Stay immersed for a bit longer, but maybe not as immersed. | Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge Meta is rolling out a software update that lets Quest 3 users eke out more battery life at the expense of graphics quality. In addition to this new Battery Saver mode, the v59 update also gives VR streamers a way to keep track of YouTube Live Chat within the headset, includes more reactions and stickers in a chat, adds legs to your avatar in Horizon Home, and enhances the Activities tab to easily find friend recommendations and drop in to play. Another note says that the Remote Display app from the Quest Pro “will become available for Quest 3 and Quest 2 over time,” allowing wearers to project their own computer screen into a VR environment.With the new update, users can switch to a lower graphics output setting on Meta Quest 3 that... Continue reading…

Mark Zuckerberg. | Image: Meta The rumors of Threads’ early demise have been exaggerated.Meta’s competitor to Elon Musk’s X has hit “just under” 100 million monthly users since it was released in early July, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Wednesday during his company’s quarterly earnings call. “We’re three months in now, and I’m very happy with the trajectory,” he said, echoing the bullish comments he made about how Threads is doing during a recent interview with The Verge. “We’re now getting to the point where we’re going to be focusing on growing the community further. From what we can tell, people love it so far.”As the head of Instagram explained at the launch of Threads, Meta sees an opening to seriously compete with the platform formerly known as Twitter now... Continue reading…

Image: The Verge Big changes are coming to Spotify’s royalty model, according to Music Business Worldwide (MBW). If and when they are implemented in early 2024, it will raise the bar for who gets paid from music streaming on the platform — and direct more money to major labels and artists.Two of the three proposed changes should be relatively uncontroversial. According to the report, Spotify will fine music distributors (including labels) for fraudulent activity detected on their tracks. Streaming fraud is pretty widespread, and a crackdown is long overdue. The second change will raise the minimum length of play time for noise tracks (background noise like rain, static, etc.) before they start earning royalties. Currently, any track that gets played for... Continue reading…

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Apple will try to better differentiate its AirPods lineup as new models launch over the next couple of years, according to a new report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. That will include phasing out both the second-gen and third-gen AirPods when a successor is announced sometime next fall. Gurman claims that the third-gen “regular” AirPods haven’t sold particularly well and partially attributes this to consumers frequently opting for the older, cheaper second-gen pair, which Apple has continued to sell.To avoid facing that problem again, Apple plans to simultaneously launch two sets of fourth-generation AirPods in 2024. Both sets will sit beneath the AirPods Pro, with pricing remaining similar to where it is today, but the two SKUs will... Continue reading…

Illustration: The Verge X, the platform previously known as Twitter, is rolling out audio and video calls. Several users on the platform, including some of us here at The Verge, have received a notification when opening the app, stating: “Audio and video calls are here!”There’s also a new “Enable audio and video calling” toggle within the app’s settings, which says you can “turn the feature on and then select who you’re comfortable using it with.” It includes options to allow audio and video calls from only people in your address book, people you follow, verified users, or all three. You can then make a call by opening a DM with another user, selecting the phone icon in the top right corner of the screen, and choosing audio or video call. S... Continue reading…

Generative AI (GAI) is all the rage these days with tech companies investing a significant amount of time and money in the development of general purpose large language models (LLMs), chatbots, and AI copilots. One key area in this domain is text generation and now, Grammarly has decided to throw its hat into the ring by announcing the general availability of certain GAI capabilities for its writing utility.

There are a lot of USB cables on the market, but not all are created equal. While there are plenty of cheap alternatives, you're going to want to try and purchase ones that offer excellent durability, great speed, and safe charging.

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Social messaging platform Telegram has blocked channels used by Hamas, but only on Android phones due to violations of Google’s app store guidelines. According to CNBC, two channels — hamas_com and al-Qassam brigades — were cut off for Android users, though other channels the group uses, like Gaza Now, are still accessible.Telegram blamed the blocks on Google’s app store guidelines, according to reporting in The Jerusalem Post. Users reportedly see an error saying the channels can’t be viewed on “Telegram apps downloaded from the Google Play Store,” implying that the ban doesn’t extend to the app when it’s downloaded from elsewhere or used on another operating system.A Google spokesperson, who asked to be quoted anonymously due to the... Continue reading…

WhatsApp is one of the most popular instant messaging apps, connecting billions of users worldwide. The Meta-owned service works across the latest iPhones, Android smartphones, and even desktop computers. And while Wear OS users can utilize a dedicated WhatsApp app that lives on their wrists, an official solution remains absent on watchOS. Worry not, though, as you can still use WhatsApp on your Apple Watch by following the steps below.

The Magic Capsule technology is coming to Honor’s next flagship. | Image: Honor We were expecting — and we got — a lot of talk about generative AI this morning when Honor CEO George Zhao took the stage at Qualcomm’s 2023 Snapdragon Summit. But the announcement of its Honor 6 flagship came with a surprising detail: it includes a feature that lets you interact with the device using your eyes. With some notable concerns about privacy implications, it looks kinda cool.The keynote briefly featured a rendering of what this technology will look like, showing a woman looking at her phone with a snippet of the Uber app running at the top of the screen — something like a Live Activity. By changing the direction of her gaze, she opens the app in full.Honor calls the technology Magic Capsule, and describes it as “eye-tracking... Continue reading…

Image: Meta Meta’s newest update to Horizon Worlds, its 3D social network, adds some useful changes, but while reading the v133 patch notes, I chuckled more than once because of things Meta probably didn’t intend to be funny.Arguably the biggest addition is a new “time spent” feature. The dashboard shows you how much time you’ve put into Horizon Worlds over seven days and how that time is divided between playing in VR and on web / mobile. Image: Meta A screenshot of Horizon Worlds’ “time spent” dashboard — but I don’t know anyone who plays for four hours per week. We should be cognizant of how much time we’re spending staring at screens. But given Meta has been struggling to keep Horizon Worlds users, how many people... Continue reading…

Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge Nothing is more frustrating than buying a new pair of headphones, an OLED TV, or a backpack just to find out that you could have gotten it for a lot cheaper somewhere else. In order to keep customers happy — and prevent them from going elsewhere — many retailers offer price-matching policies where they promise to match a lower price you’ve found elsewhere. That’s information that could come in handy now that Black Friday and Cyber Monday are just around the corner.What follows are the price-matching policies for a variety of major retailers. There are a few things to make note of here. First, all price-matching policies have a number of rules attached to them. We’ve summarized some of the rules here, but you’d be advised to go to the... Continue reading…