Amazon’s latest Kindle Kids comes with perks the standard version lacks, including a protective case and an extended two-year warranty. | Image: Kindle Kids For some reason, Kindle deals have been hard to come by in the past few months, but now the tide appears to be turning. We recently highlighted several Kindle Scribe deals, but if you’re looking for something more budget-friendly, the 2022 Kindle Kids is also on sale. For the first time since Black Friday, the kid-friendly version of my favorite budget e-reader is on sale for $99.99 ($20 off) at Amazon and Best Buy. While $20 shy of the all-time low we last saw in October, it’s still one of its better prices to date.Although the Kindle Kids is a kid-friendly e-reader, it works just as well for parents or adults without children. That’s because it’s identical to the standard ad-free Kindle in that it offers the same crisp 300ppi... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Microsoft is starting to preview mouse and keyboard support for Xbox Cloud Gaming today. Xbox Insiders will be able to start playing with their mouse and keyboard in Edge, Chrome, or the Xbox app on Windows PCs, nearly two years after Microsoft announced it was preparing to add mouse and keyboard support to its Xbox Cloud Gaming (xCloud) service.Not every game will be supported during the preview, but there’s a large selection, including Fortnite, Sea of Thieves, and Halo Infinite. Microsoft warns that some games will display controller UI elements briefly before adapting to mouse and keyboard input after you start interacting with the game.If you’re interested in trying games with mouse and keyboard in the browser version of Xbox... Continue reading…

Illustration by Vincent Kilbride The AI search tools are getting better — but they don’t yet understand what a search engine really is and how we really use them. Continue reading…

Photo by Justin Sullivan / Getty Images Independent presidential candidate and notable anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has tapped Nicole Shanahan, a wealthy Silicon Valley lawyer, as his running mate. Shanahan previously contributed $4 million to Kennedy’s super PAC, helping to bankroll a 30-second campaign ad during this year’s Super Bowl. Shanahan, who was formerly married to Google co-founder Sergey Brin, has donated heavily to Democratic candidates in the past. In the campaign announcement speech, Kennedy called his running mate “exactly the right person,” as someone who “shared my passion for wholesome healthy foods, chemical-free for regenerative agriculture, for good soils.” He called her a “technologist at the forefront of AI” who uses “neural nets” to... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Audible will co-develop and co-produce TV shows adapted from original podcasts and audiobooks with Amazon MGM Studios that it can pitch to Prime Video and MGM Plus, as well as buyers outside of Amazon. The news was first reported by Variety. Adapting recognizable podcast IP with a built-in audience is usually a safe bet for Hollywood. Chris Morrow, the head of audio at the production company Plan B, which signed a multi-project development with Audible last year, noted to The Verge that the goal was to use audio to “help launch IP, and then ultimately find new life for it as scripted features or scripted documentaries.”A number of originals from both of Amazon Music’s podcast properties, Audible and Wondery, have turned into TV shows... Continue reading…

Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photos from Getty Images Productivity platform Airtable is bringing generative AI summaries, categorization, and translation to all of its users with the general availability of Airtable AI. Companies like Microsoft and Google have integrated AI features into their productivity offerings. But a recent survey from Slack, which also has AI features now available, found that most office workers use generative AI mainly for summarization and writing help. The new features would make Airtable the latest platform to see generative AI’s potential as a productivity tool that can generate content based on information companies have on their workspaces. Airtable, already a repository of workflow data for its users, makes a good case study for AI as a productivity... Continue reading…

With computers permeating every area of our daily lives, people are keen to find new methods of attacking PC hardware. At all times, there is an arms race between cybersecurity researchers and malicious hackers who both want to find the latest exploits. The former wants to find them first so they can report it to the hardware company and get them fixed, while the latter wants to find flaws that nobody knows about for a free pass onto people's PCs. Fortunately, the researchers have won this round, as they have discovered a new flaw called ZenHammer that affects AMD CPUs and proceeded to report it to AMD.

The all-electric SUV set a new record as the first globe-trotting EV. | Image: Ford Ford neglected to share the maximum range of its newest all-electric Explorer when it announced the Europe-only EV last year. We’ve gotten those details today, however, in an announcement Ford made detailing specs and availability. It came alongside word that it’s set a new world record with renowned traveler Lexie Alford as the first to circumnavigate the globe with an electric vehicle.The Explorer EV’s 375-mile range (602km) is above average for the American automaker and impressive for an SUV in general, even if it’s calculated using the EU’s more forgiving WLTP formula for testing and calculating total range. For comparison’s sake, the company’s all-electric F-150 Lightning tops out around 265 miles under the same testing standard.... Continue reading…

Image: Microsoft Intel, Microsoft, Qualcomm, and AMD have all been pushing the idea of an “AI PC” for months now as we head toward more AI-powered features in Windows. While we’re still waiting to hear the finer details from Microsoft on its big plans for AI in Windows, Intel has started sharing Microsoft’s requirements for OEMs to build an AI PC — and one of the main ones is that an AI PC must have Microsoft’s Copilot key.Microsoft wants its OEM partners to provide a combination of hardware and software for its idea of an AI PC. That includes a system that comes with a Neural Processing Unit (NPU), the latest CPUs and GPUs, and access to Copilot. It will also need to have the new Copilot key that Microsoft announced earlier this year. ... Continue reading…

Along with the Xbox 360 console, you can also build a controller and a “copy” of Halo 3. | Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge It wasn’t easy to grab ahold of the Mega Xbox 360 building set when it was first launched in September, but not only is it now in stock, it’s also on sale. Right now, you can buy the adorable collector set at Target for $99.99 ($50 off) — an all-time low and its first discount to date.The Target-exclusive set comes with 1,342 Mega Bloks you can use to build a replica of Microsoft’s 2005 console, a “copy” of Halo 3, and even a physical achievement notification. These blocks are like Mattel’s versions of Legos, which are pretty slick, even if not comparable in build quality. You can also use them to build a stellar little replica of the Xbox 360 controller, which comes with soft, movable joysticks, a light-up guide button, and plenty of... Continue reading…

Photo by Perry Knotts / Getty Images The NFL will hold its first regular-season game in São Paulo, Brazil, later this year — but you’ll need a Peacock subscription to tune in. Peacock will exclusively air the game on Friday, September 6th, featuring the Philadelphia Eagles and a not-yet-named opponent.This marks the third football game to stream only on Peacock, as the streaming service previously aired an NFL playoff match last January. It also aired an AFC Wild Card game last year that it says was the “most-streamed event ever in the US.”Peacock has other big games lined up, too, but it will stream them alongside NBC. There’s the NFL kickoff game on September 5th, a Big Ten Saturday Night game on September 7th, and the season’s first NFL Sunday Night Football game on... Continue reading…

Apple will be playing AI catch-up at this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), which starts with the keynote on June 10th and runs through June 14th. The company typically focuses on its planned fall software updates and announces some new hardware, and this year shouldn’t be any different. But, going into this year, there’s a lot of mystery around what the company has to say about its approach to generative artificial intelligence.Apple has reportedly been spending millions a day to train its own models and rumor has it that it’s also been courting news outlets for training content partnerships. But other recent reports have suggested that it may cut a deal with Google, OpenAI, or Anthropic (or Baidu in China) to supply... Continue reading…