Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon laptops had the summer all to themselves, but that’s coming to an end. AMD is now shipping its Ryzen AI chips — and Intel has just announced it’ll “launch” its next generation of Core Ultra laptop chips, codename Lunar Lake, on a September 3rd livestream. It sounds like they won’t be available quite that soon, but the full reveal should be just five weeks away.As we’ve discussed, Lunar Lake is an utterly overhauled chip that ditches the entire idea of plugging swappable memory sticks into your laptop, not to mention several of Intel’s previous ideas about how to achieve the best battery life and performance — plus a tripled NPU if you happen to have generative AI applications you’d like to run locally.But... Continue reading…

It's been a good number of years since 5G made its first splash in the mobile phone market, and it's slowly replacing the older technologies as the de facto for mobile data. In response, companies are developing entry-level devices that give people access to 5G speeds without breaking the bank. Now, Qualcomm is leading the push with its new Snapdragon 4s Gen 2 mobile platform, which it hopes will bring faster connections to people around the world, no matter their budget.

Image: Sega For almost 20 years, Nintendo and Sega have released Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games to coincide with the international sporting event. But now, according to a report in Eurogamer, that tradition is at an end. In 2020, the IOC made the decision to not renew the game’s licensing deal, ending a run of games that’s covered most Summer and Winter Olympic Games since 2007. “Basically the IOC wanted to bring [the licensing] back to themselves internally and look at other partners so they would get more money,” Lee Cocker, a developer who worked on the Mario & Sonic franchise, told Eurogamer. Strangely though, those “other partners” are NFTs and esports — products that are not currently known for their money-making possibilities. To... Continue reading…

The new AMD Zen 5 CPUs are poised to deliver significant performance advantages over competing Intel processors. This means that if you're building a new PC for gaming, productivity, or both, a Ryzen 9000 CPU like the Ryzen 7 9700X is a powerful choice. Naturally, a CPU like this deserves a good graphics card. Read on to see our picks for the best GPUs for your AMD Ryzen 7 9700X build.

Canva welcomes Leonardo.ai to its design app portfolio. | Image: Leonardo.ai Canva has announced plans to acquire Leonardo.ai, an Australian generative AI content and research startup, as part of its goal to build a “world-class suite of visual AI tools.” While financial terms haven’t been disclosed, the deal will see Canva gain access to Leonardo.ai’s lineup of user-customizable text-to-image and text-to-video generators.In Canva‘s announcement, company co-founder Cameron Adams says Leonardo.ai will “continue to develop its web platform” as a separate product offering, much like the Affinity creative software suite Canva acquired in March. Leonardo.ai’s technology and Phoenix foundation model will also be “rapidly” integrated into Canva’s existing suite of Magic Studio products, such as the Magic Media image... Continue reading…

Snapdragon X Elite has been a fantastic breath of fresh air for Windows laptops, and with AMD's Zen 5 looking to be pretty power efficient as well, it's an exciting time to be a Windows fan. However, there's a piece missing from the equation, and that's Intel. While Meteor Lake has been fine, it didn't exactly manage to achieve anything special. The claims that Intel is making around Lunar Lake and its efficiency when compared to Arm are truly exciting, though.

Microsoft Store offers one of the most convenient ways to install apps for general Windows users, as it's effectively a one-stop shop for nearly all popular apps and games. However, what many of us consider the easiest way isn't necessarily true for IT administrators, especially when it comes to downloading and installing apps on PCs. No matter which category of users you belong to, Microsoft has just made it super easy to download Microsoft Store apps to install on multiple PCs.

Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge Microsoft is calling on members of Congress to regulate the use of AI-generated deepfakes to protect against fraud, abuse, and manipulation. Microsoft vice chair and president Brad Smith is calling for urgent action from policymakers to protect elections and guard seniors from fraud and children from abuse.“While the tech sector and non-profit groups have taken recent steps to address this problem, it has become apparent that our laws will also need to evolve to combat deepfake fraud,” says Smith in a blog post. “One of the most important things the US can do is pass a comprehensive deepfake fraud statute to prevent cybercriminals from using this technology to steal from everyday Americans.”Microsoft wants a “deepfake fraud statute”... Continue reading…

The Verge Microsoft just posted the fourth and final quarter of its 2024 fiscal financial results. The software maker made $64.7 billion in revenue and a net income of $22 billion during Q4. Revenue is up 15 percent, and net income has increased by 10 percent.Microsoft’s Intelligent Cloud revenues, which include the company’s server products and cloud services, were $28.5 billion overall and up 19 percent year over year. Revenues from this part of Microsoft’s business now make up nearly 45 percent of all revenue. While cloud revenue is strong once again, Microsoft’s consumer devices push continues to dip. Xbox hardware revenue is down again, and Surface revenue has now declined for seven consecutive quarters in a row. Photo by... Continue reading…

The Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Super is a powerful graphics card for those who want to max out their games at 1440p or delve into some 4K experiences. It's not cheap, but I've compiled a list of some of my favorite aftermarket GPUs. I've always recommended buying the most expensive GPU you can afford to avoid upgrading sooner and the RTX 4070 Ti Super has more cores, an increased frame bugger, and a 256-bit memory bus compared to the RTX 4070 Ti, so it should run notably faster. If you're building a capable gaming system and need a new graphics card, any of the following from my shortlist would make for a killer PC.

Image: Android Headlines The Pixel Watch 3 looks like it will have a larger screen than the Watch 2, thanks to thinner bezels. Leaked marketing materials shared by Android Headlines suggest that the 41mm Pixel Watch 3 will offer 10 percent more screen than the Watch 2 in the same amount of space. The Pixel Watch 3 could also have a brighter display — up to 2,000 nits, double the peak brightness of the Pixel 2 — as well as 20 percent faster charging. The spec sheet, if legitimate, confirms the previously leaked 45mm Watch and states that both sizes will have up to 24 hours of battery life with always-on display enabled or up to 36 hours with a new Battery Saver mode.This could mean that the Pixel Watch 3 won’t use the “hybrid interface” rolled out in Wear OS 4,... Continue reading…

AI characters in Instagram. | Meta Meta is opening up the ability for anyone in the US to create AI versions of themselves in Instagram or on the web, with a new tool called AI Studio. The pitch is that creators and business owners will use these AI profiles to talk to their followers on their behalf. They’ll be able to talk directly with humans in chat threads and respond to comments on their author’s account. Meta says Instagram users in the US can get started with AI Studio via either its website or by starting a new “AI chat” directly in Instagram.In a blog post on Monday, the company writes that “creators can customize their AI based on things like their Instagram content, topics to avoid and links they want it to share.” The post goes on to say that creators will... Continue reading…