'The Verge'

NFL fans worry Netflix’s bad Tyson vs. Paul stream means it can’t handle football

Netflix’s livestream of the Mike Tyson and Jake Paul boxing match was a mess. I’m not talking about the bout itself — although people had their qualms with that, too — it’s the livestream, which people across the internet complained was plagued by buffering, unstable, and unwatchable muddiness. That doesn’t bode well for Netflix’s live… Read more

The Rise of the Golden Idol makes a great puzzle game even better

The Case of the Golden Idol was a rewarding series of point-and-click murder mysteries that became one of my favorite games of 2022. And while I felt there was more story to explore about the titular golden idol, I wasn’t sure if a potential sequel could live up to its clever puzzles and fascinating, slowly… Read more

WhatsApp now lets you save message drafts

WhatsApp now lets you save message drafts / There’s no more excusing yourself for typing a reply to your friends and ‘forgetting’ to send it out. By Umar Shakir, a news writer fond of the electric vehicle lifestyle and things that plug in via USB-C. He spent over 15 years in IT support before joining… Read more

Half-Life 2 is getting a huge 20th anniversary update

Half-Life 2 is getting a major update in celebration of the classic title’s 20th anniversary. In addition to Steam Workshop support directly within the game, Valve has fixed bugs and restored some content, added new graphics settings, updated gamepad controls, and a whole lot more. You’ll also be able to get the game for free… Read more

ESPN is testing a generative AI avatar called ‘FACTS’

ESPN is testing an AI-generated avatar with the Saturday college football show SEC Nation. Dubbed FACTS, it’s going to be “…promoting education and fun around sports analytics” with information drawn from ESPN Analytics, which includes data like the Football Power Index (FPI), player and team statistics, and game schedules. We haven’t seen the avatar in… Read more

Google will let you make AI clip art for your documents

Google Workspace is rolling out a Gemini-powered AI image generator directly in Google Docs that lets you quickly whip up visuals for your writeups. Essentially, it’s a clip art maker that follows in the footsteps of Microsoft’s AI-generated art feature in its Office products. Google’s image generator in Docs is available to paid Workspace accounts… Read more

The M4 MacBook Pro features a quantum dot display

The new M4 MacBook Pros that launched last month have an unadvertised change with new quantum dot displays, according to display industry analyst Ross Young and reported by 9to5Mac. Young posted on X that Apple is adopting quantum dot displays for the first time and that it’s using a version of the film that is… Read more

Bluesky says it won’t train AI on your posts

Social network Bluesky, in a post on Friday, says that it has “no intention” of taking user content to train generative AI tools. It made the statement shortly ahead of competitor X implementing its new terms of service that spell out how it can analyze user text and other information to train its generative AI… Read more

Casio’s first smart ring has innovative features like a stopwatch and flashing alarm

Not to be outdone by its longtime rival, Casio has announced its own digital ring watch that brings more functionality than Timex’s wearable that debuted last month. Created to help commemorate the 50th anniversary of Casio getting into the digital watch business, the CRW-001-1JR will be available in Japan starting in December for ￥19,800, or… Read more

Cruise fined $500K for submitting a false report after last year’s pedestrian crash

GM’s Cruise will pay a criminal fine of $500,000 to resolve a federal investigation and accept a deferred prosecution agreement after the company admitted to falsifying a report to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) “with the intent to impede, obstruct, or influence the investigation” of a crash where one of its driverless vehicles… Read more

Facebook is changing its primary metric to ‘views’

Facebook is making “views” its primary metric to measure the performance of content, bringing it in line with Instagram metrics. Views will be measured not just on video content but also on photos, text posts, and more. When Instagram head Adam Mosseri announced the switch to views this summer, he said that having one consistent… Read more

Threads is testing custom feeds for your favorite topics

Threads is testing a way to create custom feeds for certain profiles or topics, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced on Friday. The upcoming feature should make it easier to keep tabs on different interests, such as your favorite sports team or even technology-related news. It sounds similar to the custom feeds feature Bluesky rolled out… Read more

The Rabbit R1 now lets you remake its whole interface

The Rabbit R1 now lets you remake its whole interface / You can enter a prompt to customize to R1’s interface — but responses will be slower. By Emma Roth, a news writer who covers the streaming wars, consumer tech, crypto, social media, and much more. Previously, she was a writer and editor at MUO…. Read more

Bluesky’s quest to be the next Twitter

Bluesky’s quest to be the next Twitter / On The Vergecast: checking in on the future of social, Apple’s smart home plans, AI slowdowns, and Project Gene5is. By David Pierce, editor-at-large and Vergecast co-host with over a decade of experience covering consumer tech. Previously, at Protocol, The Wall Street Journal, and Wired. Nov 15, 2024,… Read more

Bitfinex hacker receives five-year sentence for record-breaking crypto heist

The hacker behind one of the biggest-ever cryptocurrency heists will serve five years in prison for conspiring with his wife to launder billions in stolen Bitcoin. Ilya “Dutch” Lichtenstein was sentenced in Washington federal court Thursday after he admitted to hacking the Bitfinex crypto exchange in 2016 and stealing almost 120,000 Bitcoin tokens. Lichtenstein and… Read more