Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Microsoft just posted the second quarter of its 2024 fiscal financial results. The software maker made $62 billion in revenue and a net income of $21.9 billion during Q2. Revenue is up 18 percent, and net income has increased by 33 percent. This is the first quarter Microsoft is reporting earnings as a $3 trillion company and also the first time the company has reported additional revenue from its Activision Blizzard acquisition. This additional revenue has made gaming Microsoft’s third largest business this quarter, above Windows.Office and cloud revenue still reign supreme, contributing nearly 60 percent of Microsoft’s overall revenue. While Windows OEM revenue is bouncing back, devices revenue from Surface sales has continued to... Continue reading…

Image: 2K We finally know why Spec Ops: The Line was delisted — it’s the licensing. Video game newshound Wario64 first sounded the alarm on social media that the game had been removed from Steam and other PC storefronts seemingly without explanation. On X, Cory Davis, the game’s designer and director, was also out of the loop asking the game’s publisher 2K why this happened. “Makes no sense,” Davis wrote. “Especially because the themes portrayed in [Spec Ops: The Line] are more relevant now than ever.”In an email to The Verge, 2K communications director Joe DiMiero offered the reason for the game’s removal:Spec Ops: The Line will no longer be available on online storefronts, as several partnership licenses related to the game are expiring.... Continue reading…

I have some proposed enhancements. | Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images In a case of life imitating Saturday Night Live, Peter Thiel has invested in a seed round of the Enhanced Games, which describes itself as “the modern reinvention of the Olympic Games that does not have drug testing.”It does seem to go a little beyond just not testing, though, at least judging by the press release. The investors “see the vision of a new model of sports, that openly celebrates scientific innovation and honestly represents the use of performance enhancements in sports today,” said Aron D’Souza, president of the Enhanced Games, in the statement. Thiel himself certainly has no problem backing medical experiments.The release says some weird things about not burdening taxpayers because it’s a private company, which made me... Continue reading…

If 2023 was the year of artificial intelligence, 2024 might end up being the year of the AI PC. Plenty of so-called AI PCs are on the market today, and more will come throughout the year. While cloud-based AI tools don't require much, if any, new hardware, the same can't be said for AI that uses on-device processing. The recent advancements in AI and their corresponding performance demands for on-device processing could mean Windows system requirements could finally be pushed forward.

An example of how product links currently appear in TikTok after the launch of TikTok Shop. | Image: TikTok TikTok Shop links could soon become a lot more common across the social media app. Bloomberg reports that the company is testing a new feature that automatically identifies products in the platform’s videos before offering a link to “Find similar items on TikTok Shop.” A spokesperson for the company was not immediately available to respond to The Verge’s request for comment, but it confirmed to Bloomberg that the feature is an early test.Business Insider previously spotted a test of the same feature last November, and we found videos containing footage of the “find similar items on TikTok Shop” button from September and October last year. TikTok previously confirmed that it was testing the feature with a small number of users in the US... Continue reading…

Yelp is joining the wealth of platforms expanding their use of AI, as it’s rolling out a new feature on iOS that rounds up and summarizes user reviews in a blurb that appears near the top of a company’s Yelp page.The new feature uses large language models (LLMs) to parse through user feedback to highlight “what the business is best known for based on first-hand reviews,” Yelp says. That may include a mention of a location’s atmosphere, popular dishes, amenities, and more. One example (as shown in the image at the top of this article) describes a restaurant as a “retro diner well known for its classic cheeseburgers and affordable prices.” GIF: Yelp Yelp is bringing more visual content to its homepage on iOS. It... Continue reading…

Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images Elon Musk isn’t going to get that $55 billion pay package after all, a Delaware Court of Chancery judge has ruled. The ruling means Tesla’s board will need to come up with a new proposal. The ruling threatens Musk’s fortune if it makes it through an appeal, Bloomberg reports. Without the options in that package, Musk may only be the third-richest man in the world.Tesla shareholders approved the package in 2018, which gave Musk incentive to hit specific milestones, including a market valuation of $650 billion, which was more than 10 times Tesla’s value at the time. The trial hinged on a specific question: did Musk mislead the shareholders when he gave them the plan?Tesla shareholders approved the package in 2018Greg Varallo, attorney... Continue reading…

Arlo’s cloud subscription plan for a single camera or video doorbell is increasing to $7.99 a month. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge In more “things are just getting expensive” news, the Arlo Secure subscription service is climbing. Again. This time, it’s going from $4.99 to $7.99 for a single camera or video doorbell. This 60 percent price hike comes on the heels of an increase early last year from $2.99 to $4.99. According to an email sent to single-camera users from Arlo and posted on Reddit, the change is “due to increasing costs and investment in developing innovative solutions.” The updated plans are now live on Arlo’s site, and the lowest-tier Arlo Secure plan, which includes 30 days of cloud storage and smart alerts for people, pets, packages, and vehicles, costs $7.99 monthly for one camera. If you have multiple Arlo cameras, the subscription costs $12.99... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Location tracking can be very handy — it’s convenient when an app can tell you, say, where the nearby restaurants or gas stations are — but it’s also a privacy issue (something that at least one of Google’s competitors has used in its sales pitch).You probably know that Google can track your location and movements through its Google Maps app. But you may not realize that your Android phone is also tracking your movements and activities through several other built-in apps.If you really don’t want your phone to be tracking any of your movements and activities, there is a way to turn tracking off for all (well, most) of them. You just need to be aware that you’re probably going to render many of your apps (such as rideshare apps, weather... Continue reading…

The LGA 1700 socket was made specifically for Intel's 12th and 13th-generation CPUs, but its life got extended when the 14th-gen Raptor Lake refresh chips were released last year, and it's the socket you see on Intel 600 and 700 series motherboards. When it came out in 2021, it put Intel firmly ahead of AMD, and even though the Ryzen 7000 and 8000 have since come out on the AM5 socket to even the score, LGA 1700 motherboards are still cutting-edge enough. If you're looking to upgrade to LGA 1700, you probably don't want to buy a new cooler, but is the one you have compatible? Here's everything you need to know about coolers for LGA 1700.

Fantasy players and sports bettors should be salivating right now. | YouTube Since its launch last spring, YouTube TV’s multiview functionality has been a huge quality-of-life improvement for sports fans. You can use it to watch multiple games concurrently without making space for extra TVs — but until now, you could only watch the predetermined sets of games that YouTube thinks would appeal to most viewers. An incoming update changes that, finally letting you customize multiview with your preferred combination of broadcasts, as spotted by 9to5Google.While a big improvement over the curated multiview feeds YouTube TV launched with, it sounds like you’re still bound by certain limitations. For instance, although you can build your own bundle of specific games, you can still only choose them from a predetermined... Continue reading…

MSCHF The art collective MSCHF is stirring up some trouble on the internet again. For its latest project, ASCII Theater, the group will broadcast a popular new film daily in ASCII format that anyone can watch for free. Just paste the command on your Mac or PC’s terminal, and you can watch films like Barbie exactly as, well, virtually no one has intended. ASCII art films are nothing new and date back to the early days of the internet. They are made by converting a film, frame by frame, into lines of text characters. Instead of pixels, you’ll see text. One of the most famous examples is the ASCII art version of the original 1977 Star Wars movie, which was completed by New Zealand-based programmer Simon Jansen in 1997 and is still available... Continue reading…