I can understand the appeal of online FPS calculators — simply mention your PC specs and the website will spit out the FPS you can expect. If only it were that simple. FPS calculators are a dime a dozen but what's consistent across them is that they're mostly useless if you want any reliable data. When you're building a PC and are unsure of what gaming performance you can expect, there are far better sources you can use.

Image: Roblox Roblox asked a federal judge in California to dismiss a suit from two mothers who allege the platform allowed an illegal gambling ring to prey on their children. Instead, the judge has allowed the case to proceed — though some of the claims, including RICO allegations, have been dismissed.The company argued that the plaintiffs’ claims were barred by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which prevents any “interactive computer service” — in this case, Roblox — from being held liable for third-party content published on its platform. The court, however, held that Section 230 doesn’t apply here because Roblox isn’t being held liable for content published on its platform. It’s being accused of “facilitating transactions between... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Apple’s online services were hit with an outage that cut many of us off from the App Store, Apple TV, and Apple Music on Wednesday night. The system status page for Apple’s online service noted an outage beginning at 6:31PM ET affecting those services, as well as Arcade, Audiobooks, Books, Podcasts, Fitness Plus, and its new Apple Sports app. Now, the status page lists them all as “outage resolved” as of 7:35PM ET, and they seem to be working again. The @AppleSupport account on X did not list a reason for the issues but directed users to check the status page for more information. Image: Apple.com On Downdetector, it looks like the first reports of issues started coming in just after 6PM ET. The Verge has contacted... Continue reading…

Getting an AI-generated image just right can be annoying. Sometimes it's just missing one extra detail, but if you ask the AI to generate that additional detail, it will instead redraw the entire thing. Fortunately, OpenAI has worked out a way that lets you tweak an image without having to redo the entire thing. Now when you use DALL-E 3 on ChatGPT, you can highlight areas you want to change and tell the AI what you want done.

Nothing but respect for MY president. | Image: OpenAI OpenAI’s DALL-E is getting a couple of upgrades today that help you shape your AI-generated masterpieces. First, you’ll now find image editing tools when using DALL-E within ChatGPT, both on the web and on mobile. Second, DALL-E now offers preset style suggestions to help inspire image creation — not unlike Android’s AI-generated wallpaper prompts. Because how else could you dream up a sci-fi polar bear on vacation?DALL-E is on its third generation, and recent updates like this seem to be aimed at making it more user-friendly. DALL-E 3 added integration with ChatGPT, which takes the burden off the user to write a perfectly descriptive image prompt — just tell ChatGPT what you want, and it will do the rest. Today’s update is an extension... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge WhatsApp went down worldwide on Wednesday afternoon, impacting the 2 billion users of the messaging service. Users started experiencing issues connecting to WhatsApp in multiple countries just after 2PM ET today, with the service stuck on “connecting” for many. Users can still send messages, but they weren’t delivered until WhatsApp came back online.A status page for Meta’s business APIs was updated to note an outage impacting service on the APIs for connecting to WhatsApp, Messenger, and Instagram starting at 2:10PM ET.As of 4PM ET, the issues seemed to be resolved for most of us in the US; and as of 4:45PM ET, the status page confirmed things should be fixed. The Verge contacted Meta about the issues, but we have not received a... Continue reading…

The Flipper Zero, a versatile pen-testing tool dubbed by many to be a Swiss army knife of hacking, has captured the attention of governments worldwide, as they closely monitor its capabilities and potential implications for cybersecurity. While it's not capable of anything that other devices weren't already, its unique selling point is that it manages to put all of it into one single device. There are a couple of countries that ban the Flipper Zero outright, but there are many countries that have a gray area stance on it.

The Lunar Dawn LTV from Lunar Outpost, Lockheed Martin, General Motors (GM), Goodyear, and MDA Space. | Image: Lunar Outpost NASA has selected Intuitive Machines, Lunar Outpost, and Venturi Astrolab to develop the lunar terrain rover for its Artemis lunar explorations. All three companies are in the running for task orders with a potential value of $4.6 billion over the next 13 years.The trio will develop their team’s ideas for a Lunar Terrain Vehicle (LTV) to help astronauts explore the Moon’s south polar region. It’s believed the area contains frozen water, so it makes sense for NASA to set up base camp there. All three must design vehicles that can accommodate two suited astronauts and handle the area’s extreme conditions. They also must feature robotic, remote operation capabilities so NASA can continue to perform tests and explore even when astronauts... Continue reading…

Proba-3’s occulter blocks the Sun’s light for the coronagraph. | Image: European Space Agency The European Space Agency (ESA) is preparing to create its own solar eclipses so that researchers can study one of the more difficult-to-observe parts of the Sun’s anatomy: its blazing-hot corona. To do that, it hopes to fly two separate spacecraft, 150 meters apart and aligned so that one satellite (called the “occulter”) blocks all but the corona from the other satellite, which will observe it using an instrument called a coronagraph. The mission’s two craft will have to fly “in precise formation down to millimetre accuracy,” using satellite navigation, radio-based satellite interlinks, cameras, and a laser beam reflected between them. ESA technology director Dietmar Pilz said in a statement that getting the two to “act as if they are... Continue reading…

What does 3D NAND or TLC NAND mean? How do you choose the best SSD for your PC? These questions may burn in the minds of those seeking additional storage, which is where this explainer piece will help clear up some of the jargon. I'll run through what a solid-state drive (SSD) is, how it works compared to a mechanical hard drive, and what you need to know about choosing the right one based on published specifications.

A graphics card is one of the most important and expensive components that goes into a new PC build. It's commonly used to render graphics for video games, but you can use it for various other tasks, including video editing, 3D model rendering, machine learning, and more. GPUs typically have higher processing throughput compared to CPUs, which is why they're also commonly used for processing in various source code editors like Visual Studio Code (VS Code).

Building a PC may seem daunting, especially if you're new to the world of desktops, but it isn't as complicated as you might think. Putting all the parts together and assembling them in the case, however, is only half the task. The real challenge is to ensure you're getting all the connections correct before you finally get to cable management. If this is your first time building a PC, and you're wondering how to connect your new graphics card (GPU) to the excellent power supply (PSU), then you've come to the right place.