Image: Toys R Us Do you have fond memories of Toys “R” Us, back before private equity helped lay it to waste? If so, I’m really curious what you think of this partially AI-generated video that the zombie brand is calling “the first-ever brand film using OpenAI’s new text-to-video tool, Sora.”OpenAI’s Sora wowed the world in February with photorealistic videos created by generative AI — and again when the company’s CTO refused to say where Sora was getting its training data from. (YouTube is the going theory.) But though OpenAI has reportedly been pitching Hollywood on the tech, one of the first entities to publicly bite is brand management firm WHP Global, which currently licenses the Toys “R” Us brand to stores like Macy’s and is also exploring larger... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Samsung’s next Unpacked event is right around the corner, taking place on July 10th in Paris, France. Judging by various leaks and the recent invite video, we’ll be seeing new versions of the Galaxy Z Fold and Z Flip phones (and perhaps a closer look at the Galaxy Ring). Now, in the lead-up to the event, Samsung is offering one of its reservation promotions, allowing early adopters to ”reserve” one of the phones and get a $50 credit to use on an eligible device once a preorder is complete.The reservation period runs through Wednesday, July 10th, and even if you reserve a preorder, you are not obligated to buy the new phones if you change your mind. Those who do, however, will get a $50 credit to use on Samsung’s site or in the Shop... Continue reading…

Image: The Verge The advanced voice mode for ChatGPT that sparked a tussle with Scarlett Johansson was an important element of OpenAI’s Spring Update event, where it also revealed a desktop app for ChatGPT.Now, OpenAI says it will “need one more month to reach our bar to launch” an alpha version of the new voice mode to a small group of ChatGPT Plus subscribers, with plans to allow access for all Plus customers in the fall. One specific area that OpenAI says it’s improving is the ability to “detect and refuse certain content.”As for the new video and screen sharing capabilities that we saw during the event, OpenAI writes that it will “keep you posted” on a timeline. OpenAI had said it would deliver the new capabilities in “the coming weeks.” Now, the... Continue reading…

Image: The Verge At the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics, Le Monde reports that athletes on Japan’s volleyball, track and field, and other teams will be competing in outfits made from a new fabric that can better absorb infrared light. Similar to stealth aircraft that avoid detection by deflecting radar signals away from detectors, the fabric absorbs and prevents infrared light from reaching cameras and infrared sensors.Some devices have unintentionally demonstrated how the infrared sensing used in night vision goggles and thermal cameras can reveal the unseen, like the OnePlus 8 Pro’s “Photochrom” color filter that worked like X-ray vision on the thin shell of an Apple TV. When used on people, infrared photography can reveal the lines of a person’s body or... Continue reading…

In case you were wondering, yes, there will be lots of AI. | Image: Samsung Samsung’s next Unpacked summer launch event will take place on July 10th in Paris, France, the company announced on Tuesday. The animation accompanying the invitation hints at foldables, and the invite itself removes all doubt: “Prepare to discover the power of Galaxy AI, now infused into the latest Galaxy Z series and the entire Galaxy ecosystem.” But we’re also on the lookout for something of a different shape: the Galaxy Ring. Rumors indicate that the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Z Flip 6 will be fairly minor upgrades, with the Z Flip 6 getting a slightly bigger battery and the Z Fold 6 looking a little boxier. Not the most exciting stuff, but that’s been the story with the past few generations of Samsung’s folding phones.Instead, the more... Continue reading…

Image: Ultimate Ears How many Boom-branded speakers is too many? Can there even be such a thing? Ultimate Ears seems to be on a mission to find out. The company just announced the $249.99 Everboom — now the sixth speaker in its lineup. In both size and price, this one slots in between the Megaboom speaker and the $299.99 Epicboom released late last year.The Everboom has UE’s typical traits: it’s IP67 (dustproof and waterproof), it’ll float should you drop it into a pool or lake, and it comes with a removable carabiner. There’s an outdoor boost mode that adjusts the sound profile for wide open environments while also leveling up the bass response. The battery lasts for up to 20 hours and there’s easy NFC pairing, but that’s about it for the feature list. A... Continue reading…

Image: The Verge Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin made sweeping claims against e-commerce app Temu in a lawsuit on Tuesday, accusing the company of violating state law against deceptive trade practices.“Temu purports to be an online shopping platform, but it is dangerous malware, surreptitiously granting itself access to virtually all data on a user’s cell phone,” Griffin alleges. Screenshot: App Store / Google Play Temu on the App Store. Temu is the number one free shopping app on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store and is owned by PDD Holdings, which also runs a popular app called Pinduoduo. PDD was based in China until last year, when it moved its headquarters to Ireland. The lawsuit tees up its allegations... Continue reading…

Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photo from Getty Images Udio and Suno are not, despite their names, the hottest new restaurants on the Lower East Side. They’re AI startups that let people generate impressively real-sounding songs — complete with instrumentation and vocal performances — from prompts. And on Monday, a group of major record labels sued them, alleging copyright infringement “on an almost unimaginable scale,” claiming that the companies can only do this because they illegally ingested huge amounts of copyrighted music to train their AI models. These two lawsuits contribute to a mounting pile of legal headaches for the AI industry. Some of the most successful firms in the space have trained their models with data acquired via unsanctioned scraping of massive amounts of information... Continue reading…

Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge Meta is testing a feature for its Quest headsets that allows you to place windows freely, similar to the Apple Vision Pro. Multitasking with multiple windows has been part of Meta Horizon OS (formerly Meta Quest OS) for a few years now, but currently, it only supports three virtual windows docked in a side-by-side layout. RoadtoVR points out this demonstration video from a data miner named Luna, who spotted the experimental feature in version 67 of the Meta Quest Public Test Channel.Meta Quest OS v67 PTCSettings > Experimental Features > New Window Layout pic.twitter.com/jDq0hdoCOV— Luna (@Lunayian) June 25, 2024It brings the Quest 3, in particular, a step closer to Apple’s spatial computing when used in mixed reality mode, but... Continue reading…

Verne’s robotaxi. | Image: Verne A new robotaxi service is coming to Croatia, courtesy of the country’s leading supercar company, Rimac. The service will be called Verne, named for French novelist and poet Jules Verne, and will launch in Zagreb in 2026, the company said. It’s an interesting pivot for a company that has been on a rocket-ship trajectory over the last few years. Founded by Mate Rimac in a garage as a one-man operation, Rimac has since become a highly desirable brand, with many legacy automakers calling upon the startup to help them build their own electric supercars. In addition to making the record-breaking Nevera hypercar, Rimac also took control of Bugatti from Volkswagen in 2021 in a surprise move that created a new company called Bugatti Rimac. ... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Google has added new Chrome Actions to mobile that will let you call, read reviews for, or get directions to a restaurant or other business — all right from the address bar. The company announced the new feature in a blog on Wednesday.Android users will see this new feature right away, but iOS users will have to wait until the fall. Image: Google A screenshot of the new Chrome Action shortcuts. First introduced in 2020, Google Actions lets you quickly perform tasks from the address bar by typing in select queries, like “edit passwords,” “delete history,” or “translate this page.” It’s one of a few address bar shortcuts Google offers, like the “@” shortcut that lets you quickly find bookmarks, tabs, and links... Continue reading…

Image: Baggu It all started with a nylon purse shaped like a horse.Baggu, the wildly popular brand of reusable shopping bags, announced earlier this month that it would be releasing a collaborative collection with New York-based brand Collina Strada. In the past, special-edition designer drops have been successful for Baggu: a previous collab sold out within minutes of items hitting the web. This new collection — with its colorful, dreamlike prints and bags shaped like a pony, little legs and all — seemed designed to elicit that same viral hype. The brands teased designs. Influencers posted unboxing videos. Fans were ready to shop.But on the day the bags and accessories were set to go on sale, fans got more details about the designs: some of the... Continue reading…