Zoom suffered a major outage this afternoon that prevented people from connecting to video calls and accessing its website. As shown by Cisco’s ThousandEyes platform, site connectivity dropped off at around 2:40PM ET before coming back online nearly two hours later.Users across X posted about the outage, with some getting an “Unable to Connect” error message when entering meetings, and others unable to sign in at all. The Zoom website was also completely down, as it displayed a 502 Bad Gateway error, and its press email didn’t work either.It’s still not clear what caused the issue, but one Reddit user, u/TastesLikeOwlbear, mentioned that the Zoom.us domain may have been in a server hold. This happens when a domain is “not activated in the DNS,” according to ICANN, making it completely inaccessible due to verification, fraud, or security issues. As noted in the Reddit post, the domain registry issue was fixed at 4:12PM ET, but it might take some time for Zoom to come back online for everyone, as DNS servers pick up and propagate the corrected information.“Service has now been restored after the earlier outage, and we sincerely appreciate your patience and understanding,” Zoom said in a post on X at around 5PM ET.The Verge reached out to Zoom and GoDaddy with requests for more information but didn’t immediately hear back.Update, April 16th: Added an update from Zoom.

Right-wing influencers are shilling an app that purportedly lets people earn crypto for reporting sightings of undocumented immigrants. ICERAID, a “GovFi protocol that delegates intelligence gathering tasks to citizens,” has recently been promoted by the likes of conspiracy theorist and Trump confidante Laura Loomer, Proud Boy-turned-media personality Jacob Engels, and disgraced former Rep. Matt Gaetz.“It’s like a citizen’s arrest, but with Wi-Fi,” Gaetz said on a recent episode of his One America News Network show. “Forget driving Uber or DoorDash for extra change. Snap a pic, save the day, and stack some digital cash while you’re doing it.”ICERAID’s website describes it as a “GovFi” — government finance, a term coined by ICERAID founder Jason Meyers — protocol on Solana that “rewards citizens for capturing and uploading images of criminal illegal alien activity.” (To be clear, ICERAID has no connection to the government.) And ICERAID isn’t just soliciting images of suspected immigrants. “You can snap a picture of someone committing animal cruelty or homicide, kidnapping, terrorism — you see someone scraping a Tesla, that’s domestic ter …Read the full story at The Verge.

Gemini Live’s feature that lets it see and respond to what’s on your camera and your screen will now be free for all Android users via the Gemini app, Google announced today.The AI-powered feature officially launched earlier this month for everyone on Pixel 9 and Samsung Galaxy S25 using the Gemini app. At the time, Google said the feature would launch “soon” for all Android users though would only be available with a Gemini Advanced subscription. But the company has changed its mind and is now making it available for free.“We’ve been hearing great feedback on Gemini Live with camera and screen share, so we decided to bring it to more people,” Google said on X.The feature will roll out to all Android users with the Gemini app starting today, and the rollout will take place “over the coming weeks.” If you want to get an idea of how the feature works, check out this video from Google. In it, a person holds their phone with the camera open at an aquarium so that Gemini can see the animals and share information.Today, Microsoft announced that its similar AI tool, called Copilot Vision, is available now for free in the Edge browser.

I know many users in the Windows community who aren’t fans of Copilot, let alone its addition to apps in Windows 11. I firmly support that camp and remove it from all apps it has crept into. While not useful, having it part of Windows might benefit some users depending on their workflow.

Microsoft 365 is undoubtedly one of the best office suites out there, but between the Redmond-based tech giant’s insistence on adding AI to its toolkit and the package’s steep pricing, there are plenty of reasons why you might want to switch to free alternatives. Thankfully, the self-hosted ecosystem is brimming with feature-laden productivity tools, and the majority of these utilities are so lightweight that you can deploy them on weaker, low-power devices – including Raspberry Pi SBCs. So, here’s a quick guide on how you can spare your wallet (and privacy) by running a couple of Microsoft 365 alternatives on your pint-sized tinkering companion.

Whenever I manage large databases and projects in Excel, Microsoft’s spreadsheet software can sometimes feel intimidating. It often results in an inefficient and frustrating experience. Then, I decided to take control and build my own Excel dashboard. The result was transformative. Suddenly, I had a clear, concise, and visually engaging snapshot of everything I needed to know.

Copilot Vision is now free in Edge.Copilot Vision, Microsoft’s AI assistant feature that can interpret what’s on your screen and help you use apps, is now available for free use within the Edge browser, Mustafa Suleyman, CEO of Microsoft AI, announced on Bluesky today. Vision is a “talk-based experience,” as Microsoft calls it, meaning you use it by speaking into the air, then waiting for Copilot to respond.Suleyman says if you opt into the feature, Copilot Vision can “literally see what you see on screen.” Suleyman suggests having Copilot Vision guide you through a recipe while you cook or having it “decode” job descriptions “and jump right into customized interview prep or cover letter brainstorming.” (Although it might not be the best idea to use AI for your resume.) According to a Microsoft support page, “Copilot Vision may highlight portions of the screen to help you find relevant information,” but it doesn’t actually click links or do anything on your behalf.Broader, system-wide Copilot Vision features are still limited to Copilot Pro subscribers. With a subscription, Vision expands beyond Edge, letting you ask it to help you use features in Photoshop or video editing software, or guide you through a game like Minecraft, as it did for The Verge’s Tom Warren earlier this month.To try out Copilot Vision, open this link to Microsoft’s website in the Edge browser. That should give you a prompt to opt into the feature, and once you’ve given permission, you can open the Copilot sidebar while on a website, click the microphone icon, and your Vision session begins, signified by a chime and your browser changing its hue. Or that’s how it should go. In my case, it took a couple of tries before Edge asked if I wanted to opt in. And once I could opt in and initiate a Vision session, the controls never appeared — as of this writing, I simply have a message floating over the bottom of my browser that says “One moment…” But I’m using a fairly old, underpowered laptop, so your mileage may vary.According to Microsoft, the company logs Copilot’s responses to you but doesn’t collect your inputs, images, or page content while in a Copilot Vision session. When you’re ready to stop sharing your screen with Copilot, you can either end the session or close the browser window.

Mario Kart World is the culmination of everything Nintendo has worked on with the Mario Kart series so far. It takes tracks from old games, revitalizing them with the latest hardware, and adds brand-new tracks for players to enjoy. So far, there have been a fair number of tracks revealed to be in the game, and there are already some major frontrunners when it comes to creativity that I feel are worth mentioning. That is why I have thrown together a list of the best Mario Kart World tracks that have been revealed so far. We have images of some, but most of these are ones that have received at least a spot in the trailer.

It's been a tough several weeks for Microsoft in the enterprise space recently. In the past few days, we have reported multiple issues in this domain, including typing in classic Outlook spiking CPU usage up to 50%, users experiencing difficulties while sharing files in Teams, and Microsoft completely breaking the option to roll back from the new version of Outlook to the old one. Now, a new bug is causing Windows 11 to become available to ineligible devices, increasing headaches for IT admins.

SteelSeries is one of those brands that has been around for a while, offering an exciting line of computing accessories. Of course, that also means that the brand does offer its own line-up of gaming headsets as well. And if you've been looking to upgrade, the SteelSeries Arctis Pro is going to be a pretty solid option, delivering great sound and excellent features.

There's nothing that dashes your professional image like a weird typo in a message or email. Fortunately, there's a whole collection of spell checkers that are there to say, "Are you sure?" when you type something weird. Fortunately, Microsoft has been cooking up a new feature that will help you sound less ridiculous when talking to your boss on Teams, and it's now ready to roll out to everyone's computers.

It could be argued that Xbox Game Pass is the best deal in gaming, with tons of games, new and old, coming to the subscription service all the time. 2025 is looking to keep that trend going, with a number of day one launches and new additions coming, from big Xbox titles to exciting third-party titles. While the tiers in the service have become a bit confusing, every game on this list will be part of Game Pass Ultimate, which is the tier you need to get every day one release. Xbox Game Pass also includes the PC service, which can be accessed on most of PC handhelds like the Steam Deck, even if it takes some extra effort.