What? It’s just a sandworm. | Image: Saturday Night Live Dune: Part Two is a sprawling sci-fi epic that The Verge’s Charles Pulliam-Moore called “categorically breathtaking” in his March review. And for AMC moviegoers, the film came with an equally epic exclusive popcorn bucket — one that, apparently, the top brass at AMC Theatres wishes it had never made.That’s because it kind of looks like a butthole. And the internet noticed. Elizabeth Frank, AMC’s chief content officer, told Variety in an interview published on Monday that collectible popcorn buckets are “a material part” of the company’s food and beverage business. But she said the company “would have never imagined the ‘Dune’ thing” and wouldn’t have made the bucket topper if it had known “it would be celebrated or mocked.” What, this... Continue reading…

Image: Prime Video Finding something to watch or play can sometimes feel like work — there’s just so much out there vying for your free time. That’s true whether you’re heading to a theater, browsing the many streaming platforms, or looking for a new video game. It’s easy to get overwhelmed with choice.So, as we’ve done in years past, we’re collecting all of our favorite releases from 2024 in one place. The goal is to make your decision-making a little easier. That could mean highlighting anything from an anticipated movie that actually lives up to the hype to a surprise indie game that takes the world by storm.And we’ll be updating this page all year long as we continue to check out the latest in film, television, and gaming — so stay tuned. Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Facebook rolled out the ability for Messenger users to share 4K photos back in 2017. Now, Meta has announced that users can share HD photos in the app. Confused? We were, too, so we asked about it. The short answer is that, here, HD means 4K, and now 4K photos are... more 4K?Facebook Messenger comms team representative Liz Sweeney clarified in an email to The Verge that 4K (specifically, 4,096 x 4,096 pixels per inch) shared photos were more compressed before, and how they looked was “dependent on the network conditions of both the sender and receiver.” Now, Sweeney says they won’t be as heavily compressed, and users will have a new “HD” button that enables 4K sharing. And if you don’t tap the button, photos will share in 2K instead. ... Continue reading…

You can get a lower-end TU690T for free when you preorder Samsung’s glare-free QD-OLED S95D. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Who doesn’t want a free TV? If you were eyeing Samsung’s new anti-glare OLED or one of the many models it announced back at CES, Samsung and Amazon are both still offering a free 65-inch TV when you preorder select 2024 models. You’ll have to act quickly, though, as the ongoing buy one, get one promo ends tomorrow, April 11th. Granted, the free TV is an entry-level TU690T from 2022, which is a pretty basic 4K TV with a 60Hz panel and only two HDMI ports. But if you were already thinking of picking up the 2024 version of Samsung’s OLED S95D, its artsy Frame TV, the Neo QLED 8K, or Neo QLED 4K, the TU69OT can still serve as a decent secondary TV for a spare bedroom or garage. It lacks modern features like local dimming and variable... Continue reading…

The first iteration of the Raspberry Pi was released way back in 2012, and every mainline RPi board since then has featured better hardware than its predecessor. The Raspberry Pi 5 was no exception to this trend, as the device added plenty of new features to the classic Raspberry Pi formula.

The Pixel 8’s Magic Editor is exclusive no more. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Google is making its AI photo editing features available to a lot more people. Starting May 15th, just about all Google Photos users will be able to access features previously limited to Pixel owners and Google One subscribers — a nifty upgrade if you were tired of Photos urging you to “upgrade” to get access to more editing tools (it’s me). Magic Editor is Google’s generative AI photo editing tool, and it debuted as one of the headline AI features on the Pixel 8 and 8 Pro. Those kinds of features typically remain exclusive to new Pixels for six months after launch, and right on time, Google’s bringing it to previous Pixel phones. But it’s not stopping there; any Google Photos user with an Android or iOS device that meets the minimum... Continue reading…

Image: Amazon Everything you need to know about the upcoming streaming show. Continue reading…

It’s looking like the troubled Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake has lost one of its most important assets: Yuri Lowenthal, the voice actor who played the prince, famously narrated the entirety of the original 2003 game, and is currently renowned for playing Peter Parker’s Spider-Man in the excellent Insomniac games. Yesterday, Tom Henderson, currently one of the most trusted voices in gaming leaks, reported that you should “forget everything you know” about the Prince of Persia remake — and revealed that Lowenthal would no longer be in the role. Ubisoft would not tell me whether he’s still attached to the project; Lowenthal’s agent said he can’t comment because he’s under an NDA. Those non-denials are not confirmation, but... Continue reading…

Illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photo by Getty Images The Department of Justice’s massive antitrust case against Apple will unfold before a new judge. A court filing on Wednesday reveals that Judge Michael E. Farbiarz has determined his “recusal is necessary” under the code of conduct for US Judges.The filing says Farbiarz’s “disqualification is mandatory and cannot be remitted by the parties.” Judge Julien Xavier Neals, whom President Joe Biden nominated to the US District in 2021, will preside over the case instead.It’s not clear why Judge Farbiarz was disqualified from the case, but there are a couple of possibilities. The specific rule mentioned by the filing — Canon 3(C)(1)(d) — says a judge must disqualify themselves from a proceeding when the “judge’s impartiality might reasonably... Continue reading…

The ad campaigns for the Medicube Age-R Booster-H eventually wore me down. | Photo by Victoria Song / The Verge It’s got nothing to do with whether it works. It’s how I’m trapped in TikTok’s neverending product-recommending algorithm. Continue reading…

Illustration: The Verge Another Apple Store is trying to unionize. This time, it’s a group of 104 employees in Short Hills, New Jersey, who filed a petition to unionize with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) on Tuesday, as reported earlier by Bloomberg.If the unionization efforts are successful, the Apple Store employees would join the Communications Workers of America — the union that represents other Apple Store employees, along with employees of AT&T, Verizon, Frontier, and more. Four other Apple Stores have moved to unionize within the past couple of years, but only the retail locations in Oklahoma City and Townson, Maryland, have successfully formed a union. These efforts haven’t come without some pushback from Apple, however.Last year, the NLRB... Continue reading…

Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photo from Getty Images Microsoft reportedly locked down a server last month that exposed passwords, keys, and credentials of Microsoft employees to the open internet, as the company faces mounting pressure to bolster its software security. According to Techcrunch, three security researchers at SOCRadar — a company specializing in detecting corporate cybersecurity weaknesses — discovered that an Azure-hosted server storing sensitive data linked to Microsoft’s Bing search engine was left open with no password protection, meaning it could be accessed by anyone online. The server contained a variety of security credentials used by Microsoft employees to access internal systems, housed within various scripts, code, and configuration files.The exposed credentials... Continue reading…