Wars: Hunters developer Zynga announced the game will be sunset on October 1st. Hunters is a class-based arena shooter featuring original characters (or at least they seem original, who knows with folks named Babu Frik running around) from throughout the Star Wars universe. It had a soft launch in select countries in 2021, but didn’t get a global launch on mobile and the Nintendo Switch until June 2024. This means that the game officially lived a scant 16 months before it inevitably goes offline. That short time though is downright luxurious considering Specter Divide lasted roughly six months before it will shut down sometime in the next 30 days. The developers do have some parting gifts for players before the galaxy winks out on Star Wars: Hunters, though. The current season will be extended an additional three weeks and the game will still release a new hero April 15th. Then the developers will keep the ranked leaderboards running until the game shuts down in October.
On Friday, Rep. Jim Jordan, the Republican Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, upped his investigations into Big Tech by sending subpoenas to 16 major tech companies, asking whether the federal government had pressured them into using artificial intelligence to “censor lawful speech” – a new front in his long-running quest to prove the tech industry is out to silence conservatives. In letters accompanying the subpoenas, Jordan asked the companies – Adobe, Alphabet, Amazon, Anthropic PBC, Apple, Cohere, International Business Machines Corp., Inflection AI, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, Open AI, Palantir Technologies, Salesforce, Scale AI, and Stability AI – to preserve all documents between them and the Biden-Harris administration that showed “how and to what extent the executive branch coerced or colluded with artificial intelligence (AI) companies and other intermediaries to censor lawful speech.” The core of their claim: algorithms could be used to discriminate against right wingers not just online, but in any everyday use case for AI, from hiring practices to generative content. Citing a report filed last December, in which the committee found several alleged examples of Biden officials “pressuring private companies to ‘advance equity,’ stop ‘algorithmic discrimination,’ and ‘mitigate the production of harmful and biased outputs,’” Jordan demanded they produce any and all emails with a third party, government or otherwise, between January 2020 and January 2025, “referring or relating to the moderation, deletion, suppression, restriction, or reduced circulation of the content, input, or output of an AI model, training dataset, algorithm, system, or product.” The subpoenas are the latest move in the GOP’s long-running and innumerable investigations into whether tech companies were suppressing right-wing ideology on their platforms, and narrowed in on potential interference from the Biden administration over the past several years. But this inquiry is particularly vast: its broad request for any document that ever discussed AI content restrictions over the past five years, as well as its targeting of software companies that are not media platforms, such as Adobe, Nvidia and Palantir, represents the party’s escalation against the industry.
The new M4-powered MacBook Air only hit stores on March 12, but it’s already on sale. You can pick up the 13-inch entry-level configuration with 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage for $949 ($50 off) at Amazon (at checkout) and Best Buy if you’re a My Best Buy Plus and My Best Buy Total member. The 15-inch base model with 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage is also on sale for $1,049 ($50 off) at Amazon and Best Buy for My Best Buy Plus or Total members. Even at full price, Apple’s new entry-level laptop offers a lot of value. It’s cheaper yet more capable than its predecessor, offering faster performance courtesy of Apple’s latest M4 chip. It also boasts double the base RAM at 16GB along with the MacBook Pro’s 12MP Center Stage webcam, which is sharper and offers a wider field of view. The M4 chip also allows you to connect two external monitors with the lid still open. There’s a new skylight blue option, but otherwise the new Air shares the same thin and sleek design as its predecessor, along with all-day battery life and Wi-Fi 6E support. There are some tiny differences if you move up to the larger display, but not much. The 15-inch model continues to offer a six-speaker system over the 13-inch model’s four speakers, for example. Read our M4-powered MacBook Air review.
Google is finally moving on from Google Assistant. The company will be upgrading “more” users from Google Assistant to Gemini “over the coming months,” according to a blog post. The classic Google Assistant “will no longer be accessible on most mobile devices or available for new downloads on mobile app stores” at some point “later this year.” (9to5Google reports that phones running Android 9 or earlier and without at least 2GB of RAM will still be able to use the classic Assistant.) “Additionally, we’ll be upgrading tablets, cars and devices that connect to your phone, such as headphones and watches, to Gemini,” Google says. “We’re also bringing a new experience, powered by Gemini, to home devices like speakers, displays and TVs.” The company says it will share more details “in the next few months.” (I would guess that Google will announce information around that new experience at Google I/O in May.) In the meantime, “Google Assistant will continue to operate on these devices,” according to Google. Google initially launched Google Assistant in 2016. Now, though, Gemini has become the catch-all branding for many of Google’s AI and assistant-like efforts, so it’s not too surprising that the company is officially retiring Google Assistant. Update, March 14th: Added details from 9to5Google.
Google releases a lot of products, but it shuts down a lot of them, too. Some didn’t deserve to be discontinued (we pine for the days of Reader and Inbox), and some probably weren’t long for this world from the start. (What was Google Wave supposed to be, anyway?) The company actually used to shut down products with quarterly “spring cleanings,” but now, it just does so whenever it’s time for another product to be put out to pasture. Follow along here for all our coverage of everything Google sends to the graveyard. Google is officially dumping Assistant for Gemini Google’s taking the extra search box out of your search results Saluting the Chromecast, one of the great HDMI dongles Google is discontinuing the Chromecast line Google is ending an experiment that let you annotate search results PDF organizer Stack is the latest app to hit the Google graveyard Google is killing infinite scroll on search results Today I learned there is a messaging service in Google Maps, and now it’s going away Google is shutting down developer access to Google Fit APIs. The Google One VPN service is heading to the Google graveyard Not everyone is losing Google Podcasts after today. Google Podcasts’ time is almost up. Google Pay replaced Google Wallet — now it’s going away to make room for Google Wallet Google Search’s cache links are officially being retired Hey Google, I was using that button! Google Assistant Driving Mode will shut down in February Google removes 17 features from Google Assistant Google is losing its Fitbit leaders and laying off hundreds of AR employees Google is finally saying goodbye to Google Play Movies & TV You can listen to podcasts through Google Podcasts until March 2024. Google News hammers the final nail into its magazine subscriptions coffin. Google’s whiteboarding app is joining the graveyard Google Podcasts is going to the graveyard as YouTube Music takes over Gmail’s basic HTML view will go to the Google graveyard in 2024 Google kills Pixel Pass without ever upgrading subscriber’s phones We need Google Reader more than ever. Who killed Google Reader? Google has reportedly killed its Project Iris augmented reality glasses Google sunsets Domains business and shovels it off to Squarespace The real Q project. RIP Google Currents. Google will shut down Currents, the work-focused Google Plus replacement Google will shut down Dropcam and Nest Secure in 2024 Google Stadia is how you shut down a service right Google’s Duplex on the Web joins the Google graveyard. Google’s worst hardware flop was introduced 10 years ago today Google’s handy scrollable Snapshot of your day has disappeared from phones A very brief history of every Google messaging app Alphabet is shutting down Loon, its internet balloon company Google to shut down Android Things, a smart home OS that never took off Google discontinues its Google Nest Secure alarm system Google kills off app that let you check in on loved ones during an emergency Android 11 officially drops support for Google’s Daydream VR Google is delaying the shutdown of Chrome apps, but you probably weren’t using them anyway Google Plus is officially gone after its mobile apps are rebranded as Google Currents These engineers are trying to rescue a ‘Bookbot’ from the Google graveyard Google is finally killing off Chrome apps, which nobody really used anyhow What we can learn from a decade of dead Google projects Google is shutting down its Cloud Print feature in 2020 Google is open sourcing Cardboard now that the Daydream is dead Google Clips is dead Google is discontinuing the Daydream View VR headset, and the Pixel 4 won’t support Daydream Google finally gives Reader the respect it deserves with an actual gravestone Google Hire is the next Google tool to be shut down YouTube discontinues private messages to focus on keeping things public Google shuts down Nest app for Apple Watch and Wear OS How to replace Google’s Trips app The YouTube Gaming app is shutting down this week Google clarifies Works with Nest shutdown, provides extension on existing connections Google’s Nest changes risk making the smart home a little dumber Google ends sales of the Pixel 2 and 2 XL Google+ is officially deleting consumer data starting April 2nd The original Google Hangouts will start to disappear this October Google discontinues Chromecast Audio, but you can grab one for $15 while supplies last Google halted Chinese data collection program after Dragonfly backlash Google will shut down Google+ four months early after second data leak Google is ending Play Service support for Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich Google is shutting down Allo Google is shutting down Google+ for consumers following security lapse Google’s Inbox app is shutting down in March 2019 Google Goggles is dead; long live Google Lens Google is starting to phase out the old Gmail design Google is using the impending death of its blob emoji to promote Allo Google is finally replacing its bad emoji blobs in Android O Google is killing Gchat for good and replacing it with Hangouts Google is shutting down Spaces, its experimental group messaging app Google confirms the end of its modular Project Ara smartphone Google will end support for Chrome apps on Windows, Mac, and Linux Google will shut down Picasa this spring Google takes the ‘last step’ to shut down its failed social network Buzz Google Reader to shut down July 1st Google discontinues Listen podcast app, Google Apps for Teams, and Google Video for Business Google’s latest ‘spring cleaning’ moves all video content to YouTube, kills iGoogle and Symbian Search app Google Wave is officially dead starting today Google’s spring cleaning ends support for BlackBerry Sync, Picasa plug-ins for iPhoto, and more Google kills off more experimental services, including Wave, Gears, and Knol Google Buzz to shut down in a few weeks, Google Labs dies today
Reddit is going rolling out a feature that lets you hide an ad from your feed for “at least a year,” the company says in a post spotted by Ars Technica. When the update is available to you, you’ll be able to see the “Hide” option for “any ads that appear in feeds, such as your home or subreddit feed,” Reddit says. The option looks like an eye with a line through it, as shown in a screenshot. When an ad becomes visible again after you hide it, you can re-hide it if you’d like, according to the company. Reddit says it’s rolling out the update this week that ads the feature and that it will “gradually become available across iOS, Android, and www.reddit.com over the next several weeks.” Last year, Reddit added filters that let users limit ads from “sensitive” categories like alcohol, dating, gambling, and politics and activism.
A federal judge has once again blocked California’s landmark online child safety law from taking effect. In a ruling on Thursday, US District Court Judge Beth Labson Freeman granted a preliminary injunction in favor of NetChoice, saying the technology trade group’s claims that the law violates the First Amendment would likely succeed. The law, called the California Age-Appropriate Design Code Act (CAADCA), was signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom in 2022 and covered online platforms “likely” to be accessed by children. Along with restricting the use of dark patterns, the law would require these platforms to estimate the age of users and apply specific privacy settings for children. NetChoice argued that its requirements are too vague, as it asked platforms to make “subjective” decisions about content and could have a chilling effect on free speech. Judge Labson Freeman previously blocked CAADCA in 2023, a ruling the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals partially upheld last year. As noted by Courthouse News, the ruling later returned to Judge Labson Freeman to make a decision on the remaining parts of the law. NetChoice said this decision will block the “entirety” of CAADCA. “Even if the Court were to accept that the Act advances a compelling State interest in protecting the privacy and well-being of children, the State has not shown that the CAADCA is narrowly tailored to serve that interest,” Judge Labson Freeman writes. “The Act applies to all online content likely to be accessed by consumers under the age of 18, and imposes significant burdens on the providers of that content.” NetChoice, which represents companies like Meta, Netflix, X, and Amazon, has won several requests to block child safety laws in states across the US. It recently sued to block Maryland’s Kids Code law, which would prevent kids from accessing inappropriate content online. “While protecting children online is a goal we all share, California’s Speech Code is a trojan horse for censoring constitutionally protected but politically disfavored speech,” Chris Marchese, NetChoice’s director of litigation, said in a press release. “This decision puts other states on notice that censorship regimes masquerading as ‘privacy protections’ will not survive judicial review.”
When I saw iRobot’s latest robot vacuums announced this week, my first thought was, “These don’t look like Roombas; they look like midrange models from Roborock, Ecovacs, and Dreame.†Of course, as the original robot vacuum manufacturer, iRobot’s products likely inspired the design of most of its competitors. But Roombas have always had a uniqueness that sets them apart from the crowd. With these new models, the company is capitulating to the homogeneity of the current crop of vacuums, sacrificing many of its signature features and moving from high-end to middle-of-the-road in a quest to recapture a bigger slice of the market. Long known for its innovation in home robotics, iRobot is marketing its new line as “breakthrough new products.†But the only notable innovation I’ve seen so far is an onboard dust compacting bin. The rest is largely a reheat of every midrange robot vacuum on the market today. Then, a day after launching eight new robot vacuums — the biggest product launch in its history — iRobot warned that it was in such dire financial straits that it could shut down in 12 months. Suddenly, it all became clear. They don’t look like Roombas bec … Read the full story at The Verge.
Vampire Survivors isn’t just a bullet hell survival game where you maneuver around simple 8-bit stages and kill thousands of monstrous enemies — it’s also a juggernaut of an indie title that blew up in popularity enough to even get the green light on a TV show spinoff. First launched on Steam in December 2021 under Early Access, the game had a meteoric rise in 2022, becoming one of the consistently most played games on Valve’s Steam Deck and winning the BAFTA Award for Best Game (yes, it beat Elden Ring). Several of us here at The Verge are fully Vampire-pilled, obsessively playing it each time a new content update or DLC drops. There’s just something so satisfying about those gem pickup sounds. Check out our ongoing coverage of the unstoppable indie. Vampire Survivors now has an official wiki. Vampire Survivors will get cross-save with its next content patch. Vampire Survivors comes full circle with Castlevania DLC expansion Vampire Survivors launches on PlayStation later this month. Vampire Survivors is coming to Apple Arcade Vampire Survivors is getting Among Us-themed DLC. The first of Vampire Survivors’ story mode “Adventures” will be available on December 6th. Vampire Survivors’ new ‘adventures’ will make the game even more replayable. It’s October, so Vampire Survivors got a winter-themed update. Vampire Survivors could be getting cross-saves and an ‘adventures’ mode Vampire Survivors feels like a different game with a friend Anybody down for some 300-player Vampire Survivors local co-op? Noclip released a documentary about Vampire Survivors. Vampire Survivors is coming to Nintendo Switch in August — with local co-op! Vampire Survivors is being turned into a TV show Vampire Survivors’ new fantasy-themed expansion launches in April for just $2 Vampire Survivors might finally be getting vampires in new expansion Xbox Game Pass’ November lineup includes two of the best games of the year Vampire Survivors has finally reached 1.0. Vampire Survivors’ new higher price is still worth sinking your teeth into Deals PSA: Today’s the last day to buy Vampire Survivors on Steam for just $2.99 The new cheats menu in Vampire Survivors makes me wish more games had them My big fat Italian vampire-slaying family Slaying monsters in Vampire Survivors is like walking through a casino
Zombies, Run! maker Six to Start has laid off nearly its entire staff. | Image: Six to Start Six to Start, the company behind Zombies, Run! and Marvel Move, has laid off all but two of its staff, The Verge has learned. The news was delivered last week to staffers in a Zoom call, in which they were told that parent company OliveX could no longer afford to keep Six to Start afloat and would shut down the company if they can’t find a buyer. Laid-off staffers were also served redundancy notices, which The Verge has confirmed. The ZRX: Zombies, Run! app is an immersive fitness game that plops walkers and runners into audio-based storytelling. When enemies, be they the undead or Marvel villains, “chase” you, you’re encouraged to pick up speed. At the end of an episode, you can also collect items to trade for badges or in-game buildings. First founded in 2012, the app says it has about 10 million users worldwide. Such immersive storytelling games, especially Marvel Move, are expensive to produce. They involve writing storylines, hiring voice actors to perform the material, and artists to create graphics. One source with knowledge on the matter noted that it’s unlikely the app will completely shut down for now, as there are plenty of loyal Zombies, Run! players and subscribers. Instead, it’s likely OliveX is trying to massively lower costs by slashing or completely pausing new content, relying on the hundreds of episodes still in the archive. OliveX is apparently actively looking for buyers, and there may already be interested parties, the source says. OliveX first acquired Six to Start in 2021, but another source, speaking on condition of anonymity, claims Six to Start staffers clashed with both OliveX and its owner, Animoca Brands. The games’ anti-capitalist themes were at odds with the parent companies’ aims to create crypto and NFT projects. The source claims that working under OliveX was “agony.” To date, there have been no NFTs within any of Six to Start games. It’s unclear what will happen for ZRX: Zombies, Run! subscribers in the short-term. While there is an extensive library of content, part of the draw was regular releases of new episodes. The Verge reached out to OliveX and Six to Start for comment, but did not immediately receive responses.
Briefly, here’s what’s up with Tesla over the past few weeks: its stock is down more than 50 percent since December; Tesla sales in California are plummeting; Cybertruck deliveries are reportedly paused because the vehicles are falling apart; protesters are demonstrating outside Tesla showrooms across the country; and Tesla owners are selling their cars to avoid getting called Nazis. But that’s not all. According to data from YouGov, a market research firm, the public’s impression of the company has never been worse, reaching its lowest point since YouGov began tracking Tesla in 2016. YouGov asks members of the public daily questions about Tesla to gauge overall sentiment. (Sherwood first reported the data.) As of March 12th, the net impression for respondents across the political spectrum is -12.8. “Impression” measures whether consumers have a positive or negative impression of a given brand. The company fares even worse with liberals, with a -35.5 net impression. Moderates sit at a -9.2 net impression. Conservatives are the only group with a positive net impression of Tesla, measured at 7.5. YouGov also asks whether respondents would consider purchasing a Tesla. According to YouGov data, around 8 percent of liberals indicated they would consider purchasing a Tesla, down from 12 percent at the beginning of 2022. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the percentage of conservatives who say they would consider buying a Tesla has increased from 6.7 percent to 8.4 percent. Even those numbers are lagging: when looking at the average response rate for all car makers, 10 percent of the general population say they would consider buying a vehicle. There are also more indications that Tesla sales are slowing down. New registrations in the US fell 11 percent in January compared to a year prior, Automotive News reported. That follows reports of nosediving sales in several European countries, including France, Norway, Spain, and Germany. As his company is in free fall, billionaire owner Elon Musk is attempting to cash in on his close relationship to the White House. On Tuesday, in what can only be described as an advertising event, Donald Trump turned the White House driveway into a pop-up Tesla showroom, reading from a Tesla sales pitch and vowing to purchase a vehicle. Musk’s proximity to the Trump administration follows the hundreds of millions of dollars he poured into getting Trump elected. On the same day as the Tesla stunt, The New York Times reported that Musk has indicated he wants to throw in another $100 million into other Trump groups.
Ford has hired a former Twitch, PlayStation, and Lululemon executive to lead the automaker’s digital services business. Mike Aragon, who previously led as CEO of Lululemon’s defunct Mirror home workout machine, is joining Ford as president of “integrated services.” The company says Aragon will lead a team “responsible for building out and marketing a suite of services and experiences” across Ford Pro (business and fleet), Ford Blue (core passenger vehicles), and Ford Model e (electric vehicles). The company says it has more than 800,000 paid subscriptions across its lineup, including for services like its BlueCruise hands-free driving system and fleet management software. In a press release, Ford CEO Jim Farley says Aragon will help build the company’s early success with integrated services and has “a proven track record of helping great hardware companies create valuable digital ecosystems.” That track record includes the PlayStation Network service and leading Twitch’s content teams. Aragon is filling a role previously held by Peter Stern, a former Apple services vice president, who helped build Apple’s paid subscription offerings including Apple TV Plus, Fitness Plus, News Plus, and more. Farley had hyped Stern’s hiring in 2023 and mentioned that the industry’s “biggest change” is getting into “digital product and physical services.” Paid subscriptions have become the biggest revenue drivers for companies such as Apple. Stern is now CEO of Peloton, whose key product is a bike with a subscription service.
Newsmax agreed to pay $40 million to settle claims that it defamed the voting machine company Smartmatic. The two companies reached a “confidential” settlement agreement last September, but a regulatory filing spotted by The Independent has revealed how much the conservative media outlet will pay. Newsmax has paid $20 million to Smartmatic so far, with plans to pay off the remainder by July. The settlement also includes the option to buy shares in Newsmax, which plans to list on the NYSE on March 31. Smartmatic sued Newsmax in 2021 after the network aired false allegations that its voting machines helped Joe Biden win the 2020 presidential election. It claimed Newsmax “deliberately disseminated a continuous stream of falsehoods,” harming Smartmatic’s business. Newsmax still faces another lawsuit from the voting machine company Dominion. “While Newsmax Media is vigorously defending the Dominion suit, an unfavorable outcome in the matter could have a material adverse effect on the Company’s financial position, results of operations and cash flows,” Newmax’s filing reads. Smartmatic settled with One America News last year, while a judge recently ruled to allow its $2.7 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox Corp. to continue. Fox News agreed to pay Dominion $787 million in 2023.
After a season 3 finale that left open plenty of possibilities for a return, it’s now confirmed: Ted Lasso is coming back. The Apple TV Plus sitcom is getting a fourth season, though it appears to be still fairly early in development. In an interview on the New Heights podcast, star Jason Sudeikis confirmed that season 4 is being written now, and that it will follow the eponymous coach as he leads a new women’s soccer team. Aside from Sudeikis, there’s no other word on what characters might be returning, although much of the creative team will be back, including writer (and Roy Kent actor) Brett Goldstein. “As we all continue to live in a world where so many factors have conditioned us to ‘look before we leap,” Sudeikis said in a statement. “In season 4, the folks at AFC Richmond learn to ‘leap before they look,’ discovering that wherever they land, it’s exactly where they’re meant to be.” Ted Lasso remains one of the biggest hits for Apple TV Plus, so the return isn’t too surprising. And the news comes as Apple is on a steady run of returning series, including the second seasons of both Silo and Severance, alongside the fourth season of Mythic Quest.
There’s a lot to explore in Google Maps, but you may not always know where to look. It’s great if you’re trying to drive through a crowded city or find out which local coffee shop has the best-rated bagels, but there are also other, lesser-known features worth investigating. These include historical imagery on Google Street View. Google Maps actually makes it easy to switch between different time periods. On either desktop or mobile, you can go back to when Google’s Street View cars first started patrolling the streets — in some areas, you can go back as far as 2007 — and see how roads and places looked years ago. So whether you have a practical purpose or just want to take a nostalgia trip, here’s how to go about it. These instructions apply to the latest versions of Google Maps for the web, Android, and iOS. Street View on desktop If you’re using Google Maps in a desktop browser, you can get to Street View by clicking anywhere on the map where Street View is available (which is most roads and famous landmarks), then clicking the Street View panel at the bottom. (It will look like a small square photo with a curved arrow.) Alternatively, select a specific destination … Read the full story at The Verge.
Apple Intelligence is technically lots of things, but there’s only one feature with the potential to actually meaningfully change the way you use your phone. That would be Siri, which Apple said last year it had turned from a quasi-helpful voice assistant into an AI-powered helper that could understand everything about you and accomplish things on your behalf. Sounds cool, right? It was one of the flagship features of the iPhone 16 lineup, a big part of the way Apple promoted its new devices. Except it doesn’t exist. And it won’t anytime soon. On this episode of The Vergecast, we talk about exactly where things went wrong with Siri — and with the whole gadget industry, which became so enraptured with the promise of AI that it sort of forgot to make good gadgets. Nilay and David discuss the problems and promise with Alexa, the still-enticing ideas behind “ambient computing,†and what it’ll take for Apple to make things right. (Side note: if you haven’t read John Gruber’s essay on the subject at Daring Fireball, you should — we recorded this episode before it published, but it’s an excellent summary of the situation.) Subscribe: Spotify | Apple Podcast … Read the full story at The Verge.
iPhone and Android users will be able to exchange end-to-end encrypted (E2EE) RCS messages in the near future thanks to newly updated RCS specifications. The GSM Association announced that the latest RCS standard includes E2EE based on the Messaging Layer Security (MLS) protocol, enabling interoperable encryption between different platform providers for the first time. The GSM Association said it had started working to enable E2EE on messages sent between Android and iPhone in September last year. E2EE is a privacy and security feature that prevents third parties, such as messaging providers or cell carriers, from viewing the content of your texts. The GSMA says the new RCS standard was developed in collaboration with “mobile operators, device manufacturers, and technology providers,” including Apple. “End-to-end encryption is a powerful privacy and security technology that iMessage has supported since the beginning, and now we are pleased to have helped lead a cross industry effort to bring end-to-end encryption to the RCS Universal Profile published by the GSMA,” said Apple spokesperson Shane Bauer. “We will add support for end-to-end encrypted RCS messages to iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and watchOS in future software updates.” Apple introduced RCS support to iPhones as part of an iOS 18 update in September. While Apple’s proprietary iMessage system already supported E2EE, this wasn’t extended to RCS messaging because the previous RCS standard didn’t provide cross-platform support. Google Messages also enabled E2EE by default for RCS texts, but only conversations between Google Messages users were E2EE, and not those exchanged with iMessage users or users of other RCS clients on Android.
T-Mobile is letting some legacy plan customers know that a price increase is coming, 9to5Google reports. Many Reddit users on r/tmobile said the carrier sent them text messages that their plans will raise by $5 per month per line starting on April 2nd. In an internal memo obtained by CNET, T-Mobile consumer group president Jon Freier says the price increase addresses “rising costs” for the company. The memo noted that affected customers would be notified by the end of the day today. CNET says it’s unclear which legacy plans will be affected but notes that Go5G, Go5G Plus, and Go5G Next subscribers won’t be subject to the price hikes. T-Mobile had already increased the rates of some of these older plans by $2 to $5 last year, and Freier apparently notes in the memo that “no line that received a prior increase will receive an additional adjustment as part of this initiative.” “While most customers are not included, we’re wrapping up the price adjustments that began last year in response to rising costs,” T-Mobile says on its support account on X. “We are still committed to providing low prices and the most value across all plans.” The account also says that these changes should not affect customers with Price Lock.
Apple’s AirPods 4 are down to the lowest price ever on Amazon, Walmart, and Best Buy, where you can pick them up starting at $99.99. That’s about 22 percent off the $129 list price. These are the newest version of Apple’s base AirPods, launched in September with the iPhone 16. They support spatial audio with dynamic head tracking, which is a weird effect that makes it sound like audio is coming out of the device you’re listening to instead of just pumping stereo sound into your ear drums. I usually turn it off. I like the open design of the AirPods 4, though, which sometimes feels more comfortable than the silicone tips on my second-gen AirPods Pro. I also dig the compact case and solid battery life. Pro tip, though: if you want to splurge just a little bit, you should probably get the AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation. They’re on sale at Amazon and Walmart for $148.99 (17 percent off), which is about $10 shy of their all-time low. The higher-end model also adds Adaptive Audio and a transparency mode, along with a case that juices up via an Apple Watch puck or any Qi-compatible charger. Are they worth the extra $50? Maybe. I think the active noise cancellation is a good option when you find yourself on a rowdy NJ transit train heading to a NY Jets game. Just kidding, nobody does that. Read our full AirPods 4 review.
Apple is planning to bring live translation to AirPods, according to a report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. The feature, which will let users translate conversations in real time, will be “tied” to the forthcoming iOS 19, Gurman says. Apple is a little behind others in adding live translation to the AirPods, as Google brought the feature to its very first pair of Pixel Buds in 2017, and later expanded it to the Pixel Buds Pro in 2022. Other companies, like Meta and Humane, have attempted live translation with their wearables as well, though the results proved pretty inconsistent. As noted by Gurman, the feature can help translate a conversation from, for example, Spanish to English by playing a translated version of the speech into the English-speaker’s AirPods. When the English speaker responds, their iPhone will then play the Spanish translation from its speakers. Apple didn’t immediately respond to The Verge’s request for comment. Last week, Apple announced that it’s delaying its AI-upgraded Siri, saying, “It’s going to take longer than we thought to deliver on these features.” The company is also planning to overhaul the design of iOS, iPadOS, and macOS this year, according to Gurman.
Opus, A24’s new horror-tinged thriller from writer / director Mark Anthony Green, has a lot to say about the symbiotic (and sometimes parasitic) relationship between entertainment journalists and celebrities. In the film’s story about reporters tripping over themselves just to be close to an eccentric music icon, you can feel Green reflecting on how the media landscape has changed with the rise of modern Contentâ„¢ empires built on parasocial relationships. Many of Opus’ ideas are right on the money, and the film is so stylish that it’s easy to get swept up in its visual splendor. But aside from its excellent original songs, the movie often feels like a flimsy rehash of glam-forward features that have come before it. Though Opus is fictional, Green — a former style editor at GQ — has clearly poured a lot of his personal experiences into overworked, under-appreciated music journalist Ariel Ecton (Ayo Edebiri). Conceptually, Ariel loves her job covering pop culture and the way it gives her opportunities to dig deep into the lives of well-known artists. But she also knows that no matter how strong her pitches are, her obnoxiously self-involved editor Stan (Murray Bartlet … Read the full story at The Verge.
Google is rolling out a fix for Chromecast device issues that left many users with “untrusted device” errors that disabled casting. The issue, which appeared over the weekend, seemed to widely affect Chromecast 2nd generation and Chromecast Audio devices. Google has not said what caused the errors, but a user on Reddit claimed it could be because the certificate baked into the devices expired. “We have started to roll out a fix for the problem with Chromecast (2nd gen) and Chromecast Audio devices, which will be completed over the next few days,” Google says in a support post. “Your device must be connected to receive the update.” However, if you attempted a factory reset, Google says that “you may still be experiencing an issue where you cannot re-setup your device.” The company says that it’s “working to resolve this as soon as possible” and to watch the support post for updates. If you’re in this situation, a user on Reddit has shared steps you can try while you wait for Google’s official fix.
Microsoft is testing AI-powered summaries in Notepad. In an update rolling out to Windows Insiders in the Canary and Dev channels, you’ll be able to summarize information in Notepad by highlighting a chunk of text, right-clicking it, and selecting Summarize. Notepad will then generate a summary of the text, as well as provide an option to change its length. You can also generate summaries by selecting text and using the Ctrl + M shortcut or choosing Summarize from the Copilot menu. As is the case with other AI features in Windows 11, you must be signed into a Microsoft account to use Notepad’s AI summaries. You can also disable AI features completely from the app settings menu. Microsoft first started testing an AI-powered Rewrite tool in Notepad last year. Besides AI summaries, Microsoft is testing the ability to view your recently closed files in Notepad. It’s also bringing a new feature to the Snipping Tool called “draw & hold.” When marking up a screenshot using the app, you can hold your cursor for just a little longer when drawing a line, arrow, rectangle, or oval, and it will automatically straighten out your lines. You can then resize, move, or adjust the shape. It sounds pretty similar to a feature Apple offers, too.
America’s favorite low poly electric truck is facing a new set of problems that don’t have anything to do with people spray painting swastikas or crude comments about Elon Musk on them. Deliveries of the Tesla Cybertruck are on hold while the company addresses issues with reports that the trim is becoming detached and flying off, Electrek reports. Tesla service representatives are telling customers awaiting deliveries that there is a “containment hold” on their trucks, according to several posts in the Cybertruck Owners Forum, as noted by Electrek. The customers are not being told it has anything to do with the vehicle’s trim, though. A containment hold is a proactive measure taken by automakers to address a quality issue or defect with a vehicle before it reaches customers. Electrek also shared a screenshot of direct messages between a customer and a Tesla service rep that mentioned an issue with the truck’s cantrail, or the decorative trim that covers the roof ledge above the door. The delay could take several weeks to address, depending on the severity of the loose trim. The problem is likely related to a handful complaints filed with the federal government earlier this year, which noted that the trim above the truck’s windows appeared to be attached by glue. A video on YouTube posted over a month ago goes into greater detail about the issues with the cantrail trim. This isn’t the first time we’re hearing about problems with the Cybertruck trim. Tesla issued a recall for over 11,000 trucks last summer for “improperly adhered… trunk bed trim sail applique.” The Cybertruck has been recalled seven times since its official launch December 2023. Tesla sold an estimated 40,000 trucks in 2024, despite over 1 million reservations. There were anecdotal reports of Cybertrucks piling up on used car lots. Tesla Cybertruck factory workers in Austin were told to stay home for three days in December. And since Elon Musk’s elevation as a special advisor to the Trump administration, the Cybertruck has become a target of graffitti and vandalism from people opposed to Musk’s takeover of the federal government.
Flatiron Books, the publisher of a new book by an ex-Meta staffer alleging misconduct and harassment at the company, says in a statement that a recent arbitration order demanding that the book no longer be published has “no impact” on Macmillan. The ruling instructs Sarah Wynn-Williams, the author of Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism, to stop making “disparaging” remarks against Meta and, where possible, cease promoting or publishing the book. Meta appears to have been able to bring the case to arbitration because of an agreement Wynn-Williams signed when she left the company in 2017. “We are appalled by Meta’s tactics to silence our author through the use of a non-disparagement clause in a severance agreement,” Flatiron says in the statement, which was also shared with The New York Times. “To be clear, the arbitrator’s order makes no reference to the claims within Careless People. The book went through a thorough editing and vetting process, and we remain committed to publishing important books such as this. We will absolutely continue to support and promote it.” Meta didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment. Macmillan Publisher’s response to the arbitration order filed by Meta regarding our book Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams, which released Tuesday. — Flatiron Books (@flatironbooks.bsky.social) 2025-03-13T18:11:33.174Z Update, March 13th: Added statement from Flatiron’s Bluesky.
On Tuesday morning, some PC gamers woke up to discover their computers were seemingly under threat. A “HackTool†called WinRing0 had suddenly started triggering a Windows Defender alert, as if their PCs were under attack. Some of those computers even began behaving oddly ​​— like blasting their fans at high speed — once the HackTool had been quarantined. I know, because it happened to me. But my computer wasn’t actually under attack — at least, not yet. When I checked where Windows Defender had actually detected the threat, it was in the Fan Control app I use to intelligently cool my PC. Windows Defender had broken it, and that’s why my fans were running amok. For others, the threat was detected in Razer Synapse, SteelSeries Engine, OpenRGB, Libre Hardware Monitor, CapFrameX, MSI Afterburner, OmenMon, FanCtrl, ZenTimings, and Panorama9, among many others. “As of now, all third-party / open-source hardware monitoring softwares are screwed,†Fan Control developer Rémi Mercier tells me. That’s because all these programs have something in common, eight of their developers tell The Verge. They do (or did) all contain a piece of kernel-level software that is … Read the full story at The Verge.
Garmins aren’t just multisport behemoths anymore. | Illustration by Will Joel / The Verge Few brands are as synonymous with outdoor sports as Garmin. You’ll find these fitness trackers and smartwatches on dozens of wrists at any 5K, marathon, or Ironman. You’ll also find Garmin devotees among divers, thru-hikers, golfers, kiteboarders — you name it. But these devices aren’t just for athletes. The company’s made significant strides in its lifestyle offerings, so regardless of your fitness level, there’s a Garmin for everyone. If you’re coming from a more traditional smartwatch, Garmin’s core strengths lie in fitness, GPS, adventuring, and durability. These are hardy devices that are meant to withstand the elements and last weeks on a single charge. Several models come with offline maps, advanced navigational features, and more training metrics than any other platform. And although many wearable companies have begun rolling out subscriptions, Garmin has publicly stated it has no intention of charging its users extra. That’s a good thing since Garmin devices tend to be on the pricier side. How we test Garmins There are fitness trackers and smartwatches, and then there are Garmins. Depending on the type of Garmin — there are many — we will tailor our benchmarks and experiential, real-life testing. If it’s a rugged Fenix model, we’ll go on extensive GPS activities, see how well it works as a navigation tool, and dive deep into training metrics. If it’s more lifestyle focused, like the Venu 3, we’ll put an added focus on how well smart features like voice assistant access, notifications, and style. Because people buy Garmins to last a long time, we also put special consideration on battery life testing. Some other factors we consider are durability, performance, ability to connect to gym equipment, and GPS accuracy. Battery life Garmins are known for extra long battery life. The question is does it last days, weeks, or even a month? Training metrics Garmin has so many training features that even the pros probably don’t use all of them. Do you get coaching programs and stamina graphs? Or are you sticking to the basics like steps, pace, and mileage? Navigational features Same goes for navigational features. While Garmin is known for its GPS tech, there are multiple kinds of GPS tracking and satellite systems. We also look at whether these navigational features fit the use case. For example, do running watches have back-to-start? Do offline maps come preloaded for thru-hikers? Style and durability Do these watches hold up to intense activity? Are they discreet enough to wear to formal occasions without screaming “I love exercise!!!!!” Value Garmins are expensive. Does the price make sense for the intended user, feature set, and build quality? Garmins aren’t too shabby on smarts, either. While more fitness-focused than anything from Apple, Google, or Samsung, there’s enough to get you the basics like notifications and then some. For example, most Garmins have fall detection and safety features, and several of the latest Garmins recently got an FDA-cleared EKG feature. (You’ll need a phone on hand, however, as only one Garmin model has cellular connectivity.) Many Garmin devices also support offline music playback and come with a small third-party app ecosystem. There are a lot of Garmin watches to choose from. No, seriously, there are six major lineups, and each has a multitude of models. But no worries — I test several Garmins every year and can help point you in the right direction. The best Garmin for runners The best Garmin for endurance sports The best Garmin on a budget The best Garmin to replace a Fitbit The best Garmin smartwatch The best Garmin for runners Sizes: 42mm w/ 18mm straps; 46mm w/ 22mm straps / Weight: 39g (42mm); 47g (46mm) / Battery life: Up to 15 days (42mm); 13 days (46mm) in smartwatch mode / Display type: OLED touchscreen / GPS: All-systems GNSS and dual-frequency GPS / Connectivity: Bluetooth, Ant Plus, Wi-Fi / Water resistance: 5ATM / Music storage: 8GB Garmin has many running watches, and a lot of them are great. But the Forerunner 265 or 265S (if you have petite wrists) strikes an excellent balance between price, feature set, battery life, and a vibrant OLED display. That said, the Forerunner 265 / 265S is a bit of an odd duck. It comes a mere nine months after its predecessor, the Forerunner 255, and is, in many ways, pretty much the same watch. The main difference is the 265 has an OLED display compared to the 255’s memory-in-pixel screen. Usually, that means worse battery life, but in this case, we got about a week on a single charge with the always-on display enabled. Without it, you can get up to 15 days. Given that OLED is easier to read and just, well, looks nicer, that gives the 265 lineup an edge over the 255. The 265 also has dual-frequency GPS (also known as multi-band). The gist is you get much more accurate maps in challenging environments like cities and dense forests because you can access both the L1 and L5 satellite frequencies. And even with dual-frequency GPS enabled, you still don’t lose a whole lot of battery life. I wore it during a half marathon with that and the AOD enabled, and I still had over 80 percent battery by the time I got home. This is also an excellent price, as the majority of multi-band GPS watches cost well over $600. My main complaint is that $450, while not bad for Garmin, is still a lot when you consider that’s the same price as smarter smartwatches with great running features. Some runners won’t care. But if you’re on a budget — or you’re new to running and feel iffy about spending that much — then consider the Forerunner 165 series. It starts at $250 (add another $50 for onboard music) and does almost everything the 265 series does. The main things you’re missing are dual-frequency GPS and a few more niche sport profiles. But if you’re mostly sticking to running, gym equipment, cycling, swimming, and hiking, you’re covered. Neither has all of Garmin’s training features, but it’s got what you’ll need to run anything from a 5K to a full marathon. That includes a Race Predictor, which gives you an estimate of what your best time would be based on your actual training. You can also use PacePro to figure out your pacing strategy for a race. You also get Garmin’s Training Readiness feature to help gauge load and recovery, Garmin Coach plans, and a host of running form metrics. It also supports offline music and safety features like fall detection. The only thing they lack is advanced mapping. (They still have trackback, point-to-point navigation, and real-time breadcrumb trail support, however.) Read my full Garmin Forerunner 265S review. The best Garmin for endurance sports Sizes: 42mm w/ 20mm straps; 47mm w/ 22mm straps; 51mm w/ 26mm straps / Weight: 42mm: 63g stainless steel, 58g titanium; 47mm: 78g stainless steel, 70g titanium; 51mm: 98g stainless steel, 88g titanium / Battery life: 42mm: up to 10 days (4 with AOD); 47mm: up to 16 days (6 with AOD); 51mm: up to 31 days (11 with AOD) / Display type: OLED / GPS: All-systems GNSS and dual-frequency GPS / Connectivity: Bluetooth, Ant Plus, Wi-Fi / Water resistance: 10ATM / Music storage: Up to 32GB The Epix Pro will get you every fitness feature that Garmin has to offer. And I mean everything. It would frankly be easier to tell you what the Epix Pro does not have: things that are limited to LTE smartwatches and some of the new smart features on the Fenix 8, like an on-board voice assistant. Otherwise, you’ve got topographical maps, turn-by-turn navigation, and more training metrics than even a seasoned triathlete would know what to do with. The Pro is more size-inclusive than the standard second-gen Epix, which only comes in 47mm. You can get the Pro in that size, too, but it also comes in 42mm and 51mm. This was a major complaint I had with the second-gen Epix, and you love to see companies actually take this sort of thing seriously. The best part is the Pro models start at the same price as the regular Epix did. You’ll have to pay $100 extra for materials like titanium and sapphire crystal, but that’s also true of the standard Epix. That said, it muddies the waters if you’re trying to pick between the Epix Pro, Fenix 7, Fenix 7 Pro, and now, the Fenix 8. The main difference is the Epix watches all have OLED displays. One reason I prefer OLED is that they’re much easier to read indoors — where most of us spend the majority of our time. The Fenix 7 series’ memory-in-pixel displays (plus solar charging if you opt for it) allow for weeks and weeks of charge, but the smallest Epix Pro can get around 10 days with normal usage. The 47mm and 51mm Pro models can go longer between charges due to bigger batteries, but I felt that the 42mm has enough juice to satisfy most use cases. Garmin also has so many battery-saving modes and options that I highly doubt this will ever be an issue. Not helping matters is the fact that the Fenix 8 lets you choose between an OLED or a MIP display. You also get smart features like an onboard voice assistant, the ability to take calls from the wrist, and the Garmin Messenger app. The main problem is the starting price is now $350 more than the standard Fenix 7 and right about on par with the Epix Pro. My personal feeling is the Fenix 8’s smart features are just okay and that you’re really not missing much by not having them. We also often see discounts on older models, so I would put on my bargain-hunting hat for a discounted Epix Pro or Fenix 7 Pro while inventory is still available. But really, the winning feature of the Epix Pro is the hands-free flashlight. It’s so useful in my day-to-day life, and all you have to do is double-press a button. It’s as bright as your smartphone, comes with a red light option if you want something easier on the eyes, and can act as a strobe in an emergency situation. The Fenix 7 Pro and 8 watches also have a flashlight, so a lot of this is going to come down to personal preference for the display, price, and whether you care about smart features. If you’re set on the most battery life possible, I recommend the Fenix 7 Pro over the standard 7 for a few reasons. Its MIP display is slightly brighter, all sizes have the flashlight, and, like the Epix Pro, it has an updated sensor array. I also recommend it over the MIP versions of the Fenix 8 because it comes in more sizes, and costs around $300 less. Especially since the Fenix 8’s smart features are a bit half-baked. Read my full Epix Pro review. The best Garmin on a budget Sizes: 40mm w/ 20mm straps / Weight: 19g / Battery life: Up to 5 days / Display type: “Hidden” OLED touchscreen / GPS: Tethered GPS / Connectivity: Bluetooth, Ant Plus / Water resistance: 5ATM / Music storage: N/A What I love most about the Vivomove Sport is it doesn’t look like what most people expect from a Garmin. It’s a hybrid smartwatch, which means it looks like a regular watch but can track fitness and deliver notifications. Garmin’s hybrids are also unique in that they all use an OLED display that stays hidden until you need it. This is best suited for a casually active person who wants style and value in a lightweight package. Think wellness, more so than fitness. It gets you continuous heart rate monitoring and blood oxygen level monitoring and can even provide abnormal heart rate alerts. You also get access to more in-depth metrics like respiration rate, fitness age, stress, and Body Battery, which is Garmin’s tool for visualizing how well-rested you are. For smart features, you get all the basics, like notifications, alarms, and timers. The Sport isn’t quite as full-featured as some other Garmins you’ll find on this list. For instance, you’re giving up built-in GPS in favor of tethered GPS through your phone. There are no contactless payments, nor is there a microphone or speaker for taking calls on the wrist. But this is a budget pick, and you get a lot, considering this is an entry-level gadget that could pass for a Swatch at a glance. I don’t love that the battery life is short for a hybrid, at around three to four days. Even so, that’s still much better than what you’ll get on an Apple Watch or Wear OS 4 watch. If you’re willing to spend about $100 more, the $269.99 Vivomove Trend has more chic materials, gets you more screen real estate, and wireless Qi charging. Otherwise, this is a great lifestyle wearable that can serve as a classier alternative to your typical fitness band. If you prefer something newer to the Sport that’s also stylish, the Garmin Lily 2 is another good option, especially if you’ve got particularly small wrists or prefer something extremely lightweight. The swipe and tap gestures are still a little fiddly to use — which was also the case with the first-gen model — but the fresh design is a fun way to lightly monitor your fitness without bogging yourself down with notifications. Garmin also recently announced a new version called the Lily 2 Active, which adds a physical button, GPS, and support for more sports tracking for a starting price of $299.99. Read my full Garmin Vivomove Sport review. The best Garmin to replace a Fitbit Sizes: 40mm w/ 20mm straps / Weight: 38g / Battery life: Up to 11 days / Display type: OLED touchscreen / GPS: All-systems GNSS / Connectivity: Bluetooth, Ant Plus / Water resistance: 5ATM / Music storage: 4GB (for Music Edition) If you were disappointed by the Fitbit Sense 2 and Versa 4, the Venu Sq 2 is the next best thing (and, in some ways, better). At a glance, the Venu Sq 2 could easily be mistaken for an Apple Watch. On the wrist, you’ll notice it’s made of plastic, but it still looks quite chic and extremely lightweight. The screen is bright, easy to read, and looks better than any Versa or Sense ever did. The feature set is also great for the price, with built-in GPS, a ton of watch faces, emergency safety features, and contactless payments. If you pay $50 more for the Music Edition, you’ll also get about 500 songs worth of storage, but we wouldn’t recommend it. This doesn’t have cellular connectivity and, therefore, isn’t truly standalone. You’ll most likely be carrying your phone with you anyway. As for health features, the Venu Sq 2 basically has everything you’d get on a Versa or Sense smartwatch but with Garmin’s treasure trove of metrics as well. That includes heart rate tracking, blood oxygen tracking, intensity minutes (how much moderate exercise you get in a week), stress tracking, hydration tracking, respiratory rate, period tracking, and Garmin’s recovery feature, Body Battery. As far as fitness goes, you also get access to Garmin Coach, which provides free 5K, 10K, and half marathon training plans. You love to see it. Another big leg-up Garmin has over Fitbit? None of these features or metrics are locked behind a paywall. Read my full Garmin Venu Sq 2 review. The best Garmin smartwatch Sizes: 41mm w/ 18mm straps; 45mm w/ 22mm straps / Weight: 40g for the 3S; 47g for the 3 / Battery life: Up to 10 days for 3S; 14 days for 3 / Display type: OLED touchscreen / GPS: GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO / Connectivity: Bluetooth, Ant Plus, Wi-Fi / Water resistance: 5ATM / Music storage: 8GB Garmin has shored up the smarts in its watches over the past several years, and the Venu 3 series is the smartest (and most affordable) of the bunch. The Venu 3 series comes in two sizes: 41mm and 45mm. Like the Venu 2 Plus, it has a microphone and speaker. You can take calls directly from the wrist and issue commands to your phone’s digital assistant via Bluetooth. It’s not the same as having Siri, Bixby, Amazon Alexa, or Google Assistant built directly into the watch, but it’s a clever workaround that works well for hands-free control. It also supports safety features like fall detection and live tracking, as well as contactless payments. Like other OLED Garmins, the display is both vibrant and easy to read. As for health and fitness, you get a nice mix of basic and more advanced features and metrics. It has Garmin’s latest heart rate sensor, which enables FDA-cleared EKG and AFib detection features. Overall, it leans a bit more on the wellness and health side of things, with intensity minutes, blood oxygen monitoring, sleep tracking, period tracking, abnormal heart rate alerts, and stress tracking. As for training, you still get built-in GPS, VO2 Max, heart rate zones, respiration rate, and downloadable training plans via Garmin Coach. New to the 3 and 3S is a sleep coach that factors in metrics like heart rate variability and recent activity to determine your sleep needs. It also finally adds nap detection, a feature that’s been long overdue for the Garmin platform. The Venu 3 series also adds audio-guided meditation sessions, and you can view how these sessions directly impact your metrics. From an accessibility standpoint, this also adds a new wheelchair mode. Technically, the new Fenix 8 is slightly smarter in that it adds an on-board voice assistant. However, it is also more than double the price and not what I’d consider a good value for the average athlete. It’s more for people who spend hours upon hours training every week. This is the Garmin for you if you want the platform’s in-depth training without sacrificing the productivity of a smartwatch. The main things it’s lacking are cellular options and a robust third-party app ecosystem. That said, it’s got Spotify, Amazon Music, and Deezer for offline listening. It’s also a good option if you’re fed up with MIP displays and want a smarter Garmin rather than a full-on smartwatch. Read my full Garmin Venu 3S review. Update, March 13th: Updated pricing and added a new “how we test” section.
NBC will continue airing the Olympics in the US for the foreseeable future. Its parent company, Comcast, just announced a deal with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) that will keep the games on NBC’s platforms, including Peacock, through 2036. As noted by The Hollywood Reporter, NBC’s previous agreement with the IOC gave it the rights to stream the Olympics through 2032. This new deal will take its place, with the extended media rights for the 2033 to 2036 Olympics cycle valued at $3 billion. The next Olympic games will take place in Italy next year. The Olympics have played a major role in helping NBC drive subscribers and viewership on Peacock. During last year’s Paris Olympics, Peacock saw a 33 percent spike in viewers during the games, as the company introduced multiview and aired Gold Zone, which featured whip-around coverage of a variety of events. NBC has been the home to the Olympics for decades. It has aired a total of 19 Olympic Games since 1964, 13 of which it broadcasted consecutively. Disclosure: Comcast is also an investor in Vox Media, The Verge’s parent company.
The Mercedes CLA will be the debut of the company’s new MMA platform. | Image: Mercedes-Benz Mercedes-Benz’s electric vehicles aren’t exactly selling like hotcakes. The EQS, EQE, and EQB have largely flopped, forcing the company to make significant changes to its electrification plans. While the automaker has scaled back its ambitions, it’s not abandoning them altogether. As Mercedes-Benz Group CEO Ola Källenius said during the company’s Tech Day in Stuttgart, Germany, last month, “The clock starts again” on the company’s EV plans. And that starts with a newly developed platform, called MMA, that will underpin both internal combustion, hybrid, and electric vehicles going forward. “We’re in an era where we’re going towards electrification, but in the year 2025 obviously, we’re not 100 percent electrification. So for many years to come we will have a duality,” Källenius said. An ‘electric-first’ platform The MMA platform makes its debut on the company’s entry-level sedan, the CLA, which debuted as a sub $30,000 Mercedes in 2013. Typically, automakers introducing new platforms start with their priciest models, which would be the S- and G-Class models in Mercedes’ case. Since both of those vehicles were recently updated, it will be a while before they get the MMA treatment. Mercedes is also bucking the traditional method of introducing a new platform as an ICE vehicle and then wedging the design into an EV platform. Instead, the company is going “EV first,” launching the CLA as an EV first and then later as an internal combustion with a mild hybrid in 2026. The new platform makes both the hybrid and EV vehicles larger than the previous generation. The wheelbase is 6.1 cm longer (2.4 inches) to accommodate the battery pack and taller by 2.8 cm (1.1 inches), giving rear passengers slightly more legroom and height. Källenius acknowledged the old CLA was a tight fit in the rear, but at 6-foot-4, he was able to slide into the new CLA with ease. As Källenius said, “You’re buying what feels like a sports car, but at the same time you have a fully functional three-box sedan.” ‘This is the EQXX on the road’ The new CLA owes its design and tech to the EQXX, a concept car introduced by Mercedes in 2022 with an emphasis on efficiency that could roll for more than 1,000 miles on a single charge. Mercedes engineers spent three years leveraging what they learned from the EQXX to develop the revamped CLA. However, the biggest deal about the new CLA is its massive range. There will be two battery options for the global market, a 58.4 kWh version and a larger 85.5 kWh battery. The US will only get the larger of the two, giving the CLA an estimated range of 792 km (492 miles) based on the generous WLTP standards. If the EPA-estimated range comes in around 350 miles, the CLA will rank among other long-range EVs like Lucid, Rivian, and Tesla. The new CLA also gets a unique brake-by-wire setup called OneBox that calculates the right amount of braking power and recuperation to maximize efficiency. Like the technology BMW developed for its VDX test vehicle, most braking will primarily be handled by the regeneration system in normal conditions. The new system claims to recuperate up to 200 kW of power. The new CLA’s 800-volt architecture will enable ultra-fast charging, adding 300 km (186 miles) of range in 10 minutes. The EV will come in front-wheel and all-wheel drive trims, with a 268-hp drive unit on the rear axle and a 107-hp drive unit on the front in the all-wheel drive version. The front motor can be disengaged automatically when it is not needed to help increase efficiency. As Källenius noted, “This is the EQXX on the road.” A new OS and smarter driving With the CLA, Mercedes is launching a new software stack called MB.OS. The infotainment MBUX system will run on MB.OS and offers a new “AI-enhanced” user experience that can control everything from the sensors to various actuators. The new MB.OS system will be connected to the cloud to enable over-the-air updates for everything from driver assistance features to semi-autonomous driving. Källenius said the CLA will feature “Level 2 ++” driving – nearing Level 3 autonomy where the driver is still kept in the loop to take over when needed. (Mercedes already offers a Level 3 system in a handful of states called Drive Pilot.) Consumers can purchase or “unlock” these ADAS features as an upgrade after purchase, which will be delivered via OTA update. “It will age like a good French wine,” Källenius said of the new software stack. “It will get better with age, because we will add capabilities to it. Some things we will give you for free, some things we may charge you for, depending on what it is, and depending on what the market allows.” The new CLA gets Mercedes’ Superscreen, which stretches from pillar to pillar in the front. Under that glass sits a 10.25-inch gauge cluster and a 14-inch center display, with an optional 14-inch screen for passengers. That passenger screen can play movies from platforms like YouTube and RideVu by Sony. And if you’re worried about distracted driving, the passenger screen is not viewable from the driver’s position. Google and Microsoft systems help power the AI, which can be used to determine a driver’s mood (which it then uses to change the color of the lighting in the car) or help find parking. I got a demonstration of the new Mercedes voice assistant, which is powered by Google Gemini, and found it to be much more conversational than the previous generation, handling basic requests like navigation or finding a nice restaurant. For general knowledge, the system uses OpenAI’s GPT-4o model, Microsoft’s Azure, and Bing. The system will remember previous conversations and recall context. All the predictive learning is done on board the vehicle, not in the cloud. “It will age like a good French wine.” Mercedes will launch the electric CLA (the base version is awkwardly named the CLA 250+ with EQ Technology) first in China and Europe, with the US launch in the fall. For an upgrade, customers can get the even more awkwardly named CLA 350 4MATIC with EQ Technology, with all-wheel drive. The 1.5-liter four-cylinder hybrid ICE version, which Mercedes didn’t share many details about in Stuttgart, won’t make its debut until sometime in 2026. Mercedes hasn’t announced pricing yet, but in the current economic environment, it’s likely that the new CLA will be priced above that old $30,000 marker. With increased hostility toward EVs in the US and an administration that’s determined to roll back EV benefits, we’ll have to wait and see which version Mercedes customers choose for their future entry-level luxury sedan, and whether this new electric strategy will turn the company’s flagging sales around. Images from Mercedes-Benz
Auracast support for hearing aids is on the way to Android phones. Android phones will soon support Auracast with Bluetooth LE hearing aids, letting people tune in to audio broadcasts in places where it’s otherwise hard to hear. Auracast is a Bluetooth Audio LE feature, and it allows one broadcaster to connect to a virtually unlimited number of Bluetooth LE devices. Among other things, the technology can help people who use hearing aids connect directly to audio streams like the public announcement system at an airport, or to an audio feed at a concert venue. At launch, Samsung Galaxy phones running One UI 7 and Google Pixel 9 phones with the Android 16 beta will support it. Auracast has been around since the Bluetooth LE spec was completed in 2022. Samsung’s recent Galaxy phones already support sharing audio to other devices via Auracast, and it looks as though Google will add similar audio sharing capabilities in Android 16. Hearing aid support adds another layer of functionality, and on Pixel 9 phones connecting to a broadcast will be as simple as scanning a QR code. Otherwise, you can access a public broadcast through your settings menu in basically the same way you connect to a Wi-Fi network. Google is also announcing today that Android 16 has reached platform stability, moving it one step closer to a full launch. It first debuted in developer preview in November of last year, aligning with Google’s plan to shift its Android release schedule forward this year to Q2. With I/O just around the corner, there’s a lot brewing in Mountain View.
The first trailer for the next season of Black Mirror is full of the kinds of topics you’d expect from the anthology: AI, virtual worlds, video games, and lots of futuristic gadgets. All with a dark twist, of course. Season 7 will feature six episodes — series creator Charlie Brooker says that two of them “are basically feature-length” — which includes a sequel to “USS Callister.” The appearance of Will Poulter also suggests the show is returning to the Bandersnatch universe. We already knew the upcoming season had a stacked cast, with previous announcements including Paul Giamatti, Issa Rae, and Peter Capaldi. But Netflix announced even more notable stars who will be subjected to the dark terrors of the future this time around. They include not only Poulter, but Michele Austin, Ben Bailey Smith, Asim Chaudhry, Josh Finan, James Nelson-Joyce, Jay Simpson, and Michael Workéyè. Who they are playing, and what the other episodes are about, remains largely a secret right now. These will be the first new episodes in the series since 2023, which featured standouts like “Joan is Awful” and “Beyond the Sea.” Black Mirror season 7 starts streaming on April 10th, where it will join an incredibly busy period for news shows. April will also see new seasons of Doctor Who (the 12th), The Last of Us (April 13th), and Andor (22nd).
For years, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been promising an affordable electric vehicle, likely priced at $25,000, as a way to broaden the appeal of plug-in vehicles. He first mentioned it in a 2018 interview with YouTuber Marques Brownlee, saying “a $25,000 car, that’s something we can do.” Then in 2020, at the company’s first Battery Day event, he speculated that Tesla could eventually produce upward of 20 million of these vehicles in a year — or roughly twice the current production of Toyota, GM, or Volkswagen. Things started to accelerate last year at Tesla’s shareholder event, where the company’s executives spoke about a specialized manufacturing technique that they called the “Unboxed Process.” This breakthrough would allow Tesla to dramatically reduce the cost of manufacturing, enabling it to sell a vehicle at the $25,000 price point. The next-gen vehicle will likely be a crossover or hatchback and could feature design elements lifted from the Tesla Cybertruck. But moreover, it would be the fulfillment of a promise made years ago to make EVs more affordable to the masses. Elon Musk makes a lot of promises, some of which he can’t keep. Let’s hope this isn’t one of them. Tesla’s more ‘affordable’ EVs will probably just be cheaper Model Ys. Tesla will launch unsupervised driving in June, Musk says A cheaper Tesla is back on the menu Elon Musk says Tesla will reveal its robotaxi on August 8th Tesla reportedly abandons plans to make a less expensive $25,000 electric vehicle Tesla’s year-over-year sales dropped for the first time since 2020 Tesla warns of sales growth slowdown as it prepares for next-gen launch in late 2025 Tesla’s new compact crossover is reportedly coming in 2025, but will it cost $25,000? Tesla’s new car-building process could be a huge industrial breakthrough Tesla’s $25,000 ‘next-generation car’ will have a Cybertruck design Elon Musk unveils a new Master Plan, a path to sustainable energy future, but no new cars Tesla’s Elon Musk said a $25,000 electric car with next-gen battery in the works
The Trump administration launched a massive deregulation spree that could gut environmental and health protections in the US, moves that are sure to face immediate legal and logistical challenges. Wednesday was “the greatest day of deregulation our nation has seen,” Environmental Protection Agency administrator Lee Zeldin said in a press release. The proposed changes include 31 actions to roll back pollution regulations for power plants, oil and gas refineries, chemical plants, cars and trucks, factories, and more. “This is a cluster bomb” Advocacy groups, unsurprisingly, are already promising a fight. Outside of court, the EPA — if it follows protocol — would have to go through extensive rulemaking processes. And it has to make this all happen with a shrunken and demoralized workforce. “This is a cluster bomb of moves to demolish a broad swath of environmental regulations. We’ll see if it explodes in EPA’s face when the inevitable barrage of lawsuits hits the courts,” Michael Gerrard, faculty director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University, said in an email to The Verge. The EPA says it will “reconsider” a broad swath of regulations on everything including mercury, toxic air pollutants, soot, wastewater, the chemicals used in the workplace, and the greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change. The EPA is also working to claw back $20 billion of Biden-era federal funding to reduce greenhouse gas pollution. Zeldin’s language when it comes to the climate crisis is particularly vociferous. “We are driving a dagger straight into the heart of the climate change religion to drive down cost of living for American families, unleash American energy, bring auto jobs back to the U.S. and more,” he said. The EPA press release says, without sharing any numbers or analysis, that the proposed measures would make it more affordable to buy a car or run a business. The Trump administration’s tariff wars, however, are expected to raise the cost of a car by up to $12,000. Federal standards for soot pollution alone, on the other hand, are estimated to lead to $46 billion in net health benefits, according to an EPA analysis last year. Stronger soot protections that were finalized last year were also expected to prevent 290,000 lost workdays and 4,500 premature deaths by 2032. American Lung Association president and CEO Harold Wimmer said in an emailed statement that the organization “will use every tool in our toolbox to defend these lifesaving protections and protect the health of families.” The Sierra Club also said in a statement that it would “fight these outrageous rollbacks tooth and nail.” And “should the EPA undo settled law and irrefutable facts, we expect to see this administration in court,” environmental law organization Earthjustice said in another statement. “It is important to remember that currently, all these clean air protections are still in place. EPA’s leadership can’t undo them with this announcement. They have to follow the law and go through a process to reconsider or revoke them,” the American Lung Association’s Wimmer added. President Donald Trump managed to roll back around 100 environmental regulations during his first term in office. This time around, he’s moving much quicker to enact sweeping changes. But the wrecking ball that Trump and billionaire ally Elon Musk have taken to federal agencies could also make it harder to implement their agenda at the EPA. “In order to revoke or revise a regulation, you need a new regulation,” Columbia’s Gerrard notes. It takes skilled staff to write detailed explanations to justify such drastic changes in the EPA’s position, according to Gerrard. Courts could invalidate new rules without those explanations, and it’s unclear who would be left at the agency to do that work as the Trump administration slashes the federal workforce, he says. In February, the EPA notified 1,100 probationary workers that they could be terminated immediately. The agency has already fired hundreds of staffers. Trump has also floated and walked back the idea of cutting 65 percent of the agency’s staff. And the EPA’s actions announced this week include “terminating Biden’s environmental justice and DEI arms of the agency” — encompassing roles that address the ways in which low-income communities and Americans of color are often disproportionately exposed to pollution. The announcements made yesterday mark “the most disastrous day in EPA history,” according to an emailed statement from former EPA administrator and White House national climate adviser Gina McCarthy. “They’re doing the bidding of their fossil fuel friends,” McCarthy said. Trump received more than $75 million from oil and gas interests while campaigning on a platform to “drill, baby, drill.” According to McCarthy, “The agency has fully abdicated its mission to protect Americans’ health and wellbeing.”
There are a lot of “simulator” games out there that gamify everything from driving your own big rig to running your own Japanese convenience store. Some of them hit, like the one about being a goat which is on its third iteration. And some of them hit like PowerWash Simulator which is getting a sequel slated for release later this year. PowerWash Simulator 2 will feature a new campaign with new locations and jobs to expand your power washing empire. To further drive home the fact this game is wish fulfillment for aspiring home owners, PWS2 will also add a home base you can customize with furniture and other cosmetics. But more than anything, I’m excited by the prospect of the new split-screen co-op mode. I played PowerWash Simulator waaay back in 2021 when there was just the demo. I found myself utterly delighted by how the simplistic idea of methodically cleaning grime off a surface with a destructive power tool lit up my brain. Since its release in 2022, the game has exploded in complexity and content with crossover content packs that approach Fortnite levels of wacky metaverse shenanigans. There’s a SpongeBob pack, a Tomb Raider pack, and even a Final Fantasy VII pack that lets you valiantly attempt to clean up the perpetually dirty streets of Midgar. The developers at FuturLab tapped into something unique, and made PowerWash Simulator standout amidst a veritable ocean of simulator games and it seems like PowerWash Simulator 2 is primed to do the same. It launches this year on Xbox, PlayStation, and PC.
Lexus RZ 550e F Sport in Neutrino Gray and Black. Lexus is updating its RZ electric vehicle lineup and introducing new versions that include a simulated manual gearbox and a steer-by-wire system. The top-of-the-line 550e F Sport includes a “Interactive Manual Drive” system that gives the driver the feeling of shifting like a manual gas car “by synchronizing acceleration and deceleration with immersive sound.” It also features the yoke steering wheel Lexus originally showed off for the RZ in 2022, which is available as an option for other versions with drive-by-wire. Interactive Manual Drive features 8-speed virtual gears controlled by paddle shifters and a shift guide meter to give visual feedback on when to upshift and downshift. Lexus isn’t the only company trying fake shifting on EVs; manufacturers like Hyundai include it on the Ioniq 5 N. When the RZ launched in 2023, it had a relatively short EPA-estimated 220 miles of range on a single charge, but the new one maxes out at about 357 miles (575km), although that range is based on Europe’s more lax WLTP system. The higher range is thanks to an updated 77 kWh battery that has more and improved cells compared to the previous 71.5 kWh one. The battery can push up to 300 kW to the F Sport’s dual motor AWD system. The new battery can recharge faster too thanks to the addition of a new preconditioning feature. Lexus plans to “gradually roll out” the RZ starting this fall “across various regions.”
Today Sony is announcing the development of a new type of TV display that uses individual RGB LEDs for its backlighting. While Sony currently sells high-end Mini LED TVs alongside OLED models, this new system could combine many of the best qualities of both, and I recently got to see it in action at the company’s Tokyo headquarters. I’m not yet convinced that this tech, which for now Sony has given the somewhat unwieldy name of “General RGB LED Backlight Technology,” will be the best panel solution for everyone. But TVs are always going to come with tradeoffs, and this approach does represent a meaningfully different solution to what’s currently on the market. It looks like it’ll be a huge upgrade on existing Mini LED sets. Mini LED TVs work by deploying an array of tiny blue LEDs behind the panel. These LEDs are larger than the actual pixels on the display, but they’re small enough that the TV can brighten or darken multiple areas of the screen with a high degree of precision. OLED TVs, meanwhile, are capable of even better contrast because they light up and switch off each pixel individually, but they generally can’t get as large or as bright as Mini LED displays. With Sony’s new RGB LED method, each Mini LED backlight zone is made up of a red, green, and blue LED. The core advantage here is that Sony is able to achieve finer control over color without compromising on brightness, achieving a level of 4000 cd/m² — on par with the company’s professional reference monitors and resulting in a higher “color volume” than any commercial TV it’s released to date. The increased gradation control can also help deliver much wider viewing angles than Mini LED TVs, and Sony says the panels can be built at larger sizes than existing OLED sets. So, how does it look in person? Unfortunately Sony didn’t allow its prototypes to be photographed, but I’ll do my best to describe them. The first unit was designed to show off the backlight array itself. Behind the set was a wild combination of exposed silicon and cable spaghetti. Only half of the screen was covered by an actual LCD panel; the rest of the image was purely handled by the backlighting. Imagine watching a movie where the right half of the picture was run through a 16-bit pixel art filter, and you’re pretty much there, except this screen had much better color reproduction than a Super Nintendo. This isn’t much use in practice, of course, but it does show exactly how precise Sony is able to get with the lighting. One scene showed a bus driving down a street on a sunny day, and it was possible to discern several distinct shades of red in its paint from the backlight alone. Sony says this translates to wider and more accurate color reproduction. To demonstrate actual video content, Sony set up a full-screen version of the RGB backlight prototype flanked by two of its best TVs you can buy: last year’s extravagant Mini LED-powered Bravia 9, and the QD-OLED A95L that won the prestigious “King of TV” award at the most recent Value Electronics TV Shootout, where Verge editor-in-chief Nilay Patel served on the judging panel. Conscious of the unflattering comparison, a Sony engineer conducting the demo repeatedly went out of his way to make the point that the Bravia 9 on the left really was a very good TV. Despite this, the RGB LED prototype clearly smoked it. A scene from Frozen where blue crystals flew through the air looked almost monochrome in comparison, with the prototype revealing deep shades of purple that simply weren’t there on the Bravia. It was clear how the backlighting worked in tandem with the color grading to deliver a more vivid picture. Viewing angles were hugely improved, with near-non-existent color shift. Another sequence with bright red lights against a dark background exhibited the tell-tale blueish Mini LED blooming on the Bravia, whereas the RGB LED prototype lit up those areas solely in red. That’s not to say the blooming wasn’t there. If you covered up only the red portion of the screen with a piece of paper, you’d still see hazy redness around it, unlike on an OLED panel. But watching the footage normally, the effect wasn’t all that different. While OLED screens don’t strictly leak color data into adjacent pixels, the effect of retinal straylight in your eyes means you do still perceive haziness around bright points. RGB LED’s ability to limit its blooming to scene-accurate colors makes for a major improvement on Mini LED in this regard, even if it’s still going to lose out to OLED when it comes to displaying starfields. RGB LED backlighting isn’t a wholly new idea, even from Sony. The company launched a ridiculously expensive Qualia TV with an RGB backlight in 2004, and more recently showed off a “Crystal LED” prototype TV at CES 2012. Competitors are also on the case; Hisense showed off a “TriChroma RGB Backlight” Mini LED TV at CES this year, while TCL and Samsung had prototypes with their own spin on the idea. “These developments were within our expectations,” says Daisuke Nezu, head of Sony’s home audio and video division. Sony remains confident that its experience in backlight technology and image signal processing gives it an edge over anything on the horizon. “We believe that we can ensure not only good image quality, but also reliability and stability,” Sony representative Mara Redican tells The Verge, emphasizing the company’s expertise in signal processing. “The knowledge and experience gained over the years cannot be easily replicated.” If Sony is right about this, its strongest competition could be coming from inside the house; the advantages were much less clear next to its own “King of TV.” The RGB LED prototype could definitely hang with the A95L, and quite literally outshone it in terms of brightness. But I would say the difference in color reproduction and viewing angles were a wash at best. I generally preferred the picture from the OLED in the most challenging comparisons, and I think a lot of OLED TV owners would probably agree. But that’s fine by Sony, which isn’t giving any indication that it’s planning to exit the OLED TV market any time soon — no wonder, given the glowing reception to the A95L. I might be happy with my own OLED TVs right now, but the tech plainly isn’t right for every customer, whether they’re concerned about brightness, size, or longevity. If you’ve been waiting to put a 100-inch-plus panel in a large room with a lot of natural light, this could be your answer. We’ll have to see how this all shakes out once RGB LED panels come to actual consumer TVs, of course. But Sony’s take on the concept does look to be a big step up over what we’ve come to expect from Mini LED, at least, and it could well be the best alternative to OLED if and when it’s commercialized.
With so many AI companies launching chatbots, Google is leveraging its biggest competitive advantage to make Gemini stand out: Search. With personalization enabled, Gemini can now automatically analyze your query to see if referring to your Search history can “enhance” its response. The feature is powered by the Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking Experimental model, and it will only reference your search results if its AI model finds it “helpful.” For instance, if you ask Gemini about restaurant or travel recommendations, the chatbot will refer to your recent food-related searches to provide a suggestion. This is part of the broader personalization feature Google is rolling out, which will eventually connect Gemini to other apps like YouTube and Google Photos, allowing the chatbot to “provide more personalized insights, drawing from a broader understanding of your activities and preferences.” Google notes that you can disconnect your search history from Gemini at any time. When you receive a response, you’ll see an outline of how Gemini got its answers, as well as whether it referenced your saved information, past conversations, or Search history. It will also display a “clear banner” with a link to disconnect your Search history. Gemini and Gemini Advanced subscribers on the web can enable the feature by selecting “Personalization (experimental)” from the model drop-down menu. It’s gradually rolling out on mobile, and is available in more than 40 languages in a “majority” of countries. Google is releasing some other updates as well, including a way for all Gemini users to create their own personal AI assistants — called Gems — for free. The company also announced that it’s bringing its Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking Experimental model to its Deep Research feature, which the company says improves the chatbot’s capabilities “across all research stages.” Gemini’s integrations with Calendar, Notes, Tasks, and Photos are also getting an upgrade to the Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking Experimental model, joining YouTube, Search, and Google Maps.
Fortnite is coming to Windows devices with Qualcomm’s Arm-based Snapdragon chips later this year. Epic Games announced today that it’s teaming up with Qualcomm to add Windows on Snapdragon support for Easy Anti-Cheat, which will let the game be compatible with those devices. “Over the last year, the introduction of Windows 11 Arm-based laptops has transformed the PC landscape, and laptops with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Series processors represent a rapidly growing segment of the PC gaming market,” Epic says in a blog post. “However, the majority of PC games today are compiled for x64, which doesn’t translate directly to the Windows on Snapdragon architecture. Due to the way anti-cheat software works with x64 features, additional tooling is required for compatibility with these devices.” Epic says that “hundreds” of multiplayer games rely on Easy Anti-Cheat, including Fortnite, and that “battle-testing Windows on Snapdragon anti-cheat support with Fortnite will help ensure smooth implementations in other games.”
If you’re looking to catch up on Andor before the second season’s April 22nd debut on Disney Plus, there’s a solid deal on both Disney Plus and Hulu. Now through March 30th, you can get the ad-supported Disney Plus, Hulu Bundle Basic plan for $2.99 per month for the first four months. Usually this bundle goes for $10.99 per month, so altogether that equates to a savings of around $32. The discount is available to both new and qualifying returning Disney Plus, Hulu, and/or ESPN Plus subscribers. If you don’t mind watching the occasional ad, the basic plan is nearly identical to the Premium tier. You can’t download content, but otherwise you still get to watch all the thousands of movies and shows available in both Hulu’s and Disney Plus’ library. That means not only can you stream Andor, you can also watch Disney’s new Daredevil series, Moana 2, Deadpool & Wolverine, X-Men ‘97, and other films and shows from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, and even National Geographic. You also get to watch Hulu’s library — which encompasses everything from the forthcoming final season of The Handmaid’s Tale to The Kardashians, Shogun, and Futurama — on multiple devices. Just remember to mark your calendars, though; after the four-month promotion period ends, the bundle with automatically renew at the normal price of $10.99. More ways to save right now Sony’s WH-CH520 are on sale at Amazon, Walmart, and Best Buy for around $38 ($22 off), which is only $2 more than their lowest price to date. The budget pair of on-ear headphones aren’t going to compete with the company’s noise-canceling WH-1000XM5 — nor should they, given the price — but they do support Fast Pair pair on Android and multipoint connectivity, allowing you to quickly switch between two devices. They also offer up to 50 hours of battery life, which is a rarity even on high-end headphones. The Twelve South AirFly SE is down to its all-time low price of $28.99 ($6 off) at Amazon, Walmart, and Best Buy. The Bluetooth transmitter comes with an integrated 3.5mm cable, so you can listen to in-flight entertainment systems more comfortable using your own pair of wireless earbuds or noise-canceling headphones. It also works with other devices that offer a standard audio jack, including compatible treadmills and the Nintendo Switch. The Garmin Forerunner 265 is on sale for $379.99 ($70 off) at Wellbots when you apply the code VERGEF265, which is just $20 shy of its all-time low price. It’s also available for $399.99 at Amazon and REI. The smartwatch is a good choice for runners, offering a wide number of running metrics that includes stride length and cadence. It also includes Garmin’s Race Predictor feature, which estimates the time it’d take for you to run different types of marathons based on your long-term running data. The wearable also sports multiband GPS for more precise tracking along with a vibrant OLED display with good battery life, lasting about a week on a single charge. Read our review.
Ahead of the Game Developers Conference next week, Google is announcing that all mobile Android games will be available by default on Google Play Games on PC unless a developer opts out. The change could significantly boost the number of games on the platform, as previously, developers had to opt in. Google Play Games on PC was originally launched in beta in 2022 as a way for people to play Android games on their PC, and Google has been slowly expanding its availability and building on the program since then. As part of its announcements on Thursday, Google is also introducing a new “playability badge” for mobile games that are available on PC to highlight how well they run. An “optimized” badge means a game “meets all of our quality standards for a great gaming experience” and a “playable” badge means a game “meets the minimum requirements to play well on a PC,” writes Aurash Mahbod, VP and GM of Games on Google Play. (The system sounds a bit like Steam’s badges for Steam Deck compatibility.) However, if a game has an “untested” badge, that means a user will only see it if they specifically search for it, Google’s Nia Carter tells The Verge. Google is investing more in bringing PC games to Google Play Games on PC as well. There are already more than 50 native PC titles on the platform, Carter says, and later this year, Google plans to open up its native PC program to all native PC developers so they can bring over their games, according to Mahbod. Google is making Google Play Games on PC more widely available, too; the company has offered a limited catalog of games on AMD laptops and desktops, but Google will now offer the full catalog on AMD laptops and desktops. In addition, Google is “partnering with PC OEMs to make Google Play Games accessible right from the start menu on new devices starting this year,” Mahbod says. Google is also rolling out multi-account and multi-instance support for Google Play Games on PC this month. Google will make Google Play Games on PC generally available this year, according to Mahbod.
Microsoft is preparing to launch an AI-powered Copilot for Gaming soon that will guide Xbox players through games and act as an assistant to download and launch games. Copilot for Gaming, as Microsoft is branding it, will be available through the Xbox mobile app initially and is designed to work on a second screen as a companion or assistant. Microsoft is positioning Copilot for Gaming as a sidekick of sorts, one that will accompany you through games, offering up tips and guides and useful information about a game world. During a press briefing, Sonali Yadav, product manager for gaming AI, demonstrated several scenarios for what Copilot for Gaming could be used for. One involved a concept demo of Copilot assisting an Overwatch 2 player by coaching them on the mistakes they made when trying to push without teammates. In the Overwatch 2 demo, Copilot could even recommend good hero picks to complement the rest of the team and tell you more about why you’d want to pair up particular characters, detailing their strengths and weaknesses. Another demo involved using Copilot with Minecraft, where you could ask Copilot questions about how to craft objects. Copilot can see your screen, so it can guide you and see exactly what you’re doing in a game. The demo also included the option to enable cheats in Minecraft, so Copilot could even tell you where certain crafting materials are located in the world. Copilot for Gaming 🎮 Soon you’ll be able to turn to it for everything from game setup, to tips for finally beating a tough level, wherever you play on Xbox. There when you need it, out of the way when you don’t. Can’t wait to try it! https://t.co/cxZG7R6cxc pic.twitter.com/21Zg0yob4A — Mustafa Suleyman (@mustafasuleyman) March 13, 2025 The demos felt very concept in nature, and they won’t be available during the initial launch of Copilot for Gaming next month. Instead, Microsoft will test early versions of Copilot with Xbox Insiders through the Xbox mobile app in April, before eventually bringing Copilot to multiple devices. Microsoft also has a slick marketing video for its Copilot for Gaming effort, but none of it looks real world to me, so it’s difficult to understand exactly what the company will deliver to testers in April. It looks like Microsoft has the vision for where it wants Copilot on an Xbox to be in the future, and it says it will iterate based on feedback. But right now, I’ll be interested to see how this launches in a more limited fashion on mobile devices.
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