Image: HBO The second season of HBO’s The Last of Us will debut in 2025. A new teaser dropped by Max confirmed the date and also offered a glimpse into its 2024 lineup.The news comes after showrunner Craig Mazin revealed production will start on February 12th, 2024, which is later than originally planned because of the Writers Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Despite the delay, work on the second season is still underway with an outline already prepared and the first episode’s script submitted before the strike.The forthcoming season will take place a few years after the first. It will likely be an adaptation of The Last of Us Part II video game, which is getting a remastered version for PlayStation 5 on January 19th, 2024. Bella Ramsey... Continue reading…

You need a valid Windows license to use Microsoft's operating system on your computer. When your Windows PC license expires or becomes invalid, a dialog box stating "Your Windows license will expire soon" will pop up on your display. However, you might get this error even on top laptops with Windows pre-installed. The reminder also appears for some Windows 10 users upgrading to Windows 11.

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GameStop’s current promo takes $25 off Nintendo’s latest holiday bundle as long as you’re willing to visit a brick-and-mortar store. | Image: Nintendo Unsurprisingly, Black Friday and Cyber Monday brought a flurry of discounts on the Xbox Series X, PlayStation 5, and all three iterations of the Nintendo Switch. Some of those deals have since dried up — pour one out for the $349 Xbox Series X deal we saw last week — but a few newcomers have popped up in their stead. Take GameStop’s current promo on the Smash Bros.-inspired Nintendo Switch OLED bundle, which drops the excellent console bundle to $324.99 ($25 off) when you purchase in-store or order online and pick it up in-store.While not as slick as the previous Super Smash Bros.-themed Switch, Nintendo’s latest holiday bundle makes up for it in sheer value (especially at this price). It includes a Nintendo Switch OLED and a pair of... Continue reading…

Big Mac meets machine learning. | Illustration: The Verge McDonald’s is partnering with Google to deploy generative AI beginning in 2024, when “thousands” of stores will get hardware and software upgrades. Along with updates to other systems including ordering kiosks and the company’s mobile app, McDonald’s will be able to use generative AI on massive amounts of data to optimize operations. At least one outcome will be — according to the company — “hotter, fresher food” for customers. Large orders of fries delivered hot, thanks to large language models? It’s not completely clear what that means, but we can read between the lines: expect more AI-driven automation at a drive-through near you in the coming years.McDonald’s isn’t specific about how AI will be used but says it will include hardware... Continue reading…

Image: PaulSakuma.com AMD wants people to remember that Nvidia’s not the only company selling AI chips. It’s announced the availability of new accelerators and processors geared toward running large language models, or LLMs. The chipmaker unveiled the Instinct MI300X accelerator and the Instinct M1300A accelerated processing unit (APU), which the company said works to train and run LLMs. The company said the MI300X has 1.5 times more memory capacity than the previous M1250X version. Both new products have better memory capacity and are more energy-efficient than their predecessors, said AMD. “LLMs continue to increase in size and complexity, requiring massive amounts of memory and compute,” AMD CEO Lisa Su said. “And we know the availability of GPUs is the... Continue reading…

Although Google is constantly looking for ways to improve its Google Drive cloud storage service, bugs sometimes slip through the cracks, causing issues for its customers. For the past couple of weeks, users of the Drive desktop client have been complaining that some of their files have mysteriously vanished. Google confirmed the existence of the problem a few days ago, and now, it has outlined some steps that affected customers can follow to recover their lost content.

Illustration: Nick Barclay / The Verge Meta is rolling out end-to-end encryption for one-on-one chats and calls on Messenger, finally fulfilling a promise that’s been in the works for quite awhile. When end-to-end encryption is on, only you and the person you send a message to in Messenger can see its contents, the company claims.Encrypted chats were first introduced as an opt-in feature in Messenger in 2016, but after a long windup, end-to-end encrypted messages and calls for conversations between two people will now be the standard going forward. “This has taken years to deliver because we’ve taken our time to get this right,” Loredana Crisan, VP of Messenger, said in a statement shared with The Verge. “Our engineers, cryptographers, designers, policy experts and product... Continue reading…

The Verge / Photo by Steve Jennings, Getty Images Dream Scenario’s Nic Cage wants you to know that there’s a difference between maximalism and pushing the boundaries of filmmaking as an art. Continue reading…

Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images Alan Rosa, former head of security for Twitter, filed a lawsuit against X, Elon Musk, and company adviser Steve Davis, alleging that he was wrongly fired for protesting Musk-led cost-cutting measures. Lawyers for Rosa wrote in the complaint that the cuts hampered Twitter’s ability to comply with the regulatory demands of the Federal Trade Commission and the European Commission. The lawsuit alleged that Musk hired Steve Davis as an adviser and gave him broad authority, with which he immediately “began cutting Twitter’s products and services that supported and complied with the Twitter FTC Consent Decree.” Twitter had settled with the FTC over its inappropriate use of users’ personal information only a few months before, prompting the... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Google has a solution for the sync issue that caused files to disappear for some users on Drive for desktop. Unfortunately, it’s not as simple as a one-click update, but Google has posted a list of steps you can take to recover your files.After downloading and opening the latest version of Google Drive for Windows or macOS, Google says to run the app’s recovery tool. To do this, click the Drive icon in the menu bar or system tray. From there, press and hold Shift, click Settings, and select “Recover from backups.” If all goes well, you’ll receive a notice that says “Recovery has started.” Google will put all the recovered files into a new folder named “Google Drive recovery” once the process is complete. In case you run into any... Continue reading…

Image: A24 Indie powerhouse A24 has a new home for its theatrical releases — both new and old. The production company has inked a multiyear exclusive deal with Warner Bros. Discovery to bring its entire slate of new releases to HBO, Max, and Cinemax after they leave theaters. On top of that, the two companies extended a licensing deal for its films that are already on HBO and Max — and will grow to include over 100 films in total, including The Whale, Uncut Gems, Everything Everywhere All At Once, and others. The agreement is a Pay 1 output deal — which will mean that after new A24 films complete their run in theaters, they’ll only be available on these WBD-owned platforms for a set period of time. A24 had a similar Pay 1 deal with Showtime it... Continue reading…