Intels 14th-gen Core processors have been around since 2023 and are due for a refresh. Before Arrow Lake arrives, AMD launched the 9000 Ryzen series, including the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X. This flagship processor is positioned to take on the 14900K and 14900KS, both offering exceptional performance. The Ryzen 9 9950X is all about efficiency, however. AMD stuck to the same number of cores and threads, etching out more performance with a lower power draw.

The iPhone 15 Pro. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge What the rumor mill says about the first new iPhones in the era of Apple Intelligence. Continue reading…

One of the most common image editing tasks is removing the background from a subject. Maybe you want the subject to be pasted onto another image, or to replace the existing background with another one for a better overall image. Or perhaps you want to play with Generative Fill, and let AI decide what the new background will be. Whatever the reason for removing the background, Photoshop enables you to accomplish this in various ways. Once you know the different options for background removal, you'll know which one you want to use in the future.

Handheld consoles are great, but if you play them for long periods of time, you may find that your arms get a little tired. Fortunately, some companies are working on ways to support your console while you game. Such is the case with the Mechanism Gaming Pillow, which aims to keep your console propped up so your arms don't have to.

A new stipulation in the Team Pixel influencer program is causing a stir among creators. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge The tech review world has been full of murky deals between companies and influencers for years, but it appears Google finally crossed a line with the Pixel 9. The company’s invite-only Team Pixel program — which seeds Pixel products to influencers before public availability — stipulated that participating influencers were not allowed to feature Pixel products alongside competitors, and those who showed a preference for competing phones risked being kicked out of the program. For those hoping to break into the world of tech reviews, the new terms meant having to choose between keeping access or keeping their integrity. The Verge has independently confirmed screenshots of the clause in this year’s Team Pixel agreement for the new Pixel... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Instagram is testing a potentially major change to profile pages: making the squares in your profile grid vertical rectangles. Some users recently spotted the test, and there have been indications from at least 2022 that the company has toyed with a rectangular grid.“The vast majority of what is uploaded to Instagram today is vertical,” Mosseri says in an Instagram story from Friday discussing the test. “It’s either 4 by 3 in a photo or 9 by 16 in a video, and cropping it down to square is pretty brutal.”Mosseri notes that “squares are from way back in the day when you can only upload square photos to Instagram,” a limitation Instagram removed all the way back in 2015. Mosseri also knows that this profile change might be annoying for... Continue reading…

It’s no ROG Ally X, but Asus’ last-gen handheld is still a powerful gaming machine. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Now that the new and improved Asus ROG Ally X has arrived, we’re starting to see some solid deals on its predecessor, the Asus ROG Ally. Now until August 19th, for instance, the Windows-based gaming handheld is available at Best Buy with a Z1 Extreme chip for an all-time low of $499.99 ($150 off). That’s almost half the price of its successor, which costs $799.99, rendering it a good alternative if you’re on a tighter budget. The lower-end model with the Z1 chip is also on sale for $379.99 ($120), though, given the performance downgrades, we’d recommend sticking with the Extreme configuration.At this price, the standard Asus ROG Ally offers good value, even if it didn’t impress us as much as ROG Ally X when it comes to comfort,... Continue reading…

When the Nintendo Switch launched, it was a big event for a few reasons. No less was it a comeback story for Nintendo following the dreadful sales of the Wii U, but it was a promise to developers that piracy would no longer be a problem on Nintendo hardware. From the Nintendo DS, to the Wii, to the Wii U, and the Nintendo 3DS, piracy was a rampant issue across the company's entire portfolio. However, that quickly became a problem for the Switch as well, but this time, it wasn't really Nintendo's fault.

PC building may not be rocket science, but it isn't a walk in the park either, especially for a first-timer. Around two decades ago, I was on the cusp of building my first-ever gaming PC. So, I was naturally a bit nervous, worried I might end up messing it up. The level of PC building information available on the internet wasn't as widespread in those days, so I was mostly on my own.

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge National Public Data (NPD), a company that resells collected personal data for background checks, has confirmed that a data breach leaked names, Social Security numbers, physical addresses, and more. As reported by Bleeping Computer, dark web forum posters have advertised and shared supposedly stolen data from a breach of the company’s systems for months without a statement or response from NPD.Finally, this week, it published a Security Incident page confirming a few details but leaving many other questions unanswered.The incident is believed to have involved a third-party bad actor that was trying to hack into data in late December 2023, with potential leaks of certain data in April 2024 and summer 2024.The information that was... Continue reading…

Image: Becca Farsace / The Verge Instagram is a popular place to show off your latest photos, but if you’re a real photography enthusiast, it may not be enough. You may want a better-looking portfolio — not to mention feedback and suggestions from other photographers. One way to get that is to exhibit your work on a site specifically geared toward the visual arts.What follows are sites that offer amateur and / or professional photographers a space to showcase their images, solicit comments, have discussions, and possibly even sell some work. In other words, a community — one that offers critiques, support, and good conversation. Instagram Screenshot: Meta This may not be a typical Instagram feed, but it shows that you can search for and find... Continue reading…

The Wave 2 heat pump is very capable for its size, but EcoFlow’s absurd marketing sets unrealistic expectations. Continue reading…