As if OpenAI didn't have enough drama around the Super Bowl and advertising, as the game wound down, word spread of a "leaked" ad that actually wasn't leaked at all; it was just a fake. Screenshots of a now-deleted Reddit thread told the tale of a frustrated employee who, while posting about how upset they were because the ad they'd worked on didn't run, accidentally leaked the entire advertisement video, seemingly showing Murderbot star Alexander Skarsgård with what could have been OpenAI's first hardware device, portrayed as a shiny orb that went with some wraparound earbuds. OpenAI president Greg Brockman commented on X with a tweet cal …Read the full story at The Verge.

When I first started using Linux, I had no idea why people used AppImages. Fortunately, after I learned that they're essentially just EXE files, they became more useful; then, when I discovered Gear Lever, I started to prefer using the AppImage over, say, a Flatpak or a proper installation.

Unlike spreadsheets or reports, a task I've always enjoyed is making presentations. Even back in primary school, I was that student who would always volunteer to create the slides, spending hours picking colors, arranging images, and figuring out how to make the presentation the best it could possibly be (despite knowing deep down that no one would look at each slide for more than a few seconds).

Most of us tend to treat self-hosting as a set-and-forget process. Most of the work has to happen during the setup process, where you'll spin up a container, point a reverse proxy at it, and if everything goes right, everything just works. That's mostly true as far as it comes to simple dashboards, static sites, and even some tools that don't tend to change much. But once you set up services that sit at the center of your digital life, think home automation, passwords, network DNS, these services are far and away from set and forget. Not every day, but you'll definitely want to be checking in every few weeks for updates and maintenance.

It feels like everyone who produced ad spots for this year's Super Bowl with generative AI failed in terms of making gen AI seem useful or like something worth getting excited about. Though we've seen plenty of AI-generated commercials before (at previous Super Bowls, no less), this year's event was oversaturated with them. That's in part because image and video generation models have become more sophisticated in the past year - though still subpar compared to what humans create, they're just improved enough for a number of brands to now be comfortable having their names associated with AI-derived footage. Also, it's much, much cheaper and …Read the full story at The Verge.

Almost a year after the release of the iPhone 16e, rumors indicate Apple is reportedly preparing to launch the iPhone 17e very soon, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, an often reliable source of Apple leaks.

Well, today's the day. If you cast your mind back a month, you may remember that Microsoft announced the deprecation of Microsoft Lens from the Android and iOS stores. It may seem like a strange move, given how the app is receiving rave reviews and lots of downloads on both platforms. However, it seems that Microsoft wants to bring all of its productivity apps under one Microsoft 365 Copilot umbrella, which includes giving Microsoft Lens' document-scanning feature to OneDrive. Now, as per Microsoft's original announcement, the Lens app is getting removed from both the Android Play Store and the iOS App Store.

Early Access is a real double-edged sword for me. When it's done right, I love it; there's something really fun about playing a game, enjoying it, putting it in a drawer for a year or two, and then digging it out to see how it changed and evolved since you last left it. Trust me, finding an excuse to replay a game you've loved and beaten before is great.

Ferrari released the first interior images of the company's first all-electric supercar, called the Ferrari Luce ("light" in Italian). This is the second time the Italian automaker has teased the Luce (formerly Elettrica) without showing us the actual car, or even a silhouette. But the interior images should suffice given the bold-faced name of the designer: Jony Ive.Ferrari decided to outsource the work of designing the Luce's interior to Ive and his partner Marc Newson, who together run the design shop LoveFrom. Ive, obviously, is well known for his work as Apple's former chief designer, overseeing such iconic products as the iMac, iPhon …Read the full story at The Verge.

I'm still a newbie when it comes to Linux. It hasn't even been a year since I moved from Windows, but I enjoy Linux so much that I love writing about it. So it's really easy for me to forget that when Linux (you know, the Linux) gets an update, it's not rolled out on a long red carpet with tons of advertising and flashy videos. Instead, it's Linus Torvalds creating a post on a website that looks like it's from the early 2000s, where he talks about what's going on in his personal life among the changenotes. Honestly, I prefer things this way.

The Pixel 9A is an incredible phone that’s worth hopping on while it’s $349 for the 128GB version in blue, black, or pink at Amazon and Best Buy. It’s discounted ahead of the new Pixel 10A, for which Google will open pre-orders on February 18. That’s also when the company will share more details regarding specs and price for the midrange phone. Google Pixel 9AThe Pixel 9A adds more robust water resistance and a brighter, bigger screen to what was already a winning formula for a good midrange phone. Read our review.Where to Buy: $499 $349 at Amazon $499 $349 at Best Buy $499 $399 at GoogleEven at its original $499 price, our reviewer Allison Johnson felt that what you got for the money was just right. The Pixel 9A is an especially great value at this sale price. It has an IP68 rating, seven years of software updates, a larger, brighter screen than the Pixel 8A, plus wireless charging and a 120Hz refresh rate.Read our review of the Google Pixel 9AOther great Verge-approved dealsTomtoc’s hard zip-up case for the Nintendo Switch 2 is the best one out there, with a slim, minimalist look available in multiple colors, a sleeve for storing 12 game cartridges, and occasionally a competitive price. You can get the lowest price that we’ve seen on select colors, including black, gray, white, and its matcha green gradient option for around $24 (originally $36.99) at Amazon when you enter the code YX2SATAXQVMO at checkout. It’s the only case that I’ve tested that includes some padding near the top of the Switch 2 system to keep it from moving around in the event of a drop. Here’s my buying guide covering this and other great Switch 2 cases.Ethernet switches don’t have to cost you a lot of money. My needs are met by this eight-port TP-Link gigabit switch that’s under $20. However, it’s possible that you’re you’re paying a lot for fast internet service and you really want to make sure you’re getting your money’s worth. If that’s the case, Netgear’s five-port switch, which supports up to 2.5-gigabit connections, is back to its lowest price at Amazon, costing $69.99. Outside this discount, which has only happened once before during January, it costs $99.99.Woot has a nice deal on a new AMD Ryzen 9 7900X desktop processor. The 2022 CPU typically costs $350 at most retailers, but you can purchase it for $239.99 while supplies last. It’s a great deal if you’re assembling a capable gaming PC while trying to save as much money as possible. This processor must be paired with a motherboard that has an AM5 socket. Unlike Intel’s strategy of shifting sockets every couple of generations, AM5 is still being used by AMD processors. In other words, you can upgrade later to an 8000 or 9000-series CPU without having to completely uproot your build.

Whistles for Minneapolis and beyond. Kit Rocha and Courtney Milan have a knack for drawing attention to a cause. The bestselling romance novelists helped raise half a million dollars for Georgia voting rights in 2020. Now, their cause is whistles, because whistles let neighbors alert each other when they see ICE agents abducting people. They've helped create a group that's shipped a half million free 3D-printed whistles to 49 US states - 200,000 of them in the first week of February alone. Even I print whistles now. It's the first thing I do each morning after dropping kids at school, and the very last before bed. Usually, I squeeze in a hundred more after dinner.I print wh …Read the full story at The Verge.