Illustration: The Verge Threads is coming to the fediverse — and we just got our first official look at how that might work from Meta itself. During the FediForum conference on Tuesday, Meta’s Peter Cottle showed off a brief demo of how users will eventually be able to connect their accounts and posts to the fediverse. The integration will let users share their posts across different platforms through Threads, letting them reach multiple audiences at once. Meta is just one of the many platforms aiming to join the fediverse, a group of decentralized social networks aiming to become interoperable with one another.As you can see in the video below, which FediForum shared with The Verge, Cottle can navigate to his Threads account settings and toggle on an option... Continue reading…

In the world of large language models, it's been a realm purely dominated by ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, and Google Gemini. There's a new player in town from Anthropic though, and it's dubbed "Claude." Claude 3 Opus recently launched, and it's giving a run for its money over competitors in a way that seemingly puts it ahead of even the best of what GPT-4 has to offer.

Image: OnLeaks / Smartprix Google’s Pixel 8A may have a 120Hz display — up from 90Hz in the Pixel 7A — and a brighter screen, according to Kamila Wojciechowska, whose past leaks have included videos of the pre-release Pixel Fold. Google’s I/O 2024 conference is set for May 14th, when the company will likely talk a lot about AI again. That’s also probably where the company will announce the Pixel 8A.Writing for Android Authority, Wojciechowska says this next entry in the line of budget Pixel phones will feature 1,400 nits of peak brightness, up from the 7A’s 1,000 nits, and limited support for DisplayPort output via USB-C. Those may both be improvements over its predecessor, but if this leak is accurate, it won’t follow the 7A’s lead with a better camera system... Continue reading…

Amazon is starting its big promotional sales early this year with its Big Spring Sale taking place from March 20 to March 25. During this five-day sale, you're going to see amazing discounts on some of our favorite tech products, like smartphones, tablets laptops, TVs, and more. While there are hundreds of thousands of gadgets on sale, we've scoured through all the deals to list some of the best ones.

Two pro players were forcibly given cheats while livestreaming their finals matches. | Image: Respawn Apex Legends has postponed the North America finals for its Global Series championship over concerns that hackers have compromised the “competitive integrity” of the game. Two professional players from major teams were targeted while livestreaming on Sunday by an attack that forcibly applied advantage-granting cheats during competitive gameplay.The cause of these attacks hasn’t been officially verified, leading to speculation that the hack may have been delivered via Apex Legend’s anti-cheat protections. An exchange posted by a cheat monitoring account on X claims that the attacker found an RCE, or remote code execution, exploit to run their code directly on the players’ computers. Two posts from accounts that say they represent Epic... Continue reading…

Even in 2024, the Meta Quest 2 is still one of the best VR headsets that you can buy. Despite newer models arriving, Meta has done a great job of supporting the product. In addition, the headset provides an affordable way to get into VR for those that aren't so sure about the experience. While the Meta Quest 2 is already quite affordable at just $249.99, this bundle takes things to another level, with a discount that brings it below the original retail price.

The Nvidia RTX 4090 remains one of the best GPUs out there in 2024. Not only is it a solid graphics card, but it's also among the biggest and the most power-hungry cards on the market. It's also one of the first GPUs to use the 12VHPWR 16-pin connector, which is now commonly seen on many other RTX 40-series graphics cards, including the new RTX 4080 Super.

Patch 1.6 gives Stardew Valley players masses of new content, including this new “Meadowlands” farm biome. | Image: Stardew Valley / @pearblossoms_ Stardew Valley’s massive 1.6 update has been out on PC for less than 24 hours, and it’s already taken the game’s popularity to staggering new heights. The cozy farming simulator hit 146,159 concurrent players on Steam according to SteamDB data, smashing the game’s previous record as players flock to enjoy new content — including a new farm, festivals, and pets.Stardew Valley’s previous peak of 94,875 concurrent Steam players was achieved back in January 2021, shortly after the 1.5 update was released. By contrast, its new record is higher than any of the concurrent player stats reported for Palworld this week — which is pretty impressive for a near-decade-old indie RPG. Developer Eric “Concerned Ape” Barone had teased some of the new... Continue reading…

The latest challenger to the Steam Deck and Asus ROG Ally, the MSI Claw, is the first portable gaming device to feature Intel's Core Ultra processors, making it rather unique. While sticking the Claw in a dock might seem counterintuitive, there are plenty of perks to getting one. A dock lets you conveniently charge your MSI Claw, so it's ready to go when needed. The additional USB ports also let you use a controller if you don't want to hold your console for hours on end. You can also use this setup to connect the Claw to your TV or work setup, so you can sneak in some Baldur's Gate 3 if you have a compatible controller. Still, if you want to maximize your gaming experience, here are some great docks to choose from.

The Cowboy Cross in “mushroom” with the inverted front suspension fork clearly visible. | Photo by Thomas Ricker / The Verge Cowboy — the independent and financially healthy maker of sophisticated and highly advanced e-bikes — just took the wraps off its first all-roader that lets riders more easily escape cobblestoned city streets for greener pastures.To do that, Cowboy’s new Cross e-bike features fatter 60mm tires and suspension systems built into the front fork and seat post to soak up bumps along the way. It’s also fitted with grippier pedals to avoid foot slips when bouncing around, a large 540Wh removable battery for a 120km (75 miles) max range, and an integrated rear rack to carry more stuff. I spent some time test riding the Cross e-bike on a variety of surfaces, and it’s truly a beast in all the best possible ways. To start, the seat suspension is... Continue reading…

It's no secret that the recent leaps in AI, including ChatGPT and Stable Diffusion, are impressive. They can create text, images, video, and more, all based on a text prompt, with little user input at all. The other thing they have in common is that they all run in the cloud, so they're on somebody else's computer, and can be expensive once subscription fees are taken into account. To save some money, many AI tasks can run on your home computer, from LLMs to the datasets that train them.

The Mail app has existed ever since Windows 10 came into the picture, and it is still the inbox email app in Windows 11, but it has its days numbered, as Microsoft has plans to fully replace it with the new Outlook in December this year. While we're months away from that, it seems Microsoft is in a hurry to force users to make the transition from the Mail app to the new Outlook.