Curt Anyroad in silver. | Image: Ampler Ampler — one of our favorite European e-bike makers — is back with a 2024 model refresh that includes a new all-road variant of the sporty Curt. The Curt Anyroad is available with either a high- or low-step frame, the latter being easier to step through when sitting on a fully loaded bike. Both are otherwise identical, offering wider tires, fork mounts for some light gear bags, and a new 10-speed pedal-assisted drivetrain. That should make it suitable for more terrain but it lacks any kind of suspension for dampening bumps. The all-road edition bumps the Curt up from a feathery (for an e-bike) 14.4kg (about 32 pounds) to 16.9kg, and fits riders from small to large. Prices start at a tax-inclusive €3,690 (about $4,000). Shipments being... Continue reading…

Anker’s new Soundcore Sleep A20 earbuds in a charging case. | Image: Anker Anker is revamping its sleep-focused true wireless earbuds with the new Soundcore Sleep A20 model. It’s announcing the earbuds today to coincide with what is apparently “World Sleep Day” but you won’t be able to buy a pair of the earbuds until its Kickstarter launches on April 16th. Or, if you’d prefer to buy them through more traditional means, they’ll be available via Amazon from May 20th. They’ll ultimately sell for $149.99, but Kickstarter is pricing them at $89.99 for early birds.Like with the previous A10 earbuds, there’s no active noise cancellation here. Instead, the earbuds are equipped with what Anker calls “Twin-Seal eartips” which it claims can block out three times the noise of typical silicon eartips. The earbuds are also... Continue reading…

Image: Google Google Meet is rolling out filters you can use to “lightly” touch up your complexion before you head into a meeting. The company first launched the feature on mobile last year, but now it’s coming to Google Meet’s web app.You can choose from two different filters: subtle and smoothing. While Google says the subtle filter applies “very light” complexion smoothing, under-eye lightening, and eye whitening, the smoothing filter makes all three effects slightly more noticeable. GIF: Google Judging by the GIF provided by Google, it doesn’t look like either option dramatically changes your appearance like some of the filters you’ll find on Snapchat. Instead, it seems to apply much lighter effects that make it look like... Continue reading…

Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photos via Getty Images In an opinion signed by Justice Amy Coney Barrett, the Supreme Court established a test to determine when a public official can be considered to be engaging in state action in blocking someone from their social media account. The official must have both “(1) possessed actual authority to speak on the State’s behalf on a particular matter, and (2) purported to exercise that authority when speaking in the relevant social-media posts.”The court issued a unanimous decision in Lindke v. Freed, a case about whether Port Huron, Michigan city manager James Freed violated the First Amendment by blocking and deleting comments on his Facebook page from resident Kevin Lindke, who critiqued Freed’s pandemic policies. The test creates a new way to... Continue reading…

Image composite: Reddit (TheDyslexicCow) / Tom Warren / The Verge Microsoft is once again injecting pop-ups into Google’s Chrome browser in a bid to get people to switch to Bing. The software giant first introduced malware-like pop-up ads last year with a prompt that appeared over the top of other apps and windows. After pausing that notification to address “unintended behavior,” the pop-ups have returned again on Windows 10 and 11.Windows users have reported seeing the new pop-up in recent days, advertising Bing AI and Microsoft’s Bing search engine inside Google Chrome. If you click yes to this prompt, then Microsoft will set Bing as the default search engine for Chrome. These latest prompts look like malware, and once again have Windows users asking if they are legit or nefarious. Microsoft has... Continue reading…

From AAA blockbusters to indie cult classics, there are tons of games up to 95 percent off. | Valve / Steam You’d think most gamers would have indulged enough over the long winter season that they wouldn’t want to spend the first moments of spring doing the same, but rainy days are still a thing, yeah? And the grind never truly stops for many of us. That’s why I can appreciate the Steam spring sale, happening now through March 21st. It happens around this time every year and offers up to 90 percent off thousands of titles. You can find deals on game-of-the-year-worthy titles like Baldur’s Gate 3 for $53.99 ($6 off), for example, while Diablo IV is 50 percent off no matter which version you buy, whether it’s the base game going for $34.99 or the Ultimate Edition for $49.99.It’s also a great chance to check out older titles you may have passed... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Uber and Lyft are pulling their services out of Minneapolis after the city council passed an ordinance that will increase drivers’ pay. Both companies say they will no longer offer ridesharing services in the city when the ordinance goes into effect on May 1st.The ordinance, which guarantees drivers a minimum rate of $1.40 per mile and 51 cents per minute while carrying a rider, was first passed last week but later vetoed by Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey. The City Council voted 10–3 to override the veto on Thursday.Lyft spokesperson CJ Macklin calls the ordinance “deeply flawed,” as the rates were determined before the state released a study detailing how much drivers would have to be paid to earn Minneapolis’ $15.57 per hour minimum... Continue reading…

Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images Until relatively recently, Rep. Jeff Jackson, a freshman Democratic congressman from North Carolina, had more than 2.5 million followers on TikTok. Jackson’s follower count dropped by over 100,000 virtually overnight — as did his esteem among some of TikTok’s young users — after he voted to ban the app. The bill passed with 352 votes, but to the legions of TikTokers who called their representatives to urge them not to ban the app, Jackson’s vote feels like a unique betrayal. @noahglenncarter An update on Jeff Jackson. Hes losing everything right now because he boted yes #keeptiktok #jeffjackson #tiktokban #foryou ♬ Stargazing (Slowed + Reverb) - Marcelo De Carvalho On Wednesday, Jackson posted a video on X laying out the... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Sony is reportedly working on a PlayStation 5 Pro model that may well include a far more powerful GPU that’s up to three times faster than the existing PS5 models. YouTuber Moore’s Law is Dead claims to have gotten access to a technical overview document for the PS5 Pro, codenamed Trinity, and now Tom Henderson at Insider Gaming reports that the leaked specifications are accurate and the console is currently set to release during the holiday 2024 period.Screenshots from the technical document include a mention of 67 teraflops of 16-bit floating point calculations, which works out to around 33.5 teraflops of single-precision compute. That reportedly works out to a 45 percent rendering performance improvement over the PS5. The existing... Continue reading…

When Valve first released the Steam Deck in 2022, it made a huge impact on the portable gaming market. Its instant popularity carved out a new niche for PC-based portable gaming consoles, and top gaming accessory companies wasted no time creating imitations. While brands like Asus, Lenovo, and Razer have had mixed success producing their handheld gaming hardware, MSI looks to break the streak with the release of the Claw.

Have you been keeping up with Microsoft's developments with AI on Windows? If you haven't, the Redmond giant is doing a lot to enhance the Windows experience with AI. We've seen Copilot spread to every corner of Microsoft's ecosystem, including a premium version called Copilot Pro. And, as you might expect, Microsoft has even more plans in the works for its AI tool.

Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge This week, Spotify announced a new feature to let audiobook authors and publishers tease their new releases. Countdown Pages, which debuted for music artists last year and has been used by the likes of Ed Sheeran and Taylor Swift, let fans pre-save an upcoming title and have it pop into their library when it’s released. The page is adorned with a large countdown clock — with a timer going down to the second — to get listeners excited. The feature’s not revolutionary, but it is in line with how Spotify differentiates itself as an audiobook provider.Getting ahead of a new audiobook is pretty standard. On traditional platforms like Audible, you can preorder the title, and it will show up in your library on release day. But most people... Continue reading…