T-Mobile is letting some legacy plan customers know that a price increase is coming, 9to5Google reports. Many Reddit users on r/tmobile said the carrier sent them text messages that their plans will raise by $5 per month per line starting on April 2nd.

In an internal memo obtained by CNET, T-Mobile consumer group president Jon Freier says the price increase addresses “rising costs” for the company. The memo noted that affected customers would be notified by the end of the day today.

CNET says it’s unclear which legacy plans will be affected but notes that Go5G, Go5G Plus, and Go5G Next subscribers won’t be subject to the price hikes. T-Mobile had already increased the rates of some of these older plans by $2 to $5 last year, and Freier apparently notes in the memo that “no line that received a prior increase will receive an additional adjustment as part of this initiative.”

“While most customers are not included, we’re wrapping up the price adjustments that began last year in response to rising costs,” T-Mobile says on its support account on X. “We are still committed to providing low prices and the most value across all plans.” The account also says that these changes should not affect customers with Price Lock.

Apple’s AirPods 4 are down to the lowest price ever on Amazon, Walmart, and Best Buy, where you can pick them up starting at $99.99. That’s about 22 percent off the $129 list price. 

These are the newest version of Apple’s base AirPods, launched in September with the iPhone 16. They support spatial audio with dynamic head tracking, which is a weird effect that makes it sound like audio is coming out of the device you’re listening to instead of just pumping stereo sound into your ear drums. I usually turn it off. 

I like the open design of the AirPods 4, though, which sometimes feels more comfortable than the silicone tips on my second-gen AirPods Pro. I also dig the compact case and solid battery life. Pro tip, though: if you want to splurge just a little bit, you should probably get the AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation. They’re on sale at Amazon and Walmart for $148.99 (17 percent off), which is about $10 shy of their all-time low. The higher-end model also adds Adaptive Audio and a transparency mode, along with a case that juices up via an Apple Watch puck or any Qi-compatible charger. 

Are they worth the extra $50? Maybe. I think the active noise cancellation is a good option when you find yourself on a rowdy NJ transit train heading to a NY Jets game. Just kidding, nobody does that.

Read our full AirPods 4 review.

Apple is planning to bring live translation to AirPods, according to a report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. The feature, which will let users translate conversations in real time, will be “tied” to the forthcoming iOS 19, Gurman says.

Apple is a little behind others in adding live translation to the AirPods, as Google brought the feature to its very first pair of Pixel Buds in 2017, and later expanded it to the Pixel Buds Pro in 2022. Other companies, like Meta and Humane, have attempted live translation with their wearables as well, though the results proved pretty inconsistent.

As noted by Gurman, the feature can help translate a conversation from, for example, Spanish to English by playing a translated version of the speech into the English-speaker’s AirPods. When the English speaker responds, their iPhone will then play the Spanish translation from its speakers. Apple didn’t immediately respond to The Verge’s request for comment.

Last week, Apple announced that it’s delaying its AI-upgraded Siri, saying, “It’s going to take longer than we thought to deliver on these features.” The company is also planning to overhaul the design of iOS, iPadOS, and macOS this year, according to Gurman.

Opus, A24’s new horror-tinged thriller from writer / director Mark Anthony Green, has a lot to say about the symbiotic (and sometimes parasitic) relationship between entertainment journalists and celebrities. In the film’s story about reporters tripping over themselves just to be close to an eccentric music icon, you can feel Green reflecting on how the media landscape has changed with the rise of modern Content™ empires built on parasocial relationships. Many of Opus’ ideas are right on the money, and the film is so stylish that it’s easy to get swept up in its visual splendor. But aside from its excellent original songs, the movie often feels like a flimsy rehash of glam-forward features that have come before it.

Though Opus is fictional, Green — a former style editor at GQ — has clearly poured a lot of his personal experiences into overworked, under-appreciated music journalist Ariel Ecton (Ayo Edebiri). Conceptually, Ariel loves her job covering pop culture and the way it gives her opportunities to dig deep into the lives of well-known artists. But she also knows that no matter how strong her pitches are, her obnoxiously self-involved editor Stan (Murray Bartlet …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Google is rolling out a fix for Chromecast device issues that left many users with “untrusted device” errors that disabled casting.

The issue, which appeared over the weekend, seemed to widely affect Chromecast 2nd generation and Chromecast Audio devices. Google has not said what caused the errors, but a user on Reddit claimed it could be because the certificate baked into the devices expired.

“We have started to roll out a fix for the problem with Chromecast (2nd gen) and Chromecast Audio devices, which will be completed over the next few days,” Google says in a support post. “Your device must be connected to receive the update.”

However, if you attempted a factory reset, Google says that “you may still be experiencing an issue where you cannot re-setup your device.” The company says that it’s “working to resolve this as soon as possible” and to watch the support post for updates. If you’re in this situation, a user on Reddit has shared steps you can try while you wait for Google’s official fix.

Microsoft is testing AI-powered summaries in Notepad. In an update rolling out to Windows Insiders in the Canary and Dev channels, you’ll be able to summarize information in Notepad by highlighting a chunk of text, right-clicking it, and selecting Summarize.

Notepad will then generate a summary of the text, as well as provide an option to change its length. You can also generate summaries by selecting text and using the Ctrl + M shortcut or choosing Summarize from the Copilot menu.

As is the case with other AI features in Windows 11, you must be signed into a Microsoft account to use Notepad’s AI summaries. You can also disable AI features completely from the app settings menu. Microsoft first started testing an AI-powered Rewrite tool in Notepad last year.

Besides AI summaries, Microsoft is testing the ability to view your recently closed files in Notepad. It’s also bringing a new feature to the Snipping Tool called “draw & hold.”

When marking up a screenshot using the app, you can hold your cursor for just a little longer when drawing a line, arrow, rectangle, or oval, and it will automatically straighten out your lines. You can then resize, move, or adjust the shape. It sounds pretty similar to a feature Apple offers, too.

America’s favorite low poly electric truck is facing a new set of problems that don’t have anything to do with people spray painting swastikas or crude comments about Elon Musk on them. Deliveries of the Tesla Cybertruck are on hold while the company addresses issues with reports that the trim is becoming detached and flying off, Electrek reports.

Tesla service representatives are telling customers awaiting deliveries that there is a “containment hold” on their trucks, according to several posts in the Cybertruck Owners Forum, as noted by Electrek. The customers are not being told it has anything to do with the vehicle’s trim, though. A containment hold is a proactive measure taken by automakers to address a quality issue or defect with a vehicle before it reaches customers.

Electrek also shared a screenshot of direct messages between a customer and a Tesla service rep that mentioned an issue with the truck’s cantrail, or the decorative trim that covers the roof ledge above the door. The delay could take several weeks to address, depending on the severity of the loose trim.

The problem is likely related to a handful complaints filed with the federal government earlier this year, which noted that the trim above the truck’s windows appeared to be attached by glue.

A video on YouTube posted over a month ago goes into greater detail about the issues with the cantrail trim.

This isn’t the first time we’re hearing about problems with the Cybertruck trim. Tesla issued a recall for over 11,000 trucks last summer for “improperly adhered… trunk bed trim sail applique.”

The Cybertruck has been recalled seven times since its official launch December 2023. Tesla sold an estimated 40,000 trucks in 2024, despite over 1 million reservations. There were anecdotal reports of Cybertrucks piling up on used car lots. Tesla Cybertruck factory workers in Austin were told to stay home for three days in December. And since Elon Musk’s elevation as a special advisor to the Trump administration, the Cybertruck has become a target of graffitti and vandalism from people opposed to Musk’s takeover of the federal government.

On Tuesday morning, some PC gamers woke up to discover their computers were seemingly under threat. A “HackTool” called WinRing0 had suddenly started triggering a Windows Defender alert, as if their PCs were under attack. Some of those computers even began behaving oddly ​​— like blasting their fans at high speed — once the HackTool had been quarantined. I know, because it happened to me. 

But my computer wasn’t actually under attack — at least, not yet. 

When I checked where Windows Defender had actually detected the threat, it was in the Fan Control app I use to intelligently cool my PC. Windows Defender had broken it, and that’s why my fans were running amok. For others, the threat was detected in Razer Synapse, SteelSeries Engine, OpenRGB, Libre Hardware Monitor, CapFrameX, MSI Afterburner, OmenMon, FanCtrl, ZenTimings, and Panorama9, among many others. 

“As of now, all third-party / open-source hardware monitoring softwares are screwed,” Fan Control developer Rémi Mercier tells me. 

That’s because all these programs have something in common, eight of their developers tell The Verge. They do (or did) all contain a piece of kernel-level software that is …

Read the full story at The Verge.

NBC will continue airing the Olympics in the US for the foreseeable future. Its parent company, Comcast, just announced a deal with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) that will keep the games on NBC’s platforms, including Peacock, through 2036.

As noted by The Hollywood Reporter, NBC’s previous agreement with the IOC gave it the rights to stream the Olympics through 2032. This new deal will take its place, with the extended media rights for the 2033 to 2036 Olympics cycle valued at $3 billion. The next Olympic games will take place in Italy next year.

The Olympics have played a major role in helping NBC drive subscribers and viewership on Peacock. During last year’s Paris Olympics, Peacock saw a 33 percent spike in viewers during the games, as the company introduced multiview and aired Gold Zone, which featured whip-around coverage of a variety of events. 

NBC has been the home to the Olympics for decades. It has aired a total of 19 Olympic Games since 1964, 13 of which it broadcasted consecutively.

Disclosure: Comcast is also an investor in Vox Media, The Verge’s parent company.

Flatiron Books, the publisher of a new book by an ex-Meta staffer alleging misconduct and harassment at the company, says in a statement that a recent arbitration order demanding that the book no longer be published has “no impact” on Macmillan.

The ruling instructs Sarah Wynn-Williams, the author of Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism, to stop making “disparaging” remarks against Meta and, where possible, cease promoting or publishing the book. Meta appears to have been able to bring the case to arbitration because of an agreement Wynn-Williams signed when she left the company in 2017.

“We are appalled by Meta’s tactics to silence our author through the use of a non-disparagement clause in a severance agreement,” Flatiron says in the statement, which was also shared with The New York Times. “To be clear, the arbitrator’s order makes no reference to the claims within Careless People. The book went through a thorough editing and vetting process, and we remain committed to publishing important books such as this. We will absolutely continue to support and promote it.”

Meta didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment.

Update, March 13th: Added statement from Flatiron’s Bluesky.

Mercedes-Benz’s electric vehicles aren’t exactly selling like hotcakes. The EQS, EQE, and EQB have largely flopped, forcing the company to make significant changes to its electrification plans.  

While the automaker has scaled back its ambitions, it’s not abandoning them altogether. As Mercedes-Benz Group CEO Ola Källenius said during the company’s Tech Day in Stuttgart, Germany, last month, “The clock starts again” on the company’s EV plans. And that starts with a newly developed platform, called MMA, that will underpin both internal combustion, hybrid, and electric vehicles going forward.

“We’re in an era where we’re going towards electrification, but in the year 2025 obviously, we’re not 100 percent electrification. So for many years to come we will have a duality,” Källenius said.

An ‘electric-first’ platform

The MMA platform makes its debut on the company’s entry-level sedan, the CLA, which debuted as a sub $30,000 Mercedes in 2013. Typically, automakers introducing new platforms start with their priciest models, which would be the S- and G-Class models in Mercedes’ case. Since both of those vehicles were recently updated, it will be a while before they get the MMA treatment. 

Mercedes is also bucking the traditional method of introducing a new platform as an ICE vehicle and then wedging the design into an EV platform. Instead, the company is going “EV first,” launching the CLA as an EV first and then later as an internal combustion with a mild hybrid in 2026.  

The new platform makes both the hybrid and EV vehicles larger than the previous generation. The wheelbase is 6.1 cm longer (2.4 inches) to accommodate the battery pack and taller by 2.8 cm (1.1 inches), giving rear passengers slightly more legroom and height. Källenius acknowledged the old CLA was a tight fit in the rear, but at 6-foot-4, he was able to slide into the new CLA with ease. As Källenius said, “You’re buying what feels like a sports car, but at the same time you have a fully functional three-box sedan.”

‘This is the EQXX on the road’

The new CLA owes its design and tech to the EQXX, a concept car introduced by Mercedes in 2022 with an emphasis on efficiency that could roll for more than 1,000 miles on a single charge. Mercedes engineers spent three years leveraging what they learned from the EQXX to develop the revamped CLA.  

However, the biggest deal about the new CLA is its massive range. There will be two battery options for the global market, a 58.4 kWh version and a larger 85.5 kWh battery. The US will only get the larger of the two, giving the CLA an estimated range of 792 km (492 miles) based on the generous WLTP standards. If the EPA-estimated range comes in around 350 miles, the CLA will rank among other long-range EVs like Lucid, Rivian, and Tesla.

The new CLA also gets a unique brake-by-wire setup called OneBox that calculates the right amount of braking power and recuperation to maximize efficiency. Like the technology BMW developed for its VDX test vehicle, most braking will primarily be handled by the regeneration system in normal conditions.  The new system claims to recuperate up to 200 kW of power. 

The new CLA’s 800-volt architecture will enable ultra-fast charging, adding 300 km (186 miles) of range in 10 minutes. The EV will come in front-wheel and all-wheel drive trims, with a 268-hp drive unit on the rear axle and a 107-hp drive unit on the front in the all-wheel drive version. The front motor can be disengaged automatically when it is not needed to help increase efficiency. As Källenius noted, “This is the EQXX on the road.” 

A new OS and smarter driving

With the CLA, Mercedes is launching a new software stack called MB.OS. The infotainment MBUX system will run on MB.OS and offers a new “AI-enhanced” user experience that can control everything from the sensors to various actuators. The new MB.OS system will be connected to the cloud to enable over-the-air updates for everything from driver assistance features to semi-autonomous driving. 

Källenius said the  CLA will feature “Level 2 ++” driving – nearing Level 3 autonomy where the driver is still kept in the loop to take over when needed. (Mercedes already offers a Level 3 system in a handful of states called Drive Pilot.) Consumers can purchase or “unlock” these ADAS features as an upgrade after purchase, which will be delivered via OTA update.  

“It will age like a good French wine,” Källenius said of the new software stack. “It will get better with age, because we will add capabilities to it. Some things we will give you for free, some things we may charge you for, depending on what it is, and depending on what the market allows.”

The new CLA gets Mercedes’ Superscreen, which stretches from pillar to pillar in the front. Under that glass sits a 10.25-inch gauge cluster and a 14-inch center display, with an optional 14-inch screen for passengers. That passenger screen can play movies from platforms like YouTube and RideVu by Sony. And if you’re worried about distracted driving, the passenger screen is not viewable from the driver’s position. 

Google and Microsoft systems help power the AI, which can be used to determine a driver’s mood (which it then uses to change the color of the lighting in the car) or help find parking. I got a demonstration of the new Mercedes voice assistant, which is powered by Google Gemini, and found it to be much more conversational than the previous generation, handling basic requests like navigation or finding a nice restaurant. For general knowledge, the system uses OpenAI’s GPT-4o model, Microsoft’s Azure, and Bing. The system will remember previous conversations and recall context. All the predictive learning is done on board the vehicle, not in the cloud.

Mercedes will launch the electric CLA (the base version is awkwardly named the CLA 250+ with EQ Technology) first in China and Europe, with the US launch in the fall. For an upgrade, customers can get the even more awkwardly named CLA 350 4MATIC with EQ Technology, with all-wheel drive. The 1.5-liter four-cylinder hybrid ICE version, which Mercedes didn’t share many details about in Stuttgart, won’t make its debut until sometime in 2026. 

Mercedes hasn’t announced pricing yet, but in the current economic environment, it’s likely that the new CLA will be priced above that old $30,000 marker. With increased hostility toward EVs in the US and an administration that’s determined to roll back EV benefits, we’ll have to wait and see which version Mercedes customers choose for their future entry-level luxury sedan, and whether this new electric strategy will turn the company’s flagging sales around.

Images from Mercedes-Benz

Android phones will soon support Auracast with Bluetooth LE hearing aids, letting people tune in to audio broadcasts in places where it’s otherwise hard to hear. Auracast is a Bluetooth Audio LE feature, and it allows one broadcaster to connect to a virtually unlimited number of Bluetooth LE devices. Among other things, the technology can help people who use hearing aids connect directly to audio streams like the public announcement system at an airport, or to an audio feed at a concert venue. At launch, Samsung Galaxy phones running One UI 7 and Google Pixel 9 phones with the Android 16 beta will support it.

Auracast has been around since the Bluetooth LE spec was completed in 2022. Samsung’s recent Galaxy phones already support sharing audio to other devices via Auracast, and it looks as though Google will add similar audio sharing capabilities in Android 16. Hearing aid support adds another layer of functionality, and on Pixel 9 phones connecting to a broadcast will be as simple as scanning a QR code. Otherwise, you can access a public broadcast through your settings menu in basically the same way you connect to a Wi-Fi network.

Google is also announcing today that Android 16 has reached platform stability, moving it one step closer to a full launch. It first debuted in developer preview in November of last year, aligning with Google’s plan to shift its Android release schedule forward this year to Q2. With I/O just around the corner, there’s a lot brewing in Mountain View.

The first trailer for the next season of Black Mirror is full of the kinds of topics you’d expect from the anthology: AI, virtual worlds, video games, and lots of futuristic gadgets. All with a dark twist, of course.

Season 7 will feature six episodes — series creator Charlie Brooker says that two of them “are basically feature-length” — which includes a sequel to “USS Callister.” The appearance of Will Poulter also suggests the show is returning to the Bandersnatch universe.

We already knew the upcoming season had a stacked cast, with previous announcements including Paul Giamatti, Issa Rae, and Peter Capaldi. But Netflix announced even more notable stars who will be subjected to the dark terrors of the future this time around. They include not only Poulter, but Michele Austin, Ben Bailey Smith, Asim Chaudhry, Josh Finan, James Nelson-Joyce, Jay Simpson, and Michael Workéyè. Who they are playing, and what the other episodes are about, remains largely a secret right now.

These will be the first new episodes in the series since 2023, which featured standouts like “Joan is Awful” and “Beyond the Sea.”

Black Mirror season 7 starts streaming on April 10th, where it will join an incredibly busy period for news shows. April will also see new seasons of Doctor Who (the 12th), The Last of Us (April 13th), and Andor (22nd).

The Trump administration launched a massive deregulation spree that could gut environmental and health protections in the US, moves that are sure to face immediate legal and logistical challenges.

Wednesday was “the greatest day of deregulation our nation has seen,” Environmental Protection Agency administrator Lee Zeldin said in a press release. The proposed changes include 31 actions to roll back pollution regulations for power plants, oil and gas refineries, chemical plants, cars and trucks, factories, and more.

Advocacy groups, unsurprisingly, are already promising a fight. Outside of court, the EPA — if it follows protocol — would have to go through extensive rulemaking processes. And it has to make this all happen with a shrunken and demoralized workforce.

“This is a cluster bomb of moves to demolish a broad swath of environmental regulations. We’ll see if it explodes in EPA’s face when the inevitable barrage of lawsuits hits the courts,” Michael Gerrard, faculty director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University, said in an email to The Verge. 

The EPA says it will “reconsider” a broad swath of regulations on everything including mercury, toxic air pollutants, soot, wastewater, the chemicals used in the workplace, and the greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change. 

The EPA is also working to claw back $20 billion of Biden-era federal funding to reduce greenhouse gas pollution. Zeldin’s language when it comes to the climate crisis is particularly vociferous. “We are driving a dagger straight into the heart of the climate change religion to drive down cost of living for American families, unleash American energy, bring auto jobs back to the U.S. and more,” he said.

The EPA press release says, without sharing any numbers or analysis, that the proposed measures would make it more affordable to buy a car or run a business. The Trump administration’s tariff wars, however, are expected to raise the cost of a car by up to $12,000.

Federal standards for soot pollution alone, on the other hand, are estimated to lead to $46 billion in net health benefits, according to an EPA analysis last year. Stronger soot protections that were finalized last year were also expected to prevent 290,000 lost workdays and 4,500 premature deaths by 2032. 

American Lung Association president and CEO Harold Wimmer said in an emailed statement that the organization “will use every tool in our toolbox to defend these lifesaving protections and protect the health of families.” 

The Sierra Club also said in a statement that it would “fight these outrageous rollbacks tooth and nail.” And “should the EPA undo settled law and irrefutable facts, we expect to see this administration in court,” environmental law organization Earthjustice said in another statement.

“It is important to remember that currently, all these clean air protections are still in place. EPA’s leadership can’t undo them with this announcement. They have to follow the law and go through a process to reconsider or revoke them,” the American Lung Association’s Wimmer added.

President Donald Trump managed to roll back around 100 environmental regulations during his first term in office. This time around, he’s moving much quicker to enact sweeping changes. But the wrecking ball that Trump and billionaire ally Elon Musk have taken to federal agencies could also make it harder to implement their agenda at the EPA.

“In order to revoke or revise a regulation, you need a new regulation,” Columbia’s Gerrard notes. It takes skilled staff to write detailed explanations to justify such drastic changes in the EPA’s position, according to Gerrard. Courts could invalidate new rules without those explanations, and it’s unclear who would be left at the agency to do that work as the Trump administration slashes the federal workforce, he says. 

In February, the EPA notified 1,100 probationary workers that they could be terminated immediately. The agency has already fired hundreds of staffers. Trump has also floated and walked back the idea of cutting 65 percent of the agency’s staff. And the EPA’s actions announced this week include “terminating Biden’s environmental justice and DEI arms of the agency” — encompassing roles that address the ways in which low-income communities and Americans of color are often disproportionately exposed to pollution. 

The announcements made yesterday mark “the most disastrous day in EPA history,” according to an emailed statement from former EPA administrator and White House national climate adviser Gina McCarthy. 

“They’re doing the bidding of their fossil fuel friends,” McCarthy said. Trump received more than $75 million from oil and gas interests while campaigning on a platform to “drill, baby, drill.” 

According to McCarthy, “The agency has fully abdicated its mission to protect Americans’ health and wellbeing.”

There are a lot of “simulator” games out there that gamify everything from driving your own big rig to running your own Japanese convenience store. Some of them hit, like the one about being a goat which is on its third iteration. And some of them hit like PowerWash Simulator which is getting a sequel slated for release later this year.

PowerWash Simulator 2 will feature a new campaign with new locations and jobs to expand your power washing empire. To further drive home the fact this game is wish fulfillment for aspiring home owners, PWS2 will also add a home base you can customize with furniture and other cosmetics. But more than anything, I’m excited by the prospect of the new split-screen co-op mode.

I played PowerWash Simulator waaay back in 2021 when there was just the demo. I found myself utterly delighted by how the simplistic idea of methodically cleaning grime off a surface with a destructive power tool lit up my brain. Since its release in 2022, the game has exploded in complexity and content with crossover content packs that approach Fortnite levels of wacky metaverse shenanigans. There’s a SpongeBob pack, a Tomb Raider pack, and even a Final Fantasy VII pack that lets you valiantly attempt to clean up the perpetually dirty streets of Midgar.

The developers at FuturLab tapped into something unique, and made PowerWash Simulator standout amidst a veritable ocean of simulator games and it seems like PowerWash Simulator 2 is primed to do the same. It launches this year on Xbox, PlayStation, and PC.

Lexus is updating its RZ electric vehicle lineup and introducing new versions that include a simulated manual gearbox and a steer-by-wire system. The top-of-the-line 550e F Sport includes a “Interactive Manual Drive” system that gives the driver the feeling of shifting like a manual gas car “by synchronizing acceleration and deceleration with immersive sound.” It also features the yoke steering wheel Lexus originally showed off for the RZ in 2022, which is available as an option for other versions with drive-by-wire.

Interactive Manual Drive features 8-speed virtual gears controlled by paddle shifters and a shift guide meter to give visual feedback on when to upshift and downshift. Lexus isn’t the only company trying fake shifting on EVs; manufacturers like Hyundai include it on the Ioniq 5 N.

When the RZ launched in 2023, it had a relatively short EPA-estimated 220 miles of range on a single charge, but the new one maxes out at about 357 miles (575km), although that range is based on Europe’s more lax WLTP system.

The higher range is thanks to an updated 77 kWh battery that has more and improved cells compared to the previous 71.5 kWh one. The battery can push up to 300 kW to the F Sport’s dual motor AWD system. The new battery can recharge faster too thanks to the addition of a new preconditioning feature.

Lexus plans to “gradually roll out” the RZ starting this fall “across various regions.”

Today Sony is announcing the development of a new type of TV display that uses individual RGB LEDs for its backlighting. While Sony currently sells high-end Mini LED TVs alongside OLED models, this new system could combine many of the best qualities of both, and I recently got to see it in action at the company’s Tokyo headquarters.

I’m not yet convinced that this tech, which for now Sony has given the somewhat unwieldy name of “General RGB LED Backlight Technology,” will be the best panel solution for everyone. But TVs are always going to come with tradeoffs, and this approach does represent a meaningfully different solution to what’s currently on the market. It looks like it’ll be a huge upgrade on existing Mini LED sets.

Mini LED TVs work by deploying an array of tiny blue LEDs behind the panel. These LEDs are larger than the actual pixels on the display, but they’re small enough that the TV can brighten or darken multiple areas of the screen with a high degree of precision. OLED TVs, meanwhile, are capable of even better contrast because they light up and switch off each pixel individually, but they generally can’t get as large or as bright as Mini LED displays.

With Sony’s new RGB LED method, each Mini LED backlight zone is made up of a red, green, and blue LED. The core advantage here is that Sony is able to achieve finer control over color without compromising on brightness, achieving a level of 4000 cd/m² — on par with the company’s professional reference monitors and resulting in a higher “color volume” than any commercial TV it’s released to date. The increased gradation control can also help deliver much wider viewing angles than Mini LED TVs, and Sony says the panels can be built at larger sizes than existing OLED sets.

So, how does it look in person? Unfortunately Sony didn’t allow its prototypes to be photographed, but I’ll do my best to describe them.

The first unit was designed to show off the backlight array itself. Behind the set was a wild combination of exposed silicon and cable spaghetti. Only half of the screen was covered by an actual LCD panel; the rest of the image was purely handled by the backlighting. Imagine watching a movie where the right half of the picture was run through a 16-bit pixel art filter, and you’re pretty much there, except this screen had much better color reproduction than a Super Nintendo. 

This isn’t much use in practice, of course, but it does show exactly how precise Sony is able to get with the lighting. One scene showed a bus driving down a street on a sunny day, and it was possible to discern several distinct shades of red in its paint from the backlight alone. Sony says this translates to wider and more accurate color reproduction.

To demonstrate actual video content, Sony set up a full-screen version of the RGB backlight prototype flanked by two of its best TVs you can buy: last year’s extravagant Mini LED-powered Bravia 9, and the QD-OLED A95L that won the prestigious “King of TV” award at the most recent Value Electronics TV Shootout, where Verge editor-in-chief Nilay Patel served on the judging panel.

Conscious of the unflattering comparison, a Sony engineer conducting the demo repeatedly went out of his way to make the point that the Bravia 9 on the left really was a very good TV. Despite this, the RGB LED prototype clearly smoked it. 

A scene from Frozen where blue crystals flew through the air looked almost monochrome in comparison, with the prototype revealing deep shades of purple that simply weren’t there on the Bravia. It was clear how the backlighting worked in tandem with the color grading to deliver a more vivid picture. Viewing angles were hugely improved, with near-non-existent color shift. Another sequence with bright red lights against a dark background exhibited the tell-tale blueish Mini LED blooming on the Bravia, whereas the RGB LED prototype lit up those areas solely in red. 

That’s not to say the blooming wasn’t there. If you covered up only the red portion of the screen with a piece of paper, you’d still see hazy redness around it, unlike on an OLED panel. But watching the footage normally, the effect wasn’t all that different. While OLED screens don’t strictly leak color data into adjacent pixels, the effect of retinal straylight in your eyes means you do still perceive haziness around bright points. RGB LED’s ability to limit its blooming to scene-accurate colors makes for a major improvement on Mini LED in this regard, even if it’s still going to lose out to OLED when it comes to displaying starfields.

RGB LED backlighting isn’t a wholly new idea, even from Sony. The company launched a ridiculously expensive Qualia TV with an RGB backlight in 2004, and more recently showed off a “Crystal LED” prototype TV at CES 2012. Competitors are also on the case; Hisense showed off a “TriChroma RGB Backlight” Mini LED TV at CES this year, while TCL and Samsung had prototypes with their own spin on the idea.

“These developments were within our expectations,” says Daisuke Nezu, head of Sony’s home audio and video division. Sony remains confident that its experience in backlight technology and image signal processing gives it an edge over anything on the horizon.

“We believe that we can ensure not only good image quality, but also reliability and stability,” Sony representative Mara Redican tells The Verge, emphasizing the company’s expertise in signal processing. “The knowledge and experience gained over the years cannot be easily replicated.”

If Sony is right about this, its strongest competition could be coming from inside the house; the advantages were much less clear next to its own “King of TV.” The RGB LED prototype could definitely hang with the A95L, and quite literally outshone it in terms of brightness. But I would say the difference in color reproduction and viewing angles were a wash at best. I generally preferred the picture from the OLED in the most challenging comparisons, and I think a lot of OLED TV owners would probably agree.

But that’s fine by Sony, which isn’t giving any indication that it’s planning to exit the OLED TV market any time soon — no wonder, given the glowing reception to the A95L. I might be happy with my own OLED TVs right now, but the tech plainly isn’t right for every customer, whether they’re concerned about brightness, size, or longevity. If you’ve been waiting to put a 100-inch-plus panel in a large room with a lot of natural light, this could be your answer.

We’ll have to see how this all shakes out once RGB LED panels come to actual consumer TVs, of course. But Sony’s take on the concept does look to be a big step up over what we’ve come to expect from Mini LED, at least, and it could well be the best alternative to OLED if and when it’s commercialized.

With so many AI companies launching chatbots, Google is leveraging its biggest competitive advantage to make Gemini stand out: Search. With personalization enabled, Gemini can now automatically analyze your query to see if referring to your Search history can “enhance” its response.

The feature is powered by the Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking Experimental model, and it will only reference your search results if its AI model finds it “helpful.” For instance, if you ask Gemini about restaurant or travel recommendations, the chatbot will refer to your recent food-related searches to provide a suggestion. 

This is part of the broader personalization feature Google is rolling out, which will eventually connect Gemini to other apps like YouTube and Google Photos, allowing the chatbot to “provide more personalized insights, drawing from a broader understanding of your activities and preferences.”

Google notes that you can disconnect your search history from Gemini at any time. When you receive a response, you’ll see an outline of how Gemini got its answers, as well as whether it referenced your saved information, past conversations, or Search history. It will also display a “clear banner” with a link to disconnect your Search history.

Gemini and Gemini Advanced subscribers on the web can enable the feature by selecting “Personalization (experimental)” from the model drop-down menu. It’s gradually rolling out on mobile, and is available in more than 40 languages in a “majority” of countries.

Google is releasing some other updates as well, including a way for all Gemini users to create their own personal AI assistants — called Gems — for free. The company also announced that it’s bringing its Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking Experimental model to its Deep Research feature, which the company says improves the chatbot’s capabilities “across all research stages.” 

Gemini’s integrations with Calendar, Notes, Tasks, and Photos are also getting an upgrade to the Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking Experimental model, joining YouTube, Search, and Google Maps.

Fortnite is coming to Windows devices with Qualcomm’s Arm-based Snapdragon chips later this year. Epic Games announced today that it’s teaming up with Qualcomm to add Windows on Snapdragon support for Easy Anti-Cheat, which will let the game be compatible with those devices.

“Over the last year, the introduction of Windows 11 Arm-based laptops has transformed the PC landscape, and laptops with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Series processors represent a rapidly growing segment of the PC gaming market,” Epic says in a blog post. “However, the majority of PC games today are compiled for x64, which doesn’t translate directly to the Windows on Snapdragon architecture. Due to the way anti-cheat software works with x64 features, additional tooling is required for compatibility with these devices.”

Epic says that “hundreds” of multiplayer games rely on Easy Anti-Cheat, including Fortnite, and that “battle-testing Windows on Snapdragon anti-cheat support with Fortnite will help ensure smooth implementations in other games.”

If you’re looking to catch up on Andor before the second season’s April 22nd debut on Disney Plus, there’s a solid deal on both Disney Plus and Hulu. Now through March 30th, you can get the ad-supported Disney Plus, Hulu Bundle Basic plan for $2.99 per month for the first four months. Usually this bundle goes for $10.99 per month, so altogether that equates to a savings of around $32. The discount is available to both new and qualifying returning Disney Plus, Hulu, and/or ESPN Plus subscribers.

If you don’t mind watching the occasional ad, the basic plan is nearly identical to the Premium tier. You can’t download content, but otherwise you still get to watch all the thousands of movies and shows available in both Hulu’s and Disney Plus’ library. That means not only can you stream Andor, you can also watch Disney’s new Daredevil series, Moana 2, Deadpool & Wolverine, X-Men ‘97, and other films and shows from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, and even National Geographic. You also get to watch Hulu’s library — which encompasses everything from the forthcoming final season of The Handmaid’s Tale to The Kardashians, Shogun, and Futurama — on multiple devices.

Just remember to mark your calendars, though; after the four-month promotion period ends, the bundle with automatically renew at the normal price of $10.99.

More ways to save right now

• Sony’s WH-CH520 are on sale at Amazon, Walmart, and Best Buy for around $38 ($22 off), which is only $2 more than their lowest price to date. The budget pair of on-ear headphones aren’t going to compete with the company’s noise-canceling WH-1000XM5 — nor should they, given the price — but they do support Fast Pair pair on Android and multipoint connectivity, allowing you to quickly switch between two devices. They also offer up to 50 hours of battery life, which is a rarity even on high-end headphones.
• The Twelve South AirFly SE is down to its all-time low price of $28.99 ($6 off) at Amazon, Walmart, and Best Buy. The Bluetooth transmitter comes with an integrated 3.5mm cable, so you can listen to in-flight entertainment systems more comfortable using your own pair of wireless earbuds or noise-canceling headphones. It also works with other devices that offer a standard audio jack, including compatible treadmills and the Nintendo Switch.
• The Garmin Forerunner 265 is on sale for $379.99 ($70 off) at Wellbots when you apply the code VERGEF265, which is just $20 shy of its all-time low price. It’s also available for $399.99 at Amazon and REI. The smartwatch is a good choice for runners, offering a wide number of running metrics that includes stride length and cadence. It also includes Garmin’s Race Predictor feature, which estimates the time it’d take for you to run different types of marathons based on your long-term running data. The wearable also sports multiband GPS for more precise tracking along with a vibrant OLED display with good battery life, lasting about a week on a single charge. Read our review.