View of the solar eclipse from the Dudley Observatory on Monday, August 21st, 2017, in Schenectady, New York. | Photo by Lori Van Buren / Albany Times Union via Getty Images You don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone, and the total eclipse is a stark reminder of that adage when it comes to the key role solar energy currently plays in the US.More than 31 million people — nearly 10 percent of the population in the US — live in an area that will experience the total solar eclipse today. Millions more live near dirty power plants that could be tapped to make up for a loss of solar power. Grid managers have had to find backup sources of energy to cope with the eclipse. It shows us how far the nation has come in cleaning up its power grid — and what we’re still in dire need of to complete that task.All 50 states will experience some degree of disruptionAll 50 states will experience some degree of... Continue reading…

What is an "AI PC" anyway? The term has been thrown around a lot in recent months, but in general, it implies that the PC can run AI-related processes on its local hardware, instead of having to send its queries to an external server. And that's where the term "AI PC" sat for a couple of months, with Microsoft announcing that it was releasing its first "true AI PCs" with the Surface Pro 10 and the Surface Laptop 6.

Image: Clock Work Tea Party Before today, I had never heard of Japanese thermal paste maker Clock Work Tea Party. But I’ll never forget them thanks to this Tom’s Hardware article; the company makes limited-edition scented thermal paste. It previously released apple- and strawberry-scented pastes, and on April 12th, it’s releasing a new scent that supposedly smells like an Osmanthus plant in full bloom. All its scented pastes are part of the company’s Ekusuri Mugurisu series, which also includes standard thermal paste. Osmanthus, also known as sweet osmanthus or tea olive, is a sweet-smelling, fragrant plant native to eastern Asia that blooms a seemingly endless amount of tiny flowers every spring (and sometimes the fall). It’s part of the olive family, and the... Continue reading…

Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge TikTok is planning to release a new photo-sharing app that could take on Instagram. In a notification sent to users, TikTok says it’s launching “a new app for photo posts” called TikTok Notes, as reported earlier by TechCrunch.The notification says it will share “existing and future public TikTok photo posts” to TikTok Notes while also giving users the ability to opt out. A new photo.tiktok.com URL (archived version) spotted by TechCrunch also briefly appeared online with a prompt to open a post in the TikTok Notes app. Judging by the image included on the site, it looks like you’ll be able to write a caption alongside your photo, too.In a statement to TechCrunch, TikTok says it’s “exploring ways to empower our community to create... Continue reading…

These buds are a more comfy replacement for a chest strap. For once, I didn’t have to worry about a fiddly fit getting in the way of heart rate tracking. Continue reading…

Photo by WWE / Getty Images AR effects have become a key part of entrances and other aspects of WWE TV over the last several years — far outlasting the company’s experiments with VR. Continue reading…

Your CPU is, in many ways, the heart of your PC. Sure, if you're building a gaming PC, your graphics card might steal the limelight — but the centerpiece of your build is still the processor. Your choice of CPU dictates whether you'll build on an Intel or AMD motherboard, whether you'll go with DDR4 or DDR5 RAM, and even which CPU cooler to buy. When you've got this much riding on the processor, it's imperative to understand a few key details.

Photo by Amelia Holoway Krales / The Verge The Humane AI pin promises to give users a way to use generative AI in the physical world. You can clip the pin to your shirt, talk to it, and project answers from chatbots onto any surface, most often your palm. We know a little bit about what powers the tiny square pin, and thanks to a new report, we have a much better view of what goes on under the hood. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) included a photographic teardown of the AI pin in a new report. The photos show the clearest look so far into what comprises the Humane AI pin, as well as a close-up of the Snapdragon processor it uses. The FCC must certify devices that use wireless communications to ensure they follow regulations before they are released to the public.... Continue reading…

Gaming PC handhelds are in a great space right now, with plenty of options and even support from big-name brands like MSI, Asus, and Lenovo. While the current king happens to be the Steam Deck, a lot of the big name manufacturers are already prepping to release second generation devices in order to try and take Valve's crown.

Google’s smart home security system Nest Secure will stop working today, April 8th. | Image: Google Nest As we’ve warned you, on April 8th, Google is turning off support for its once-excellent Google Nest Secure home security system. This means that, as of today, your Nest Secure will no longer connect to the internet, and you won’t be able to control it from the Nest app or receive notifications from the alarm system. It’s basically a paperweight (albeit one that can be recycled).Google announced it was discontinuing Nest Secure in 2020, so you’ve had plenty of time to shop for an alternative. But if you’ve been putting off the giant pain of switching out a home security system until the last minute, that last minute is here. So, what are your options? When it announced it was killing Nest Secure, Google, a substantial investor in ADT,... Continue reading…

Image: Android Headlines Consumer tech startup Nothing, which is expected to launch its newest earbuds later this month, will also debut a new color variant that evokes a certain yellow handheld, according to leaked renders shared by Android Headlines. Nothing previously announced that it would be dropping numbers in its naming strategy, so instead of the Ear 3, the successors to the Ear 2 will be simply called the Nothing Ear and Nothing Ear (a). According to the images, both earbuds will include the same clear, square case as earlier models. The Ear and the more compact Ear (a) will be available in black and white, with the latter also available in a Playdate yellow variant that applies to the case and the earbuds themselves. Like previous Nothing buds, both... Continue reading…

Previously, we hoped that the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 would be announced at CES 2025. However, as it turns out, we may see its release a little earlier than that. Nvidia's board partners are expecting the GeForce RTX 5080 and 5090 to be released in the fourth quarter of 2024, which would place it a month or two earlier than what we first thought.