It’s a big thing for a tech heavyweight like Samsung to invest in a more niche wearable device. | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge Smartwatches have long reigned supreme in the wearable world. Smart rings have hovered around the periphery, but earlier this week, Samsung ended its Unpacked event with a tease of the Galaxy Ring. To me, that reads like the company is itching to shake up the wearable world order.That might sound hyperbolic given that all Samsung did was play a flashy reel of a sparkly ring with a few visible sensors on the inside of the band. Few details were given onstage. But in an email, Samsung spokesperson Amber Reaver told me that the ring is meant to “empower more people to manage their health with a comprehensive yet simplified approach to everyday wellness at home.” Part of that is having consistent and accurate tracking data over a lengthy... Continue reading…

Galaxy AI: free, for now. Galaxy AI has arrived, as Samsung has declared in the loudest way possible, but the company left one small detail out of its presentation earlier this week: it might come at a cost. The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra, S24 Plus, and S24 all include a smorgasbord of new AI features — everything from translating phone conversations to removing objects from photos. They’ll even be coming to many older phones, too. But as spotted by Android Central, the fine print on Samsung’s website reveals that they might not be free forever. And that might be a tough sell.The footnote at the bottom of the Galaxy S24 Ultra product page is vague, but clearly leaves a door open for Samsung to charge later: “Galaxy AI features will be provided for free until the... Continue reading…

Image: Square Enix Making sure an event as large as Games Done Quick (GDQ) runs smoothly is a monumental task. There are lots of technical moving parts, from video equipment, to lighting, sound, and stream overlays, to donation trackers that have to be kept running 24 hours a day for a week straight. The tech team also has to consider the individual needs of over 100 runners playing on consoles that range in age and complexity from the NES to the PlayStation 5.With all of that going on, I wondered which game out of the thousands that have been run at GDQ throughout its 10-plus-year history the tech team hates the most, and the answer surprised me.It’s the PSX SquareSoft (remember them??) RPG Chrono Cross.After speaking with GDQ’s director of technology,... Continue reading…

One of the underrated features available on the iPhone 15 Pro Max and other models is Personal Hotspot. Through this tool, you can turn your iPhone into a Wi-Fi router of sorts, enabling other nearby devices to use the internet through it. Whether you need to connect to your kid's tablet while on the go, or your internet just cut out during a Zoom call, linking to your hotspot can be very useful. While the feature requires an active mobile data plan, you can easily learn how to set it up in this guide.

Users can disable the feature within their account settings, and restrict who can contact them when it’s enabled. | Illustration: The Verge X (formerly Twitter) is now rolling out its audio and video calling capabilities to Android users following their iOS launch last October. Users may need to update the app to see the feature, according to X developer Enrique Barragan, who also says that any user can receive calls, but only X Premium subscribers can place them.It’s unclear how long the rollout will take to reach all Android users, though we’ve confirmed that at least one of The Verge’s Android devices is showing the feature after the X app was updated. X Premium subscriptions start at $3 per month for the “Basic” tier, but it isn’t clear from X’s Help Centre which tier the outbound video and audio calling perk is locked behind. Image: X There are... Continue reading…

Last year’s iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max, which introduced the Action Button. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Another report, this time from The Information, claims that Apple is testing a new camera-focused button for inclusion on this year’s iPhone release, presumably called the iPhone 16. According to the publication’s sources, the button could be located on the lower right side of the device, placing it under your index finger when taking photos and videos in landscape. Rumors of a new camera button have been around since at least September, when MacRumors reported on the in-development feature. But while MacRumors reported that the button would be capacitive, and therefore simulate a press with a vibration, The Information says it’ll be mechanical like a traditional button, but with extra capacitive features that make it both touch- and... Continue reading…

Jeep’s all-electric Wagoneer S to hit US dealerships in the fall. | Image: Jeep Jeep’s first all-electric vehicle for the US, the midsize Wagoneer S, will be available for purchase this fall, according to a press release. The vehicle’s specifications are similar to when Jeep first teased the Wagoneer S in 2022: 600hp, a zero to 60mph time of about 3.5 seconds, and a grille lit by LEDs. But as Car and Driver notes, Jeep owner Stellantis has yet to confirm whether the Wagoneer S includes the 400-mile target range the company announced when it first showed off the vehicle. The Verge has reached out to Stellantis for comment. The all-electric 2025 Jeep Recon is also slated to go on sale sometime in 2024, according to Jeep’s website. Unlike the more modern-looking Wagoneer S, the Recon evokes the old-school era of... Continue reading…

Apple’s Vision Pro headset. | Image: Apple The Apple Vision Pro headset’s sticker price of $3,499 is nothing to sneeze at. But if you choose not to pay the additional $24.99 per month or $499 for two years of AppleCare Plus coverage, be sure to handle your new headset with kid gloves. For users without a coverage plan, repairing a cracked cover glass will cost $799, according to Apple’s updated support page for the Vision Pro. If you are covered under AppleCare Plus, repairing either a cracked cover glass or other accidental damage will cost $299. At these rates, paying for two years of AppleCare Plus and the reduced cover glass repair fee costs a combined $798 — an entire $1 less than the repair costs without the service plan. The terms and conditions (pdf) explain the... Continue reading…

CPU-Z, a well-known system information tool by CPUID, has recently introduced its ARM64 version for Windows ARM64 PCs. This release represents a significant shift for CPU-Z, aligning with the increasing adoption of ARM-based devices in the computing sector.

Illustration: The Verge Microsoft is revealing today that it has discovered a nation-state attack on its corporate systems from the same Russian state-sponsored group of hackers that were responsible for the sophisticated SolarWinds attack. Microsoft says the hackers, known as Nobelium, were able to access email accounts of some members of its senior leadership team late last year. “Beginning in late November 2023, the threat actor used a password spray attack to compromise a legacy non-production test tenant account and gain a foothold, and then used the account’s permissions to access a very small percentage of Microsoft corporate email accounts, including members of our senior leadership team and employees in our cybersecurity, legal, and other functions,... Continue reading…

CES 2024 has come and gone, giving us an early look at the latest developments in computers, phones, laptops, TVs, monitors, and all the wearable tech in between. Oh, and some manufacturers also heard you like AI, so they decided to hammer AI into everything. Now that the CES dust has settled, and I've had some breathing room to filter out AI and read up on the gauntlet of computer innovation that came swinging our way, it's time to reflect on the absolute best and most exciting desktop and PC components we saw at CES 2024.

Image: OpenAI A new report from Bloomberg says that once-again CEO of OpenAI Sam Altman’s efforts to raise billions for an AI chip venture are aimed at using that cash to develop a “network of factories” for fabrication that would stretch around the globe and involve working with unnamed “top chip manufacturers.” A major cost and limitation for running AI models is having enough chips to handle the computations behind bots like ChatGPT or DALL-E that answer prompts and generate images. Nvidia’s value rose above $1 trillion for the first time last year, partly due to a virtual monopoly it has as GPT-4, Gemini, Llama 2, and other models depend heavily on its popular H100 GPUs.Accordingly, the race to manufacture more high-powered chips to run complex... Continue reading…