Image: Pocketpair The multiplayer survival game has become 2024’s biggest surprise. Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Tim Sweeney, the CEO of Epic Games, has a lot to say about the changes Apple made to its App Store in the European Union. In a lengthy post on X (formerly Twitter), Sweeney calls the update “a new instance of Malicious Compliance” — or, in layman’s terms, “hot garbage.”This afternoon, Apple announced it would allow sideloading, alternative app stores, and third-party browser engines on the iPhone with the rollout of iOS 17.4 this March. The company will also open up the App Store to game streaming services, and will finally allow developers to use alternative in-app payment options. Apple made the changes to comply with the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA), which requires large tech companies to follow a strict set of rules aimed at... Continue reading…

Samsung reigns supreme as one of the best tablet makers out there with some really compelling options for those looking to buy reliable Android tablets. The company's Galaxy Tab S lineup gets all the attention and premium features, but its offerings in the Galaxy Tab A series are nothing to look down upon either. Both the Galaxy Tab A8 and the relatively new Galaxy Tab A9+ are pretty good options to consider, and they get many premium features that are usually reserved for the company's flagship Galaxy tablets. There are still plenty of differences that draw a line between Samsung's Galaxy Tab S and the Tab A series, so make sure you're picking the right tablet.

Photo by Tom Warren / The Verge Microsoft is adding touch controls to its Xbox apps for iOS and Android devices. The software maker started testing the touch controls in beta versions of the Xbox mobile apps this week, allowing Xbox owners to remotely control their consoles and play games on phones and tablets without a Bluetooth controller.The touch controls are identical to the ones found on Microsoft’s Xbox Cloud Gaming service, providing an on-screen overlay to let you remotely navigate around the Xbox UI and open up games and stream them all from your own console without needing to use a controller. Screenshot by Tom Warren / The Verge The Xbox touch controls work on any game. The touch controls are surprisingly good in a pinch,... Continue reading…

Photo by Tayfun Coskun / Anadolu via Getty Images Cruise, the self-driving car subsidiary of General Motors, tried to send a 90-second video to regulators of an incident in which one of its driverless cars dragged a pedestrian 20 feet but was hampered by “internet connectivity issues,” according to a report compiled by a law firm investigating the incident. The law firm, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, was hired by Cruise to determine whether its executives misled regulators in the aftermath of the October 2nd incident in which a hit-and-run driver struck a pedestrian, knocking her into the path of a driverless Cruise vehicle. Its conclusions were detailed in a nearly 200-page report that was released today. In response to the crash, the California Department of Motor Vehicles s... Continue reading…

Illustration: The Verge In a blog post, OpenAI said the updated GPT-4 Turbo “completes tasks like code generation more thoroughly than the previous preview model and is intended to reduce cases of ‘laziness’ where the model doesn’t complete a task.” The company, however, did not explain what it updated. Some ChatGPT users recently complained about the chatbot frequently refusing to complete prompted tasks and blamed the lack of updates to GPT-4. However, OpenAI’s update is for GPT-4 Turbo, a version of the more widely available GPT-4 that was trained on information as recent as April 2023 and is only available in a preview. Those using GPT-4, which learned from data available prior to September 2021, may still experience the same laziness issues. OpenAI said... Continue reading…

Image: Pocketpair You can all stop calling now — The Pokémon Company’s lawyers are on the case. In a statement posted on the company’s website, The Pokémon Company says it’s aware of a “game released in January 2024” and plans to “take appropriate measures to address any acts that infringe on intellectual property rights related to the Pokémon.”It’s no secret that the game referred to is Palworld, a surprise hit juggernaut that’s slowly climbing up the Steam charts, well on its way to beating PUBG’s all-time peak player count of 3.2 million. It’s sold 8 million copies on Steam as of today, and its developer, Pocketpair, just released a roadmap laying out plans for the game’s future.#Palworld has sold over 8 million copies in less than 6 days!Thank you... Continue reading…

Google's Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro are two of the best Android phones you can buy in 2024. These phones have been available for quite some time now, so you should have no issues grabbing one right now in the color of your choice. In fact, this is one of the best times to buy one of these phones as Google has just introduced a new 'Mint' color option for them too. With the inclusion of this new colorway, the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro phones are now available in four colors each.

Fortnite in 2020, when it was banned on the App Store. | Screenshot: Fortnite Epic plans to launch the Epic Games Store on the iPhone this year in the European Union — and it’s bringing Fortnite back to the platform along with it.The announcement comes after Apple shared how it will open up iOS in response to the EU’s crackdown on Big Tech. Epic CEO Tim Sweeney described Apple’s rules as “hot garbage,” but they are clearly not so hot as to keep Epic away altogether.Epic doesn’t have a lot to share about its plans just yet. It says the store will launch “later this year,” and Fortnite will be available through it. Both will only be available in parts of Europe covered by the Digital Markets Act. “Stay tuned for details as we figure out the regulatory timeline,” it said in a post on X (formerly Twitter), adding... Continue reading…

Even if you already own an Xbox, it wouldn’t be the worst idea to buy one as a backup. | Photo by Tom Warren / The Verge We’ve seen the original Xbox Series S in white dip below the $249.99 mark over the past several months. But if you missed out on those opportunities, Dell presents another with a sale that brings Microsoft’s entry-level gaming console down to $229.99. That’s a $70 discount compared to its retail price. We’ve seen it as low as $199.99, but it’s possible we won’t see it that low again until the refresh becomes available, so you might consider just spending the extra $30 now.The Xbox Series S gets you most of the way as far as current-gen gaming consoles are concerned. It plays the same games as the Series X, but you’re losing a disc drive, 4K resolution (it tops out at QHD but retains up to 120Hz variable refresh rates), and you’re only... Continue reading…

While the primary focus in the past few hours has been on the major changes introduced in iOS 17.4, a significant tvOS beta feature has gone unnoticed. We've just discovered that tvOS 17.4 beta 1 no longer requires SharePlay participants to pay for individual Apple Music subscriptions. Instead, as long as a paid subscriber starts the session, any smartphone user can join. The Cupertino firm first brought this feature to CarPlay with iOS 17, but it has now made its way to the Apple TV, too.

Words in a transcript will light up as the episode progresses. | Image: Apple Apple’s first-party Podcasts app is getting support for transcripts in the forthcoming iOS 17.4 update. The company says transcripts will be automatically generated by Apple’s software, will appear for English, French, German, and Spanish-language podcasts shortly after they’re uploaded, and will be viewable across “over 170 countries and regions.”The feature should make it far easier to find and skip to the point in a podcast you’re most interested in. Transcripts can be searched for specific words and phrases which can be tapped to go directly to the corresponding point in the episode. You can also read along with a transcript as an episode plays, and watch each word be highlighted as it’s said out loud. Per 9to5Mac, the feature is... Continue reading…