The Halcyon is a sleek roadster with a lot of interesting things to say about Chrysler’s future | © 2024 Stellantis Chrysler, on the cusp of turning 100 next year, used to make a variety of models but is now a brand mostly known for its Pacifica minivans. But today, the company is attempting to make a bold statement about its future by introducing a concept car that is about as far from a minivan as you can get.The Chrysler Halcyon concept is a stunning, high-tech roadster with an electric powertrain and fully autonomous capabilities. And while the automaker doesn’t have any immediate plans to put it into production, the Halcyon is intended to demonstrate that the minivan company is doing more than just sitting around and thinking about, well, minivans. Image: © 2024 Stellantis “We want Chrysler to be advanced, for sure,”... Continue reading…

Image: Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Nearly two years after it first debuted, Panic has caught up on preorders for its adorable Playdate handheld. The company says that it has shipped more than 70,000 of the tiny yellow gadgets — up from 50,000 last April — and that there is now a “limited number” in stock to purchase right now on Panic’s site. (The news comes just a day after Analogue announced a similar milestone for its Pocket handheld.)“Going forward, Panic will notify the public when Playdates are in-stock and ready to ship,” the company explains. “Customers will still be able to place an order for a Playdate when it is out of stock, but will be notified that their order won’t ship until Panic has a new batch of Playdates ready to ship.” Speaking to The Verge, Greg... Continue reading…

Fitbit makes an array of fitness trackers, from basic fitness bands to full-fledged smartwatches, though the best Fitbit smartwatch isn’t technically a Fitbit. | Photo illustration by William Joel / The Verge Whether you want a basic fitness tracker or a smartwatch, there’s a Fitbit for everyone — though the best Fitbit smartwatch isn’t technically a Fitbit. Continue reading…

Illustration: The Verge Talking to an AI chatbot can feel a bit like Groundhog Day after a while, as you tell it for the umpteenth time how you like your emails formatted and which of those “fun things to do this weekend” you’ve already done six times. OpenAI is trying to fix that and personalize its own bot in a big way. It’s rolling out “memory” for ChatGPT, which will allow the bot to remember information about you and your conversations over time.Memory works in one of two ways. You can tell ChatGPT to remember something specific about you: you always write code in Javascript, your boss’s name is Anna, your kid is allergic to sweet potatoes. Or ChatGPT can simply try to pick up those details over time, storing information about you as you ask questions and... Continue reading…

The endangered Steppe Eagle is one of the migratory species that has become even more threatened in the past 30 years, according to a new UN report. | Photo by: Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images More than one in five migratory species officially deemed in need of international protection are now in danger of extinction. That’s according to the most comprehensive report of their populations yet, released as a United Nations wildlife conservation conference kicks off this week in Samarkand, Uzbekistan.Human activity is pushing these species to the brink. But that also means there are concrete steps people can take to safeguard their futures. The first-of-its-kind stocktake of the world’s migratory species isn’t all doom and gloom — there are some success stories sprinkled in there. It just goes to show that it’s not too late to act; it just has to be fast because the clock is ticking for many of the billions of animals that... Continue reading…

Image: The Verge Apple’s iMessage is not being designated as a “core platform service” under the European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA), the European Commission announced today. The decision means the service won’t be hit with tough new obligations, including a requirement to offer interoperability with other messaging services. The Commission also opted against designating Microsoft’s Edge browser, Bing search engine, and advertising business as core platform services.“Following a thorough assessment of all arguments, taking into account input by relevant stakeholders, and after hearing the Digital Markets Advisory Committee, the Commission found that iMessage, Bing, Edge and Microsoft Advertising do not qualify as gatekeeper services,” the EU’s... Continue reading…

Superlist is for tasks — and all the other stuff that comes with them. | Image: Superlist If you’re a lover of to-do list apps, there’s a good chance you miss Wunderlist. A decade ago — when apps that were both useful and delightful were even harder to come by — Wunderlist was both full of useful features and whimsical in a way few apps manage. The app had nice animations, beautiful backgrounds, worked across platforms, and offered all kinds of organizational features. It was The Verge’s favorite to-do list app.Then, long story short, Microsoft bought it in 2015, morphed it into Microsoft To Do (a very good and much less delightful tasks app), and killed Wunderlist forever. But a group of the folks who made Wunderlist in the first place, led by co-founder Christian Reber, set out to bring its spirit back to life.Three years... Continue reading…

Image: Apple Apple TV Plus has some more aliens on the way. The streaming service has confirmed that its sci-fi drama Invasion will be getting a third season, after wrapping up season 2 in October. There aren’t many details about the new season — including when it might start streaming — but production is set to begin sometime in February.In a statement, series creator Simon Kinberg said, “This new season will continue to build on the scale, stakes and propulsion of the Invasion, while keeping our characters front and center, bringing them together in ways that will hopefully surprise and most importantly move our audience, who have been so incredibly supportive and inspiring since day one.”Invasion originally premiered in 2021; after a slow start,... Continue reading…

The graphics card remains one of the most expensive components you'll purchase for a PC. Whether upgrading the GPU or building a new system from scratch, you can expect to pay multiple hundreds on the lower tier GPUs with the flagship models from AMD and Nvidia costing nearly $1,000, if not more. I will put forward some reasons why you should consider canceling your GPU search and making do with the graphics card installed inside your system.

AMD FreeSync is an adaptive synchronization technology designed to reduce screen tearing and stuttering in games by allowing a compatible monitor to dynamically adjust its refresh rate to match the frame rate output by the graphics card. This results in smoother gameplay and improved visual performance, particularly in fast-paced games. Nvidia's equivalent is called G-Sync, and you may be wondering whether FreeSync is compatible with Nvidia cards, and the short answer is yes, though there are caveats to that.

Lyft is expanding Women Plus Connect, an in-app feature that matches women and nonbinary drivers with women and nonbinary riders, to all US cities. The rideshare service initially launched the initiative in five cities last fall, with the goal of both improving safety and recruiting more female and nonbinary users. Over 2.4 million riders have activated Women Plus Connect since its rollout, according to Lyft’s press materials. Drivers aren’t required to participate in Women Plus Connect if they don’t want to, and if no nearby passengers matching the profile are available, the app will match with a male passenger. Nearly half of Lyft’s eligible pool of drivers in the eight cities have opted to use the feature. Female and nonbinary... Continue reading…

With Every Noise at Once no longer updating, finding new music directly on Spotify has become a farce. | Image: Nick Barclay / The Verge Spotify sucks at new music discovery. That’s not exactly a hot take considering how long users have been complaining about it over the years, but it used to be much easier to forgive when alternative services like Pandora and SoundCloud could help to make up for Spotify’s shortcomings. With the company’s domination over the music streaming industry now becoming difficult to ignore, it’s getting harder to organically find new songs and artists — especially on the Spotify platform itself.As a near-decade-long Spotify Premium subscriber, one of my favorite workarounds was Every Noise at Once — a website created by Spotify data alchemist Glenn McDonald that essentially served as a directory that mapped out and tracked each music genre... Continue reading…