The new MacBook Airs are equipped with the M3 chip, which allows for CPU and GPU improvements. | Image: Apple There’s a new MacBook in town. Following months of rumors, Apple has announced a new pair of entry-level laptops, both equipped with Apple’s latest M3 chip. The 13- and 15-inch MacBook Air will start shipping tomorrow, March 8th, but you can still preorder them today for $1,099 and $1,299, respectively.According to Apple, the M3-powered MacBook Airs are faster than their M2-equipped predecessors, which is likely true in our limited testing (albeit by a small margin). Thanks to the new chip, the laptops also feature an improved 16-core Neural Engine that can “run optimized AI models,” along with hardware-accelerated ray tracing and mesh shading. They both include a Liquid Retina display and up to 500 nits of brightness, as well as... Continue reading…

Image: Epic Games Fortnite is going even more old school for its next season. Epic just launched Chapter 5: Season 2 of the battle royale game, dubbed “Myths & Mortals,” and it’s all about Greek mythology. That means playing as Greek gods, fighting across Mount Olympus, and wielding Zeus’ thunderbolt. The launch was preceded by a clever in-game event involving Pandora’s box.First up, the new locations. A number of mythological locales have been added to the map, including Mount Olympus and the underworld, which, naturally, is guarded by Cerberus. To go along with this are a number of power-ups and items to collect, including the Wings of Icarus so you can fly, Zeus’ bolts which let you “rise into the air and hurl lightning bolts at your target,” and a... Continue reading…

The Miyoo Mini is a popular retro gaming handheld that can emulate a ton of older consoles. Those consoles include the NES, GameBoy, SNES, PlayStation, Sega Genesis, and so much more. However, while the software out of the box is excellent and can play quite a few games, there's a way to get even more out of your Miyoo Mini with OnionOS.

Image: Abigail Bassett / The Verge The R2 won’t go on sale until 2026, but this smaller electric SUV is a crucial product for the young company. Continue reading…

Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photos from Getty Images, Nathan Howard / Stringer President Joe Biden is set to deliver his third State of the Union address on Thursday as he hurdles toward a likely rematch with former President Donald Trump in November.Biden will deliver the speech at the US Capitol at 9PM ET.This year’s address comes just a couple of days after Super Tuesday, where Biden and Trump each dominated primary ballots across multiple states. That brings them one step closer to entering the official general election campaigning stage.We’ll be watching for what Biden has to say that could shape the tech policy issues at the forefront of both the presidential campaign and the next few legislative months. The White House has made the safe deployment of artificial intelligence a priority in the past year... Continue reading…

While Microsoft keeps adding new features to OneDrive to improve the overall experience, the company doesn't shy away from removing something users don't find useful. According to Microsoft, the ability to upload files to OneDrive directly from URLs is one such feature that not many users benefit from and, therefore, is being discontinued.

Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge Amazon’s Drop In feature has become a useful tool for contacting people in your household, finding out what your kids are up to (especially when they’re being too quiet), and checking in on elderly relatives. It allows you to literally “drop in” using an Alexa-capable device, either just via audio or with audio and video. But since you don’t want anyone dropping in on you unwanted, it’s a good idea to understand how to set it up and how to use it.Set up your device for Drop InIn order to allow somebody to drop in on an Echo or Fire device (or any Alexa-capable device that allows you to make calls), first you have to enable the Drop In feature on that specific unit.Open the Alexa app on your phone and select the Device icon on the... Continue reading…

Since the launch of the Steam Deck, the market for great PC gaming handhelds has boomed. Just about every major manufacturer has bought into the concept and made their own gaming handheld. That includes the likes of Valve, Lenovo, Asus, and soon MSI. We've reviewed all of them, from the Steam Deck OLED to the Lenovo Legion Go, and love the experience of playing full-fledged PC games on the go. But since these devices are also capable PCs, gaming handhelds have the potential to be much more than just gaming consoles.

Rivian took a page from Steve Jobs and had “one more thing” to show off during its R2 reveal event in California today. And it was a stunner. The Rivian R3 is a slightly shorter, sportier-looking electric SUV than the R2, and it will come in a performance variant badged as R3X. Rivian founder and CEO RJ Scaringe said the R3 “takes the package of R2 platform [and] shrinks it.” The R3 is “designed with even tighter dimensions–and at a lower price point–than R2,” the company said — though it didn’t immediately release the price of the R3. Reservations for the R3 will start at a later date. The R3 and R3X have sloping rear ends compared to the boxier R2. And like the R2, it will come in two battery sizes, both with over 300... Continue reading…

With computers now coming with built-in NPUs, Microsoft is keen to put them to work. For a while now, we've been hearing rumors that Microsoft is revamping Windows to have a heavy AI focus, which would make having an NPU handy. And now, there are whispers that Microsoft is going to reveal one of its first AI-powered tools...and it's Paint.

Stephen Dubner speaking at On Air Fest | Alexa Hoyer This is an excerpt of an interview that took place at On Air Fest on March 1st between Freakonomics Radio host Stephen Dubner and Hot Pod reporter Ariel Shapiro. The conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.Alright so, you know podcasting. You know economics. What do you make of this moment in the podcasting industry?It really depends on what angle you’re coming at it from. The short version is that there was probably a little bit too much panic, because of the combination of the recession that never quite happened, and then the big iOS adjustment and how it’s playing out in reality and in perception. Additionally, from the platform side, there was just massive, massive acquisition, acquisition, acquisition,... Continue reading…

Populous. | Image: EA There hasn’t been a lot of good news out of EA lately, but here’s some: the company just launched a bunch of classic games on Steam. The new (old) releases include nine games in total, spanning franchises like Dungeon Keeper, Populous, and SimCity.Here’s the full list:Command & Conquer The Ultimate CollectionSimCity 3000 UnlimitedPopulousPopulous II: Trials of the Olympian GodsPopulous: The BeginningDungeon Keeper GoldDungeon Keeper 2Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri Planetary PackThe SaboteurThat’s a solid list of classics for Steam users, though it should be noted that most of these games — along with plenty of others like Wing Commander, Ultima, and Theme Park — are already available through the classic game service GOG. But... Continue reading…