David Sacks speaking at the 2024 Republican National Convention. | Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images President-elect Donald Trump says that VC and All-In podcast co-host David Sacks will be the “White House A.I. & Crypto Czar.” The appointment of Sacks, who hosted a $300,000-a-person dinner at his San Francisco mansion to fundraise for Trump’s campaign, follows the appointment of fellow PayPal mafia member Elon Musk to co-lead the “Department of Government Efficiency.” According to Bloomberg, like Musk, Sacks will be “a special government employee” who can serve up to 130 days a year without divesting or publicly disclosing his assets.Here’s what Sacks will be tasked with in his role, according to Trump:In this important role, David will guide policy for the Administration in Artificial Intelligence and Cryptocurrency, two areas critical to the future of American competitiveness. David will focus on making America the clear global leader in both areas. He will safeguard Free Speech online, and steer us away from Big Tech bias and censorship. He will work on a legal framework so the Crypto industry has the clarity it has been asking for, and can thrive in the U.S.Trump says Sacks will also head up the Presidential Council of Advisors for Science and Technology, an independent advisory committee that exists today. In a second Truth Social post, Trump highlighted Sacks’ history at PayPal (where he worked with Musk) and his founding of Yammer, which Microsoft bought for $1.2 billion in 2012.Sacks is a vocal, longtime supporter of Musk. He’s an investor in SpaceX and played a key role in Musk’s takeover of Twitter. His VC firm, Craft Ventures, has backed tech firms like the AI enterprise startup Glean and Palantir, the Peter Thiel-founded government contractor. Sacks has also become an influential figure in the Republican Party. He spoke at the 2024 Republican National Convention and was at Mar-a-Lago on Election Day.Shortly after Trump announced his appointment, leaders from key AI and crypto companies, including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, rushed to X to congratulate Sacks. “Great pick,” wrote Coinbase COO Emilie Choi. “@DavidSacks was in crypto early and has a nuanced understanding of the space. Time to build in the US!”Update, December 5th: Added more info about Sacks and responses from tech leaders.

Cable clutter can be annoying, especially if you're someone that has a lot of devices to charge at once. That's where a compact and versatile charging station can be really helpful, providing tons of ports and power in a concise space. Of course, Anker is going to be one of the premier options when it comes to charging accessories.

Designed to offer unparalleled convenience, smart home devices are perfect when you want to automate the tedious aspects of your living space. But once you’ve decked out your home with the coolest IoT devices and smart gadgets money can buy, managing them can be quite a hassle, especially if your paraphernalia includes offerings from different manufacturers.

Project management is all about coordinating tasks, deadlines, resources, and team members. While specialized tools exist, Excel is a viable option for smaller projects. It’s flexible and easy to use, and Excel has some pre-built templates that can help you streamline your workflow. You can find a simple Gantt chart template, project timeline, and project tracker template just by searching Excel’s templates for “project management.”

Image: Uber Uber launched a robotaxi service with its partner WeRide in Abu Dhabi, its first international effort to make a wide number of autonomous vehicles from different operators available on its platform. Customers who use Uber to book a ride will be presented with the option to hail an autonomous vehicle from WeRide. Fares will be upfront and equal to UberX and Uber Comfort prices. The vehicles will include safety drivers, so it won’t be a fully autonomous service at launch. But Uber and WeRide said they aim to offer driverless vehicles to passengers in 2025. The vehicles will include safety driversUber first announced its partnership with WeRide, a startup based in Guangzhou, China, last September. WeRide holds driverless operation permits in the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, China, and the US — though Uber has said it isn’t currently considering extending the partnership beyond the UAE. WeRide’s autonomous vehicles in Abu Dhabi have been available to customers through the TXAI app. The company was first granted a permit to test and operate AVs on public roads in the country in July 2023. WeRide was planning on listing its shares in the US at a valuation of $5 billion, but its initial public offering has been delayed, with the company citing a need to complete all the documentation. The company also develops self-driving technology that powers shuttle buses and freight equipment. It first launched in Silicon Valley in 2017 and subsequently was incorporated in the Cayman Islands. Since ending its own efforts to develop self-driving cars in 2020, Uber has sought to become a clearinghouse for any company operating autonomous vehicles in the world. In addition to WeRide, Uber has deals with Cruise, Waymo, Motional, and Avride for self-driving cars and Serve, Cartken, and Nuro for delivery robots.

Illustration: The Verge There’ve already been renders of Google’s yet-to-be-announced Pixel 9A and one real-world sneak peek. Now we’re getting yet another look at an early prototype of Google’s next mid-range phone. X user fenibook has posted two shots of the phone, and it’s got the company’s usual markings that designate this as a still-under-development device. These latest images offer yet more proof that Google plans to ditch the camera bar — a visual hallmark of recent Pixels — on the 9A in favor of making the camera flush with the back of the phone. That’s a bit surprising to see, but Google’s Claude Zellweger told us back in August that designers were likely to reevaluate the ratio of camera hardware to phone hardware thanks to advancements in computational photography. Google Pixel 9a leaked. pic.twitter.com/XxP67PsY0D— fenibook (@feni_book) December 5, 2024The Pixel A-series might be the ideal phone for Google to test whether it can get away with a smaller sensor and camera housing without sacrificing too much in the way of image quality. It’s logical to expect the company’s very best photo capabilities from the flagship models, but as my colleague Allison Johnson can attest, “pretty good” is often enough for the mid-tier Pixel. That said, this phone looks rather bland as is, so hopefully Google will give us a good selection of colors to pick from.Rumors indicate the 9A will have a larger 6.3-inch display with a maximum refresh rate of 120Hz and the same Tensor G4 used in the Pixel 9, 9 Pro, and 9 Pro Fold. But there have also been reports that Google will saddle it with an older modem, which would be a shame since the Pixel 9 lineup really made strides in cellular performance this year.Google could announce the Pixel 9A as early as March, so the rumors claim. The series has traditionally stuck to a spring release timeframe, but after Google changed up the schedule this year, anything’s possible. Android 16 will be rolling out earlier than usual, so the two might line up nicely.

There are plenty of great Wi-Fi router options on the market. But if you're looking for one that's easy to set up and handles all the hard things on its own, then the Eero Max 7 is going to be for you. In our review, we loved that it was relatively compact, offered excellent speeds, and the software was easy to use. Of course, we did complain that it was pretty expensive, which would make most people shy away from it.

Would you install SteamOS on a Steam Deck alternatives if you had the chance to? Valve has dropped a few hints here and there that it plans to bring SteamOS to other devices, but nothing concrete has appeared. However, the company has revealed a new hint in its branding documentation by adding a new "powered by SteamOS" logo.

Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photos from Getty Images For over a week, New Jersey residents have spotted unidentified aircraft in the northern part of the state, including Morris County and near Newark — and now the authorities are urging people to remain calm. The FBI’s Newark office, along with Morris County officials, recently issued a statement asking the public to share any information they might have on the mysterious drones, while reiterating that there is “no known threat” to the public. And NJ Governor Phil Murphy said that his office is actively monitoring the situation. Image: Julie Shavalier via NBC News One of the drones looks like an airplane. The drones were captured on camera by residents in multiple boroughs in the state, mostly at night. Some images and videos shared in news broadcasts and social media depict strange winged aircraft that look like small planes (or “car-sized drones”). Others seem like groups of consumer-level drone copters. The drones would fly back and forth for “hours,” some witnesses said. Following the reports, the FAA has banned drones from flying over President-elect Donald Trump’s New Jersey golf course, NJ.com reports. @krisandersen7 finally got a video of my own. the mystery "drones" that have been circling nj and puzzling its residents. even the FBI has requested these sightings be reported as they are allegedly investigating them further. the best I could do given my shite phone and the fact that I was freezing my fingies off #newjersey #drones #mysterydrones ♬ original sound - Jenny Talia This drone mystery has taken over the New Jersey subreddit and is spawning a bunch of citizen investigations. It even has the attention of UFO enthusiasts. Some are speculating that the aircraft could be foreign spy drones like the Chinese spy balloon last year, or US military tests, or surveillance drones from the local authorities. Even the FBI is being targeted as a potential culprit.

Notion is prominent among the most powerful productivity tools. You can create knowledge bases, take notes, and even make landing sites for your business or product using various Notion templates. Despite this, there are alternatives to Notion that do a few things better which may be of importance to you.

Photo by Tom Warren / The Verge iFixit now sells genuine Xbox parts you can use to repair your Xbox Series X or S and offers official guides to help with fixes. You can browse what’s available from iFixit’s Microsoft Repair Hub. “We’re excited to be working with Microsoft to keep Xboxes running longer and out of the waste heap,” Elizabeth Chamberlain, iFixit’s director of sustainability, says in a statement to The Verge. “We now offer official Microsoft parts and step-by-step repair guides for Xbox Series S and Series X, including both the all-digital and disk drive editions.”iFixit’s Microsoft Repair Hub also features iFixit’s parts for repairing Microsoft Surface devices, which it started selling in 2023. “Since we launched our Surface parts collaboration with Microsoft last year, we’ve been helping our customers repair their own Microsoft laptops and tablets — and it’s awesome to be able to offer Xbox owners the same opportunity,” Chamberlain says.Microsoft isn’t the only gaming company that iFixit has partnered with; iFixit sells nearly every part of the Steam Deck and offers a bunch of repair guides for Valve’s handheld PC, too. Microsoft itself offers first-party parts for the standard and Elite Series 2 Xbox controllers.iFixit also offers genuine repair parts for Google’s Pixel phones and the Pixel Tablet. The company had sold genuine parts from Samsung, but that partnership ended earlier this year.

After months of being exclusive to Qualcomm's Snapdragon X series of processors, the Copilot+ features on Windows 11 are now starting to become available to Intel and AMD-powered PCs. The latest Windows 11 build in the Dev channel brings all the existing Copilot+ experiences to laptops powered by Intel Core Ultra Series 2 processors and AMD Ryzen AI 300 HX chips.