'The Verge'

Apple’s OLED iPad Pro will reportedly arrive in May

Apple plans to release a new lineup of iPad Pros with OLED displays in early May, according to a report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. The company is also reportedly planning to launch an iPad Air with a larger 12.9-inch display for the first time. According to Gurman’s sources, the new iPad Pro models will feature… Read more

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How a Windows shake-up could position Microsoft to capitalize on AI PCs

After Windows and Surface chief Panos Panay departed Microsoft last year, the software giant quickly split his two divisions into two different teams. It was a move designed to push Windows engineers to focus on more web and AI features under Mikhail Parakhin, who was previously responsible for Bing and ads. It didn’t work out…. Read more

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Amazon’s palm-scanning service now lets you sign up from your phone

Amazon now lets you sign up for its palm recognition service directly from your phone. It’s launching a new Amazon One app on iOS and Android you can use to take a photo of your palm and set up your account, allowing you to start scanning your palm at locations that support the verification tech…. Read more

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Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire overdoes it all

Between Godzilla: King of the Monsters and Godzilla vs. Kong, it felt like Legendary Pictures had worked out a solid plan to launch its interconnected Monsterverse of films into the stratosphere. By going big on spectacle and bringing so many of Toho’s classic kaiju together, the Monsterverse films captured the spirit of the Shōwa era. They… Read more

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Sam Bankman-Fried sentenced to 25 years for FTX fraud

FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried was sentenced to a total of 300 months, or 25 years, in prison for seven counts of conspiracy and fraud charges stemming from the collapse of the crypto exchange he started. The judge applied a 240-month sentence and a 60-month sentence to be served consecutively. Judge Lewis Kaplan’s sentence was shorter… Read more

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8BitDo’s latest retro keyboard is an ode to the Commodore 64

8BitDo’s latest mechanical keyboard riffs on the design of a 1980s computer with one of the most iconic-looking keyboards of all time: the Commodore 64. 8BitDo’s Commodore 64 edition of its Retro Mechanical Keyboard series is available to preorder starting today for $109.99, with plans to ship it on May 26th.  Underneath its beautifully chunky… Read more

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Surprise! Google will let the Pixel 8 run on-device AI after all

We did it, y’all. We bullied Google into letting the Pixel 8 run on-device AI. Starting with the next Pixel feature drop, the Pixel 8 will use Gemini Nano for a couple of AI features. Google announced Gemini Nano as its mobile-optimized large language model in December and said it would be a core part… Read more

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Meta is adding AI to its Ray-Ban smart glasses next month

Meta will bring AI to its Ray-Ban smart glasses starting next month, according to a report from The New York Times. The multimodal AI features, which can perform translation, along with object, animal, and monument identification, have been in early access since last December. Users can activate the glasses’ smart assistant by saying “Hey Meta,”… Read more

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A quarter of YouTube’s paid creators are earning money with Shorts

One year after YouTube turned on revenue sharing for its shortform video feature, a growing chunk of creators are getting paid for it. More than 1 in 4 creators in YouTube’s Partner Program are now earning money with YouTube Shorts, the company announced on Thursday. Given there are over 3 million creators in YouTube’s ad… Read more

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The Xiaomi 14 Ultra is a photography nerd’s dream

For most people, the compact camera is long since dead; a camera is a phone and a phone is a camera. But despite all of the technological developments over the past few years, phones still leave something to be desired if you’re the kind of person who likes to go take photos. Traditional cameras —… Read more

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New York City welcomes robotaxis — but only with safety drivers

New York City announced a new permitting system for companies interested in testing autonomous vehicles on its roads, including a requirement that a human safety driver sit behind the steering wheel at all times. As cities like San Francisco continue to grapple with the problems posed by fully driverless for-hire vehicles, New York City is… Read more

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Every US federal agency must hire a chief AI officer

All US federal agencies will now be required to have a senior leader overseeing all AI systems they use, as the government wants to ensure that AI use in the public service remains safe. Vice President Kamala Harris announced the new OMB guidance in a briefing with reporters and said that agencies must also establish… Read more

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Israel quietly rolled out a mass facial recognition program in the Gaza Strip

Israel has deployed a mass facial recognition program in the Gaza Strip, creating a database of Palestinians without their knowledge or consent, The New York Times reports. The program, which was created after the October 7th attacks, uses technology from Google Photos as well as a custom tool built by the Tel Aviv-based company Corsight… Read more

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Leaked images reveal Microsoft’s white disc-less Xbox Series X console

Microsoft appears to be readying a white version of its Xbox Series X console without a disc drive. Exputer has published a series of leaked images of the white Xbox Series X, showing that it’s a disc-less system with the same design on the exterior as the existing black Xbox Series X. The white coating… Read more

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Oregon’s governor signs right-to-repair law that bans ‘parts pairing’

Oregon Governor Tina Kotek has now signed one of the strongest US right-to-repair bills into law after it passed the state legislature several weeks ago by an almost 3-to-1 margin. Oregon’s SB 1596 will take effect next year, and, like similar laws introduced in Minnesota and California, it requires device manufacturers to allow consumers and… Read more

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