Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge When Apple stopped selling the M1 MacBook Air last week to make way for the new M3 version, I mourned the loss of the M1 Air’s iconic wedge shape. But perhaps that was a bit premature. Walmart announced Friday that for the first time, you can buy the M1 MacBook Air from its online store (and in-store soon) for a discounted $699. On Friday morning, Best Buy was still charging $999.99 but has since dropped its price to beat Walmart’s deal and is currently offering the same laptop for $649.99.Looking at Walmart and Best Buy’s sites, these are new laptops and not refurbished models, which makes the $699 / $649.99 price compelling. That said, you only get to choose the base model, which comes with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. I’d... Continue reading…

Cath Virginia / The Verge Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 30, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome. So psyched you found us, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.) This week, I’ve been playing the fun puzzler Close Cities, scrounging up money to buy TikTok, reading the latest in my favorite spy-thriller series, debating becoming a mansion squatter, testing Today for simple tasks, taking notes on this great video about the editing in Oppenheimer, and yelling “SPACE!” while watching the most recent SpaceX launch.I also have for you a new AI productivity tool, a great way to find stuff to watch, some new shows about old events, and a deep dive into the collapse of the Apple... Continue reading…

In our review of the Asus ROG Ally, we noted that the system's dependency on Windows is holding it back. From our testing, it was clear that Microsoft's operating system wasn't designed for portable gaming, making the device hard to recommend. Now, the Asus ROG Ally's dependency on Windows has hindered it again as reports claim the latest Windows update has ruined its performance.

Is it upper midrange? Is it lesser high-end? Hard to say. | Image: Qualcomm Qualcomm just launched a new chipset that’s designed to sit just below its current flagship in terms of capabilities and price. The Snapdragon 8S Gen 3 aims to bring most of the 8 Gen 3’s features — including support for on-device generative AI models — to more affordable phones. It represents a new tier for the top-of-the-line 8-series chips, and it’s also a little bit confusing.Before we get into all that, let’s start with the straightforward stuff: the 8S Gen 3 includes a GPU similar to the standard 8 Gen 3, though it has one less performance core and runs at a lower frequency — the prime core runs at up to 3.0GHz versus 3.4GHz on the 8 Gen 3. The new 8S Gen 3 also uses a previous-gen modem, the X70 5G, which includes Wi-Fi 7... Continue reading…

The MSI Claw is the new PC gaming handheld that was the talk of CES 2024. This Windows handheld is powered by Intel Core Ultra processors and features Intel Arc graphics, making it the first handheld with that combination and one of the best PC gaming handhelds on the market. The upgrade to an Intel Core Ultra CPU will boost the speed and battery life of the device, giving you more versatility while gaming. Comparing it with a Steam Deck or ASUS Rog Ally, you'll notice the upgrade in power. Those who have taken the plunge on this new handheld will need the best accessories to get the most out of it. Here are our picks for the best accessories for the MSI Claw.

Sony’s PlayStation VR2. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge After producing in excess of two million units of its latest virtual reality headset, Bloomberg is reporting that Sony is hitting pause on production to try and shift its unsold inventory. The PlayStation VR2 launched last February for $549 as an accessory for the PlayStation 5, but IDC data suggests that shipments have declined each quarter since.Bloomberg suggests that the problem is a lack of content for the headset. The PSVR2 is compatible with a handful of AAA games including Horizon Call of the Mountain, Gran Turismo 7, and entries in the Resident Evil series, as well as a range of smaller titles. But, at $549, the headset costs more than the PS5 itself, so expectations are high. Bloomberg notes that Meta and Apple have faced... Continue reading…

Image: Caleb Wood Scavengers Reign is a beautiful exploration of a complicated, fascinating, sometimes brutal ecology. Nidus is also a beautiful exploration of a complicated, fascinating, sometimes brutal ecology. Their approaches and styles are different, but the underlying themes share a connection — and an artist. Caleb Wood is an animator and now game developer who worked as a concept artist on Max’s sci-fi show while simultaneously solo-developing his recently released arcade bullet hell game.Having begun his animation career 15 years ago, Wood decided that he wanted to figure out game development in 2020. Nidus was meant to be something simple that he could use to teach himself programming. “But because I’m able to produce some pretty good art... Continue reading…

Last year’s iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Apple is reportedly in “active negotiations” with Google to bring its Gemini generative AI technology to the iPhone, Bloomberg reports, and has also considered using OpenAI’s ChatGPT.CEO Tim Cook has already confirmed that Apple is spending “a tremendous amount of time and effort” on artificial intelligence features, and plans to release them to its customers “later this year.” Bloomberg’s report suggests that the AI features built into Apple’s products could eventually be powered by a mix of first- and third-party AI models. Apple’s models could power on-device generative AI with iOS 18, releasing later this year, while cloud-based AI features like text- and image-generation could come via partnerships with the likes of Google.If a... Continue reading…

The Verge On March 11th, Elon Musk said xAI would open source its AI chatbot Grok, and now an open release is available on GitHub. This will allow researchers and developers to build on the model and impact how xAI updates Grok in the future as it competes with rival tech from OpenAI, Meta, Google, and others.A company blog post explains that this open release includes the “base model weights and network architecture” of the “314 billion parameter Mixture-of-Experts model, Grok-1.” It continues saying the model is from a checkpoint last October and hasn’t undergone fine-tuning “for any specific application, such as dialogue.” As VentureBeat notes, it’s being released under the Apache 2.0 license that enables commercial use but doesn’t include... Continue reading…

Recently, Google added an interesting new feature to Gemini. This tool lets you sculpt the chatbot's responses to better suit your needs. This includes regenerating a piece of text, adding more context, cutting down on words, rewriting sections, or getting rid of entire sections. This not only allows you to refine any text you generated that you intend to copy-paste (i.e. generating a cover letter), but it's also great for asking Gemini to extrapolate on parts you want to learn more about (i.e. asking it how a phishing attack works exactly). As such, I gave the tool a test run to see how each part fares.

Are you the best gamer in your business? Do you think the people you work with would be able to take down another company? If so, you're about to have a chance to prove your skills. The popular job-oriented social network LinkedIn is adding games to its platform, and it will feature a ranking system that allows companies to pit their workers against one another.

Image: A24 The magic of writer / director Julio Torres’ Problemista lies in its imaginative production design and its thoughtful deconstruction of the American immigration dream. Continue reading…