The CPU is one of the most important components of a computer because it's responsible for processing all the tasks. Every program you run takes up some processing power from your CPU, which is exactly why the best CPUs out there can get overwhelmed if you run too many programs simultaneously. There are plenty of ways to troubleshoot and lower the CPU usage of your computer, but is RAM, in any way, known to affect the CPU usage? Can adding more RAM help lower CPU usage?

Back in 2020, Google announced that it would soon phase out the use of third-party cookies and user-agent strings in its Chrome web browser, in a bid for better user privacy. It then began trialing various methodologies to offer alternatives to cookies under its Privacy Sandbox initiative, with mechanisms like trust tokens, the Topics API, and more. Now, it has revealed the next phase of its plans to get rid of third-party cookies in Chrome completely.

If there was a technology of the year award for 2023, it would all but certainly go to artificial intelligence. The technology has grown rapidly over the past year and went mainstream with OpenAI's ChatGPT. Many of the biggest tech companies, like Microsoft and Google, have gotten in on the action. Apple has been noticeably quiet, though, leaving people wondering what the company could be working on behind the scenes. For others, it might be worth doubting whether Apple can even keep up with its competitors' rapid pace of AI and machine learning development. Make no mistake: Apple is working on AI and ML, and it has some impressive tricks up its sleeve.

Signify, the company which owns Philips Hue, is restructuring its business to focus on four key areas. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge Signify, the company that owns smart lighting brands Philips Hue and WiZ, is restructuring in the face “of ongoing market volatility and uncertainty.”In a press release on its website published earlier this month, Signify announced a “new customer-centric organization and structural cost reductions.” This appears to signal that the company is focusing more effort on products that consumers and businesses can buy and less on making products for other manufacturers and specialty lighting applications like projectors and lamp electronics.“After the major transformation we achieved through the past decade, we are taking the next step by organizing our company around four vertically integrated businesses. Three of these will focus on... Continue reading…

Image: Epic Games Apple rules the iPhone’s App Store with an iron fist — sideloading outside it is not allowed. Google lets anyone install any app on an Android phone. But guess which one of these two companies has an illegal monopoly, according to the courts?As you probably already know, Google is the one that lost its fight against Epic Games this week. It’s a fight that Apple previously (mostly) won in a similar trial in 2021, beating claims that it had violated antitrust laws by charging mandatory in-app transaction fees and kicking Epic’s game Fortnite off the App Store. Google tried a similar move, but in its case, a jury found it had maintained an unlawful monopoly with the Play store; a judge is scheduled to consider remedies next month.L... Continue reading…

Lenovo has once again refreshed its flagship ThinkPad lineup, including the ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 12 and the new ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 Gen 9. Indeed, Lenovo has changed the branding on its business convertible line, dropping the Yoga brand in favor of the new X1 2-in-1 name. The company also added a few design changes to this model for the first time in a few years, but the overall identity of the X1 2-in-1 should still be fairly familiar.

The two women are the stars of one of the most watches shows on Netflix this year. | Image Amanda Matlovich/Netflix Stop me if you’ve heard this one. You’re at a holiday gathering and some very offline family member starts chatting about the show Yellowstone. Pretty soon after a very online family member looks up in confusion and asks either what the show is or why they keep hearing about it when no one they know seems to watch it. But maybe it’s not Yellowstone. Maybe its La Reina Del Sur, or The Glory, or maybe its Ginny & Georgia. What those three shows all have in common is they’re three of the most watched shows on Netflix between January and June 2023, and if you haven’t heard of them it’s probably because you’re part of the increasing gulf between the shows people talk about online and the ones everyone is actually watching.These new Netflix... Continue reading…

Linux is a great open-source operating system that comes in many different flavors and distributions. It's designed to run on all kinds of hardware, which is why many users tend to dual-boot a Linux flavor like Ubuntu or Linux Mint alongside Windows 11. Unfortunately, however, if you change your mind about Linux and want to get rid of it, there's no easy way to remove Linux from a dual boot setup.

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge A California regulator has settled its blockbuster lawsuit that alleged a culture of sexual harassment at Activision Blizzard. Now under the ownership of Microsoft, the gaming company will pay about $54 million as part of the settlement, according to a press release from California’s Civil Rights Department (CRD). The CRD (formerly known as the Department of Fair Employment and Housing or DFEH) filed this lawsuit in July 2021, alleging that Activision Blizzard had a “frat boy” culture where women were subject to sexual harassment and gender-based discrimination. Following the suit, employees walked out, executives including then-Blizzard president J. Allen Brack and Blizzard’s former SVP of HR left the company, and, months later, The... Continue reading…

Image: Max Though there are a handful of human survivors at the core of its story, the real star of Scavengers Reign isn’t a person; it’s a planet. The animated series features a group of astronauts stranded on a bizarre alien world and follows them as they contend with the harsh, confusing, and downright odd environment around them. There are flying creatures that can double as gas masks and giant monkey-frogs that use psychic powers to lure in victims. Things only get weirder from there. But the fun of the show is seeing how the characters are able to use the strange plants and animals to their advantage. “I think it’s a universally satisfying process to watch people try to survive with limitations,” says supervising director Benjy Brooke.Based... Continue reading…

One of the most obvious things you'll have to do in Linux, whether you're on a Linux-based laptop or desktop, is to shut it down. Unless you want your system to be on all the time, such as if you're running as a server, it's essential to turn off your device to conserve energy. Usually, you can do this by pressing the physical power button on your computer or choosing shutdown from the on-screen user interface. But, if you're feeling a bit more sophisticated, you also can shut down Linux using the command line. These commands are the same for most common Linux distributions like Ubuntu or Linux Mint and will work on servers, too.

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Apple announced a pilot program called “contingent pricing for subscriptions” yesterday that will let App Store developers automatically offer discounted subscriptions for users of other apps. Developers, the company says, will be able to base this on subscriptions “from one developer or two different developers,” which lets them not only to entice customers they already have to their other apps, but also compete by offering deals to their competitors’ subscribers.There’s a slight catch here: According to 9to5Mac, the discount is only good while the customer’s other subscription is active. So if someone tries an app because it offered a deal and decides to cancel the other subscription, they’ll go back to the normal price. Apple also... Continue reading…