Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger holds up an early Intel 18A wafer in late 2023. | Image: Intel On Monday, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger abruptly decided to retire after less than four years on the job. That was the official story, anyhow. Within hours, Reuters, Bloomberg, and The New York Times had a different one: the board of directors pushed him out. Three and a half years ago, Gelsinger announced an ambitious plan to turn around the troubled chipmaker within four years — now, he’s reportedly been kicked out of the company before he could see it through. It happened so abruptly that Intel doesn’t have a planned successor in mind, and so completely that Gelsinger won’t even stick around as an adviser. He’s gone.Intel has been in a tailspin for years. It missed the smartphone revolution, has been plagued by quality control issues with its chips, lost customers like Apple to alternative processors, and now is at risk of missing out on AI, too.This isn’t just about stock price and golden parachutesIf Intel is falling apart, this isn’t just a business story. The United States government has called it a national security story, too. Intel isn’t just the world’s former leading maker of computer chips; it’s one of the last companies to both design and manufacture them itself... Read the full story at The Verge.

When we think of overclocking a computer, we generally think of an expensive gaming PC being pushed to its limits for the best gaming experience. But did you know you can also overclock your Raspberry Pi relatively easily?

Eve’s Android app has finally arrived, but it only supports the Eve Thermo at launch. | Image: Eve Systems Eve Systems has finally launched its first Android app — over two years after announcing it was working on one. This week, the once Apple-only smart home device maker launched the Eve for Matter app on the Google Play Store. The app will allow Android users to access the custom features of Eve’s devices that Matter doesn't support, something previously only accessible to iOS users.However, at launch, the new app will only work with Google Home and only with one Eve device, the new Eve Thermo (79.99 Euros) — a Matter-over-Thread smart radiator valve designed for European homes. While the earlier version of the Eve Thermo can be upgraded to support Matter and Thread, the new version has them pre-installed. Image: Eve Systems The newest version of Eve’s smart radiator valve — the Eve Thermo — comes with Matter-over-Thread on board. “The plan is to continuously expand support for other Eve devices and platforms and turn the app into a comprehensive tool,” Lars Felber, director of PR at Eve Systems, told The Verge. “Nevertheless, we wanted to make the app available to our Eve Thermo customers with Android and Google Home as early as possible in the heating season, hence the initial exclusive release for this hardware,” he said.There hasn’t been an Android app for Eve products before because the company’s commitment to privacy, along with eschewing cloud-to-cloud connections or requiring users to sign up for an account, meant it focused all its development efforts on Apple Home. However, the advent of the Matter smart home standard and its option for local control has allowed the company to branch out and work with the other platforms while maintaining its core values.The new Eve app lets you add the Eve Thermo to Google Home through Matter and control it on that platform, as well as share it with any other Matter-compatible platform. But it also simultaneously adds it to the Eve app, where you can access additional features, such as creating and managing autonomous on-device schedules. Without the Eve app, you only get basic controls.Currently, Android users can add any of Eve’s other Matter devices — such as the Eve Energy smart plug and Eve Motion blinds — to compatible platforms, including Amazon Alexa, Google Home, and Samsung SmartThings.But, until Eve adds support for more devices, Android users will be limited to those devices' capabilities in Matter. In contrast, Apple Home users can access all of Eve’s innovative features, including in-depth energy data for smart plugs and adaptive shading for smart shades, through the Eve for Matter & HomeKit iOS app.The Android app only works with Google Home as it was built on the Google Home APIs released earlier this year. Eve CEO Jerome Gackel said that these enabled the company to “turbo-charge the development of Eve for Android.” Felber said support for additional platforms, including Amazon Alexa and Samsung SmartThings, is coming in future versions.

Illustration: The Verge Microsoft is asking the inspector general at the Federal Trade Commission to investigate whether agency management improperly leaked news of its antitrust investigation into the company, and make their findings public.Bloomberg first reported that the probe was underway last week, which The Verge later confirmed. The investigation covers Microsoft’s cloud and software licensing businesses, AI, and cybersecurity offerings.Now, Microsoft’s corporate vice president and deputy general counsel Rima Alaily is accusing FTC management of leaking details of the probe, in violation of the agency’s own ethics guidelines. The agency instructs new employees that “the existence of an FTC investigation is nonpublic information,” though it may be disclosed after the Office of Public Affairs determines the target of a probe already made it public in a press release or government filing. Still, the guidelines add that the Commission has authority to make “appropriate disclosures” when “it determines that doing so would be in the public interest.”Alaily writes that the information and sourcing in the Bloomberg story “strongly suggests” the details came from “within the FTC.” She says that the story “appears to be consistent with an unfortunate trend over the last two years of the FTC strategically leaking nonpublic information,” citing a September report from the FTC IG that found a “steadily increasing” volume of “unauthorized disclosures” of nonpublic information to the press. The FTC declined to comment on the Microsoft letter.Microsoft claims it learned about the FTC’s information demand “like the rest of the world, through the Bloomberg story.” Even when it inquired with FTC staff about the validity of the story, Alaily says, they wouldn’t confirm the information demand existed, and she adds that Microsoft still hasn’t seen the information demand reported by the press.The letter is the latest example of a more aggressive approach Microsoft has taken in recent months when it comes to antitrust scrutiny of its business. In October, Alaily accused Google in a blog post of launching an astroturf group “to discredit Microsoft with competition authorities, and policymakers and mislead the public.”Microsoft has mostly flown under the radar in past years as a target of antitrust lawsuits while its Big Tech peers were hit with complaints from US regulators. But it’s increasingly faced scrutiny in both the US and in Europe amid major cybersecurity issues, its acquisition of game studio Activision Blizzard, and its partnership with OpenAI. Still, the fate of any existing investigation will ultimately depend on how officials in the incoming Trump administration view the matter.

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is banning data brokers Gravy Analytics and Mobilewalla from collecting, using, and selling “sensitive” location data of Americans, the agency announced on Tuesday. The FTC targeted Gravy Analytics, its subsidiary Venntel, and Mobilewalla for allegedly violating the FTC Act by collecting and selling information that could be used to track people to healthcare facilities, military bases, religious sites, labor union gatherings, and other sensitive locations.The FTC says (PDF) Mobilewalla “relied primarily on consumer information that Mobilewalla collected from real-time bidding exchanges” by bidding to show people personalized ads on their mobile devices and then retaining tracking info identifying them. It also bought info from other sources and used additional data to build out the profiles attached to each advertising ID. Combining that data, according to the complaint, allowed Mobilewalla to create audience segments targeting pregnant women, as well as provide analysis of people who attended protests over the death of George Floyd.Meanwhile, Venntel’s scheme is explained (PDF) as collecting location data from otherwise ordinary mobile apps, and then selling access to the data to other businesses or government agencies. 404 Media reports that the IRS, DEA, FBI, CBP, and ICE have all purchased Venntel data.Now, the companies must comply by never “selling, disclosing, or using sensitive location data in any product or service, and must establish a sensitive data location program.”Mobilewalla’s proposed settlement order will prohibit the company from:Misrepresenting how it collects, maintains, uses, deletes or discloses consumers’ personal information, and the extent to which consumers’ location data is deidentified.Using, transferring, selling and disclosing sensitive location data from health clinics, religious organizations, correctional facilities, labor union offices, LGBTQ+-related locations, political gatherings and military installations.Senator Ron Wyden from Oregon, who led efforts to target a loophole data brokers used to sell sensitive personal data on the market, applauded the FTC and CFPB for limiting what the companies can collect. In a statement sent to The Verge, Wyden said these companies could sell information about “law enforcement, judges and members of the armed forces is on the open market” to “anyone with a credit card,” putting citizens and military personnel in danger.Wyden also said US government agencies spied on Americans by obtaining this data without a warrant. “Many federal agencies hid behind the flimsy claim that Americans consented to the sale of their data, but the FTC’s orders make it clear how untrue these claims were,” said Wyden.

Notifications are an important tool that allows us to stay on top of the things that matter most in our life. But many times, they can also feel like a hindrance, interfering with our focus or adding to our stress levels when we really don't need it.

Image: Vizio After announcing plans to acquire Vizio in February, Walmart officially owns the company after the $2.3 billion transaction closed on Tuesday. The retail giant says the acquisition will help bolster its advertising business, as Platform Plus — the TV-maker’s advertising and data division — “accounts for all the company’s [Vizio's] gross profit.”All that data will be a boon for Walmart’s growing advertising business, which has already started leveraging shopper information to target ads on Disney Plus and Hulu. The move will likely open up more opportunities for Walmart to sell more ads on Vizio TVs in stores, something it talked about expanding earlier this year, and maybe even stick ads on the Vizio TVs in people’s living rooms.The deal has raised concerns among privacy advocates, as Vizio has gotten in trouble over advertising and data tracking in the past. In 2017, it paid a $2.2 million fine to settle a Federal Trade Commission lawsuit that accused it of tracking viewers without their consent.An acquisition by Walmart could help Vizio compete with other budget-friendly TV brands that rely on advertising as a significant source of revenue. Roku, which started selling its own TVs last year, made $908.2 million in advertising sales and subscriptions in the third quarter of 2024, with an average revenue per user of $41.10, while Vizio’s last earnings report showed it was making about $37.17 per user.There’s also Amazon’s ad-friendly Fire TVs, Telly — the company that promises free TVs in exchange for showing persistent advertisements, and an incoming platform from advertising firm The Trade Desk that Sonos will use.Despite the acquisition, Walmart and Vizio will continue operating independently “for the foreseeable future.” Vizio CEO William Wang will also remain in his position.“VIZIO has also expertly changed their business over time, like building and quickly scaling a profitable advertising business,” Seth Dallaire, the executive vice president and chief growth officer of Walmart US, said in the announcement. “Pairing it with Walmart Connect will be impactful and allow us to invest in our business even further on behalf of our customers.”

When Google Chrome debuted, it was a lean, lightweight, and fast browsing machine. I remember critics back then describing it as “extremely fast” and “snappy.” But over time, Chrome has gained a reputation for lagging, even on some of the best laptops. And it’s not just Chrome. Browsers like Edge, Firefox, and Vivaldi can also feel sluggish at times. A slow browser can seriously affect your online experience, especially since so much of what you do on a PC happens inside a browser. The good news is you don’t have to let your browser slow you down. Here are a few ways to speed it up.

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Amazon has announced a series of new AI foundation models under a new “Nova” branding that will be available as part of the Amazon Bedrock model library in AWS.There are three “understanding” models available now, Amazon says in a blog post:Amazon Nova Micro, a text model that’s “optimized for speed and cost.”Amazon Nova Lite, a “very low-cost” multimodal model that can take in images, video, and text to generate text.Amazon Nova Pro, a “highly capable” multimodal model.The company is also training a model called Amazon Nova Premier, which it says will be “our most capable multimodal model for complex reasoning tasks.” Amazon aims to make Nova Premier available in “early 2025.”Amazon is releasing content generation models, too: Amazon Nova Canvas, an image generation model, and Amazon Nova Reel, a video generation model. The company says that these models have “watermarking capabilities” to “promote responsible AI use.” As an example of what’s possible with Nova Reel, Amazon has shared this mock ad for a fake pasta brand.Later in 2025, Amazon plans to release a speech-to-speech model and “a native multimodal-to-multimodal” model, according to a blog post.Amazon announced these new models at its AWS re:Invent conference, which is happening now in Las Vegas. At the show, the company also said that it’s building a huge AI compute cluster that relies on its Trainium 2 chips in partnership with Anthropic (which it has invested $8 billion in). “When completed, it is expected to be the world’s largest AI compute cluster reported to date available for Anthropic to build and deploy its future models on,” according to Amazon.The company, like many other big tech players, is racing to release new AI products and features to stay ahead of newer companies like OpenAI. Where Amazon could have an advantage is how much internet infrastructure is already powered by AWS — large enterprises may be more willing to use Amazon’s AI offerings because the company has already a trusted reputation. An Apple exec even appeared onstage today at re:Invent to talk about how the company relies on Amazon’s custom AI chips.Amazon is also working on a revamped, AI-powered Alexa, but while voice assistant was reportedly set to launch this fall, the launch has apparently slipped into next year.

Expanding the capacity of even the best NAS is simple. Fill the enclosure with as many drives as it supports and add an external enclosure once the primary system is fully populated. Larger drives can replace smaller capacities as they reach their end of life, but there's also the possibility of using USB drives to expand capacity. Whether or not you should do this is a different matter altogether.

Keeping your Windows system secure is vital for the operating system on your PC, and it takes some time and diligence. However, Microsoft has built several security measures into Windows that work out of the box to help you along the way. For example, there is a built-in Windows Security app where you can manage security options including real-time virus scans, Firewall settings, and advanced security like ransomware protection.

I've mentioned this multiple times over the past few weeks, but my entire life I've been a Windows user, and only recently did I make the jump to macOS as part of my Mac Mini review. And while I've absolutely loved the hardware Apple has created here, macOS still requires a big adjustment period, and also a lot of changes.