The 20-20-20 rule and some eye drops can help if you’re feeling eye strain. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge We’ve all heard that screens aren’t good for your eyes. So it might not be too surprising to hear that many Vision Pro users have complained about eye strain. (After all, the headset does use two 4K screens, one in front of each eyeball.) However, these are common complaints from overall VR usage and experts say it isn’t something to freak out over.“Despite what many people believe, sitting too close to the TV does not damage your eyes. Screens ruining your eyes is another myth,” says Dr. Arvind Saini, clinical spokesperson for the American Academy of Ophthalmology. If you peruse VR subreddits, not just the Apple Vision Pro one, that can be hard to believe. You’ll often find people complaining that their eyes “hurt like hell,” are i... Continue reading…

When AMD released the Ryzen 7000-series desktop CPUs, the only AM5 motherboards around were high-end or mid-range models using the X670 chipset. Thanks to the arrival of the budget B650 mobos, gaining entry into the newest AM5 ecosystem has become more affordable than ever. These inexpensive AM5 motherboards still come with the latest technology, like DDR5 RAM, USB4, and in some cases, PCIe 5.0. Some models even have PCIe 5.0 M.2 slots for the fastest NVMe SSDs to be installed on the motherboard without requiring a PCIe expansion card.

Did you know that Apple had an electric car venture? If you didn't, the company had a branch dedicated to "Project Titan," which was Apple's take on the eco-friendly car. However, Apple has confirmed Titan is now closed down, as the company moves all of its staff toward its AI departments.

Google For anyone who has ever wished for the ability to hand annotate directly on a Google Doc, Google announced on Tuesday it’s rolling out a new markup feature for Google Workspace customers, Google Workspace Individual subscribers, and personal Google accounts that will allow users to write directly on a Google Doc with a stylus or their finger. The new feature includes a few standard pen and highlighter colors (black, blue, red, green, yellow), and an eraser. If you don’t like any of those colors, you can add your own.There are so many use cases for a feature like this, across age groups, industries, and professional and personal work. Google calls out some good ones in its announcement, especially for “educators giving students feedback... Continue reading…

Mobile World Congress (MWC) is a massive technology event that takes place every year in the city of Barcelona. Thousands of people go there to take a glimpse at the latest and greatest tech being launched, and we attended to get some hands-on time with some of the best out there. Some of these are concepts that you can't buy, some of these are products that you can buy today, but all of them deserve a place on our list of the best products available at the show this year.

Eufy Anker’s Eufy brand has started shipping a new 4K security camera that should offer 360-degree views, panning 344 degrees and tilting up to 70 degrees. It could also run indefinitely without wired internet or power. That’s because in addition to Wi-Fi, the $249.99 Eufy 4G LTE Cam S330 can connect to nearby LTE towers instead, and comes with a detachable solar panel that supposedly needs just two hours under the sun to keep the 36.2Wh battery charged. Since the battery also lasts up to a month on a full charge, according to Anker, it could keep going even through the rainy season.On paper, the S330 seems to address many of the pain points we encountered with earlier LTE-capable cameras from both Eufy and Arlo for around the same... Continue reading…

Amazon MGM Studios The screenwriter of the 1989 action film Road House is suing MGM Studios and its owner Amazon Studios, accusing them of copyright infringement over the upcoming Road House remake, report the Los Angeles Times and The Hollywood Reporter. The lawsuit, filed on Tuesday in the U.S. Central District Court in Los Angeles, also alleges that Amazon Studios resorted to generative AI to clone actor’s voices in order to finish the Road House remake during last year’s Hollywood strikes, which largely shut down film production. In the complaint, screenwriter R. Lance Hill reportedly states that he filed a petition with the US Copyright Office in November 2021 to reclaim the rights for the screenplay (which both the original Road House and Amazon... Continue reading…

Google CEO Sundar Pichai. | Illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge The historically inaccurate images and text generated by Google’s Gemini AI have “offended our users and shown bias,” CEO Sundar Pichai told employees in an internal memo obtained by The Verge.Last week, Google paused Gemini’s ability to generate images after it was widely discovered that the model generated racially diverse, Nazi-era German soldiers, US Founding Fathers who were non-white, and even inaccurately portrayed the races of Google’s own co-founders. While Google has since apologized for “missing the mark” and said it’s working to re-enable image generation in the coming weeks, Tuesday’s memo is the first time the CEO has widely addressed the controversy.In the memo, which was first reported by Semafor, Pichai says the... Continue reading…

Aqara’s U200 smart lock is a retrofit, Matter-over-Thread door lock, with support for Apple Home Key promised. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge Aqara has launched its Smart Lock U200 on Kickstarter, where you can currently nab the device for $209, down from the $249.99 it’ll cost you when it goes on sale later this year. According to the Kickstarter page, it will ship to backers in April. The company debuted its new retrofit lock at the IFA 2023 tech show last summer; showcasing its Matter-over-Thread connectivity and separate Bluetooth keypad with a fingerprint reader and NFC built in. This gives you the option to unlock with digital codes, Aqara NFC cards, the Aqara app on your phone, and voice control with compatible voice assistants. That’s in addition to still being able to use your existing key. Uniquely for a retrofit lock (where you don't need to replace your... Continue reading…

Microsoft recently started the process of auto-upgrading eligible PCs, including the ones running Windows 11 22H2, to the newer Windows 11 23H2. It made sense because Windows 11 22H2 was going to no longer receive non-security optional updates after February 27, 2024, and reach the end of life this October. While the software giant hasn't changed its mind about auto-upgrading PCs to 23H2, it's backtracked on its decision to stop pushing non-security updates to Windows 11 22H2 beyond February.

Say goodbye to the rounded-corners that featured on previous Galaxy Z Fold devices. | Image: Onleaks / Smartprix Samsung’s incoming Galaxy Z Fold 6 smartphone appears to have leaked in unofficial renders published on Wednesday by SmartPrix and OnLeaks, giving us our first look at the company’s latest flagship foldable. The images show a much boxier design that’s more in keeping with the recently launched Galaxy S24 Ultra, with squared edges in place of the softer, rounded ones adorning the Galaxy Z Fold 5.According to Smartprix, the dimensions for the Galaxy Z Fold 6 are 153.5 x 132.5 x 6.1mm (around 6 x 5.2 x 0.2 inches) when unfolded, making it a smidge shorter and wider than its predecessor. The inner screen reportedly measures 7.6 inches diagonally, with the Galaxy Z Fold 6’s front cover display coming in at approximately 6.2 inches.O... Continue reading…

Handheld PC gaming devices really seemed to take off in 2023, but it was the popular release of the Steam Deck a year earlier that really pushed a lot of other manufacturers to begin taking the devices seriously. We're now seeing a long list of quality PC gaming handhelds on the market, ranging from the Linux-based Steam Deck and Steam Deck OLED to Windows-based models from Asus, Lenovo, Ayaneo, GPD, and more.