Self-driving cars: Google and others map the road to automated vehicles Google and a number of automakers are spearheading the movement to get automated vehicles on America’s roads. Self-driving cars are street legal in three states, and Google’s fleet has collectively logged over 300,000 miles of time on the road. However, there are several obstacles in the path of widespread adoption, with legal and moral oppositi…

TSMC announces $100 billion investment in US chipmaking Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. – the world’s biggest chipmaker – will invest at least $100 billion to expand chip manufacturing in the US. During a press conference on Monday, President Donald Trump said the funding would go toward building two additional chip manufacturing facilities in Phoenix, Arizona. The $100 billion investment buil…

The iPhone 15 Pro will get Visual Intelligence with iOS 18.4 Apple’s latest iOS 18.4 developer beta adds the Visual Intelligence feature, the company’s Google Lens-like tool, to the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max, as reported by 9to5Mac. Apple had told Daring Fireball that the feature would be coming to those iPhones in a future software update but didn’t say which. Barring any

SwitchBot launches cut-your-own smart shades SwitchBot’s inexpensive, adjustable smart roller shades are finally here. First announced in September, the SwitchBot Roller Shades are now available at switch-bot.com, claiming to be the world’s first adjustable smart shades. This means you don’t need to worry about getting your measurements right before ordering, as you can adjust the width of…

The FTC is being hit by terminations At least a dozen probationary staffers at the Federal Trade Commission were terminated last week, The Verge has learned. The terminations took place across the agency, according to two sources familiar with the matter, one of whom said that included both the Bureau of Consumer Protection and Bureau of Competition. The sources did not definitivel…

Logitech’s best gaming mouse has fallen to its lowest price ever If you’re looking for a top-notch gaming mouse you can use for both work and play, Logitech’s G Pro X Superlight 2 is a great option that’s currently on sale for its best price to date. Right now, you can buy it at Walmart in select colors starting at $113.99 ($45 off) or at Best

Google brings Gemini widgets to iPhone as it looks to seize on Siri’s weaknesses Google’s Gemini app for iOS and iPadOS now includes a handful of lockscreen widgets that make it easier (and faster) to access the AI assistant’s various features. As noted by 9to5Google, the app’s latest update adds six widgets in total, with each of them letting you hop right into a particular Gemini function. The company

T-Mobile’s parent company is making an ‘AI Phone’ with Perplexity Assistant Deutsche Telekom is building a new Perplexity chatbot-powered “AI Phone,” the companies announced at Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona today. The new device will be revealed later this year and run “Magenta AI,” which gives users access to Perplexity Assistant, Google Cloud AI, ElevenLabs, Picsart, and a suite of AI tools. The AI phone

YouTube is stepping up its efforts to sell you other streaming services YouTube is preparing a big redesign of its TV app that will make it look more like Netflix, according to a report from The Information. The new design, which is expected to launch “in the next few months,” will reportedly display paid content from various streaming services on the homepage. YouTube currently lets you explore

Microsoft’s new Dragon Copilot is an AI assistant for healthcare Microsoft has announced Microsoft Dragon Copilot, an AI system for healthcare that can, among other things, listen to and create notes based on clinical visits. The system combines voice-dictating and ambient listening tech created by AI voice company Nuance, which Microsoft bought in 2021. According to Microsoft’s announcement, the new system c…

All the news on Microsoft’s latest Copilot and Windows AI features At Microsoft’s New York City event today, it’s announcing an all-new Copilot experience. The new Copilot design includes a new card-based look across mobile, web, and Windows. Copilot is getting more personalized with features like Copilot Vision, which adds the ability to see what you’re looking at, an OpenAI-like natural voice conversation mod…

Amazon’s Panos Panay on the long road to Alexa’s AI overhaul Today, I’m talking with Panos Panay, who’s in charge of devices and services at Amazon. That includes everything like Alexa, Ring security cameras, Eero Wi-Fi routers, and the Project Kuiper satellite internet service that’s meant to compete with Starlink.  Panos and I talked the day after he announced Alexa Plus, the new AI-powered version of

The US faces ‘devastating’ losses for weather forecasts, federal workers say The federal agency that produces weather forecasts and leads research on climate and the oceans has canceled leases for research centers and slashed its staff to “devastating” effect, current and former employees tell The Verge.  Last week, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) laid off hundreds of probationary employees, wh…

Google’s cofounder tells AI staff to stop ‘building nanny products’ For the last couple years, it has been evident that Google cofounder Sergey Brin is back in the building. This week, he sent a clear message to hundreds of employees in Google’s DeepMind AI division, known as GDM: the pressure to win the AGI race is on. “It has been 2 years of the Gemini

Google’s Chrome extension cull hits more uBlock Origin users Google is disabling the original uBlock Origin ad blocker for more Chrome browser users, alongside other extensions that are no longer supported as the browser migrates to its new extension specification, Manifest V3. According to Google, the new standard aims to improve privacy and security, but also removes a feature that some ad blocking exte…

Doctor Who is ready to take the long way around again in new season 2 trailer A little doom and dread always helps Doctor Who hit that much harder, and the show’s new season 2 trailer makes it seem like it’s going to come out swinging when it returns to Disney Plus in a few weeks. Though many of the Doctor’s (Ncuti Gatwa) companions have been amazed by their adventures to

Tim Cook teases a new Apple ‘Air’ Apple CEO Tim Cook just teased the launch of a new device coming to its Air lineup this week. In a post on X, Cook posted a short video with the text, “There’s something in the air” alongside a caption saying “this week.” Though Cook doesn’t specify which device Apple plans to launch, it’s likely

BYD cars now have an on-vehicle DJI drone launch platform EV maker BYD unveiled “Lingyuan,” a vehicle-mounted drone launching system developed in collaboration with DJI that is available for all of the company’s vehicles, reports Chinese state media outlet Xinhua. The system is only available in China, like BYD’s vehicles, and costs 16,000 yuan (or about $2,197). BYD’s video below, reposted by YouTube …

Google’s Pixel 7 Pro is on sale for just $199.99 right now It may be a few years old at this point, but the Google Pixel 7 Pro is still a good investment given it currently costs less than some of the best budget phones on the market. Right now, you can pick up an unlocked 7 Pro for $199.99 with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage at

What can a 100-pixel video teach us about storytelling around the world? Since its founding in 2007, the Mumbai-based collaborative studio CAMP has used surveillance, TV networks, and digital archives to examine how we move through and record the world. In addition to their film and video projects, the wildly prolific studio runs a rooftop cinema in Mumbai and maintains several online video archives, including the la…