Ads have started popping up in Apple Maps, following Apple's announcement in March that it would let businesses pay for top spots. They're appearing on my iPhone as the first entry in the "suggested places" section in search, but Apple says they'll also show up at the top of search results. According to 9to5Mac, the ads began rolling out this week, and more users in the US and Canada will start seeing them over the next few weeks. They're marked with a blue "ad" icon, similar to the ads Google's had in its Maps app for years now. I was also greeted with a pop-up warning me about the ads when I launched the Maps app this morning:Maps may …Read the full story at The Verge.

An all-too-familiar scenario is when you are on a wired connection or even high-spec Wi-Fi with a 500Mbps+ speed. Yet in fast-paced tactical shooters, you suffer from intermittent micro-rubber banding and hit registration delays. Unfortunately, when you run a speed test, you'll still see your high speeds and low idle ping, which might leave you completely baffled as to why your actual gaming sessions feel inconsistent.

Volvo is updating three of its electric vehicles with new hazard alerts to warn drivers when there are animals or vulnerable road users ahead. The new connected safety features are based on Volvo's cars talking to one another, as opposed to crowdsourced alert systems used by popular navigation tools like Google Maps and Waze. The alerts work by using connected vehicle data from Volvo's fleet of passenger vehicles in Europe, the US, and Canada. The car's sensors and cameras are tuned to identify certain risks on the road. When one Volvo spots a hazard, it automatically logs the location and sends it to Volvo's servers. Alerts are then sent …Read the full story at The Verge.

It's 8:52 AM and 86 degrees Fahrenheit (30 Celsius) where I live in Southern California. My husband just came back from a morning outing with our four-month-old. "How was the botanic garden?" I ask him. "It was okay. It was just too hot," he tells me. I didn't expect us to spend so much of our son's first summer cooped up inside, hiding from the heat. As I write this, an extreme heat warning for my area is glaring at me from my phone, effective for at least the next three days. "Dangerously hot conditions with high temperatures up to 110 [degrees Fahrenheit] expected," my weather app warns me. "Stay in an air-conditioned room, stay out of …Read the full story at The Verge.

A screenshot from Apple’s events website. Apple's next launch event will take place on September 9th at 1PM ET. Invites to the event, which has a "Surprise and shine" tagline, were sent out on Wednesday. The event will take place at the Steve Jobs Theater in Apple Park, but there will also be a livestream on Apple's website.September's show could be a big one, as Apple may finally announce the long-rumored foldable iPhone. A photo of an apparent dummy unit indicates the foldable may have a wide form factor that's similar to what Samsung used with the Galaxy Z Fold 8, a phone that our reviewer Dominic Preston said "feels like the future."Apple is also expected to refresh its Pro …Read the full story at The Verge.

Google has updated Gemini Audio with new transcription capabilities that automatically detect specialized jargon and more than 85 languages. Gemini 3.5 Transcribe is a new addition to the Gemini family that follows the launch of 3.5 Live Translate, and comes as we're still waiting for Google to release the Gemini 3.5 Pro model that it promised to roll out in June. Google says that 3.5 Transcribe "represents a major advancement from our previous transcription model, Chirp 3," especially regarding multilingual performance and wording error rates. The transcription model allows users to "edit naturally with just your voice," according to Goog …Read the full story at The Verge.

Proxmox’s lightweight design and solid compatibility with x86 devices is something I bring up every time I talk about its benefits, and for good reason. Despite its industry-grade server utilities, Proxmox can fit inside pretty much any old x86 machine, be it outdated thin-clients, abandoned gaming systems, or even office mini-PCs released in the last decade. Heck, my dinosaur Lenovo G510 from 2014 would’ve become part of a landfill had I not repurposed it as a low-power Proxmox VE node for my self-hosting tasks.

This is a friendly reminder that the Nintendo Switch 2 will jump in price by $50 starting on September 1st. That’s next Tuesday! The company gave plenty of notice, but the time has finally come. The base 256GB model that ships without a game will go from $449.99 to $499.99. Nintendo recently announced two bundles (both well over $500) shipping this fall that include a game with a slight discount.If you’re on the fence for a Switch 2, now is a pretty good time to buy one — not just because of the upcoming price increase. The game library is stellar and growing quickly, and the console itself is great, too. You’ll need one to play the remake of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, The Duskbloods, and plenty of other upcoming games.Nintendo Switch 2The Nintendo Switch 2 has a 7.9-inch LCD display, magnetically attached Joy-Con 2 controllers, backwards compatibility with most original Switch games, and exclusive titles including Donkey Kong Bananza and Kirby Air Riders. Read our review.Where to Buy: $449.99 at Amazon $449.99 at Best Buy $449.99 at TargetNot that the Switch 2 was ever cheap, but it was one of a few devices left out there that didn’t quickly get more expensive due to RAMageddon. Alas, no tech product will escape RAMageddon unscathed, especially one like the Switch 2 that has speedy RAM and storage. Almost all competing handhelds cost more than before, too, though Nintendo’s $50 price increase is soft compared to the $200-plus increase for the Steam Deck OLED .And, in case you were wondering, we’ve tested some great Switch 2 accessories, and have put our favorites into respective articles that deliver multiple options. We landed on the best cases, the best screen protectors, and the best controllers, too.

Obsidian sits at the center of my workflow, and I use it mostly for taking notes. But while it's largely marketed as a personal knowledge management platform, once you start to factor in the plugins, themes, and other features, it becomes more like a personal operating system of sorts. There are so many features I use Obsidian for that have nothing to do with note-taking, at least not in any productive sense of the word.

Rockstar Games has released its first official statement following days of sustained leaks of footage from Grand Theft Auto VI, calling the period "heartbreaking for our team.""It would be an understatement to say that having videos of Grand Theft Auto VI gameplay leak in this way has been heartbreaking for our team, and this is obviously not how we intended for you to see the game after all this time," the studio said in a statement published today on social media. "We are very sorry that everything has taken as long as it has - from getting the game finished (nearly there!) to sharing more details and official gameplay, and providing the …Read the full story at The Verge.

When I tried LibreELEC on my Raspberry Pi 4, I kept coming back to it despite using an Apple TV 4K. When I did the math on what my Apple TV 4K (2nd Gen) was actually costing me, it ended up being more than the $179 I paid in 2023. Totaling the streaming subscription services, I was paying a recurring fee. When renewal notices kept piling up for services I’d forgotten I was subscribed to, I finally decided to do something about them.

The Bose QuietComfort Headphones Gen 2 look a lot like all other Bose headphones from the past few years. Bose QuietComfort headphones used to be innovative. Bose's noise-canceling research is the reason the technology is where it is today, and its headphones set the standard. They were the ubiquitous traveler's accessory. But over the past few years, it's felt like Bose has rested on that reputation, as other companies have caught up. Sony and Apple have both surpassed Bose in noise-canceling performance, and even midrange headphones like the $130 Soundcore Space 2 are close for much less money. That means the $359 Bose QuietComfort Headphones 2nd Gen need to stand out in other ways - and I don't think they do. Bose QuietComfort Headphones Gen …Read the full story at The Verge.