Microsoft president Brad Smith hosted an impromptu press conference on Tuesday afternoon, just hours after protesters gained access to a building at the company’s headquarters and held a sit-in demonstration inside his office.Seated on the edge of his desk, in the office that had been occupied by protesters earlier that day, Smith addressed a group of reporters and viewers on a live stream. “Obviously, this was an unusual day,” he said, the camera shaking as he spoke.The protesters were part of the No Azure for Apartheid group, which on several occasions this year interrupted Microsoft’s public presentations to demand that the company terminate all contracts with the Israeli government and military.Smith said that Microsoft is “committed to ensuring its human rights principles and contractual terms of service are upheld in the Middle East.” He said the company launched an investigation earlier this month after the Guardian reported that Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform was being used for surveillance of Palestinians. Smith said that Microsoft disagreed with some of the report’s findings, but that others warranted investigation.“We are working every day to get to the bottom of what’s going on, and we will,” Smith said.An organizer for No Azure for Apartheid, Abdo Mohamed, earlier today told The Verge that Microsoft employees Riki Fameli and Anna Hattle were part of the protest. They were joined by former Microsoft employees Vaniya Agrawal, Hossam Nasr, and Joe Lopez.Smith said that seven people in total were involved with today’s protests, with two of them being Microsoft employees. The people were removed by Redmond police, he said.“When seven folks do as they did today, storm a building, occupy an office, lock other people out of the office, plant listening devices — even in crude form, in the form of telephones, cellphones hidden under couches and behind books — that’s not ok,” Smith said. “When they’re asked to leave and they refused, that’s not ok.”

You've probably seen or read about how 3D printers are a must-have tool if you love to tinker. Of course, there are also a lot of practical reasons to have one as well, allowing you to freely create devices and accessories that can help you in everyday life. With that said, there are so many different 3D printers to choose from, which can make shopping for one a huge headache.

Okay, so it doesn't have the most creative name in the gaming scene; however, you can't tell me that Space Engineers doesn't tell you exactly what to expect from the title alone. If you want to get some engineering done, and you just so happen to want to do it in space, then this game won't let you down.

TfL is using posters to encourage passengers to wear headphones when listening to audio. | Image: TfL / The Verge After bringing 4G and 5G connectivity to the Underground, London’s public transport authority has started scolding noisy passengers who subject everyone to music and calls blasting out of their phones. A new poster campaign launched by Transport for London (TfL) this week encourages customers to wear headphones when watching or listening to content on their devices to reduce disruption for other commuters.“Please don’t disturb others with loud music or calls when travelling on the network,” reads the “Headphones On” poster. The posters are already being displayed on the Elizabeth rail line, according to TfL, and will expand to bus, Docklands Light Railway, London Overground, London Underground, and London Tram services from October.The campaign targets headphone dodgers as data coverage becomes more available across the underground rail network, making it easier for passengers to stream content and make calls on the go. People who do so without donning headphones are annoying other commuters, however, with TfL research showing that 70 percent of 1,000 surveyed customers reported loud music and phone calls disrupting their journeys.“The vast majority of Londoners use headphones when travelling on public transport in the capital, but the small minority who play music or videos out loud can be a real nuisance to other passengers and directly disturb their journeys,” says London’s deputy transport mayor, Seb Dance. “TfL’s new campaign will remind and encourage Londoners to always be considerate of other passengers.”The new posters expand upon the “#TravelKind campaign” that TfL launched in 2017, highlighting ways that road and public transit users can help to prevent delays and make journeys run more smoothly.

There are a lot of advantages when you create your first Obsidian vault. For starters, you have the files stored locally, which means you don't need an internet connection to see them. You can also view your notes in Graph View, just as you would on the app. But if you don’t pay attention to the little things while setting it up, those same advantages can end up making your vault frustrating.

"Agentic AI systems are being weaponized." That's one of the first lines of Anthropic's new Threat Intelligence report, out today, which details the wide range of cases in which Claude - and likely many other leading AI agents and chatbots - are being abused. First up: "Vibe-hacking." One sophisticated cybercrime ring that Anthropic says it recently disrupted used Claude Code, Anthropic's AI coding agent, to extort data from at least 17 different organizations around the world within one month. The hacked parties included healthcare organizations, emergency services, religious institutions, and even government entities. "If you're a so …Read the full story at The Verge.

Storage failures can actually be quite difficult to predict. Whether it's a spinning platter or NAND flash, storage failures can feel like they hit out of nowhere, and the consequences can be disastrous. Besides backing up your data regularly, these 5 things should be part of your storage safety checklist, so you can catch any potential problems before they snowball into a dead drive.

Do you prefer to store your documents on your PC or in the cloud? There are advantages and disadvantages for both methods, but what if you could do both at the same time? That way, you can tap into the best of both worlds without lifting a finger.

We've covered various Amazon Echo replacements and Google Nest alternatives via a litany of ESP32-powered devices, and it's partially thanks to the relative simplicity of a voice assistant paired with Home Assistant that makes them possible in the first place. However, anything with a screen is a little bit more complicated, and so I set out to build a Google Home Hub replacement using a 7-inch ESP32-powered display, powered by ESPHome.

TeamViewer has long been the gold standard for remote desktop access, but for me, the reign is coming to an end. It was once the most reliable and user-friendly solution, but now it feels outdated and sluggish compared to the competition. A decade ago, its seamless setup and broad feature set made TeamViewer an easy choice, but now, new alternatives have entered the market with better pricing, faster performance, and more flexibility.

On the left is a screenshot taken from a Nothing Phone 3 demo unit. On the right, one of the images can be seen on the Stills stock photo marketplace. Tech brand Nothing has been caught passing off stock images from professional photographers as samples taken by the Phone 3. Five sample images that Nothing claimed were captured by the device were actually licensed photos taken with other cameras.The photographer behind one of the images has anonymously confirmed to The Verge that it wasn't taken using the Phone 3, and that Nothing had purchased the image license via the Stills stock photo marketplace. The Verge has seen the EXIF file for the anonymous photographer's image, and can confirm it wasn't captured using the Phone 3. According to the EXIF data, it was taken in 2023, long before …Read the full story at The Verge.

Hey, look, I'm writing about an e-ink display again. It feels like I don't go a few days without reporting on something that runs on digital paper. But can you blame me? E-ink displays have a certain quality that I adore, and as long as people continue to build awesome devices with them, I'll continue to talk about them.