Microsoft’s former store in London. | Photo: Getty Images Microsoft is announcing that it’s investing £22 billion (around $30 billion) in the UK to help support AI infrastructure and ongoing operations from 2025 through 2028. The investment includes $15 billion in capital expenditures to build a supercomputer to support AI demand and adoption.“This will account for more than two-thirds of the tech sector’s total investment announcements in the UK that are being made this week,” says Microsoft vice chair and president Brad Smith in a press briefing attended by The Verge. “We’re focused on British pounds, not empty tech promises, because it’s easy to have big numbers, but we’ll be good for every cent of this investment.”Smith is clearly referencing Google’s own investment of £5 billion (around $6.8 billion) that it announced earlier today to help power the UK’s AI efforts. Smith says Microsoft’s latest UK investment is a “very substantial increase” over its previous investment in 2023.“This investment will enable us to build the country’s largest supercomputer — with more than 23,000 advanced GPUs — in partnership with Nscale,” says Smith. “We’re not just investing in the UK, we’re investing with partners in the UK. It includes the data centers we have today and an expansion of them.”Microsoft’s multibillion-dollar investments in the UK come on the same day President Donald Trump arrives in Britain for a second state visit, in what’s meant to be seen as a clear collaboration between the US and UK. Smith told reporters that the investment wasn’t requested by the Trump administration, but it’s clearly been well timed on the UK government side.The announcement is a big change from Microsoft’s issues with the UK only a few years ago. Smith openly criticized the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) during Microsoft’s giant Activision Blizzard acquisition in 2023. Smith said his confidence in the UK had been “severely shaken” after the CMA originally blocked Microsoft’s giant gaming deal, and even said “the European Union is a more attractive place to start a business” than the UK. Smith later described the regulator as “tough and fair” last year, and said he “might choose slightly different words” to make his point about the CMA.Smith praised both former Prime Minster Rishi Sunak’s and Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s governments during his briefing with reporters today. “Our ability to make an investment of this size is based in no small measure on the work the government is doing to reform planning, grow electricity capacity, and foster a more stable and open regulatory environment,” says Smith.Google is also opening a new data center in Waltham Cross, Hertfordshire, that Chancellor Rachel Reeves calls a “powerful vote of confidence in the UK economy and the strength of our partnership with the US.” Microsoft managed to one-up Google and get Starmer to comment on its own investment, and he also called it “a powerful vote of confidence in UK’s leadership in AI and cutting-edge technology.”The other half of Microsoft’s $30 billion investment will be used to support the company’s ongoing operations across the UK, including its 6,000 employees that are based in Britain. Microsoft did close its 21,000-square-foot store in the heart of London earlier this year, but the company still holds offices at Microsoft Research in Cambridge, the Microsoft UK headquarters in Reading, Microsoft AI in London, and elsewhere.

Waymo is now permitted to test its robotaxi service at San Francisco International Airport (SFO), a big win for the company as it seeks to expand its service area and tackle more popular, revenue-generating destinations. After years of back-and-forth negotiations, Waymo signed “Testing and Operations Pilot Permit” with SFO, San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie said in a release. Under the agreement, Waymo will roll out its service to SFO in three phases, including testing vehicles with a human driver, testing without a driver, and eventually beginning commercial service. Waymo will start its tests with employees before eventually inviting members of the public to take trips to and from the airport. Pickups and dropoffs will initially take place at SFO’s Kiss & Fly lot, which is accessible to the terminals via the AirTrain. Waymo operates in five cities, but currently only serves one airport: Phoenix’s Sky Harbor. The company has been locked in negotiations with SFO for several years as it seeks to assure regulators that its vehicles can handle their chaotic environments, with thousands of cars, taxis, shuttles, and passengers constantly intermixing everyday. But airports represent a huge money-making opportunity for robotaxis, with airport trips accounting for an estimated 20 percent of human-driven ridehail car trips. Waymo will need airport access if it hopes to eventually compete with Uber and Lyft — to say nothing of earning enough money to make a profit.

The Palm Lock’s infrared sensor identifies users through the veins in their hands. | Image: Wyze Wyze has announced its first smart door lock that can be opened by simply hovering your open hand over it. The Wyze Palm Lock is launching today for $129.98 making it more affordable than similar palm-scanning smart locks including the $359.99 Philips Smart Deadbolt that launched last year. But your palm isn’t the only way to unlock it. If it’s the dead of winter and you’re wearing gloves the Palm Lock can also be opened using a physical key, by punching in a code, or using Wyze’s mobile app.It’s not as cheap as Wyze’s $80 Wyze Lock Bolt that we called the “Best budget smart(ish) lock” in our buying guide, but the Palm Lock includes more functionality. Battery life is rated at up to six months thanks to the use of low-power millimeter wave radar that only wakes the lock when a person is detected nearby. Its primary battery can be removed so you can recharge it indoors, while a smaller secondary battery will keep the lock powered for up to two weeks. Should both batteries die, an external power source can be temporarily connected to a USB-C port allowing it to be unlocked using an access code.Palm vein recognition has been shown to be a more secure and accurate method of biometric security than fingerprint readers, and simply waving your hand over an infrared sensor requires less precision than scanning a fingerprint. The Wyze Palm Lock can store palm vein IDs for up to 50 users, and generate up to 50 unique entry codes giving access to people whose palms haven’t been registered.Wyze’s Palm Lock is Wi-Fi connected so it can also be locked and unlocked from anywhere your phone has internet access or using voice commands through smart assistants like Amazon’s Alexa or Google Assistant. For added security, the lock incorporates a gyroscope that detects the door’s angle and movements. It can be set to automatically lock the door when it senses it’s been closed all the way, or start audibly chirping after a set period of time if it detects the door has been left open.

Whether it's a research assistant like NotebookLM, a new foldable, or a handy Gmail feature, Google is always working on something or another. But one thing we don't see the tech giant do often is drop a dedicated Windows app.

The post was up on Natalie's private Facebook page for 20 minutes - a crude joke about Charlie Kirk's death. When her husband suggested the comment was a bit much, she deleted it. The next day, Natalie received the first email telling her to kill herself. It didn't even take 24 hours to go viral.In the 20 minutes the post was live, someone had taken a screenshot of it. She doesn't know how the screenshot got to the right-wing influencer who posted it. Natalie, who owns her own small business, was on a client call as the death threats started to roll in. She told herself to focus on the call, but she was shaking so hard that she was having …Read the full story at The Verge.

I write a lot: articles, novel drafts, research notes. The struggle isn’t always the writing itself, it’s managing everything around it. I have so much scattered research and half-written drafts that always end up buried somewhere. I’ve also tried dozens of notes apps and AI tools, but many of them overwhelm me with features or give me generic results.

Google is testing a new search app for Windows. A blog post on Tuesday said the app, currently available on personal accounts via Google’s Search Labs, will allow you to use an Alt + Space shortcut to search for information from the files on your computer, in your Drive, and on the web.The app, which has a Chrome-like install process and requires you to sign in, also comes with Google’s visual search feature, Lens, built in. That means you can select and search for images on your screen, as well as translate text. In one example shared by Google, you can highlight a math problem on your homework and then ask Google’s AI Mode to help you find the answer.Just like Google’s search engine on the web, you can switch between all results, AI Mode, Images, Shopping, and Videos, and more, as well as choose between dark and light mode. It’s similar to the Spotlight on Mac, which can help you search through your files, apps, and the web. Windows has long had a built-in feature that lets you search through your files and the web, but it recently upgraded this capability with the launch of Copilot Plus PCs.Upon downloading the app, Google will plant a search bar directly on your desktop that you can drag anywhere on your screen and resize. You can minimize the search bar by hitting Alt + Space. The app also gives you the option to enable or disable AI Mode, as well as change the shortcut used to open the app by selecting your profile picture and hitting Configurations.You can try out Google’s new app for Windows now by enabling the experiment in Labs. It’s currently only available in English and for users in the US. You’ll need a PC with Windows 10 or up to download it.Update, September 16th: Added more information about the app.

The Series 11 is a great smartwatch, but it’s not the most exciting one. No one is going to wax lyrical about the Apple Watch Series 11. Not because it's a bad smartwatch - it's a great smartwatch, actually. There's just nothing that makes it feel special this year. Alas, the $399 Series 11 is the middle child of Apple Watches.It's not the Series 11's fault that the entry-level Apple Watch SE 3 got a major glow-up. It can't help that the Apple Watch Ultra 3 gets everything the Series 11 has plus satellite connectivity. But there's little to mask the fact that this watch doesn't offer much more than the entry-level SE 3. You're mostly paying extra for a bit of polish.Hardware-wise, the Series 11 is nearly iden …Read the full story at The Verge.

So I've been having fun mixing AI with D&D. I had AI make a dungeon for me to explore, and then got a few models to make me legendary D&D magic items, and the encounter players need to defeat to get them.

Meta’s next big Connect conference is nearly here, and this year, we’re expecting to see a lot of news about glasses. AI-focused hardware is all the rage, and Meta arguably already has the best gadgets around in its Ray-Ban and Oakley glasses. At this year’s show, we’re expecting to see more about glasses, but also some standalone AI updates and even some talk of the metaverse.Here’s what we’re expecting from Connect, which will feature a keynote from CEO Mark Zuckerberg that we’ll be covering live on Wednesday at 8PM ET / 5PM PT.Smart glasses with a display and a wristbandMeta plans to announce new smart glasses with a small display in the right lens that can be controlled with hand gestures via a wristband, CNBC reports. The display apparently has a limited field of view and is only intended to show small pieces of information. The Verge reported on the glasses, codenamed Hypernova, in 2022.The wristband will apparently use surface electromyography (sEMG) technology that “reads and interprets the electrical signals from hand movements,” according to CNBC. The tech comes from CTRL-Labs, a startup Meta acquired in 2019, and Meta demoed it last year with its augmented reality Orion glasses. Meta is very optimistic about sEMG technology; in a recent blog post, it said that “sEMG could revolutionize how we interact with our devices” and that sEMG “may just prove to be the perfect input for virtually any device.”The new glasses are expected to cost “about $800,” CNBC says, and could be thicker and heavier than some of Meta’s other smart glasses offerings. And a now-removed video from Meta caught by UploadVR actually showed a pair of new glasses with a display with the branding “Meta | Ray-Ban” and “Display,” so it seems like Meta is on the cusp of actually launching these.Smart glasses without a displayMeta’s smart glasses have been a big success — EssilorLuxottica, which produces the Ray-Ban Metas, said that the company has sold 2 million pairs of the glasses — and rumors indicate that Meta could introduce new models at Connect.CNBC reports that Meta plans to announce third-generation Ray-Ban Metas. The timing would make some sense. Meta launched the previous-generation Ray-Bans about two years ago, and this year’s Oakley Meta HSTN Limited Edition glasses have a better 3K video resolution and double the battery life, so perhaps Meta will bring some of those improvements over to the Ray-Ban line.The Meta video spotted by UploadVR also showed off a pair of new wraparound “Sphaera” Oakleys with a camera on the nose bridge, so it seems like those could show up at Connect, too.New Quest VR headsets? We’ll seeMeta released the Quest 3 in 2023 and the Quest 3S in 2024, but it doesn’t seem like we should expect a new Quest at Connect this year. According to UploadVR, Meta is working on an ultra-light headset that offloads the compute to a puck that runs the company’s Horizon OS, but the headset isn’t scheduled for release until 2026. Meta has also started licensing Horizon OS to hardware companies like Lenovo and Asus, and a rumor from earlier this year indicated that Asus is developing a VR headset codenamed Tarius with eye tracking and face tracking. Should that headset be real, it could debut at Connect.The company is promising that Zuckerberg will touch on the metaverse in some way, so we’ll have to wait and see what that actually means.More Meta AIMeta, like most tech companies, is obsessed with AI right now, so it seems likely the company will tout AI features coming to its apps and hardware. Meta recently relaunched its companion app for its smart glasses as a standalone Meta AI app that lets you browse AI-generated creations posted by other users, and Meta could further build out its social features. The company has also continued to add AI tools to its smart glasses, so in addition to brand-new hardware, existing hardware could get some AI-focused upgrades.

I'm currently majoring in computer science, and most of my daily classes revolve around coding. And while I’ve always been passionate about my major and genuinely enjoy coding, I’d be lying if I said it’s easy. It can get overwhelming at times, and learning (let alone retaining) everything taught in class isn’t always straightforward.

Tesla is under investigation for faulty electronic door handles that can trap people inside their vehicles. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) launched the probe, saying it was responding to numerous complaints filed by Tesla owners, with a particular focus on children who have been locked inside the vehicle without any way to get out. The news comes a few days after Bloomberg published a bombshell report about Tesla owners who have been seriously injured after becoming trapped in their vehicles after crashes. Tesla’s door handles, which operate electronically and sit flush against the vehicle for improved aerodynamics, have been the source of some consternation for some time. China’s government is considering banning electronic door handles for safety reasons. And now NHTSA says it is investigating instances in which Tesla’s handles become inoperable as a result of low-voltage battery problems. The investigation specifically focuses on an estimated 174,290 Model Y SUVs, though the regulator said the investigation could widen:This investigation will also assess the approach used by Tesla to supply power to the door locks and the reliability of the applicable power supplies. At this time, NHTSA’s investigation is focused on the operability of the electronic door locks from outside of the vehicle as that circumstance is the only one in whichthere is no manual way to open the door. The agency will continue to monitor any reports of entrapment involving opening doors from inside of the vehicle, and [Office of Defects Investigation] will take further action as needed.NHTSA says its investigation was prompted by nine instances of children becoming trapped inside a Tesla vehicle as a result of low-voltage battery problems. Typically, parents were unable to reopen their Tesla’s doors to retrieve their children from the backseat. Tesla’s vehicles contain manual door releases, but the agency notes that certain people, especially children, may not be able to operate them. “Entrapment in a vehicle is particularly concerning in emergency situations, such as when children are entrapped in a hot vehicle,” the agency states.This is the latest investigation to target Tesla. The company is also being examined for failing to report crashes involving its partially autonomous driving technology in a timely manner, and for its remote parking feature after several crash incidents were reported.