When OpenAI showcased the text-to-video generation capabilities of Sora earlier this year, I was blown away by the clips the AI model was capable of creating. Up until that moment, Id struggled to come up with real-life scenarios where Id need to use generative AI. But Sora's impressive video generation capabilities struck a chord with me, and I found myself regularly keeping tabs on OpenAI's amazing AI construct. You see, film-making was always a passion of mine, which got sidelined by my obsession with tech.

Illustration: The Verge Google is putting the brakes on a change that would have made it more difficult to track users across different websites to serve them targeted ads. After years of testing, planning, and delays, Google has scrapped a plan to turn off third-party cookie tracking by default like Safari and Firefox already do. The change was supposed to reach Chrome users soon, despite concerns raised by competitors, regulators, and privacy advocates.Now, Chrome will ask users to “make an informed choice that applies across their web browsing” instead of deprecating third-party cookies, writes Google Privacy Sandbox VP Anthony Chavez. That could work more like Apple’s app tracking opt-in, a setting that reportedly cost social media platforms nearly $10... Continue reading…

Slack introduced its first three iPhone and iPad widgets today. | Screenshot: Slack Today, Slack introduced the first four widgets for the iOS version of its mobile app. Three of them are designed for the iPhone’s homescreen, while the fourth can be added to the lockscreen, allowing users to jump immediately into the Slack app after unlocking their device.The homescreen widgets include Catch Up, which provides an at-a-glance look at how many unread messages and mentions a user has without opening the app. It gives a little more detail than the Slack app icon’s badge, and tapping the Catch Up widget takes users directly to that section of the Slack app so they can quickly swipe through conversations they’ve missed.Three 3⃣new Slack iOS widgets are here to make your workday a whole lot easier. Add the Catch Up... Continue reading…

Apparently AI-generated artwork that was first used to promote California Forever’s city. | Image: California Forever California Forever tech billionaire-backed plan to build a new city 60 miles away from San Francisco is on hold for at least two years, pending an environmental impact study, reports The New York Times.Last year, the Times reported that a group of Silicon Valley investors (including LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, Andreessen Horowitz investors Marc Andreessen and Chris Dixon, former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman, and Emerson Collective founder Laurene Powell Jobs) had secretly bought up hundreds of millions of dollars worth of farmland in Solano County to build their own city.With former Goldman Sachs trader named Jan Sramek spearheading the project, it filed for permission to develop the land only months after its plans became known. A... Continue reading…

Image: 9to5Google Google is seemingly about to move on from the HDMI dongle design of all its past streaming devices in favor of a more conventional set-top box. 9to5Google has published images of the upcoming product, which is apparently called the “Google TV Streamer.” So not only is the look of past Chromecasts going away, but so is the name. The new device has a slanted top, and the overall design is in keeping with Google’s other recent hardware. As for the included remote, it’s mostly similar to what came with the last-gen Chromecast, though this one is longer and has a volume rocker right on the face. The Google TV Streamer is likely to debut at the company’s August 13th hardware event alongside a litany of other products including the Pixel 9... Continue reading…

The Roomba Combo 10 Max is the company’s first robot vacuum with a charging dock that can wash the bot’s mop as well as empty its bin and refill its mopping tank. | Imge: iRobot The Roomba Combo 10 Max is a new robot vacuum and mop from iRobot that can wash its mop, empty its bin, and refill its mopping tank — meaning less manual labor on your part. The company’s new flagship robot vacuum will also be its first to support the smart home standard Matter. The vacuum is available for preorder starting today at irobot.com for $1,399.99, and in the UK for £1,499 and Europe for €1,499. Shipping starts in August, when it will also come to other retailers.Building on the Roomba Combo j9 Plus’ retractable mopping system that picks itself up when it vacuums carpet, the Roomba Combo 10 Max robot and Auto Wash Dock is the company’s first robot vac with a fully multifunction charging dock. In addition to emptying the... Continue reading…

Wi-Fi is how most of our electronic devices now connect to the internet, and, for the most part, Wi-Fi has been pretty good. Still, sometimes a Wi-Fi connection can feel slow, and it may not be obvious why that is. Wi-Fi relies on the use of shared spectrum with newer routers which use more spectrum than ever and offer blazing-fast speeds as a result. If youre looking to find out why your Wi-Fi isnt delivering the expected performance, here's what you should check out first.

Wiz reportedly abandoned the deal over antitrust and investor concerns. | Illustration: The Verge Cybersecurity startup Wiz has turned down a $23 billion takeover bid from Google’s parent, Alphabet, breaking off what would have been the largest acquisition in the search giant’s history. In an internal memo seen by CNBC, Wiz co-founder Assaf Rappaport said the company would instead pursue an initial public offering. “Saying no to such humbling offers is tough,” Rappaport said in the memo sent to Wiz employees. Had the acquisition gone ahead, it would have doubled the $12 billion valuation that Wiz announced in May after the company raised $1 billion in private funding. According to the memo, Wiz will now focus on achieving $1 billion in annual recurring revenue alongside the IPO — goals the security firm had set before its talks with... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Intel says it has found the source of the widespread instability issues affecting its Core 13th and 14th Gen processors. In an update on Monday, Intel confirmed that CPUs are experiencing “elevated operating voltage” and that a patch is on the way.“We have determined that elevated operating voltage is causing instability issues in some 13th/14th Gen desktop processors,” Intel employee Thomas Hannaford writes on the company’s forum. “Our analysis of returned processors confirms that the elevated operating voltage is stemming from a microcode algorithm resulting in incorrect voltage requests to the processor.”Intel says it’s working to release a microcode patch for motherboard manufacturers in mid-August and that anyone affected by the... Continue reading…

Image: The Verge CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz was called to testify before the House Homeland Security Committee over the major outage affecting Windows PCs spurred by a faulty update that brought flights, hospital procedures, and broadcasters to a halt on Friday, The Washington Post reported.“Recognizing that Americans will undoubtedly feel the lasting, real-world consequences of this incident, they deserve to know in detail how this incident happened and the mitigation steps CrowdStrike is taking,” Homeland Security Chair Mark Green (R-TN) and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Protection Subcommittee Chair Andrew Garbarino (R-NY) wrote in a letter later shared with The Verge. They asked that CrowdStrike schedule a hearing with the subcommittee by end... Continue reading…

Photo by Gary Hershorn/Getty Images Will the Tesla robotaxi have a steering wheel or not? Elon Musk won’t say. The Tesla CEO dodged several questions during an earnings call Tuesday about the status of the company’s long-promised autonomous vehicle, including whether it would have traditional controls like pedals and steering wheels. It’s an increasingly important question left hovering over Tesla’s robotaxi plans, which have been already been delayed to allow more work on the prototype. Theoretically, a steering wheel- and pedal-less vehicle could take months, if not years, to be approved for public roads. A more traditional looking vehicle, meanwhile, could be released a lot sooner. Theoretically, a steering wheel- and pedal-less vehicle could take months, if not... Continue reading…

If you're looking for a great smartphone, there are tons of top-notch Android options. If you're looking for something with a serious cool factor though, foldable and flip phones like the Razr are more than worth a look. However, you'll still need a great case to keep yours safe and sound.