Image: Epic Games Fortnite is bigger than a battle royale now, and to help make progressing through the various available battle passes a little bit more streamlined, Epic Games is going to allow XP from any experience apply to any of those passes.Currently, XP you earn across various modes in Fortnite doesn’t help you progress through the special passes for Lego Fortnite and the music-themed Fortnite Festival. Instead, you progress by earning “studs” and “festival points,” respectively, by playing those modes.Starting November 2nd, however, Epic will begin the migration to let you progress using XP. As Epic details in a blog post, the change will first apply the upcoming Music Pass (renamed from Festival Pass), meaning festival points will go away. On... Continue reading…

Illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photos by Getty Images The Open Source Initiative (OSI) has released its official definition of “open” artificial intelligence, setting the stage for a clash with tech giants like Meta — whose models don’t fit the rules.OSI has long set the industry standard for what constitutes open-source software, but AI systems include elements that aren’t covered by conventional licenses, like model training data. Now, for an AI system to be considered truly open source, it must provide: Access to details about the data used to train the AI so others can understand and re-create itThe complete code used to build and run the AIThe settings and weights from the training, which help the AI produce its resultsThis definition directly challenges Meta’s Llama, widely... Continue reading…

There's nothing more frustrating than having a big Youtube binge or a movie night interupted by buffering. Slow internet, poor connection, or a slow device can all contribute to ruining your streaming experience at home, whether its on your PC, phone or TV.

When recording a video of a DIY project, its important to capture multiple angles or perspectives. This means multiple cameras and sometimes a computer for each. That can get expensive, so one engineer developed a modular multi-camera project that uses inexpensive SBCs to get the perfect camera angles. Since he used Raspberry Pi for the setup, its called the RasRig. Lets take a look.

Illustration: Nick Barclay / The Verge Meta is working on an AI-powered search engine to decrease its dependence on Google and Microsoft, according to a report from The Information. The search engine would reportedly provide AI-generated search summaries of current events within the Meta AI chatbot.The Meta AI bot built into Instagram and Facebook currently uses Google — whose parent company, Alphabet, will report quarterly earnings tomorrow — and Microsoft Bing to answer questions about recent news and events. That could eventually change, as Meta’s web crawler was spotted roving the web months ago. The Information’s source indicates a team has been working for about eight months to build a database of information for its chatbot. Meta has worked on building up location... Continue reading…

Image: Mr.Nelson design for The Verge / Getty Images Your vote matters. Here’s how it will change the future. Continue reading…

Holidays are typically associated with joy, family gatherings, travel, and the creation of lasting memories. However, they can also present financial challenges, especially when you are not into budgeting but should be. Overspending is a common concern, leaving many with a post-holiday debt hangover. If you want to take control of your holiday spending, this budget planner is right for you.

I've taken a keen interest in mini PCs over the last year or so, and I've reviewed multiple tiny or compact computers in that time, mostly from companies like Geekom and Minisforum. And I love a lot of those computers, but the device that really kickstarted all of this was the Khadas Mind, which I first reviewed last year, and revisited earlier this year when the Mind Graphics add-on released.

Besides giving you a sense of gratification, self-hosting serves many practical purposes. Not only do you save money on subscription fees, but running FOSS apps on your local devices also prevents third-party firms from gaining access to your private information. Whats more, you dont need a powerful NAS or an enterprise-grade server to host many of the popular services.

The free PowerToys install for Windows provides several useful tweaks and new features to Windows. Quite a few of these will really boost your productivity. Microsoft PowerToys is a set of free, open-source utilities developed by Microsoft for Windows operating systems. These tools are designed for power users, offering advanced features and customizable options that arent built-in to Windows. Youll find utilities like FancyZones for window management, PowerRename for renaming files in bulk, and a Keyboard Manager for remapping keys. Lets look at what features you should enable in PowerToys to maximize your productivity.

UMG and AI company Klay are forming their own foundational Music-generating AI model. | Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photo from Getty Image Universal Music Group (UMG) announced a new deal centered on creating an “ethical” foundational model for AI music generation. It’s partnered with a company called Klay Vision that’s creating a “Large Music Model” named KLayMM and plans to launch out of stealth mode with a product within months. Ary Attie, its founder and CEO, said the company believes “the next Beatles will play with KLAY.”The two say the model will work “in collaboration with the music industry and its creators,” without many details about how, while Klay plans to make music AI “more than a short-lived gimmick.”This is how the companies explain their shared goals:Building generative AI music models ethically and fully respectful of copyright, as well as name and... Continue reading…

Windows 11 is the latest version of the most popular operating system in the world, and as long as you have a supported PC, it's very easy to install. But therein lies the problem: Windows 11 has significantly higher system requirements compared to previous versions of Windows, so there are a lot of unsupported PCs you can't install it on.