Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge This is Hot Pod, The Verge’s newsletter about podcasting and the audio industry. Sign up here for more.Today, we’ve got a joint issue looking at why Apple’s latest iOS update could cause download numbers to go down and featuring a talk about brand safety with Spotify’s director of global advertising platform integrity.Apple tweaked automatic podcast downloads in its latest iOS update. That could impact download numbers moving forward.When Apple released iOS 17 in September, it included an adjustment to how automatic downloads work on podcasts. That may make your eyes glaze over, but it’s a little change that could have a big impact on download numbers, at least in the short term.Could is the key word here since it will take some... Continue reading…

Amazon and Microsoft have collaborated on various initiatives in the past. Amazon has an Alexa app published in the Microsoft Store, and conversely, Microsoft has also released some of its apps on the other's ecosystem. Most notably, the two also partnered to officially support Android apps in Windows 11 back in 2021. Now, a report claims that the two firms are striking a major $1 billion cloud deal.

Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images If you want to join X, the service formerly known as Twitter, via its website in New Zealand and the Philippines, be prepared to fork over $1 a year for the privilege. The subscription, part of a so-called “Not A Bot” program, is beginning in those two countries and is designed to “bolster our already significant efforts to reduce spam, manipulation of our platform and bot activity,” X said Tuesday in an unsigned post on its help center. In addition, new web users in New Zealand and the Philippines will have to verify their account with a phone number, the post says. Fortune first reported that Musk was going to charge new users $1 a year shortly before X’s announcement went live. X’s post doesn’t explain why the new $1 subscription is... Continue reading…

Image: Microsoft OpenAI’s GPT-4 large language model may be more trustworthy than GPT-3.5 but also more vulnerable to jailbreaking and bias, according to research backed by Microsoft.The paper — by researchers from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Stanford University, University of California, Berkeley, Center for AI Safety, and Microsoft Research — gave GPT-4 a higher trustworthiness score than its predecessor. That means they found it was generally better at protecting private information, avoiding toxic results like biased information, and resisting adversarial attacks. However, it could also be told to ignore security measures and leak personal information and conversation histories. Researchers found that users can bypass safeguards... Continue reading…

The primary function of cookies is to make sure your browsing experience isn’t reset every time you open a website. For example, if you added something to your cart on Amazon and closed the browser, the item will still remain in your cart the next time you open it. Cookies are also responsible for keeping you signed in on all the websites you visit. But cookies can also threaten your privacy since they track your usage continuously. So, it's always good to know how to clear cookies from your web browser from time to time. It can even speed up your browsing experience, eliminate bugs, or free up space on your computer. We’re going to tell you how you can clear cookies from your PCs, laptops, or even your smartphones to ensure a safe and snappy web browsing experience.

Illustration: The Verge Google Chrome on iOS and Android devices will look for possible typos in URLs and suggest corrections for you, Google announced in a blog post on Tuesday. This new accessibility feature for mobile versions of Chrome was promised earlier this year when Google released the same feature on Chrome for computers. Google says the URL typo detector will help people with dyslexia or otherwise are language learners. However, after updating my Chrome app on iOS, it doesn’t seem to be here just yet, as it’s not correcting my mistakes such as www.microspft.com or www.nintwndo.com. When it does show up, it could help keep people from ending up on dubious websites if they accidentally enter the wrong URL. Image: Google Left:... Continue reading…

A good day for the defense! | Photo illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photo by Bloomberg, Getty Images Nishad Singh looks less reliable. Is it enough? Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Reddit is sunsetting its blockchain-based Community Points product, the company announced on Tuesday. A Reddit admin (employee) shared the announcement about Community Points, which uses the Ethereum blockchain, on a few subreddits, including r/CryptoCurrency (which had its own “moons” crypto token), r/FortniteBR (which had its own “bricks” token), and r/EthTrader (which had its own “donuts” token). The value of those tokens has, predictably, fallen off of a cliff, as CoinDesk reports drops of between 60 and 90 percent. Some Reddit posters claim thousands of dollars in value disappeared from their wallets immediately, while others are pointing at transactions made just prior to Tuesday’s announcement that they think are suspicious.C... Continue reading…

Level Lock has launched a new Wi-Fi bridge for its “invisible” smart locks that pack all their tech into the deadbolt. But apparently, there’s no room in there for Matter or Thread. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge This week, smart lock maker Level announced a new Wi-Fi bridge for its locks to enable “remote access and integrations with smart home technology platforms,” including Amazon Alexa and Google Home. Welcome to 2015, Level. Instead of embracing what are being touted as the future technologies of the smart home — Matter and Thread — Level has released the Level Connect, a $79 Wi-Fi bridge that plugs into an outlet and acts as a bridge between its lock’s Bluetooth radio and your internet router, so it can be controlled remotely and work with cloud-enabled smart home platforms. Why is Level resorting to the old ways when it could implement Matter and Thread? The Wi-Fi bridge was developed for the earliest smart locks (the August Lock got... Continue reading…

Applying thermal paste is one of the most important steps you'll take while building a PC. The paste, also known as the thermal compound, is applied to the top of the CPU's Integrated Heat Spreader (IHS) to fill the air gaps that are formed due to the microscopic imperfections on the surface of the IHS and the metal base of your CPU cooler. This paste essentially paves ways for a more efficient heat transfer to ensure your CPU's operating temperature remains under the acceptable limits. Simply put, thermal paste helps your CPU stay cool at all times, and you can't build a PC without it.

Image: EA There’s a whole host of great games hitting Xbox Game Pass throughout October, including the grisly Dead Space remake that’s arriving just in time for Halloween. The Dead Space remake offers a complete overhaul of the original 2008 sci-fi horror title, and it’s headed to Game Pass for cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X / S on October 26th.But if you can’t wait until then, the Yakuza spinoff Like A Dragon: Ishin! is available to play through Game Pass on cloud, console, and PC starting today. Here’s the rest of the games coming to Game Pass through the end of the month and when they’re arriving:F1 Manager 2023 (cloud, console, and PC): October 19thCities: Skylines II (PC): October 24thFrog Detective: The Entire Mystery (cloud and... Continue reading…

While Nvidia has had a lead in the GPU industry for a while, AMD has been catching up really quickly of late. Choosing between AMD and Nvidia graphics cards isn't exactly a straightforward process and the companies don't help matters with the naming schemes, inconsistent price-to-performance ratios, and the usual marketing jargon. This is where our helpful Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 vs. AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX guide comes into play!