Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge IBM has returned to the facial recognition market — just three years after announcing it was abandoning work on the technology due to concerns about racial profiling, mass surveillance, and other human rights violations.In June 2020, as Black Lives Matter protests swept the US after George Floyd’s murder, IBM chief executive Arvind Krishna wrote a letter to Congress announcing that the company would no longer offer “general purpose” facial recognition technology. “The fight against racism is as urgent as ever,” he wrote. “IBM firmly opposes and will not condone uses of any technology, including facial recognition technology offered by other vendors, for mass surveillance, racial profiling, violations of basic human rights and freedoms,... Continue reading…

The first generation of PCIe 5.0 SSDs is finally upon us, and what started as a trickle of drives earlier this year has quickly become a flood. Tons of companies are attempting to make the best M.2 PCIe 5.0 SSDs for consumers, and while MSI is a relative newcomer to SSDs, that hasn't stopped the company from launching the Spatium M570. The M570 is a definite upgrade over PCIe 4.0 SSDs, but it's not quite the fastest PCIe 5.0 SSD you can buy.

Image: The Verge X, the platform previously known as Twitter, is expanding the amount of data it collects on users. The social network has updated its privacy policy to include carveouts for “biometric information” and “employment history,” as spotted by Bloomberg.“Based on your consent, we may collect and use your biometric information for safety, security, and identification purposes,” the privacy policy reads. It doesn’t include any details on what kind of biometric information this includes — or how X plans to collect it — but it typically involves fingerprints, iris patterns, or facial features. X Corp. was named in a proposed class action lawsuit in July over claims that its data collection violates the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act.... Continue reading…

Sometimes, having one monitor just isn't enough. And if you're looking to expand you're current setup, there's no better option then going with another monitor. However, purchasing a new monitor can be expensive, and a traditional monitor really doesn't offer the flexibility when it comes to taking it with you to a job site or if you're traveling.

Image: Jabra With Apple and Samsung both offering earbuds that deliver excellent sound quality and compelling ecosystem tricks, it’s getting increasingly harder for regular old earbud makers to stand out. Even mainstays in the category like Jabra can sometimes get lost in the mix — despite having an expansive product lineup. So today Jabra is announcing two new premium earbuds at the same time, with each targeted at very different use cases. The flagship Elite 10 ($249) is intended to be the company’s best-sounding and most comfortable pair of earbuds yet, while the fitness-geared Elite 8 Active buds ($199) have reached a new level of durability (with the ratings and certifications to prove it). Both also mark Jabra’s embracing of spatial audio.D... Continue reading…

People swarm around the S5 at its reveal in March 2022. VanMoof’s future is less clear. | Photo by Thomas Ricker / The Verge Lavoie is buying bankrupt e-bike maker VanMoof. The e-mobility subsidiary of McLaren Applied announced today that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the VanMoof e-bike business. The announcement gives new hope to the trailblazing brand and the roughly 200,000 people who bought its high-tech e-bikes made from proprietary components. “Under the terms of the agreement, the acquisition will see Lavoie and McLaren Applied inject stability into the VanMoof operations,” reads a press release, “then combining and integrating their premium capabilities to create a next-generation e-mobility business and establish a world-leading premium e-mobility offering.”Lavoie announced its first electric scooter in late 2022, with... Continue reading…

Even the lavender version of Samsung’s Galaxy Buds 2 Pro are on sale right now. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Apple may release a new set of AirPods with support for USB-C in a matter of weeks, but if you’re embedded in the Samsung ecosystem, there are more suitable pairs of earbuds on the market already. The Samsung Galaxy Buds 2 Pro are a great case in point and are on sale starting at $177.99 ($52 off) at Amazon, B&H Photo, and Best Buy. The Buds 2 Pro deliver some of the best sound you can get in a pair of wireless earbuds, along with effective noise cancellation and a worry-free IPX7 water resistance rating that makes them more durable than the second-gen AirPods Pro. The wireless earbuds work well with a variety of Android phones, too, though features like automatic device switching and higher bit rate audio are exclusive to Samsung... Continue reading…

If you're always looking for adventure, but don't want to go anywhere without your tech, you need to get your hands on some rugged Oukitel gear. The great news is that both the RT6 tablet and WP28 smartphone are now on sale. On top of the fact that you're saving money when buying them, you'll also save money because you won't have to repair your smart tech upon your return after dropping them down a path.

A view showing the parts of the world covered by SATLAS using images from Sentinel-2 satellites. | Image: Allen Institute for AI A first-of-its-kind map of renewable energy projects and tree coverage around the world launched today, and it uses generative AI to essentially sharpen images taken from space. It’s all part of a new tool called Satlas from the Allen Institute for AI, founded by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.The tool, shared first with The Verge, uses satellite imagery from the European Space Agency’s Sentinel-2 satellites. But those images still give a pretty blurry view of the ground. The fix? A feature called “Super-Resolution.” Basically, it uses deep learning models to fill in details, like what buildings might look like, to generate high-resolution images.For now, Satlas focuses on renewable energy projects and tree cover around the world.... Continue reading…

The Horizon Ultra is bright enough to overcome some ambient light. | Image: Xgimi Home projector upstart Xgimi just announced its new Horizon Ultra model, dubbed the “world’s first 4K long-throw projector with Dolby Vision.” While I wouldn’t hold out too much hope for the device to produce an image with jaw-dropping HDR, it’s certainly a very bright all-in-one Android TV 11 projector for well below $2,000.The Horizon Ultra uses a new “Dual Light” laser and LED hybrid light source to produce 2,300 ISO lumens. That’s a 77 percent increase in brightness compared to the reasonably bright (1,760 ISO lumens) Xgimi Horizon Pro projector I reviewed a few years ago. Of course, that brightness is measured at the bulb, and the image brightness falls off considerably the farther away you move the unit in order to grow the... Continue reading…

The Wonderwagen Neo (left) and Cargowagen Neo (right) are Cannondale’s first cargo bikes. | Image: Cannondale Cannondale is announcing its first electric cargo bikes today with the Cargowagen Neo long-tail model launching in the US, and the Wonderwagen Neo front-loader headed exclusively to Europe. They aren’t cheap until you compare them to the $12,000 annual cost to own and operate a car, which these heavy haulers are designed to replace. Having the 52-year-old Connecticut-based bicycle maker — owned by Dutch giant Pon Holdings — finally release not one but two cargo bikes is just the latest sign that we’re truly entering a golden age for e-cargo bikes.The Cargowagen Neo is coming to the US “this winter” with a price that starts at $4,300, or €4,000 when it lands in Europe a bit earlier this fall. It’s a long-tail e-cargo bike powered by a... Continue reading…

Photo by Todd Owyoung / NBC via Getty Images Though some Ana de Armas fans have insisted that Universal tricked them into seeing Danny Boyle’s 2019 musical Yesterday with trailers featuring the Blonde actor, a US district judge has found that not to be the case.It’s unclear how serious Peter Michael Rosza and Conor Woulfe — two Ana de Armas fans from California and Maryland, respectively — were last year when they filed a proposed class action lawsuit against Universal, claiming that the studio misled the public with trailers that made it seem like de Armas played a substantial role in Yesterday. But on Monday, US District Judge Stephen Wilson dismissed the case due to its lack of standing and said that whatever injury the plaintiffs might have suffered from watching Yesterday was... Continue reading…