Image: Larian Studios It brings me no joy to say this, but I can’t play Baldur’s Gate 3 for the foreseeable future. Is it because my plate of games is full and will remain so for the next eight years? That’s true, but it’s not the reason. Or is it because the game has taken over my life such that I ignore my personal and professional responsibilities? Also true — but still not the reason. It’s bugs.Bugs in a huge game like Baldur’s Gate 3 aren’t uncommon, and more often than not, they’re tolerable nuisances. My bug encounter rate in Act 1 and 2 was negligible, just minor graphical issues, texture pop-ins, and noticeable delays between when an NPC stops talking and my dialogue choices appear. Ignorable. But in Act 3, I’ve encountered an apparent bug so... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge New York’s subway pass system has turned off a feature that could enable others to track your travels if they have access to your bank card number. In a statement to The Verge, Metropolitan Transportation Authority spokesperson Eugene Resnick says the agency “disabled the feature” as part of its “ongoing commitment to customer privacy.”The MTA’s OMNY system is a contactless subway pass option that lets you pay for a fare by tapping your phone or bank card at a station. However, a report published by 404 Media on Wednesday found that anyone with your card number and expiration date can see your rides within the past seven days through OMNY’s “trip history” feature.“This feature was meant to help our customers who want access to their... Continue reading…

The Indian Space Research Organisation’s Pragyan rover does the twist on the Moon. | Image: ISRO The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is riding on the high of its Chandrayaan-3 lunar mission’s successful landing, sharing more of it with the world by posting a new video of the lander’s imager observing the rover as it rotates on the no-longer-Super-Blue Moon’s surface.India’s space agency is trying to research the Moon’s history on the south pole, where the Chandrayaan-3 probe successfully landed last week.The post describes the rover as a child “playfully frolicking in the yards of Chandamama” in a video captured on August 29th. Chandamama is a term of endearment toward the Moon in Hindi and other regional languages and is also used in nursery rhymes. (My mom used to sing this to me as a lullaby.)Chandrayaan-3 Mission:T... Continue reading…

The most exciting thing about a big Android update is being able to follow a pattern to get a taste of all the new features. Google's Android 12 update marked the biggest visual redesign of the operating system since Android 5 Lollipop thanks to Material You. The new design philosophy, along with an exhaustive list of new features, made Android 12 look and feel radically different from previous iterations. Android 13 then came along and doubled down on many of the same aesthetic choices. Now we're moving on to Android 14, and there will likely be even more under-the-hood changes.

Yesterday, Microsoft published a comprehensive list of all the new features that it added to Excel during the month of August 2023. Now, with the month ending soon, the Redmond tech firm has detailed some new capabilities and hardware that it introduced to its Teams software too, similar to the previous month. This time around, the company added a whopping 52 features.

Back in 2020, Slack alleged that Microsoft is engaging in anticompetitive practices by bundling Teams in Microsoft 365 subscriptions for business customers, increasing the cost of the plan for users while still making it difficult for them to opt for an alternative since they are already paying for other services and applications included in the subscription. The European Commission (EC) formally began investigating the matter last month, but prior to the regulator revealing its findings, Microsoft has proactively announced some remediations.

Content creation, whether that's photo or video editing, 3D rendering, or streaming, requires a powerful laptop with an RTX 40-series graphics card. You see a lot of content creators on the internet nowadays, but making that work happen is challenging, and doing it efficiently means you need the hardware to get things done quickly. If you're trying to grow in this market, you're going to want a powerful PC that can keep up with the demanding workloads.

Image: Colin Young-Wolff Though The Guard won Valorant’s Ascension tournament, earning them a promotion into the international league, the team will not compete in the 2024 season, and its roster has been dissolved. Continue reading…

The world of wearable technology continues to expand and evolve, but one thing that hasn't changed is Apple's place at the top thanks to its wildly popular Apple Watch lineup. With the Apple Watch Ultra launch in late 2022, tech enthusiasts were able to get their hands on a high-end smartwatch that represents the pinnacle of the company's wearable design. This cutting-edge device doesn't come cheap, though, so it deserves a high-quality band.

Chrome’s new Copy Video Frame tool outputs a high-quality image with no overlay. Too bad I couldn’t use it to show the right-click menu! | Screenshot: The Verge Google just made it easier to grab high-quality still images from videos — and it works in a bunch of browsers. In a post on Google’s Keyword blog aimed at students, the company announced a new feature built into Chrome that lets you capture a high-quality, non-overlayed frame from the source video. Just right-click on the video when paused and select “Copy Video Frame.” It might not work on all videos — actually, as far as I can tell, it mostly just works on YouTube — but it does work in a bunch of Chromium-based browsers, not just Chrome.Google’s pitching this as a tool for students to grab notes from lecture videos, which, sure! After messing around with the new feature for a few minutes, I can confirm that it does offer much higher... Continue reading…

Starfield is all about space exploration — potentially like hundreds of hours of it. | Image: Bethesda Game Studios It’s been a very busy year for big game releases, with Starfield being one of the biggest titles that has yet to launch. The Xbox and PC exclusive from Bethesda is promising a massive sci-fi world to voyage around, with over 1,000 explorable planets and countless weapon and mod customizations. It’s also the first new world that Bethesda has created in over two decades, offering a change of pace from its long-running Elder Scrolls franchise.If what you saw in Bethesda’s 45-minute gameplay preview or our review has you hyped enough to preorder Starfield ahead of its September 6th release date or September 1st early-access launch, we’ve compiled all your options into a one-stop shop. From the $69.99 base game to the $299.99 Constellation... Continue reading…

Windows Insiders in the Dev and Canary Channels are getting a Windows 11 treat. Microsoft is now shipping out an update for the Snipping Tool, which helps make it easier to start screen recordings. Also rolling out is an enhancement for the Notepad, which helps make saving a session state easier.