The EU’s Digital Services Act goes into effect today: here’s what that means Illustration by Alex Castro / The VergeThe European Union’s Digital Services Act (DSA) has officially gone into effect. Starting on August 25th, 2023, tech giants like Google, Facebook, Amazon, and more must comply with sweeping legislation that holds online platforms legally accountable for the content posted to them. Even though this new law w…

Google Keep for Android is getting some overdue upgrades Google Keep is a simple, solid note-taking app — hopefully Google doesn’t kill it. | Image: GoogleGood news for Android-toting Google Keep users: you’re finally getting the text formatting options the app has so desperately needed for years. Google announced this week that the ability to bold, italicize, and otherwise transform text in your note…

Baldur’s Gate 3’s gigantic new patch is for the shorties Image: Larian StudiosBaldur’s Gate 3’s first official patch is apparently so large its patch notes exceed Steam’s character limit. The patch, out now, addresses “over 1,000 bugs, balancing, flow issues and much, much more.” You can read the full but spoiler-heavy patch notes here, while BG3’s Steam page has a truncated but redacted version of th…

SwitchBot’s new robot vacuum mop is the closest thing yet to a sci-fi cleaning robot The SwitchBot S10, the company’s first robot vacuum for the US market, brings with it some unique features. | Image: SwitchBotSmart home robotics company SwitchBot — of robot finger fame — has come up with another ingenious solution for automating boring chores in your home. This one is a sizable leap toward a Rosie the Robot vision of a fully …

AMD claims there’s nothing stopping Starfield from adding Nvidia DLSS Starfield key art. | Image: BethesdaAMD gaming chief Frank Azor is trying to thread a needle. He seemingly wants to say that AMD did not actually make Starfield, quite possibly the year’s biggest PC game, exclusively support AMD’s FSR upscaling technology at the expense of competitors like Nvidia DLSS. But he clearly can’t. Azor says he can’t sa…

AMD announces Radeon RX 7800 XT and 7700 XT, starting at $449 The AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT reference design. The lesser 7700 XT won’t be available with this AMD cooler. | Image: AMDIs AMD beginning to give Nvidia a run for its money? Continue reading…

Can news outlets build a ‘trustworthy’ AI chatbot? Illustration by Haein Jeong / The VergeNews publishers have jumped headfirst into artificial intelligence, using generative AI tools to produce bland travel guides, inaccurate film blogs, and SEO-bait explainers. By and large, the goal has been: can we make more pages for ads without paying more writers? Now, a group of tech outlets is attemptin…

Maui County says Hawaiian Electric caused deadly blazes in new lawsuit Downed power lines block a road as people feed chickens outside a burnt home in the aftermath of a wildfire in Lahaina, western Maui, Hawaii, on August 11th, 2023. | Photo by Patrick T. Fallon / AFP via Getty ImagesMaui County has filed suit against Hawaiian Electric, alleging that the utility is responsible for catastrophic damages from wildfir…

Dropbox blames crypto miners and resellers for ending its unlimited cloud storage plan Image: DropboxDropbox said in a blog post that it’s implementing a metered model on its Advanced plan in response to customers who have been using Dropbox for cryptocurrency mining, “pooling storage for personal use cases,” and others reselling it. Because of that, Dropbox is getting rid of its “as much space as you need” offer. Customers who si…

How to change your Mac wallpaper If you’re tired of all this purple, there’s an easy fix. | Image: Samar Haddad / The VergeLook, no disrespect to Apple’s default desktop wallpapers, but staring at the same combination of orange and yellow all day, every day, can get a bit boring. If you’ve long felt that your office life could use a bit of spicing up, a new wallpaper could be j…

All colors of the Beats Studio Buds Plus are $40 off (including the clear ones) The black model was on sale last week, but we all know the transparent ones are what you want. | Photo by Chris Welch / The VergeIt was a big deal when the Beats Studio Buds Plus fell to a new all-time low last week, but I think it’s an even bigger deal now that all three colors are available at that price — since the coolest earbuds by far are …

Why note-taking apps don’t make us smarter Screenshots of the note-taking app Obsidian. | Image: ObsidianThis is Platformer, a newsletter on the intersection of Silicon Valley and democracy from Casey Newton and Zoë Schiffer. Sign up here. Today let’s step outside the news cycle and turn our attention toward a topic I’m deeply invested in but only rarely write about: productivity platfo…

Fortnite’s island gets a luxury makeover thanks to a vampire Image: Epic GamesOut with the Wilds, in with the Last Resort. Fortnite’s latest season kicks off today — bringing the battle royale game up to Chapter 4: Season 4 — and, as teased yesterday, this new drop comes with a heist theme. But not just any heist: this time around, the island has been given a handful of luxurious locations thanks to a new…

Arm’s IPO will tell us how much AI hype matters AI hype or mobile reality? | Illustration by Alex Castro / The VergeI love a circus, and the Arm IPO is kinda looking like a P.T. Barnum production. As our ringmaster, we have SoftBank, the current majority owner of Arm. On the high wire, with no net, we have AI. Riding an elephant, we have mobile. And doing a contortion act, we have US-China re…

How to turn your photos into stickers in iOS 17 Turning your cat photos into shareable stickers is a cinch in iOS 17. | Illustration by Samar Haddad / The VergeLast year, iOS 16 gave us the ability to cut subjects out of our photos. It was fun! But it wasn’t totally clear what you should do with them. That changes in iOS 17, which is still in public beta at the moment. You can download it now…

Google is expanding its ads transparency center to comply with EU rules Illustration: The VergeGoogle is making some changes to ads transparency and its data that’s available for researchers to comply with Europe’s Digital Services Act, according to a blog post published Thursday. Regarding ads transparency, the company says that it will be “expanding” its Ads Transparency Center to “meet specific DSA provisions an…

Google Home app finally begins adding support for older Nest Cams Illustration: The VergeGoogle is finally starting to add support for older Nest Cams to the Google Home app, starting with the first-generation Nest Cam Indoor from 2015, according to a post from Google on Thursday. The support is available in the public preview of the Google Home app, and you can find instructions on how to participate in that …

Meta is pulling the plug on Messenger Lite on Android Illustration by Nick Barclay / The VergeMeta’s Messenger Lite app for Android is being shut down in September, as reported by 9to5Google. The app launched as a more, well, lightweight way to talk to people on the company’s Messenger platform (former Verge staffer Vlad Savov was a fan), but you won’t be able to use it after September 18th. When y…

Donald Trump returns to X / Twitter to post his mug shot Donald Trump posted his first tweet after getting banned from the platform last year. | Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty ImagesDonald Trump has made his return to X, the social network formerly known as Twitter. On Thursday, the former president turned himself in at the Fulton County jail on over a dozen charges related to his alleged efforts to overt…

Dune: Part Two has been delayed Image: Warner Bros. PicturesDune: Part Two has been delayed to March 15th, 2024, according to The Hollywood Reporter and Variety, and it’s just one of a few big shifts in Warner Bros.’ movie slate. The films are moving around amid the ongoing strikes in Hollywood that have affected production and promotion on many films and TV shows. Godzilla x …