Discord on Xbox will soon let you stream your gameplay to friends Stream from Xbox to Discord. | Image: MicrosoftMicrosoft is improving its Xbox and Discord integration with a new streaming gameplay feature. Xbox owners will soon be able to stream their gameplay from a console to Discord users, allowing friends to watch them play games or even offer advice for solving challenges or boss battles. The new featur…

Nintendo is bringing the Wii U versions of Mario Kart 8 and Splatoon back online Image: NintendoNintendo is bringing back online multiplayer for Mario Kart 8 and Splatoon on the Wii U on August 3rd after fixing an issue, according to a post on Nintendo’s UK support site. The two games have been offline since March after Nintendo took them offline to fix a “vulnerability related to online play.” While Nintendo hasn’t given de…

Walmart shoppers will have more ads to check while they check out Fewer clerks, more ads. | Image: WalmartWalmart is planning to plaster advertisements on its in-store self-checkout screens, TV demo walls, and other surfaces throughout its stores, as reported by CNBC. “We can deliver Super Bowl-sized audiences every week,” Ryan Mayward, Walmart’s senior VP of retail media sales for Walmart Connect, the company…

Kenya suspends Sam Altman’s eyeball-scanning crypto project Image: Worldcoin via TwitterKenya is pumping the brakes on Worldcoin — the eyeball-scanning crypto project launched by OpenAI founder Sam Altman. The Kenyan government has ordered Worldcoin to stop collecting data in the country while it reviews the project for potential privacy and security risks, as reported earlier by Reuters. Worldcoin is a …

Google’s AI search is getting more video and better links Illustration: The VergeGoogle’s AI-powered Search Generative Experience is getting a big new feature: images and video. If you’ve enabled the AI-based SGE feature in Search Labs, you’ll now start to see more multimedia in the colorful summary box at the top of your search results. Google’s also working on making that summary box appear faster an…

Latest Chrome updates make Google Search more comprehensive and downloads tidier The Chrome downloads tray is moving to the address bar after years of clogging up browsing windows. | Image: The VergeGoogle is rolling out some updates to its Chrome web browser that should make it easier to quickly find the information you need, whether you’re downloading a bunch of files or just browsing the web. The most notable change to G…

Exclusive: the Sonos Move 2 is coming in September with stereo sound and 24-hour battery life The Sonos Move 2, seen here, will be available in a new green color.Sonos’ next portable speaker is near — even if it’s going to miss the peak of the outdoor summer season. I’ve learned that the Move 2 will be released around the end of September. Yes, it’s called the Move 2 and not Move (Gen 2). The device will have a similar design to the firs…

How Elon Musk took over Tesla using money, strong-arm tactics, and his own popularity Tesla co-founder Martin Eberhard and Elon Musk at the launch of the Tesla Roadster in 2008. | Image: GettyThe story of Tesla and Elon Musk can be traced back to the early 2000s, when Musk was ousted as CEO of his first company, PayPal. That incident taught Musk a crucial lesson about the importance of being in control, even when it wasn’t your o…

The Galaxy Z Flip 5’s cover screen software beats Motorola’s in every way but one This year’s flip phones come with much bigger cover screens, but they’re not exactly created equal.I’m a cover screen convert. Our first flip-style phones with big cover screens have arrived in the US (pipe down, everyone in China and Europe who has options). The Motorola Razr Plus was the phone that converted me to a cover screen believer — I f…

Keychron’s Lemokey L3 is a premium keyboard aimed squarely at gamers The Lemokey L3 is the first keyboard from Keychron’s new gaming subbrand. | Image: KeychronKeychron is launching a new keyboard on Kickstarter today that’s notable for being the first under its new gaming-focused Lemokey subbrand. The Lemokey L3 will be available via the Kickstarter running this month, and Keychron expects it to ship later this …

China proposes severe rules for internet-addicted minors The proposed rules include a tiered system that imposes different restrictions for each age group. | Photo by Hugo Hu / Getty ImagesChinese minors are facing harsh restrictions on mobile phone and internet usage as part of the country’s latest bid to curb perceived internet addiction. The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) published draft …

Instagram is working on labels for AI generated content Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The VergeInstagram appears to be working on new notices that would identify when AI has played a role in creating content on its platform. App researcher Alessandro Paluzzi, who frequently discovers new Instagram features before they’re officially announced or released, has posted a screenshot of a page in the I…

Twitter Blue subscribers can now hide their blue checks Image: The VergeTwitter Blue, which Elon Musk is currently rebranding to X Blue, now includes the option to hide the notorious blue checkmark. Twitter Blue subscribers recently started noticing the “hide your blue checkmark” option on the web and in mobile apps, offering the ability to hide that they’re paying for Twitter and avoid memes about h…

The incandescent light bulb still isn’t dead — but ‘normal’ ones are now truly banned An incandescent light bulb, next to an LED bulb. | Photo by The VergeWhen you think of a incandescent light bulb, you probably imagine this: a simple droplet of water crafted from opaque white glass, with a giant screw on the bottom, which consumes 40, 60, 75, 100, maybe 150 watts of power to light up a chunk of your home. As of August 2023, th…

Microsoft Teams adds spatial audio for more immersive conference calls Spatial audio is meant to make conference calls sound closer to real-life conversations. | Image: MicrosoftAfter a few months of testing the feature, Microsoft has widely rolled out spatial audio for its Teams desktop app on Windows and macOS. Similar to what Apple has done with FaceTime, Microsoft’s implementation of spatial audio makes it so t…

TweetDeck’s new ‘XPro’ branding is starting to show up Like other parts of the X rebrand, there’s still some work to be done. | Screenshot by Jay Peters / The VergeTweetDeck’s new name is officially here: XPro. If you visit this URL for TweetDeck while logged out, you should see “XPro” at the top of the page (via 9to5Google). Elon Musk, the owner of X, the company formerly known as Twitter, announce…

Everything we know about Apple’s Vision Pro headset Illustration: Kristen Radtke / The VergeApple announced Vision Pro, its long-rumored virtual and augmented reality headset, at WWDC 2023. Here’s a timeline of all the details that have emerged about the device over the years and what we know so far. Continue reading…

A new Samba de Amigo game is coming to Apple Arcade Image: AppleApple Arcade is adding four new games this month, including a new Samba de Amigo game. Samba de Amigo: Party-To-Go brings the maraca-shaking monkeys to mobile on August 29th — the same day another Samba de Amigo game, Samba de Amigo: Party Central, hits the Switch and Meta Quest. It seems like the two games are essentially the same,…

Tesla under investigation for Model 3 and Model Y steering wheels that freeze up Photo by James Bareham / The VergeThe National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is probing reports that 2023 Tesla Model 3 and Model Y vehicles lose their steering control while driving. Approximately 280,000 vehicles could be affected by the results of the investigation, the agency reports. The news was first reported by CNBC. NHT…

A bankrupt crypto firm tried to return funds — but customer data might’ve been stolen instead Illustration by Alex Castro / The VergeThe bankrupt crypto firm Voyager Digital suffered a potential data breach when it started letting customers recover their funds last month, as first reported by Bloomberg. In a court document filed on July 28th, Voyager’s lawyers say they’re investigating reports that scammers targeted customers using poten…