On paper, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 doesn't seem to stand out amidst a recent wave of prestige RPGs, from the newly polished high fantasy of the Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion remake to the medieval warfare of 15th century Bohemia in Kingdom Come: Deliverance II. For one, its fantastical conquests are set in a world reminiscent of France's Belle Époque period, an era known for its economic prosperity and radical artistic movements, from Art Nouveau to Expressionism. Add a tinge of melodrama and an emotional backstory, and its setting resembles a medley of games that take place in vaguely European worlds like Greedfall, Bloodborne, and Dishonored. At the same time, Expedition 33 boasts a turn-based combat system inspired by Japanese RPGs like Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest.All this is to say that Expedition 33 risks appearing banal and cliche. Fending off impossible odds in a world, where everyone wants to swing their very imposing weapons at your head amidst medieval ruins, isn't all that unique these days. But Expedition 33 isn't cowered by the lineage of RPGs that came before. Instead, it displays a sense of quiet confidence, understanding that the keys of the genre - narrative …Read the full story at The Verge.

The entrance to the now shuttered USAID office can be seen as black plastic covers a USAID sign at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington, DC on April 1, 2025. | Photo: Getty ImagesAfter stranding former US Agency for International Development (USAID) workers with devices holding sensitive information, the Trump administration says it will no longer physically collect their government-issued phones, laptops, and tablets.An email sent by USAID to workers on Thursday and obtained by The Verge says the devices will be wiped remotely, and then “marked as disposed.” Each direct hire or contractor will then be responsible for discarding the equipment. It’s unclear from the email whether the decision affects people stationed abroad or only those within the continental US.The discarded devices are basically now trashSome former employees had been waiting months to send in the devices before the change in plan was announced yesterday. Soon after stepping into office, President Donald Trump froze foreign aid funding and shuttered nearly all USAID programs. A majority of USAID’s 10,000 employees are posted overseas. Workers who were terminated while working abroad were told they’d get shipping labels to return equipment but never got them, The Verge reported last month. One employee based in the US described a haphazard process for returning their laptop into their office in late February, with computers dumped in giant rolling garbage bins. E-waste often contains hazardous materials including lead or mercury that can leach out of landfills, so it’s illegal in many states and in Washington, DC to toss certain electronics in the trash.The delay in collecting those devices posed security concerns for the Trump administration, former federal workers, and partner organizations. Some workers were still able to access work accounts and email on those devices, even after being terminated. Devices might also contain personnel records, sensitive contact information, and even bank details used to facilitate payments. Abandoning those devices with former workers placed the responsibility on them to keep all that information safe and secure.Wiping those devices remotely should alleviate the risk. It’s an action federal agencies can  typically take to safeguard data on any lost or stolen devices, according to a former government official The Verge spoke to in March who was granted anonymity to discuss sensitive issues.But once the gadgets have been wiped, former employees say the devices would need a new operating system to be able to function. And terminated employees would no longer be able to use the personal identification verification (PIV) cards that allow someone to log into a USAID computer. The discarded devices are basically now trash. “Isn’t that just such waste [sic]. They will all be unusable,” a former USAID employee who was also granted anonymity because of the risk of reprisal, messaged The Verge. Federal employees typically return equipment after leaving a post, and those devices are often reallocated to other staff, other federal agencies, or partner organizations. It might also get donated to state and local agencies, sent for public auction, or sent to a secure disposal facility. According to the Code of Federal Regulations, however, equipment worth less than $10,000 can also be “retained, sold, or otherwise disposed of [by recipients] with no further responsibility to the Federal agency.”The State Department, which absorbed any remaining USAID programs, declined to comment. The email obtained by The Verge says the decision to no longer require former employees to physically return their equipment was made “to simplify processes and to reduce burden.” Mia Sato contributed to reporting.

In January 2024, we saw Microsoft begin to change gears. After sitting on the sidelines in the AI war, the company began to slowly, but surely, develop its Copilot assistant into an artificial intelligence using LLM technology. Fast forward today, and Microsoft has offered us the works: Copilot Pro subscription plans, Copilot+ devices with NPU built in, and a dedicated Copilot key on the keyboard. We've also seen the AI assistant pop up in all kinds of apps, from the Office suite to Edge.

Google is rolling out Gmail updates for mobile users across Android and iOS, with some design updates and new access to AI features.Android tablet and foldable owners will have a more flexible Gmail app interface that lets them drag the divider to adjust the list and conversation panes to whatever size they want in landscape view. You can also drag the divider all the way to one side to switch to a single pane view if preferred. The update is rolling out now for Workspace and personal accounts.Google is also pushing a Material Design 3 update to Gmail on iOS that puts it in parity with the Android and redesigned web versions, including the pill-shaped buttons on the bottom and a rounded search bar on top. The update is rolling out now to both Workspace and personal accounts. Additionally, Google Calendar on iOS will now let you create and modify birthday events like you already can on Android.Finally, Gemini’s image generator is coming to the Gmail app sidebar on both Android and iOS for Workspace users. Like in Google’s Workspace apps on the web, you can generate images within the Gmail app and then save them, copy them, or insert them directly into your email draft.

I started using Arc recently as my secondary browser, mostly for work. And I'll be honest, it felt like the perfect browser at first, so much so that every other browser started feeling like a downgrade. But it turns out I jumped to conclusions too soon. As I began using it regularly for work, I started noticing issues I never faced with my primary browser, Brave.

Measuring PC performance can be tricky business. While you can get a halfway decent picture of performance by measuring average frames-per-second and calling it a day, you're missing out on some key context that goes along with that number. Average FPS only gives you a small window into the overall performance of your computer in a specific title, and if you want more insight, be sure to measure these 4 metrics along with average frame rate.

Though Competitive and Quick Play are the primary game modes in Marvel Rivals, every few weeks players are treated to a fun, limited-time event to take part in. We now know the next one is called Giant-Size Brain Blast, a game type that, like its name suggests, increases a hero's head size to comical proportions.

YKK’s self-propelled zipper prototype is chunky and currently being tested for more industrial applications. | Screenshot: YouTubeJapan’s YKK, the world’s largest zipper manufacturer (go ahead, grab the nearest zipper, it probably says YKK on the pull), has announced a prototype self-propelled zipper with a built-in motor and gear mechanism it can use to zip itself up at the push of a button on a wired remote.The days of being embarrassed when you forget to zip up could soon be behind us, if it’s ever miniaturized from its current form, which is several inches long and a lot chunkier than the zipper pulls currently used on clothing.Although some recent zipper innovations, such as Under Armour’s one-handed MagZip upgrade, are designed to improve accessibility and make zippers easier to use for those with limited mobility, YKK envisions more industrial use cases for its prototype.As demonstrated in a video recently shared on the company’s YouTube channel, the self-propelled zipper is seen connecting a pair of 16-foot-tall membranes in about 40 seconds. Zipping them together manually would require the use of a ladder or other machinery.In another video, the prototype is used to quickly connect a pair of 13-foot-wide temporary shelters standing over eight feet tall, taking about 50 seconds to progress from one side to the other.The prototype uses a spinning worm gear that winds its way through the teeth on either side and pulls the zipper along behind it. In the videos, a power cable is seen attached to the prototype as it self-zips. In addition to miniaturizing the tech and adding a battery, YKK would also need to develop some safety mechanisms before its self-propelled zipper could ever reach consumers’ clothing, ensuring there’s nothing that might get stuck.

We've all had those times when we don't feel like typing and would rather just... talk. While there are plenty of text-to-speech websites and apps out there, voice typing is a built-in Windows feature that lets you type on your PC by speaking. Voice typing supports a ton of languages, including English, French, Hindi, and Chinese, and you can even use voice-typing commands to insert punctuation marks.

Last night, a new company called Slate Auto unveiled its first product, a spartan two-seat electric truck with a mere 150 miles of range and a world of possibility. There's no paint, no distracting infotainment screen, and no stereo or even radio. It doesn't tower over your average 12-year-old, and it may sell for under $20,000 (including incentives) when it arrives in 2026.If it arrives, of course. We don't need to get into the litany of obstacles that lie in the path of Slate's future success - including a global trade war and a presidential administration openly hostile to EVs - because instead I'm interested in talking about the truck as a possible antidote to our growing obsession with overpowered, oversized trucks and SUVs.You've probably noticed this problem if you have eyes and live in America in 2025. Our roads are packed with these roving land yachts. Sales of SUVs and pickup trucks reached new highs in 2024, accounting for 75 percent of total vehicle registrations. A decade ago, these two segments made up just half of the market. Today, they represent three out of every four new vehicles sold in America.A world of possibilityThese vehicles are bigger and heavier …Read the full story at The Verge.

Aravind Srinivas is battling Google to get his Perplexity AI assistant preinstalled on Android phones. At the same time, the CEO is refocusing his startup on what he predicts will be the next battleground in the AI race: your web browser.Perplexity plans to release its own browser called Comet next month, Srinivas tells me. "The reason we're doing the browser is that it might be the best way to build agents," he says. "A browser is essentially a containerized operating system. It can let you access other third-party services through hidden tabs if you're already logged into them, scrape the page on the client side, and perform reasoning and take actions on your behalf."Other AI firms are already going in this direction. OpenAI's Operator and Google's Mariner both rely on the browser to execute commands and control websites. OpenAI has yet to release its own browser but is rumored to be developing one. Google, meanwhile, may be compelled by the US government to sell Chrome following its ruling that the company has a monopoly in the search market. One of Srinivas's deputies testified that Perplexity would like to run Chrome if it were spun out from Google, while OpenAI has als …Read the full story at The Verge.

Chrome could eventually be up for sale, if the US Department of Justice gets its way in the remedies trial for US v. Google. And there are already buyers lining up at Google's door.Any potential sale might not happen for a very long time. The remedies trial is still ongoing, a decision in that trial isn't expected for quite awhile, and Google has already said it will appeal, which will definitely add more time to the process and could ultimately reverse a ruling where Google might have been forced to sell the browser.But let's say that Google does have to sell Chrome - who wants it? And why? We're getting some of those answers from the remedies trial.Let's start with the why: a browser is a great way to promote your own search engine. Especially a browser that's as widely used as Chrome. Google makes Chrome, so it obviously makes sense that Google also provides Google Search as its default way to search the web. Chrome is also the most widely used browser by a wide margin - it has an estimated two-thirds of browser market share - so that means that many, many, many more people are using Google Search instead of other search engines just because it's the default there.But t …Read the full story at The Verge.