Illustration: The Verge Google just announced it’s giving website publishers a way to opt out of having their data used to train the company’s AI models while remaining accessible through Google Search. The new tool, called Google-Extended, allows sites to continue to get scraped and indexed by crawlers like the Googlebot while avoiding having their data used to train the company’s present and future AI models. The company says Google-Extended will let publishers “manage whether their sites help improve Bard and Vertex AI generative APIs,” adding that web publishers can use the toggle to “control access to content on a site.” Google confirmed in July that it’s training its AI chatbot, Bard, on publicly available data scraped from the web. Google-Extended is... Continue reading…

If you've been shopping for a TV lately, you've probably noticed that there are a lot of great options available. While you can spend thousands on one of the best TVs out right now, you can easily spend hundreds and get something that's actually pretty good. So if you've been looking to purchase a great quality TV, but didn't want to break the bank, this 55-inch model from TCL is going to the best option for you. Right now, you can purchase this TV for just $270, which is an absolute steal.

Amazon Prime Day is one of the best times of the year for those wanting to buy new technology for their lives. This year, Amazon is holding a second round of Prime Day deals, and it's approaching quickly. It's called Prime Big Deal Days, and it will take place on October 10th and 11th, and you'll definitely want to keep your eyes peeled for deals as we approach the big days.

The Philips Hue Bridge is required to access many of Hue’s smart lighting system features, and soon, you’ll need an account to use them, too. Smart lighting stalwart Philips Hue is making some more changes. After launching a new security system last month and finally making good on its promise to support Matter, the company is now requiring users to sign up for a Hue account to use its app.For most people, this might not seem like a big deal; if you have Hue smart bulbs, you probably already have a Hue account, which has always been optional but lets you do things like connect the bulbs to platforms such as Amazon Alexa for voice control. But for some, the ability to use Hue’s line of smart lighting without creating an account was a big part of its appeal. Yes, its products are pricey, but you don’t have to give the company your data. That could be about to change.According... Continue reading…

Chromebooks are great for the multimedia experience and not just for browsing the web. The best Chromebooks, like the HP Dragonfly Pro Chromebook, are convertibles that let you flip the screen around and watch movies or YouTube online without your keyboard getting in the way. A great ChromeOS tablet like the Lenovo IdeaPad Duet 5 Chromebook might also have an OLED screen that brings the content on the screen to life.

ChromeOS isn't exactly known as a gaming platform. Most people think about even the best Chromebooks as low-cost machines that work great as a dedicated browser or school laptop. However, it's actually quite easy to enjoy a host of games on your Chromebook or Chromebox.

The Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 is a great mid-rage, more affordable GPU compared to some of the more expensive graphics cards from AMD and Nvidia. AMD launched the Radeon RX 7800 XT to take on Team Green's RTX 40-series GPU, but the real question is: Which graphics card is best out of the two, and which GPU should you buy? We're going to look at the specifications, pricing, and in-game numbers to help you make the right decision.

Like most other pieces of software, Windows has consistently grown over the years. Back when Microsoft released Windows 7 in 2009, the OS weighed as little as 2.4GB and required no more than 20GB of space on your storage drive. Since then, the applications and features offered by the newer Windows operating systems have continued to grow, which ultimately increases their storage requirements. Take Windows 11, for example. You need at least 64GB of free space on your laptop or desktop PC if you want to install the base ISO on your boot drive. Likewise, you'll need a minimum of 8GB storage capacity on your flash drive when creating a bootable drive containing Microsoft's latest OS.

Image: Spotify Spotify is rolling out auto-generated podcast transcripts to more creators in the coming weeks, the company announced Thursday. The text transcripts will also be time-synced so listeners can visually follow along as a podcast episode progresses. Transcripts are available by scrolling down below the podcast player and tapping into a “read along” section. A transcription of a show makes the podcast more accessible to users and allows listeners to skip around and skim an episode without listening through. Spotify says “millions” of podcast episodes will get the tool, and in the future, creators could add media to transcripts — a useful feature if a creator is describing an image on the show, for example. Beyond transcripts, mobile... Continue reading…

Apple is expected to launch the iPhone SE 4 in 2025 as the successor to last year's third-gen iPhone SE. Rumors have long suggested that the upcoming device could bring a number of upgrades over its predecessor, and a new report now reveals some of the new features and design choices that could finally bring Apple's mid-ranger to the modern era.

What evidence is he sitting on? | Image: The Verge And potentially very embarrassing for all of crypto. Continue reading…

 Drolta Tzuentes as she appears in Castlevania: Nocturne. | Image: Netflix Netflix’s newest Castlevania animated series reworks elements of the franchise’s best games into an epic history lesson about freedom and the French Revolution. Continue reading…