Lights that turn on when you walk into a room and turn off when you leave are one of the most desirable smart home features. But you need to buy additional hardware like motion sensors to make this “magic” happen. A new ambient sensing technology called Sensify could make this easier by turning your light bulbs into motion sensors. And it might be landing on a Philips Hue bridge near you very soon.

Sensify is a wireless network sensing (WNS) technology developed by Ivani that can turn mains-powered Zigbee devices into motion sensors for controlling your lights with just a firmware update — no additional hardware needed. The best part is that it can work on devices already in most homes. “There are tens of millions of devices with the base firmware already out there; we’re just working on the final touches to light up the full experience,” Ivani cofounder Justin McKinney tells The Verge.

An obvious use case for this is a Zigbee-based smart lighting system such as Philips Hue. There’s been speculation that Hue is working on a Zigbee sensing technology since its sister company Wiz debuted a similar tech called SpaceSense in 2022, which uses WNS over Wi-Fi. The well-informed hueblog.com reports that Zigbee wireless network sensing is the technology Hue will most likely use. The Verge reached out to Signify, which owns Hue, but hasn’t yet received a response.

McKinney wouldn’t say which companies are using Ivani’s Sensify, which has been in development since 2016, but he did share that the company is working “with some large household names poised to deploy the technology very soon.” He also said it’s the only company offering this capability over Zigbee networks.

Ivani is a member of the Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA), which runs the Zigbee protocol, but Sensify is a proprietary solution that leverages the Zigbee network. Despite reports indicating this sensing tech is coming to all Zigbee devices, the CSA confirmed to The Verge that this is not a new feature within Zigbee itself.

WNS works by detecting disturbances in radio frequencies and can also be applied to Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Thread technologies. McKinney says Sensify requires three or more devices positioned around a detection area to detect motion and occupancy in the space. The tech also allows for precise detection zones based on where the devices are situated. “The devices send messages to each other, look at underlying network diagnostic information, and process it to provide occupancy sensing decisions,” says McKinney.

Image: Ivani

Performance-wise, McKinney says Sensify is “equivalent or superior” to passive infrared sensing (PIR) tech, which is traditionally used for motion sensing. It also doesn’t need line of sight, as PIR does. However, it’s not as precise as technologies like mmWave sensing, which can determine if someone is in a room through as slight a movement as breathing. “The lights will still likely turn off if you’re still, even if you’re in the space,” he says.

The good news is that Sensify can run on Zigbee networks with a range of chipsets working together, meaning it can be deployed as a software update to existing systems. McKinney also confirmed Sensify runs locally on your Zigbee network, there’s no Sensify cloud, and any sensing data is only accessible to the manufacturer deploying the technology.

This video, published by the CSA, illustrates how Ivani’s wireless network sensing works over a Zigbee network.

Motion sensing in the smart home has several use cases, from lighting control and security to energy management and elder care. Two big advantages of WNS here are cost and scale. There’s no need to buy additional hardware to get the capability, and many homes already have devices that can use it.

Ivani is currently the only company with a Zigbee solution, but there are WNS solutions out there that use Wi-Fi. Origin Wireless and its partner company, Nami, were the first to develop Wi-Fi sensing, and they are leading Matter’s efforts around bringing ambient RF sensing technologies to the smart home standard.

Origin’s technology powered Linksys Aware, a feature the router company launched in 2019 that turned its routers into motion sensors, and last year, Threshold launched a smart plug using Origin’s Wi-Fi sensing to allow caregivers to monitor a loved one’s activity remotely.

In 2021, I tested Hex Home, a proof-of-concept security system from Origin that used Wi-Fi sensing instead of motion sensors. But false positives made it virtually unusable. I also tried Wiz’s Wi-Fi-based SpaceSense when it first launched. It was more reliable but still fairly inconsistent. However, according to McKinney, advances in machine learning and AI have brought significant improvements to WNS technology.

He says Ivani’s Sensify tech is ready for deployment over Zigbee, and they’re just waiting for their partners to fine-tune how best to “introduce the feature within their product lines.” He expects they will update existing products in the next few months. “We have the pleasure of experiencing our partner’s products and their beta tests in our homes, and it really is the promise of what home automation was supposed to be.”

There have been a lot of promises around home automation over the years, with very few being fulfilled. But the idea of, say, every Philips Hue light bulb in your home turning into a motion sensor overnight, making it simple to automate control of your lights without sticking white plastic sensors everywhere, is a fairly exciting one.

Google is announcing a variety of classroom and accessibility-focused ChromeOS features today, and one of the standouts is being able to control your computer with your head and facial expressions. The feature — aimed at those with motor impairments — was first announced in early December, but it’s now rolling out to more users with compatible Chromebooks (Google recommends 8GB of RAM or more).

This isn’t Google’s first foray into the face-as-a-cursor space. It previously made an open-source AI accessibility tool for Windows games called Project Gameface, which was also announced for Android. Here’s a sample video from Google of the tech in action, demoed by software engineer Amanda Lin Dietz who helped develop it.

Additionally, Google is also teasing a boatload of new Chromebooks for 2025, with over 20 new devices in its standard Chromebook and Chromebook Plus lines coming this year. That estimate may be a bit of a stretch, since Google seems to be counting the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus that launched back in October, but it does also count the just-announced 14-inch Lenovo Chromebook Plus 2-in-1 and more to come.

Along with laptops aimed at educators and students, Google’s got a new batch of classroom-focused ChromeOS features called Class Tools. These allow teachers to have real-time control of their students’ screens. Once a pairing code is shared, educators will be able to send students direct content on their Chromebook screens, flip on live captions or translations for them, remotely view their screens, and share a student’s work with the whole class.

Image: Google

In addition to these collaborative tools, Google Classroom is also getting an integration with Figma’s FigJam, allowing teachers to assign online whiteboards to students for brainstorming and group work. Maybe the combination of FigJam with the teacher’s ability to snoop on students’ screens will reveal who’s really doing all the work for the group.

Bambu Lab, the company behind my favorite 3D printers, has given itself one hell of a week. Now, I’ve got answers to some of my burning questions, answers which you might also hopefully appreciate. But first, some backstory.

Since last Thursday, some creators have pledged not to buy Bambu printers anymore, even removed some of their 3D models from its online repository, after the company revealed it would add a new proprietary authentication mechanism that could keep you from using third-party tools to remote control your printer.

While you’d still be able to stick a file on an SD card and physically put it into your printer or use Bambu’s proprietary cloud, the old way of printing remotely from a third-party slicer would be no more — unless you downloaded a new proprietary Windows and Mac “Bambu Connect” desktop app to be the middleman between your slicer and Bambu’s hardware.

While Bambu was clear early on that this would be an optional update, one you could simply choose not to install, the company also positioned it as a necessary one to secure printers against remote hacks....

Read the full story at The Verge.

On Tuesday night, President Donald Trump issued a pardon to Ross Ulbricht, who ran the dark web marketplace Silk Road under the pseudonym “Dread Pirate Roberts.” Ulbricht has been serving a life sentence without parole since 2015, when he was convicted of multiple charges, including the distribution of narcotics.

The Silk Road marketplace, which was only accessible through the Tor network, became one of the most prevalent early commercial uses of Bitcoin. Buyers and sellers traded in illicit drugs, forged passports, and more.

In the intervening years, Ulbricht became a cause celebrè for a certain segment of the right-wing, particularly in the crypto crowd that embraced Trump last year. To his supporters, Ulbricht’s life sentence is unusually punitive. Similar offenses have garnered much more lenient sentences — for instance, Blake Benthall, who operated Silk Road 2.0, was sentenced to time served and three years of probation. Ulbricht’s lieutenant, Thomas Clark, also known as “Variety Jones,” was sentenced to 20 years in prison last year.

Although the criminal offenses were nonviolent in nature, the judge who sentenced Ulbricht took into account multiple deaths attributable to drugs bought through the Silk Road.

Throughout his trial, Ulbricht denied that he had committed the crimes at issue. Because law enforcement had arrested him with his laptop open, they had access to all his files, which included the code of the website, private messages between him and employees of the Silk Road, and a diary whose entries corresponded to OKCupid messages tied to Ross Ulbricht’s real identity.

President Donald Trump says he’d be open to his buddies Elon Musk or Larry Ellison buying TikTok.

“Larry, let’s negotiate in front of the media,” Trump said at a press conference with the Oracle co-founder, SoftBank CEO Masa Son, and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman to announce a $500 billion artificial intelligence infrastructure investment. “What I’m thinking about saying to somebody is, buy it, and give half to the United States of America. Half, and we’ll give you the permit. And they’ll have a great partner, the United States.”

“Sounds like a good deal to me, Mr. President,” Ellison said.

It’s still not entirely clear how all of this would work, or how the US could legally operate a speech platform without violating the First Amendment. But it’s one of the earliest examples of how Silicon Valley’s coziness with Trump could manifest over the next four years.

Trump signed an executive order on Monday instructing his administration not to enforce the law on service providers covered by the forced divestiture bill — which include Oracle, Apple, and Google — for 75 days. But legal experts say the action provides hardly any legal cover for those companies to violate federal law and risk $850 billion in penalties. Even so, Oracle has appeared to rely on Trump’s assurances to help TikTok run in the US after the January 19th sale deadline, though the company has not yet commented on it directly.

TikTok’s China-based parent company ByteDance still has other offers on the table, including from billionaire Frank McCourt’s Project Liberty and now, apparently, from YouTube creator MrBeast — whose investor group is receiving legal counsel from a team that includes the brother of Trump’s attorney general pick.

As he was leaving the briefing, a reporter asked Trump if he has TikTok on his phone. “No, but I think I might put it there,” Trump responded. “I think I’ll get it right now.”

Microsoft and OpenAI announced Tuesday that they have adjusted their partnership so that OpenAI can access competitors' compute.

The new agreement “includes changes to the exclusivity on new capacity, moving to a model where Microsoft has a right of first refusal (ROFR),” Microsoft says. “To further support OpenAI, Microsoft has approved OpenAI’s ability to build additional capacity, primarily for research and training of models.”

The foundation of their relationship (which runs through 2030) stays pretty much the same — Microsoft keeps its exclusive rights to OpenAI’s tech for products like Copilot, and OpenAI’s API remains exclusive to Azure. They’ll maintain their two-way revenue-sharing setup (it's been reported that Microsoft gets 20 percent of OpenAI’s revenue). Prior to today’s change, OpenAI was locked into using Microsoft’s Azure cloud infrastructure exclusively for its computing needs.

The news follows the announcement of a joint venture between Arm, Microsoft, Nvidia, Oracle, and OpenAI to build a system of data centers in the U.S. called Starbase.

The models OpenAI hopes to build and the user base it's looking to serve require billions of dollars in compute. It has been previously reported that some OpenAI shareholders felt Microsoft wasn’t moving fast enough to supply OpenAI with computing power, hence why the startup partnered with Oracle back in June (with the blessing of Microsoft) for the necessary compute.

There’s been a lot of buzz about Microsoft and OpenAI facing relationship woes after OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was briefly ousted from the company, causing a lot of very public drama. The New York Times reported that the relationship has grown increasingly strained due to financial pressures at OpenAI, concerns about stability, and growing friction between employees at both companies.

Last March, Microsoft hired Inflection CEO Mustafa Suleyman to lead its consumer AI efforts, along with most of Inflection’s staff, in a $650 million deal. According to The New York Times report, this move particularly angered some OpenAI leadership, including Altman.

OpenAI’s deal with Microsoft also has an unusual escape clause: if OpenAI creates artificial general intelligence (AGI), it could close off Microsoft’s access to some of its most powerful models developed after that point. AGI, reportedly, is defined as a system capable of generating more than $100 billion in profits. This was originally meant to keep such powerful AI from being commercialized, but now OpenAI is reportedly considering dropping this provision, likely to secure more Microsoft funding.

A plan to build a system of data centers for artificial intelligence has been revealed in a White House press conference, with Masayoshi Son, Sam Altman, and Larry Ellison joining Donald Trump to announce The Stargate Project. Their companies, Softbank, OpenAI, and Oracle (respectively), along with MGX are listed as “initial equity funders” for $500 billion in investments over the next four years, “building new AI infrastructure for OpenAI in the United States.”

According to a statement from OpenAI, “Arm, Microsoft, NVIDIA, Oracle, and OpenAI” are the initial tech partners, with a buildout “currently underway” starting in Texas as other sites across the country are evaluated. It also says that “Oracle, NVIDIA, and OpenAI will closely collaborate to build and operate this computing system.”

Separately, Microsoft announced an update to its partnership with OpenAI, saying that the key elements of their deal remain in place through 2030, covering “our access to OpenAI’s IP, our revenue sharing arrangements and our exclusivity on OpenAI’s APIs all continuing forward.”

What is changing is that Microsoft says OpenAI has made a “new, large Azure commitment that will continue to support all OpenAI products as well as training.” However, their exclusive arrangement for new capacity is changing so that now Microsoft has a right of first refusal over OpenAI building new capacity.

In a press conference announcing the project, which has been rumored since early last year, Son and Altman spoke directly to Trump, insisting that the project only happened because of his election victory.

Meta may be releasing new Oakley-branded smart glasses later this year, according to a new Bloomberg report.

The Oakley-branded glasses, internally referred to as “Supernova 2”, would be based on the brand’s Sphaera glasses. Instead of housing the cameras on the side, the Supernova 2 would shift the camera to the center of the frame. The idea is to appeal to cyclists and other outdoor athletes. The report didn’t detail any other potential features, though the Oakley glasses would ostensibly have similar features to the current Ray-Ban Meta glasses.

Oakley, like Ray-Bans, are a subsidiary of eyewear giant EssilorLuxottica. The move to expand Meta’s tech to other brands under EssilorLuxottica’s umbrella is a savvy one. While the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses are good for discreet, everyday wear, they’re a bit heavy for endurance sports and lack certain features like polarized lenses for better visibility. Oakleys are also considered stylish and popular among professional athletes. Conceptually, they’re similar to the now discontinued Bose Frames Tempo, which allowed athletes to have open-ear audio with polarized lenses in a relatively light form factor. That said, if the goal is to appeal to athletes, Meta and Oakley will likely have to address factors like weight, sweat resistance, and battery life.

The report also notes that Meta plans on launching a higher-end version of its current Ray-Ban glasses that include a display capable of delivering notifications, running simple apps, and previewing photos.

The fourth Sonic movie now has an official release date: March 19th, 2027, according to Variety. Right around the release of the very successful Sonic the Hedgehog 3 last December, news hit that Sonic the Hedgehog 4 was in the works, but at the time, the movie only had a spring 2027 release window.

Sonic films have drawn all-star cast members over the years, such as Jim Carrey as Dr. Robotnik, who has played the role in all three of the movies, Idris Elba as Knuckles, and Keanu Reeves as Shadow. And a post-credits scene for the third movie hints that other fan favorites could join the series (spoilers in that link!), so there might be big casting announcements ahead for the fourth Sonic film.

The March 2027 date for Sonic The Hedgehog 4 means it will launch well after The Super Mario Bros. Movie sequel, which is set to debut on April 3rd, 2026.

Netflix is raising prices yet again. In its latest earnings report released Tuesday, the streaming service announced that “we are adjusting prices today across most plans” in the US, Canada, Portugal, and Argentina.

Netflix spokesperson MoMo Zhou tells The Verge that the ad-supported tier is increasing from $6.99 to $7.99 per month, while the standard ad-free tier will go from $15.49 to $17.99 per month. Its highest-priced premium tier is also increasing from $22.99 to $24.99 per month. The price hikes will go into effect during subscribers’ next billing cycle, according to Zhou.

“As we continue to invest in programming and deliver more value for our members, we will occasionally ask our members to pay a little more so that we can re-invest to further improve Netflix,” the company’s letter to investors says. Netflix last raised the price of its subscription in October 2023. This is also the first time it’s raising the price of this ad-supported plan, which it rolled out in 2022.

Netflix added 19 million new subscribers over the past few months — the most in its history during a single quarter — bringing its global total to 300 million. This is the last time Netflix will reveal how many subscribers it added during the quarter, as the company said last year that it would only announce “major subscriber milestones as we cross them” starting in the first quarter of 2025.

Even with a subscriber count reaching new highs, and operating income ballooning past $10 billion for the first time, Netflix executives believe the company still has room for growth. The company’s letter to investors says it accounts for less than 10 percent of TV viewing in the countries it’s available in, “which suggests a long runway for growth as streaming continues to expand around the world.”

Along with the price hike, Netflix announced that it’s rolling out a new Extra Member with Ads plan, which will allow those on the ad-supported plan to add someone outside their household to their subscription. It currently costs an extra $7.99 per month to add someone outside your household to an ad-free plan.

The streamer ended 2024 with a strong content lineup that included new seasons of Squid Game and the League of Legends spinoff Arcane.

Netflix’s approach to live content has also gotten more aggressive within the past several weeks, as it has gone from airing “sports-adjacent” events like a golf tournament that paired PGA players with Formula One drivers to full-blown NFL games featuring performances from Beyoncé and Mariah Carey. But Netflix notes that it’s “not focusing on acquiring rights to large regular season sports packages; rather, our live strategy is all about delivering can’t-miss, special event programming.”

Despite running into some hiccups, the streamer also touted “record-breaking” viewership numbers for last year’s live boxing match between Mike Tyson and Jake Paul, while its WWE debut with Monday Night Raw locked in 4.9 million views, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Update, January 21st: Added information from Netflix.

A video on Nintendo’s Switch 2 website shows how the trigger (or is it a button?) on the back of the Joy-Con controllers disconnects them from the console, as spotted by Polygon.

In the video, the trigger is pressed down a tad before a final push releases it from the console. As the Joy-Con moves away, you can also see a small cylinder receding back into the top part of the inside of the controller; to me, that indicates that when you push the trigger, you’re actually pushing out that cylinder to help bump the Joy-Con out.

Here’s a GIF of the relevant part of the video:

GIF by Andrew Liszewski / The Verge

The mechanism to remove the Joy-Con controllers looks similar to what was included in a 3D-printed mockup that accessories-maker Genki brought to CES.

However, as for how the controllers actually stay attached to the Switch 2, Nintendo so far hasn’t said if the console uses magnets, as has been rumored. It’s one of many unanswered questions — hopefully, all will be revealed at Nintendo’s Switch 2-focused Direct on April 2nd.

Apple Intelligence will be switched on by default, starting in iOS 18.3, iPadOS 18.3, and macOS 15.3. In release candidate notes spotted by 9to5Mac, Apple says it will switch on AI-powered features automatically for new users or those upgrading to the latest versions of its operating systems.

The AI update will only apply to devices that support Apple Intelligence, including the iPhone 15 Pro and later, iPads and Macs with the Apple Silicon M1 chip or later, and the most recent version of the iPad mini.

For users new or upgrading to macOS 18.3, Apple Intelligence will be enabled automatically during Mac onboarding. Users will have access to Apple Intelligence features after setting up their devices. To disable Apple Intelligence, users will need to navigate to the Apple Intelligence & Siri Settings pane and turn off the Apple Intelligence toggle. This will disable Apple Intelligence features on their device.

As Apple’s notes mention, after updating your device, you’ll have to manually disable Apple Intelligence if you don’t want support for features like AI notification summaries, Image Playground, and tools that can rewrite pieces of text running on your device. To turn Apple Intelligence off, you’ll have to head to the Apple Intelligence & Siri Settings pane and then switch off the Apple Intelligence toggle.

Last week, iOS 18.3 beta testers spotted an update that will pause AI notification summaries for news and entertainment apps after the feature inaccurately summarized a BBC headline. Apple will also make it easier to identify notification summaries on your iPhone’s lock screen and note that they “may contain errors.”

Microsoft is rolling out its new in-game browser overlay on Windows 11 this week, after months of beta testing. The Microsoft Edge Game Assist feature is a widget that appears in the Game Bar in Windows 11 much like Valve’s Steam overlay browser. It’s also game-aware, so it can detect games you’re playing and offer up tips and guides in a little side panel.

The Game Assist overlay was previously restricted to beta users, but it’s now available in the stable version of Microsoft Edge. If you want to enable the in-game browser you can open up Microsoft Edge and go to Settings and more > Settings and then search for Game Assist and install the widget. The Game Assist feature will then be available in the Game Bar, which can be opened with the Windows key + G.

“The initial preview of Game Assist offers contextual tips and guides for a selection of popular PC games while we optimize the experience based on your feedback,” explains William Devereux, senior product manager for Microsoft Edge. Microsoft has also added support for more popular PC games, including Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, Marvel Rivals, and Dragon Age: The Veilguard.

“We’ll add tips and guides for even more popular games throughout the preview and over time,” says Devereux. “In the meantime, you can still use Game Assist to browse your favorite guides or other websites while playing any game.”

Game Assist works by using the same cookies, autofill, and favorites data from your main Microsoft Edge browser. Microsoft has also added support for extensions like ad blockers to this Game Assist feature, and it’s planning to add support for keyboard shortcuts in the future, alongside an improved picture-in-picture experience and the ability to add a tab from Microsoft Edge to the sidebar.

One of President Donald Trump’s first moves in office was an executive order repealing birthright citizenship — something he promised to do but didn’t deliver on during his first term. The move, which is almost certainly unconstitutional, would affect more than 11 million undocumented immigrants in the country as well as people in the US on non-immigrant visas, including more than 580,000 people with H1-Bs. The executive order is slated to go into effect 30 days after its announcement, though two lawsuits filed in federal courts could slow or halt its implementation.

Trump floated the idea of doing away with birthright citizenship in 2018. At the time, his critics pointed out that the move would require a constitutional amendment since birthright citizenship is enshrined under the 14th Amendment. “No president can change the Constitution with the stroke of a pen,” Beth Werlin, then-executive director of the American Immigration Council, said at the time. To get around this, Trump’s executive order attempts to reinterpret the 14th Amendment rather than amending or repealing it altogether.

As the order notes, the 14th Amendment grants citizenship to “all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof.” The courts have historically taken “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” to mean anyone who is present in the country, regardless of their immigration status — but Trump’s order claims that the amendment:

does not automatically extend to persons born in the United States: (1) when that person’s mother was unlawfully present in the United States and the father was not a United States citizen or lawful permanent resident at the time of said person’s birth, or (2) when that person’s mother’s presence in the United States at the time of said person’s birth was lawful but temporary (such as, but not limited to, visiting the United States under the auspices of the Visa Waiver Program or visiting on a student, work, or tourist visa) and the father was not a United States citizen or lawful permanent resident at the time of said person’s birth.

Put simply, under Trump’s order, the children of most undocumented immigrants wouldn’t be US citizens, nor would the children of people in the country on student, work, or tourist visas. This is more than a reinterpretation of the 14th Amendment — it’s an attempt to do away with the jus soli principle that undergirds US citizenship.

Since the country’s inception, the United States has had jus soli citizenship; anyone born in the country or its overseas territories is a citizen, regardless of their parents’ nationality or immigration status. This is different from jus sanguinis citizenship, under which only people whose parents are nationals of a certain country are granted citizenship. There have been some historical exceptions to jus soli citizenship in the US — most notably, the exclusion of enslaved African Americans and their children, as delineated by the Supreme Court’s decision in the landmark 1857 Dred Scott v. Sandford case. After the end of the Civil War, Congress enacted the 14th Amendment, granting citizenship to anyone born on US soil.

Two lawsuits have already been filed challenging the executive order. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and a host of other organizations filed a suit in a New Hampshire federal court on Monday night, hours after the order was announced. Attorneys general from 18 states — along with San Francisco and Washington, DC — filed a separate suit on Tuesday in a federal district court in Massachusetts.

“Neither the Constitution nor any federal statute confers any authority on the President,” the ACLU lawsuit reads. The ACLU argues that allowing the executive order to stand “would ‘promot[e] the creation and perpetuation of a subclass’ of children who were born in the United States but lack fundamental legal recognition and face stigma as a result of their novel and uncertain status.” Moreover, the suit claims, the order “will invite persistent questioning of the citizenship of children of immigrants—particularly children of color.”

Both the ACLU lawsuit and the suit filed by 18 states ask the courts to block the executive order before it goes into effect.

Apple continues to make it easier to use your iPhone with your Mac using the Continuity feature. Introduced with macOS Ventura, Continuity lets you use your iPhone as a webcam for your Mac. It also offers a universal clipboard across devices, call and text syncing, AirPlay streaming — and now, the ability to mirror your iPhone’s display on the screen attached to your Mac.

If you’ve got an iPhone running iOS 18 or later and a Mac with Apple silicon or the T2 security chip running macOS Sequoia 15 or later, then you can use iPhone mirroring. It’s exactly what it sounds like: a real-time copy of your mobile display on your computer display, which you can also interact with. Mirroring means you can check apps and messages while leaving your phone in your pocket or drawer — and of course, you have the advantage of keyboard and mouse (or trackpad) control, too.

Here’s how to set it up. I tried it on an iPhone 15 Pro Max running iOS 18.2.1 and a M1 MacBook Pro running macOS Sequoia 15.2.

Getting started with iPhone mirroring

Besides the software requirements we’ve already mentioned (iOS 18 and macOS 15), there are a few more checks to carry out to make this work. Both the iPhone and...

Read the full story at The Verge.

Balatro has crossed a major milestone, selling 5 million copies in its first year. The news was shared on X and featured a shout out to The Game Awards.

“To everyone who picked up Balatro after seeing it at @thegameawards, we hope you’re having an amazing time with it!” the post read. Balatro was featured prominently during The Game Awards, nominated for a number of awards including Game of the Year and winning the best indie, best debut indie, and best mobile categories.

On X, Wout van Halderen, PR manager for Balatro publisher Playstack, added that the game had sold 3.5 million copies by the first week of December. With The Game Awards taking place the second week in December, the implication is that Balatro received a significant 1.5 million unit bump in sales after being featured during Keighley’s Christmas Commercial telethon. Even more impressive, the 5 million figure is total units sold and doesn’t count the number of downloads the game got for being on the Apple Arcade subscription.

Since its launch in February, Balatro has quickly become one of the biggest indie hits of 2024. Developed by a single person over the course of two years, the poker roguelike has garnered a reputation for being a well-crafted “number-go-up” game with its developer leaning in on the joke that it devours players’ free and not-so-free time.

In the 11 months since the game’s release, it’s only gotten small, cosmetic updates but developer LocalThunk has hinted a major gameplay-focused update is forthcoming this year.

Jimbo help us all.

Microsoft is making some changes to the way you sign in to a Microsoft account next month. Starting in February, you will stay signed in to a Microsoft account automatically unless you sign out or use private browsing. It’s a change that people will need to be aware of, especially if they’re using a public computer.

Right now, if you sign in to a Microsoft account you’ll always be asked if you want to stay signed in, so you don’t have to sign in again next time. Microsoft’s change to automatically keeping you signed in means you’ll have to use a private browsing window on public PCs or make sure you remember to sign out once your session ends, otherwise the account will remain signed in.

If you do regularly use public PCs with your Outlook or Microsoft account then it’s definitely time to start getting used to signing out or using a private browsing session (which you should really be doing anyway). If you mistakenly forget to sign out of a Microsoft account in February, you can always force your account to be signed out on all browsers, apps, and anywhere else it’s being used apart from Xbox consoles.

Microsoft’s latest change to its account sign-in process comes months after the company added passkey support to all of its consumer accounts. You can create passkeys for your Microsoft account by following this link, and you can choose your face, fingerprint, PIN, or a security key to use a device to sign in with a passkey.

Korg has announced a new collection of portable record players with each model featuring specialized functionality depending on what you like to do with your vinyl. The Handytraxx Play is designed for DJs who perform with their turntables, the Handytraxx Tube has a more premium build to maximize sound quality, while the Handytraxx 1bit includes additional tools and outputs for digitizing vinyl.

They don’t have release dates yet, but the collection will start at $399 for the Handytraxx Play. It’s a significant jump after that to the $799 Handytraxx Tube, while the 1bit will be even pricier at $999.

If the design of the Handytraxx turntables feel familiar, it’s because you’re probably old enough to remember a similar product from Vestax called the Handy Trax that debuted in the early aughts. Korg’s updated versions were developed in collaboration with Vestax’s former president and co-creator of the original Handy Trax, Toshihide Nakama, before he passed in 2023.

Image: Korg

The Handytraxx Play is designed for DJs who like to scratch or sample vinyls as part of a live performance. It features a built-in crossfader, low-pass, high-pass, and EQ filters, a delay effect, and a built-in variable speed looper for recording samples and creating beats. Its control panel can also be flipped around for right or left-handed use.

The Play can be powered by an AC adapter or six AA batteries and features a pair of 2.5-watt speakers for entertaining a crowd without the need for additional equipment. You can also plug in a pair of headphones for a private performance.

Image: Korg

The Handytraxx Tube upgrades the Play with an aluminium die-cast platter that uses software to monitoring its pitch and speed to maintain a stable rotation and optimize playback. Its tone arm also features an adjustable counterweight so you can swap needles while ensuring you always have the proper pressure on your records to prolong their life.

As the name implies, the Tube uses Korg’s Nutube vacuum tube technology that “operates exactly as a triode vacuum tube” and “creates the same characteristic rich overtones,” the company claims. The tube technology “adds pleasant harmonics characteristic of vacuum tubes for a rich, immersive sonic experience,” while bass and treble controls let you dial in your preferred balance.

Korg is also offering a limited edition version of this turntable called the Tube J as part of a collaboration with a Japanese company called JICO. The J version swaps the Tube’s standard JICO J44A 7 cartridge with JICO’s Clipper MM Cartridge featuring an upgraded design and improved performance. It also boosts the Tube’s price tag to $1,199.

Image: Korg

The Handytraxx 1bit carries forward the hardware upgrades of the Tube but using Korg’s included AudioGate 4 software it can digitize vinyl to the Direct Stream Digital (DSD) format which was originally developed by Sony and Philips for the Super Audio CD (SACD). Instead of capturing 16 audio samples 44,100 times per second as is done with traditional audio CDs, the 1bit and Korg’s software captures single samples 5.6 million times per second, resulting in a much higher quality recordings suitable for archiving.

The compact Volvo EX30 is finally arriving in the US — and with it comes some more clarity about its price.

When it was first announced in 2023, the EX30 was positioned as a smaller, more affordable electric vehicle in a market overflowing with expensive, luxury models. And it seemed poised to win over a lot of converts, with a starting price of just $34,950.

At that time, the only other EVs available for a similar price were the utilitarian Chevy Bolt and Nissan Leaf. You could also find a few used EVs, or even a stripped down Tesla Model 3, but the idea of a luxuriously appointed (if bare bones) European model for just under $35,000 was unheard of.

But politics intervened, and Volvo was forced to delay the EX30’s arrival in the US until 2025, citing newly leveled tariffs against vehicles built in China. Volvo is a subsidiary of Geely, and many of its models, including the EX30, are built there. Volvo said it was moving the EX30’s production to its factory in Belgium to address the new restrictions.

Today, Volvo announced that the most popular trim of the EX30 is finally coming to the US. That would be the EX30 Twin Motor Performance with 422 horsepower, starting at $44,900 for the Plus equipment package (not including delivery charges). Upgrading to the Ultra package will cost $46,600.

That’s decidedly more than $34,950 — and unfortunately Volvo didn’t say when we can expect that more affordable version to arrive stateside. Given the political situation here, I can hardly blame Volvo for playing it close to the vest when it comes to EV sales in the US. The Trump administration is promising fewer incentives and more tariffs — both of which likely add up to higher prices for car shoppers.

Still, the EX30 has been a runaway hit in Europe, with Volvo recording over 100,000 sales of the pint-sized SUV. In August, that was only bested by the Tesla Model Y. It stands to reason that US customers will react similarly — once they get their hands on it.

Volvo has two other EVs in the US: the mid-sized EX40, which starts at $52,500 for the single-motor variant and goes all the way up $60,750 with all the bells and whistles; and the full-sized, three-row EX90, which starts at $79,995 and tops out at $89.845. Delivery charges bring these prices up by at least $1,000.

Meta is integrating WhatsApp into its Accounts Center, as WABetaInfo spotted. The change, which is rolling out globally “over the next few months,” lets WhatsApp users share status updates across Instagram and Facebook, as well as enable single sign-on.

Meta says the link won’t be turned on automatically, so it’s up to you to decide if linking WhatsApp to Accounts Center is something you’re into. If you do so, Meta will start using your WhatsApp information “to do things like provide, personalize, and improve its products and services, including to show you ads,” according to a help page about the change.

Image: Meta

Meta’s other apps won’t use WhatsApp personal data “unless it’s to determine how many people we serve, keep people safe, or to provide optional features that work across Meta products,” the company writes. It also says linking your account won’t change the fact that messages are end-to-end encrypted in WhatsApp.

Down the line, Meta says it will add the ability for users to go to Accounts Center to manage things like Meta AI stickers or AI-generated avatars created using its Imagine Me feature.