Ever since Valve revolutionized how we play PC games on the go, we've seen a ton of Steam Deck alternatives enter the market. They all have pros and cons, and it has been interesting seeing hardware companies declare that they're entering the portable PC scene with their own design ideas. Now, the Chinese gaming giant Tencent has decided to take its shot, bringing a device that allows people to see in 3D without requiring special glasses. Plus, it's huge.

Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photo from Getty Images Trade associations involved in US broadband and wireless service say competition forces them to have good customer service, which may be news to many customers. The comments are in response to the FCC’s October inquiry reviewing the quality of internet and phone providers’ customer support. Ars Technica quotes a filing from NCTA – The Internet & Television Association, which says that in order to “attract and retain customers, NCTA’s cable operator members continuously strive to ensure that the customer support they provide is effective and user-friendly.” USTelecom, which has AT&T, Verizon, Frontier, and SpaceX among its members, says customers already get “high-quality customer service” because of the “competitive broadband market.”... Continue reading…

Illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge If you’re looking to catch up on recent shows and movies — including Shogun, The Penguin, and Dune: Part Two — the upcoming holiday weekend is the perfect time to do so. Thankfully, multiple streaming services are slashing subscription prices ahead of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, including Max, Hulu, and others. Right now, for example, you can sign up for a year of Hulu for less than $12. What’s more, you don’t have to be a new subscriber to take advantage of the ongoing promo, which is a rarity in the world of streaming.Hulu is just one of many platforms currently offering a holiday discount, though. We’ve rounded up a selection of other streaming deals below, many of which will run through November 2nd.Hulu and Disney Plus deals... Continue reading…

A still from a video generated by OpenAI’s Sora. | OpenAI OpenAI first teased its text-to-video AI model, Sora, back in February and hasn’t provided any meaningful updates on when it will be released since then. Now, it looks like some artists leaked access to the model in protest of being used by the company for what they claim is “unpaid R&D and PR.”On Tuesday, a group of Sora beta testers claimed to have leaked early access to Sora with a working interface for generating videos. In a post on Hugging Face, a public repository of AI models, they say that people were able to create lots of AI videos — all of which resemble OpenAI’s own Sora demos — before the company intervened to shut down access. (TechCrunch first reported on the alleged leak.)From the group’s open letter:DEAR CORPORATE... Continue reading…

This is the card you want to get if you're looking for the best performance that won't cross the $1,000 mark. And perhaps more importantly, it's actually in stock, which means you can start gaming with this beast in just a couple of days time.

Netflix wasn't always the tech giant we know it as today. With its roots in shipping DVDs, and a now-notorious attempt to sell itself to Blockbuster in 2000, it's been a long journey to develop the cable-cutting streaming platform we all know now. In that time, Netflix has made a whole host of steps forward in technology, some of them proprietary and many more openly accessible.

Cath Virginia / The Verge Spotify is getting support for Google’s Gemini Extensions, which will allow users to search for and play music using the generative AI assistant with natural language requests. The extension was first spotted in the code of the Google app in June, and now it’s rolling out to compatible Android devices, as reported by 9to5Google.Gemini can play music found by song titles, artist names, album names, playlist names, or for a particular activity, but at the moment, it won’t create playlists or radio stations on Spotify. One thing to be aware of is that if you’ve already linked another music service like YouTube Music, you’ll need to verbally say (or type in) which service you want Gemini to use as part of your initial request, and from... Continue reading…

Windows 11 is a great operating system, and I love using it, even with all the flaws it might have. But one of the great things about WIndows is how many tools are out there to enhance its functionality and make it even better. Among them, Stardock's Fences is one of the more interesting apps around.

After lagging behind the competition for the major part of 2023 and 2024, Apple finally unveiled its version of generative AI dubbed Apple Intelligence. Keeping the narcissistic rebranding of the abbreviation aside, Apple Intelligence promised to offer some nifty utilities to iOS and macOS users. From tools to help you write better to a revamped version of Siri (finally), Apple made some tall claims during the iPhone 16 announcement.

For every prototype, beta, or test version of a product that is saved from destruction, it makes me wonder just how many aren't so lucky and were forever lost to time. Fortunately, we don't have to worry about what happened to the only known prototype of the GeForce RTX 4090 Ti, as it has been recovered by a Redditor from random tech junk bin.

Building anything in Blender can come with a high barrier to entry for users who are new to the software. But if you are just starting out and want to create a model that you can actually finish while simultaneously learning about the basic functions of the software, then you should give this easy project a try.

One of the major factors behind the popularity of PC gaming is the superior performance and visual fidelity, which you can't always get even on modern consoles. Thanks to more powerful graphics cards and CPUs, a gaming PC can deliver fantastic visuals while maintaining high framerates in today's best PC games.