The 13-inch and 15-inch Air are better than ever, but Apple needs to do something about the upgrade funnel. Continue reading…

Image: Annapurna Interactive You could breeze through Open Roads, the new mystery game from publisher Annapurna Interactive. It’s only around two hours long, and it isn’t the kind of game where you’re likely to get stuck. There are no real puzzles to solve or obstacles to overcome. Instead, you steadily move through a story about a mother and daughter discovering long-lost family secrets while on a road trip together. But the game is filled with so many fun details and intriguing mysteries that it’s hard not to get caught up in it.“We really want players to feel like they have to go looking for things,” says executive producer Amy Fincher. “And if they do, they get rewarded — especially if they’re curious by nature.”Open Roads is what’s often derisively called a... Continue reading…

Photo by Chance Yeh / Getty Images for HubSpot This is Hot Pod, The Verge’s newsletter about podcasting and the audio industry. Sign up here for more.I have never gotten so many responses to an issue as I did with last week’s on Andrew Huberman. He seems to elicit an even stronger response than Rogan, though perhaps response to Rogan has calmed down as we have all gotten more used to his shenanigans. Today, I have a look at what some of you all had to say about the value of his podcast and how the revelations from the New York Magazine article have (or have not) changed that. Plus, Spotify’s audiobook expansion, The New York Times’ new audio initiative, and Apple’s (alleged) pay-for-play scheme. Let’s get into it.Andrew Huberman, reconsideredICYMI: NYM published an 8,000-word... Continue reading…

Sometimes a photo doesn't quite go the way you want it to. Maybe something got in the shot that you didn't want, or something looked off once you looked through the photos after the event. Fortunately, AI can come to the rescue by helping you remove unwanted elements while also patching up the hole that it leaves. OnePlus is adding an AI eraser for images on their phones, and the best part is, owners won't have to wait long for the feature to arrive.

Photo by NOEL CELIS/AFP via Getty Images A new report from the US Cyber Safety Review Board has found that Microsoft could have prevented Chinese hackers from breaching US government emails through its Microsoft Exchange Online software last year. The incident, described as a “cascade of security failures” at Microsoft, allowed Chinese state-sponsored hackers to access online email inboxes of 22 organizations, affecting more than 500 people including US government employees working on national security.The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has released a scathing report that found that the hack was “preventable” and that a number of decisions inside Microsoft contributed to “a corporate culture that deprioritized enterprise security investments and rigorous risk... Continue reading…

Image: The Verge / Meta AI Have you ever seen an Asian person with a white person, whether that’s a mixed-race couple or two friends of different races? Seems pretty common to me — I have lots of white friends!To Meta’s AI-powered image generator, apparently this is impossible to imagine. I tried dozens of times to create an image using prompts like “Asian man and Caucasian friend,” “Asian man and white wife,” and “Asian woman and Caucasian husband.” Only once was Meta’s image generator able to return an accurate image featuring the races I specified. Images: Mia Sato/The Verge Tweaking the text-based prompt didn’t seem to help. When I asked for an “Asian man and white woman smiling with a... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Stable Audio 2.0, an audio generation model for Stability AI, now lets users upload their own audio samples which they can then transform using prompts and create AI-generated songs. But the songs will not win any Grammys just yet. The first version of Stable Audio was released in September 2023 and only offered up to 90 seconds for some paying users, which meant they could only make short sound clips to experiment with. Stable Audio 2.0 offers a full three-minute sound clip—the length of most radio-friendly songs. All uploaded audio must be copyright-free. Unlike OpenAI’s audio generation model Voice Engine, which is only available to a select group of users, Stability AI made Stable Audio free and publicly available through its... Continue reading…

Last week, I reviewed not one, but two sets of Nintendo Switch controllers that try to address some of the faults of Nintendo's Joy-Con. These controllers have larger grips, hall effect analog sticks, and nicer-feeling buttons. In many ways, they feel like the complete package for any Nintendo Switch owner.

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge Humane, Rabbit, Brilliant, Meta, and countless other companies are just about to launch AI-first gadgets. AI hardware may not be as big as the smartphone, but it’s going to be big. Continue reading…

The Verge Microsoft is rolling out priority access to GPT-4 Turbo for business subscribers of its AI-powered Copilot assistant. This unlocks access to OpenAI’s latest model inside the Copilot mobile app, on the web, in Windows, and Edge as part of the $30 per user, per month pricing of Copilot for Microsoft 365.While consumers subscribed to Copilot Pro already had access to GPT-4 Turbo, businesses using Copilot for Microsoft 365 now have access and no limits on the number of chats per day and turns per conversation.GPT-4 Turbo will be available in Copilot for Microsoft 365 for both web queries against the latest public information, and to use across work data like querying emails, documents, meetings, and more. OpenAI’s latest model also... Continue reading…

Image: Netflix Henry Cavill may be gone, but Netflix’s live-action adaptation of The Witcher is soldiering on with even more seasons inspired by Andrzej Sapkowski’s novels. Continue reading…

The Dudesy podcast agreed to take the allegedly ai-generated comedy special offline as part of the settlement. | Photo by Mark Junge/Getty Images George Carlin’s estate has reached a settlement with the media company that purportedly used generative artificial intelligence to imitate the late comedian. The decision arrives as a group representing artists like Billie Eilish, Nicki Minaj, and Stevie Wonder calls for performers to be better protected against being mimicked by AI technology.According to the New York Times, Will Sasso and Chad Kultgen — the Dudesy podcast creators who imitated Carlin in a faked comedy special titled “George Carlin: I’m Glad I’m Dead” — agreed as part of the settlement reached on Tuesday to take the offending content offline and never upload it on any platform. Sassoo and Kultgen also agreed to not use Carlin’s voice or likeness in content they produce... Continue reading…