Recall, one of Windows’ new AI features, on a Surface Laptop. | Photo: Allison Johnson / The Verge Microsoft’s new Windows on Arm push is a milestone moment. It’s taken nearly five years to get to the point where the software maker is confident it has the upper hand over the MacBook Air on performance, battery life, and app compatibility.But behind the scenes, Microsoft has been working on something even bigger. While Microsoft has spent years working toward an Arm transition that will now play out throughout the summer and beyond, it’s the AI overhaul at the heart of this new generation of “Copilot Plus PCs” that could fundamentally change how we use Windows on a daily basis.I recently got the chance to hear from the leaders behind Microsoft’s big AI push, and they made it clear that this isn’t just a silicon change. Microsoft has... Continue reading…

No other single-board computer maker dominates the market like Raspberry Pi does, but there are alternatives out there. When it comes to form and function, no other company comes for the Raspberry Pis market share more tenaciously than Orange Pi. Raspberry Pi has the Zero 2 W, Orange Pi has Zero 2W. Raspberry Pi has the 3B+, Orange Pi has the 3B Plus. Raspberry Pis latest SBC is the 5, and Orange Pi has the 5, 5B, 5 Plus and 5 Pro. And of the Orange Pi 5 series SBCs, the 5 Pro most closely aligns with the form of the Raspberry Pi 5.

The Aqara Wall Outlet H2 can trigger scenes based upon real-time power usage. | Image: Aqara Aqara just announced the €39.99 Wall Outlet H2, which offers a one-for-one smart replacement for standard 16A wall sockets used in Europe. Its party trick is the ability to monitor the real-time power usage of connected devices and appliances to initiate automations around the home.For example, if you charge your phone when going to sleep you could automatically activate a nighttime scene — arm motion detectors, lock the door, close blinds, and turn off lights — just as soon as the H2 begins pulling more than 10W of power. Or, it can detect when the laundry cycle ends to shut the machine off and send you a notification — that way you don’t have to listen to it beep incessantly until you finally walk upstairs with heavy regret for having... Continue reading…

If you've been looking for a charging bundle that can really handle it all, then this one from Anker is going to be for you. You get a 65W charger, 25,600mAh power bank, and it even comes with a USB-C to USB-C cable. While all of this normally comes priced at $129.99, it can now be had for much less with a superb discount that takes 54% off for a limited time.

A chunky electric spoon for your chunky low-sodium foods. | Image: Kirin If you’re cutting salt out of your diet, either for medical reasons or just trying to be healthy, low-sodium foods can be a letdown. But don’t despair — Japanese company Kirin claims to have a solution in its Electric Salt Spoon, which uses electrodes to electrify your tongue to give you a little salty shock. The idea, as Reuters puts it, is that it passes a small electric current to “concentrate sodium ion molecules on the tongue,” enhancing salty flavor. It’s like techno-umami. The company says the goal is to get people to eat healthier by letting them eat low-sodium food without being sad about how unsalty it is. Image: Kirin Kirin partnered with Professor Homei Miyashita from Japan’s Meiji University School of... Continue reading…

The wireless Yale Keypad Touch provides fingerprint and key code access for the new Yale Approach lock and several August smart locks. | Image: Yale August makes excellent smart locks, but careful observers may have noticed that the company hasn’t released any new hardware in four years. Owners of August locks may be relieved to know that a new wireless keypad finally brings them the option of fingerprint unlocking.The Yale Keypad Touch is a fingerprint-enabled wireless keypad for Yale and August retrofit locks that works with the fourth-gen August Wi-Fi Smart Lock, third-gen August Smart Lock Pro, third-gen August Smart Lock, and the new Yale Approach Lock with Wi-Fi. In addition to fingerprint and code unlock, it offers one-touch locking on your way out. It’s available now for $109.99 at ShopYaleHome.com and August.com.That’s a steep upgrade for those who already have an August... Continue reading…

Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge, Shutterstock We pick the best video doorbell cameras for keeping an eye on people, packages, and anything else that comes across your front porch. Continue reading…

There's no shortage of awesome Raspberry Pi projects on the internet, with aspiring tinkers and veterans putting their skills to the test to produce some of the most interesting projects using some of the most popular SBCs in 2024.

Photo by Nathan Congleton / NBC via Getty Images Scarlett Johansson says that OpenAI asked her to be the voice behind ChatGPT — but that when she declined, the company went ahead and created a voice that sounded just like her. In a statement shared to NPR, Johansson says that she has now been “forced to hire legal counsel” and has sent two letters to OpenAI inquiring how the soundalike ChatGPT voice, known as Sky, was made.“Last September, I received an offer from Sam Altman, who wanted to hire me to voice the current ChatGPT 4.0 system,” Johansson writes. She says that Altman contacted her agent as recently as two days before the company first demoed the ChatGPT voice asking for her to reconsider.Statement from Scarlett Johansson on the OpenAI situation. Wow: p... Continue reading…

Image: Square Enix I’ve been having these weird thoughts lately... like, should I go back and replay the Kingdom Hearts series or not? Fortunately, Square Enix has made this decision trivial with the announcement that it’s releasing the series on Steam on June 13th. To celebrate, and perhaps destabilize an entire generation of adults for whom the first Kingdom Hearts trailer was a transformative experience (aka, me), a trailer was released with a brand-new recording of Hikaru Utada’s “Simple and Clean.”The trailer was executed very intelligently, showing snippets of the Kingdom Hearts games in chronological order, suggesting to potential customers (and reminding lapsed fans like me) in what order the games should be played. Steam will have three Kingdom... Continue reading…

Image: Aurora Volvo revealed its first “production-ready” self-driving truck that it’s making with Aurora, the autonomous driving technology company founded by former executives from Google, Uber, and Tesla. The truck is based on Volvo’s new VNL, which is a Class 8 semi truck built for long-haul transportation. The autonomous version of the truck features an array of sensors and cameras to power Aurora’s Level 4 autonomous driving system, which enables the truck to operate without a human behind the wheel. The companies say the truck is “purpose-designed and purpose-built” for Aurora’s self-driving hardware and software stack. “This truck is the first of our standardized global autonomous technology platform, which will enable us to introduce... Continue reading…

As a kid, getting help with my math homework was difficult. My parents would stare glassy-eyed at my algebra, trying to recall something they didn't know how to do decades ago. Eventually, they'd shrug, and pass the assignment back to me. If I wanted help to solve an equation I was stuck on, it was down to me to re-read my textbooks and in-class notes to figure out what to do, even if I never really grasped why you performed the steps required to solve algebraic equations.