Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge YouTube is considering changing how and when it shows ads during videos on its main app on connected TVs. One of those changes is more infrequent but longer ad breaks that won’t interrupt what you’re watching as often.Instead of showing short ads interspersed throughout a video, YouTube is trying out longer chunks of ads for non-Premium subscribers that appear in the middle of the content. It’s still not clear how long these new ad breaks will last, as Nicky Rettke, the head of YouTube’s ad products team, tells The Verge that there isn’t a set length.“There are a lot of factors that go into deciding when to show an ad break... so it’s a bit dynamic,” Rettke says. “The overall change is that we’re going to continue to have those dynamic... Continue reading…

Photo by Sarah Stier / Getty Images Whenever there’s another of these drawn-out carriage disputes between cable providers and content owners — and they happen often — I always say that the customers are the ones who get hurt the most. Last week, nearly 15 million Spectrum subscribers abruptly lost their ability to watch ESPN, ABC, and other Disney-owned channels right as Labor Day weekend got underway — and smack dab in the middle of the US Open. In the days since, Disney and Spectrum parent Charter Communications have been throwing blame back and forth like a hot potato.But many people are getting fed up with the blackout, and this includes the US Open athletes themselves. “I guess in a lot of hotels, they have Spectrum, so I cannot watch it on TV anymore,” Daniil... Continue reading…

The Eve Thermo Control is one of the first devices to use a Matter feature called binding. But as of now, none of the smart home platforms support it. | Image: Eve Systems Bridging older smart home gadgets into Matter is finally fully supported, and cameras are on the horizon, but the new smart home standard still has plenty of unfulfilled promises. Continue reading…

Samsung's Galaxy Tab S8 lineup may not represent the best of what Samsung has to offer in the tablet space in 2023, but they remain some of the best Android tablets you can buy. They're very similar to the current-gen Galaxy Tab S9 tablets, meaning you're less likely to notice a significant difference between them. The Galaxy Tab S8 devices are also frequently discounted now, making them an easy recommendation for those looking to buy a reliable and affordable slate.

Buying a good graphics card within the last couple of years has been nothing short of a grand adventure, filled with high prices, low stock levels, and a shortage of electronics to boot. Still, this hasn't halted AMD, Nvidia, and now Intel from launching new products, and today we're going to be looking at the new AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT and Radeon RX 7800 XT. The two GPUs are positioned to take on the RTX 4060 Ti and RTX 4070 graphics cards, hence the similarly named SKUs.

One of many Accessibility features offered in the best iPhones for those with physical and motor limitations extends beyond the smartphone itself. The feature allows you to control other devices using the iPhone.

Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip 5 starts at $799.99. | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge The new iPhone 15 may be just around the corner, but if you’re an Android lover looking for a phone that’ll stand out, Samsung’s newest foldables might fit the bill better. Right now, you can buy the unlocked Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip 5 starting at $799.99 for the model with 256GB of storage from Amazon. Unlike many popular phones on the market, the Galaxy Z Flip 5 is a 6.7-inch flip phone that can fold in half to fit in your pocket. Compared to its predecessor, it comes with a larger, 3.4-inch front cover screen that makes it easier to respond to texts, check your calendar, and interact with apps. It’s also faster thanks to the new Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor, while its IPX8 rating against full water immersion offers extra peace of... Continue reading…

Image: Celal Gunes / Anadolu Agency via Getty Images The Pentagon is considering expanding its fleet of drones and autonomous systems in the next two years, possibly enhancing it with AI.According to The Wall Street Journal, Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks said the Department of Defense plans to develop AI systems “intended to be small, smart, [and] cheap” to counter threats from China and other countries. The Journal said Hicks will announce plans to add more capabilities to the country’s network of drones and sensors that monitor military activities in other countries. One such possibility is a fleet of solar-powered “distributed pods of self-propelled [autonomous] systems” that can provide near-real-time information. The department may also look into autonomous ground-based... Continue reading…

Arven encountering a Ceititan in Paldean Winds | The Pokémon Company The mainline Pokémon anime is sure to eventually delve into much of the magic and mystery shaping the new region Scarlet and Violet are set in. But the new Pokémon: Paldean Winds web series gets right to the business of showing you just what the young trainers matriculating at Naranja (and presumably Uva) Academy are really getting up to as they embark on their grand treasure hunts.Paldean Winds’ first episode — “Breathe Out” from director Ryohei Takeshita and writer Teruko Utsumi — introduces Ohara (Cat Protano), Alquis (Paul Castro Jr.), and Hohma (Caroline Spinola), three Naranja Academy students who are all at different points in figuring out what unique goals they want to achieve as part of the school’s Treasure Hunt course work.... Continue reading…

Portable SSDs are a great option when it comes to external storage. But things can get quite expensive if you're looking to store a lot of data, especially if you need a drive that's going to be able to store over 4TB. With that said, you can now score a phenomenal deal on a 20TB external HD that comes in priced well below its original MSRP. For a limited time, you can grab WD's 20TB external drive for $300, which is 41% off its original price.

The Lenovo Slim Pro 9i (2023) is the top-tier creator laptop in the company’s lineup. It features powerful internals with 13th-gen Intel Core processors and Nvidia GeForce RTX 4000-series discrete graphics. With all of that power, you’ll want to keep your charger with you, so most of these case options have additional pockets.

Windows has long been hailed as the best operating system for gaming, easily beating Linux and macOS when it comes to running the latest graphically-intensive games. But it's not quite as cut and dry these days. Linux gaming has come a long way since the early 2010s when most Windows-based 3D games used to run at drastically reduced framerates on the open-source operating system. In fact, Linux is now a viable platform for gaming, so maybe it's time to give it a shot.