VideoCardz obtained this first — very modified —image of the Ally X. | Image: VideoCardz I exclusively revealed what the Asus ROG Ally X handheld gaming PC will be all about and even touched an early prototype, but Asus wouldn’t talk specs ahead of its June 2nd release. But now, VideoCardz has obtained the key missing details — battery, weight, ports, thickness, storage, and RAM.While we already knew the Ally X was shooting for double the battery life by including a larger pack, VideoCardz has leaked marketing materials that confirm it’s literally doubling the capacity to 80 watt-hours, up from the original 40Wh pack. If true, that would be the largest battery we’ve seen in a handheld, surpassing the boutique Ayaneo Kun’s 75 watt-hour pack.And yet, the Ally X only weighs an additional 70g (2.5oz) and is just 5mm thicker,... Continue reading…

Illustration: Hugo Herrera / The Verge The IRS Free File program will be around for another five years. The agency has announced that it’s extending the program through October 2029, allowing people to file their taxes with one of the IRS’s partners for free.The Free File program got more attention recently after the IRS changed its rules in 2020 to prevent tax preppers from hiding their free services. Both TurboTax and H&R Block left the Free File program after that, and TurboTax owner Intuit paid out $141 million in restitution because it had “cheated millions of low-income Americans out of free tax filing services,” according to New York Attorney General Letitia James.IRS Free File has been around for more than 20 years now. For 2023, taxpayers with an adjusted gross... Continue reading…

Microsoft announced Copilot+ at an event in Redmond today. The new brand is for AI PCs, with Microsoft reimagining how people interact with PCs in an era with emerging AI technologies.

Internet cookies are not delicious treats that you can order from the world wide web: theyre text files with small pieces of data that identify your device and you as a user. Their main purpose is to help improve your web browsing experience by tracking and saving information from your web browsing sessions. But as they build up, they can impact your privacy and security. To enjoy a cleaner and more secure browsing experience, its worth deleting cookies on your iPhone from time to time. Luckily, its very simple to do.

It’s a sad panda day. | Image: Microsoft Search capabilities for ChatGPT, Copilot, DuckDuckGo, and other platforms aren't working properly right now due to a Microsoft outage that appears to be related to the Bing application programming interface (API). Sites and services are either completely unavailable or only intermittently responding at the time of publication.The issues — which began around 3AM ET — appear to be linked to Bing’s API and any service that relies upon it. While Microsoft’s own web search engine Bing was also seemingly affected earlier, according to Techcrunch, the service now appears to be correctly loading search results. Image: DuckDuckGo Search engines like DuckDuckGo relying on Bing’s API are displaying error messages. Other... Continue reading…

Kia’s Soul-ful EV designs continue. | Image: Kia Kia introduced the finalized version of its EV3 small electric SUV today, and with it comes a big new feature: AI. The vehicle was first introduced as a futuristic concept vehicle last year, and now it will launch in South Korea this July, followed by Europe in the second half of the year. Kia representative Karla Gonzalez tells The Verge that EV3 is also confirmed for the US — but there’s no timing announced.The EV3 will be the first production EV to get Kia’s voice-activated AI assistant that first popped up in the Kia K4. TechCrunch reports the assistant “is built off ChatGPT” but is heavily modified to let users plan trips, find entertainment, and more, according to Kia’s head of customer experience design, Pablo Martinez Masip.... Continue reading…

Image: Samsung iFixit just broke up with Samsung over its shaky commitment to right to repair, but things may be worse than we thought. Samsung is apparently forcing independent repair shops to give up your personally identifying information — and report you for using aftermarket parts. 404 Media has now obtained a leaked copy of a contract between Samsung and an independent service provider, which states that for every repair, an independent repair shop must send Samsung your name, address, telephone number, your phone’s unique serial number and IMEI, your “customer complaint,” and all the details of your repair. What’s more, it tells repair shops they must strip any aftermarket parts out of your phone — even though it’s likely perfectly legal for... Continue reading…

Image: Laura Normand / The Verge The Federal Communications Commission has proposed imposing multimillion-dollar fines on the political consultant responsible for the robocall campaign that used an AI-generated deepfake of President Joe Biden’s voice — and on the telecom company that facilitated the calls.Longtime Democratic operator Steve Kramer faces a $6 million fine from the FCC, while Lingo Telecom could be fined $2 million. The FCC announced the proposed penalties on Thursday, calling the Lingo fine a “first-of-its-kind enforcement action.” “We will act swiftly and decisively to ensure that bad actors cannot use U.S. telecommunications networks to facilitate the misuse of generative AI technology to interfere with elections, defraud consumers, or compromise... Continue reading…

Image: ESA Stunning new images from the Euclid space telescope show a dazzling array of starry sights, released to celebrate the first science published from the telescope’s early release observations.The mission from the European Space Agency, launched last year, aims to elucidate the mysteries of dark matter and dark energy — forces that comprise most of the known universe but that are largely unknown since they are so difficult to study. Scientists know that dark matter must exist because they can observe its gravitational effects, for example, but they can’t observe it directly because it doesn’t interact with light.The solution is an extremely sensitive instrument like Euclid, which can observe distant galaxies to see dark matter’s effects... Continue reading…

Image: Hugo Herrera / The Verge Buy now, pay later services — or BNPL for short — are now beholden to some of the same rules as credit card providers. On Thursday, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued an interpretive rule that classifies BNPL services as credit card providers and requires them to investigate disputed purchases, among other things. BNPL services let customers purchase a product and then pay for it in a series of interest-free installments. Under the new guidance, BNPL services like Klarna, Afterpay, and Affirm must provide refunds for returned products or canceled services and send periodic billing statements to customers. The CFPB’s decision comes after launching an inquiry into BNPL services, which found that BNPL “is often used as... Continue reading…

In the vast world of media players, VLC Player has long reigned supreme, valued for its versatility and robust feature set. However, theres a hidden gem thats been quietly growing and beating out the competition: PotPlayer. This lesser-known powerhouse, developed by South Korean-based Kakao, brings a slew of features to the table that set it apart as one of the best media players available today.

Illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photos by Getty Images Imagine this: you’ve carved out an evening to unwind and decide to make a homemade pizza. You assemble your pie, throw it in the oven, and are excited to start eating. But once you get ready to take a bite of your oily creation, you run into a problem — the cheese falls right off. Frustrated, you turn to Google for a solution.“Add some glue,” Google answers. “Mix about 1/8 cup of Elmer’s glue in with the sauce. Non-toxic glue will work.”So, yeah, don’t do that. As of writing this, though, that’s what Google’s new AI Overviews feature will tell you to do. The feature, while not triggered for every query, scans the web and drums up an AI-generated response. The answer received for the pizza glue query appears to be based on a comment... Continue reading…