Tensions were high inside Meta ahead of Mark Zuckerbergâs first all-hands meeting of the year.
Employee-submitted questions for the CEO touched on a couple of big themes: concerns about his announcement that âlow-performersâ would be let go on February 10th, his MAGA-fueled changes to Metaâs content moderation policies and DEI programs, and his comment to Joe Rogan about wanting more âmasculine energyâ in the workplace. âAre the changes we’re seeing (in any way) influenced by the new U.S. president?â asked one employee ahead of the internal meeting. âIf so, why are we making changes based on these factors?â
With a lot of the rank and file clearly on edge, Zuckerberg made sure there would be fewer opportunities for drama during todayâs Q&A. Before it started, HR notified employees that âwe will skip questions that we expect might be unproductive if they leak.â For the first time, the most upvoted employee questions were no longer ranked for everyone to see and comments were disabled during the livestream.
Before jumping into the Q&A, Zuckerberg addressed the changes head on: âWe try to be really open and then everything I say leaks. It sucks.â
Polestar is building one-of-a-kind versions of its EVs that are ready for whatever the winter brings. The company took the long-range, dual motor versions of its newest vehicles, the Polestar 3 SUV and Polestar 4 coupe (with performance packs), and turned them into rally-style vehicles that can rip through snowy terrain. The company is also resurrecting its Polestar 2 Arctic Circle one-off, which it showed off in 2022, to complete the family.
The specially tuned Polestar 3 and 4 come with newly-released 20-inch white OZ Racing Rally Legend wheels sitting on Pirelli Scorpion Winter 2 tires for cold on-road driving. But when taken onto the snowscape, Pirelli’s Scorpion All Terrian Plus with 300 4-mm studs are used. They also get custom 3-way adjustable dampers with external gas reservoirs.
Although these vehicles are lifted for the snow, it’s not by much. The Polestar 3 is given just 40mm to its ride height, and the Polestar 4 is lifted by just 20mm. But the vehicles do get Rally-style mud flaps, Swedish gold tow hooks, Recaro Pole Position bucket seats, Stedi Quad Pro LED front spotlights, and front strut braces. Polestar also gave the three EVs a coat of yellow paint that, along with the wheels, makes them look like the Mustang Mach-E Rally.
After announcing some new experimental features for YouTube Premium subscribers earlier this month — and that multiple experiments can be tested at once — the company has added one it promised was on the way: the ability to watch videos at 4x speed, as reported by Android Police. I’m personally a 1.5x to 2x sicko when it comes to YouTube videos and podcasts, but 4x is an absolutely blistering speed that’s more apt for skipping past the cruft than consuming info at a faster clip.
4x playback speed (iOS and Android only, until February 26th)
Shorts Smart Downloads (iOS only, until February 19th)
Shorts Picture-in-Picture (iOS only, until February 19th)
High Quality Audio for 256kbps sound (iOS and Android only, until February 22nd)
Jump Ahead Web (for web browsers, until February 5th)
In similar just-get-to-the-point-already fashion, Jump Ahead gives web users a button to automatically skip to “the content they care about faster” instead of carefully scrubbing through a video. But let’s be honest, this will probably be a button to jump past all the intros and other bloat.
The faster playback speed and Jump Ahead features seem the most useful — if you’re already a YouTube Premium subscriber who doesn’t have to sit through ads, the next frontier is skipping through all the cruft. Though higher quality audio is always welcome. And a picture-in-picture mode for Shorts could be convenient, but as was mentioned on a recent Vergecast, why would you want YouTube to automatically fill your phone’s storage with tons of Shorts videos?
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed sales figures for the companyâs Ray-Ban smart glasses for the first time, telling employees that over 1 million units were sold in 2024. In remarks during an all-hands meeting seen by The Verge, Zuckerberg posed a question to staff about whether sales would go from 1 million to as much as 5 million units in 2025.
âWe basically invented the category and our competitors haven’t really shown up yet,â Zuckerberg said during the meeting. âI think we’ll probably start seeing some of that maybe a little later this year, maybe next year, but we just have this wide open field right now to run and basically introduce as many people as possible to Meta AI glasses and we should take that opportunity.â
As has become an annual tradition, Apple just reported blockbuster earnings for the company’s most recent holiday quarter. “Today Apple is reporting our best quarter ever, with revenue of $124.3 billion, up four percent from a year ago,” CEO Tim Cook said in a press release. Revenue was up nearly across the board for the company’s Mac, iPad, and services divisions.
But the numbers show a slight dip in year-over-year iPhone revenue, seemingly confirming that Apple Intelligence isn’t doing much to drive iPhone sales. The same goes for that new Camera Control button, I suppose. Cook tried to dismiss the notion that Apple Intelligence isn’t compelling people to upgrade in an interview with CNBC. “During the December quarter, we saw that in markets where we had rolled out Apple intelligence, that the year-over-year performance on the iPhone 16 family was stronger than those markets where we had not rolled out Apple intelligence,” he said.
The standard iPhone 16 models are a particularly excellent value this year, which isn’t always the case. So that could also factor into the slightly lower revenue if fewer people are opting for the Pro variants.
This tends to be Apple’s most crucial quarter of the year for two reasons. It includes the all-important holiday shopping season, and since the iPhone 16 lineup was on sale for the entire three-month duration, this is our best indication yet of demand for Apple’s latest phones. The company also released several new Macs near the end of last year including a redesigned, much smaller Mac Mini and refreshed MacBook Pros. Revenue for Apple’s wearables business, which includes the Apple Watch and AirPods, was also slightly down compared to the year-ago quarter.
That doesn’t mean the company’s in great shape, exactly, as its primary businesses were all down this quarter and barely up over the full year (see table below). And if you thought its chipmaking foundries were spending too much back when they lost $7 billion in 2023, well, Intel just revealed the foundries lost nearly double that — $13.4 billion — across 2024.
Today on the earnings call, Intel co-CEO Michelle Johnston Holthaus didn’t commit to either keeping or spinning out the foundries, but hinted that “Intel Foundry will need to earn my business every day, just as I need to earn the business of my customers.” Either way, she seems to see them as a pair: “A stronger Intel Products combined with a more competitive Intel Foundry is a recipe for success overall.” Interim co-CEO David Zinsner says building that competitive foundry is still the goal.
Intel says its foundry business is doing better anyhow, with reduced losses of $2.3 billion last quarter, expected “financial improvements” coming next year as it ramps production of its extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) chips, and a plan to hit “op inc break-even” by the end of 2027. Intel was also the largest recipient of the CHIPS Act, though that amounted to single-digit billions worth of government funding for its foundries: $7.68 billion, of which it’s received $2.2 billion so far.
Intel says its all-important 18A process, which uses EUV, will produce chips in volume in the second half of next year. (That’s when Panther Lake, the successor to its Lunar Lake laptop chips, will arrive.) But a follow-on chip, Nova Lake, sounds like it’ll be a mix of Intel and non-Intel manufacturing. “You’ll actually see compute tiles inside and outside again, it’s about optimizing to what allows us to win in the market,” says Holthaus on the call.
Intel is also hurting in the great race for AI chips, with its Gaudi far behind Gelsinger’s goals, and Holthaus admits the company’s not doing well in the AI data center. “I am not happy with where we are today,” she said on the call, admitted that “we’re not yet participating in the cloud-based AI data center market in a meaningful way.”
To help speed things up, she says Intel is canceling its next big AI chip, codename Falcon Shores, and keeping it “as an internal test chip only without bringing it to market.” She says the plan is to “simplify our roadmap and concentrate our resources.” The company will focus on Jaguar Shores, a “system-level solution at rack scale,” instead, with the goal of building that entire solution rather than just the chips.
She also hinted that Intel might aim to be less pricy than the Nvidia AI competition, with the “most compelling total cost of ownership,” similar to what we’d heard from AMD.
Overall, Holthaus says she thinks about Intel’s future products in “three buckets”: client and edge, traditional data center, and AI data center, and she plans to simplify Intel’s business as a result. “We cannot be all things to all people,” she says. “We are prioritizing areas where we can drive differentiated value.” Within its core businesses, though, Holthaus says the company will “fight for every socket” where an Intel chip can go.
“We need to be aggressive, we need to win share, and we need to show our customers they can win with us,” says Holthaus.
Over the full year, Intel lost $18.76 billion on $53.1 billion in revenue. Intel says it has nothing new to share about the search for a permanent CEO, save that the search is progressing. Meanwhile, the company seems to be laying off just as many employees as promised: by the end of 2024, it had 15,000 fewer employees than it did the previous quarter, the company confirmed today.
Amazon has raised the price of its Music Unlimited service in the US, Canada, and the UK, as reported by The Hollywood Reporter. In an update on its website, Amazon says it’s raising the price for Prime members from $9.99 to $10.99 per month (or $99 to $109 / year), while the plan for non-Prime members is going from $10.99 to $11.99 per month.
The Unlimited Family Plan, which lets up to six people listen to music at the same time, is also increasing from $16.99 to $19.99 per month (or $169 to $199 / year). The price change went into effect for new subscribers on January 29th, 2025, while existing customers will have to pay the updated pricing when their subscription renews, or on or after March 5th, 2025.
There’s more good stuff to watch than ever — if you can afford it. | Image: Amazon
Death. Taxes. All your streaming services getting a little more expensive all the time. These are the new certainties in life, it seems.
In recent years, as the streaming TV and movie business has gotten more competitive and companies around Hollywood have thrown billions into building their own platforms and libraries in order to compete with Netflix, participating in the streaming era has gotten steadily more expensive. Netflix has raised the cost of its subscription multiple times since its launch. Disney Plus, Hulu, and ESPN Plus have all gotten more expensive as Disney has invested more in streaming. Paramount Plus, Peacock, Shudder, Starz — practically any service you can name — charges more per month than it did a few years ago. Even as many of these services add ads to their platforms, they’re still charging more.
What’s behind all this wallet-raiding? A confluence of things. As more customers cancel cable, more quickly than anyone expected, the studios and distributors are looking for a way to make up the lost revenue. Good shows and movies are more in demand — and thus more expensive — than ever. And after a decade of spending money like it was going out of style because all investors cared about were subscriber numbers, Hollywood players of all sizes have found themselves needing to actually make money to stay in business.
Companies are looking for any way they can to improve their bottom line. They’re cracking down on password sharing, canceling shows for the tax breaks, and even selling their prized content to other platforms. But the most common strategy is simply to charge you, the viewer, more. A dollar here, two dollars there. Add it all up, and the golden era of TV suddenly has a pretty startling ticket price.
We’re tracking all the price increases and other changes from streaming services so you can make sure you’re only paying for what you want. (We’ll also include discounts and deals, though those seem to happen less and less.) Here’s the latest:
Federal Communications Chair Brendan Carr has ordered investigations into NPR and PBS with the goal of slashing the money given to the government-funded organizations, TheNew York Times reports.
The investigations are ostensibly about PBS and NPR’s member stations’ sponsorships, according to a letter from Carr obtained by the Times. “I am concerned that NPR and PBS broadcasts could be violating federal law by airing commercials,” the letter reads. “In particular, it is possible that NPR and PBS member stations are broadcasting underwriting announcements that cross the line into prohibited commercial advertisements.” Both PBS and NPR’s chief executives told the Times that their advertising complies with the FCC’s underwriting regulations.
“To the extent that taxpayer dollars are being used to support a for profit endeavor or an entity that is airing commercial advertisements,” the letter continues, “then that would further undermine any case for continuing to fund NPR and PBS with taxpayer dollars.”
Carr is already facing pushback. In an emailed statement to The Verge, FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez says the investigation is “yet another Administration effort to weaponize the power of the FCC. The FCC has no business intimidating and silencing broadcast media.”
Carr’s move is in line with other Trump administration efforts to cut funding for public goods and services. Carr — who Trump appointed to the commission in 2017 — wrote the Project 2025 chapter on the FCC. While Carr’s chapter largely focused on using the commission to rein in big tech, a separate chapter on the Corporation for Public Broadcasting called for cutting off the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the government-funded nonprofit that supports PBS and NPR. The document, written by Heritage Foundation senior fellow Mike Gonzalez, called out public media’s “demonstrated pattern of bias” against conservatives.
The Heritage Foundation is by no means the only conservative organization to target with NPR. The public radio station and its local affiliates have long been targets of the right. Most recently, in 2024, on the heels of his successful ouster of Harvard president Claudine Gay, right-wing strategist Chris Rufo launched a “campaign to expose” NPR CEO Katherine Maher’s “anti-speech, anti-truth philosophy.” As writer Renee DiResta pointed out, Rufo’s beef with Maher began with an essay by now-former NPR editor Uri Berliner published in the Free Press about how his employer had gone woke. Rufo then accused Maher of “following the Claudine Gay playbook,” and published two posts about Maher in City Journal, the Manhattan Institute’s in-house magazine — including one in which he implied Maher was a CIA asset.
Update, January 30th: Added comment from FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez.
Missed out on all the terrific TV deals we saw during Black Friday and Cyber Monday? That’s okay, because the weeks leading up to the Super Bowl have historically been one of the better times of the year to snag a discounted set. In fact, Amazon, Best Buy, Woot, and a number of retailers are already discounting a variety of TV sets ahead of the big game on February 9th. Many of the current promos aren’t Super Bowl-specific, mind you, but there are still some great options if you’re on the hunt for a budget-friendly QLED TV for your viewing party or a gamer-friendly OLED that can serve your entertainment needs year-round.
We’ll keep an eye out for more 4K TV deals as we get closer to the big day and update this post accordingly, so be sure to keep checking back in the run-up to Super Bowl LIX.
LG C4 OLED TV
If you’re looking for an OLED TV, LG’s exceptional C4 is currently down to one of its best prices to date. Right now, for instance, you can buy the 65-inch model for about $1,496.99 ($1,203 off) at Amazon and Best Buy. The 77-inch model is also available for around $2,196.99 ($1,503 off) from Amazon, Best Buy, and LG, the latter of which is offering up to $200 off select LG soundbars with your purchase through February 2nd.
The C4 offers a bright, vibrant display with the kind of inky blacks that characterize OLED panels, along with support for both Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos. The last-gen TV remains an excellent option for gaming, too, with four HDMI 2.1 ports, a 144Hz refresh rate, and support for AMD FreeSync Premium as well as Nvidia G-Sync. It even comes with a Wii-like Magic Remote, which, in many instances, we’ve found to be easier to navigate with than the remote’s arrow keys.
LG B4 OLED TV
If you’re looking for a more affordable OLED, LG’s entry-level B4 TV is on sale at Best Buy in the 48-inch size starting at just $599.99 ($200 off), matching its all-time low. It’s discounted in larger configurations, too, with the 55-inch going for $999.99 ($400 off) at Best Buy and LG’s online storefront and the 65-inch selling for around $1,296.99 ($200 off) at Amazon, Best Buy, and direct from LG.
The TV isn’t as bright or powerful as the aforementioned C4 series — it’s outfitted with an older A8 processor, as opposed to LG’s newer A9 chip — but it’s still relatively snappy and slated to receive several more years of webOS updates, ensuring the navigation and user experience should be dialed in for the foreseeable future. It also features a buttery 120Hz refresh rate, four full-bandwidth HDMI 2.1 ports, and support for Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision. And like the LG C4, it includes support for both Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant.
Samsung OLED S95D TV
The Samsung OLED S95D is another terrific OLED set that’s also down to one of its best prices to date in multiple configurations. Right now, for example, you can purchase the 55-inch model for around $1,899.99 ($700) at Amazon, Best Buy and Samsung’s online storefront. The 65-inch panel, meanwhile, is available from Amazon, Best Buy, and Samsung for around $2,299.99 ($1,100 off). If you purchase directly from Samsung, you’ll also be eligible for a discount on select Samsung soundbars, with the exact discount dependent on which model you choose.
The S95D comes with a glare-free display that does an excellent job of minimizing unwanted reflections, allowing it to provide rich colors and contrast at high brightness levels. It lacks support for Dolby Vision, but it does offer a 144Hz variable refresh rate, four HDMI 2.1 ports, and support for Alexa and Google Assistant. It also comes with Samsung’s One Connect Box, which lets you connect your gaming console, set-top boxes, and other devices to your TV with a single cable, as opposed to a mess of wires. And, of course, Samsung’s Tizen OS lets you stream from a wide selection of apps, including Netflix, Apple TV Plus, Disney Plus, and Max.
Samsung Frame TV (2024)
Samsung’s Frame TV doesn’t offer the pristine image quality found in OLED displays, but it’s unique in that the TV showcases artwork when idle. Combined with its anti-glare matte display, it makes for a stylish 4K TV that looks more akin to a canvas painting than a black void. It’s a shame it doesn’t offer Dolby Vision or VRR support, but it still has a range of solid specs, including a speedy 120Hz refresh rate, HDMI 2.1 support, and compatibility with voice assistants like Alexa and Google Assistant. Just bear in mind, you’ll need to pay for a subscription ($4.99 a month / $49.90 annually) to get unlimited access to all of the artwork available in the Samsung Art Store.
Now through 1AM ET on February 9th, Woot is offering the best prices we’ve seen on Samsung’s last-gen Frame TV. Right now, for instance, the 55- and 65-inch models are on sale for $867.99 ($630 off) and 1,247.99 ($752 off), respectively, which are all-time lows. Samsung, meanwhile, is discounting the TV through February 9th while offering an additional $50 off its Music Frame speaker or an HW-S700D Dolby Soundbar. The 55-inch model is on sale at Samsung’s online storefront for $899.99 ($600 off) or at Amazon and Best Buy without the aforementioned perks for the same price.
TCL QM85 TV
If you’re looking for something cheaper, TCL makes some excellent budget-friendly 4K TVs, one of which is the TCL QM85. The 2024 flagship is steeply discounted right now, with the 65-inch model going for around $897.99 (about $600 off) at Amazon and Best Buy. Larger configurations are on sale, too, with the 75-inch panel going for $1,299.99 ($700 off) at Amazon and Best Buy.
The TV’s bright QD-Mini LED panel offers sharp, vibrant image quality with a speedy 144Hz variable refresh rate. Along with support for Dolby Atmos and DTS Virtual:X, it comes with an integrated subwoofer for a fuller, more immersive audio experience. Other notable features include support for the Google TV interface, along with compatibility with Alexa, Apple Home, and Google Home.
Hisense U8N QLED TV
Hisense is another brand that sells terrific, budget-friendly TVs. And right now, you can buy the 65-inch U8N — the company’s 2024 flagship QLED TV — for just $899.99 ($600 off) at Amazon and Best Buy, which is about $2 shy of its best price to date.
The U8N offers a lot of features you’d typically find in pricier TVs. That includes a 144Hz variable refresh rate and two high-bandwidth HDMI 2.1 ports (one of which supports eARC), along with support for both Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision. There’s no OLED display, but you do get a Mini LED backlight with support for up to 3,000 nits of brightness. You also get full-array local dimming, which allows it to deliver punchy colors alongside rich contrast and deep black levels. The TV additionally supports Google’s excellent TV software as well as Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa for hands-free voice control.
Hisense U7N LCD TV
If you’re looking for a budget-friendly alternative to the U8N, you can buy Hisense’s 55-inch U7N on sale at Amazon and Best Buy for $598 ($200 off), which is one of its better prices to date. A few other sizes are also on discount right now, including the massive 75-inch panel, which you can purchase for around $899.96 ($600 off) at Amazon and Best Buy.
The 4K LCD TV shares a lot in common with the U8N, including support for a 144Hz variable refresh rate and a pair of HDMI 2.1 ports. The U7N also runs on Google’s TV interface, offers support for all the major HDR formats, and works with all the same voice assistants (Alexa, Google Assistant, etc.). The main difference between the two TVs is that the Mini LED panel on the U7N doesn’t offer the same contrast or brightness levels as the U8N, which maxes out at 3,000 nits as opposed to 1,500. That being said, it’s still a good display with full-array local dimming and nearly all the same features.
On an earnings call last night, Tesla CEO Elon Musk spent a lot of time talking up his companyâs plans to âgo ballisticâ on artificial intelligence, and very little time on Teslaâs core business, which is making and selling electric cars.
There was so little attention paid to Teslaâs automotive business, that even a bunch of investors were left scratching their heads.
âIs this a car company?â Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas wrote in his note to clients Thursday. He followed up with a second note that put a finer point on it: âAlmost no discussion of the core auto business. While around 80% of the companyâs revenues is (still) automotive, the discussion during the prepared remarks and Q&A was almost entirely around autonomy, AI and robotics. We see a pattern here.â
Itâs long been theorized that Musk has grown weary of the day-to-day of running a car business, as evidenced by his growing number of side hustles (SpaceX, X, xAI, Boring Company, Neuralink, etc). And now that heâs been elevated to an unofficial-official member of the Trump administration, overseeing a massively controversial effort to slash costs by purging the federal employees, the time he …
The new Model Y comes with the latest HW4 computer.
In 2016, Tesla published a blog that said all EVs it produces have the hardware necessary to achieve “Full Self-Driving,” meaning owners of those Teslas could look forward to autonomous rides and could eventually send their cars out as money-making robotaxis when not in use. Tesla later deleted that post, and now we can see why. Since that post published, Tesla has shipped millions of updated Hardware 3 (HW3) computers to replace the older HW2.5 ones because they couldn’t achieve FSD. Now, Musk says those new chips will need to be replaced, as well.
“The truth is that we’re gonna have to upgrade people’s Hardware 3 computer for those who have bought Full Self Driving, and that is the honest answer,“ Musk said during yesterday’s earnings call, adding that it will be “absolutely painful and difficult.”
Musk said this while interrupting Tesla’s head of Autopilot and AI software, Ashok Elluswamy, who was in the middle of explaining how the company wasn’t giving up on HW3. Elluswamy said the company is working on the latest FSD software (v13) designed for newer HW4-equipped vehicles but will also release “baby” versions compatible with HW3. HW4 is shipping with the facelifted Model 3, the just-released redesigned Model Y, and 2023 and newer Model S and X vehicles.
In 2018, Tesla said it would give customers free upgrades to HW3, so long as they had purchased FSD, which has ballooned in price to as high as $15,000 from a starting price of $2,000. Electrek notes that a Tesla owner had once sued the company (and won) for not honoring the promised free HW3 upgrade since the owner did not pre-purchase FSD. The owner had cited the now-deleted 2016 Tesla post promising FSD capabilities to customers.
Although millions of Tesla vehicles on the road have HW3 installed, only FSD purchasers will get whatever upgrade Musk is now promising. “I’m kind of glad that not that many people bought the FSD package,” Musk quipped. It remains unclear if Tesla will now engineer a new retrofit upgrade. (Musk previously said they wouldn’t.)
The HW3 computers Tesla is looking to replace are also susceptible to shorting out, a problem that has already sparked massive recalls in the US and China for collateral symptoms such as inoperable rearview cameras. Now, the company is focusing on its HW4 development, and Musk has finally admitted to at least one of his false promises.
A new year means a new Sundance Film Festival, and a fresh crop of promising original features that could go on to become awards season darlings in a few months. It might be hard to top last year’s festival where Dìdi, A Different Man, and I Saw the TV Glow all made strong showings. But with films like Atropia, Bubble & Squeak, and Didn’t Die on the roster, this year’s Sundance might just do the trick.
Naturally, The Verge is going to be taking in as much of Sundance as we can and posting bite-sized reviews of everything we see. We’ll also be posting longer reviews and sharing trailers, and you can follow along here to keep up with all of the news out of the festival.
A Logitech webcam similar to (but not the same as) the one we used.
Nvidia mildly blew our minds in 2020 when its graphics cards gained the ability to delete practically all the background noise from our audio calls with a free app, and now the company’s doing it again. My colleague and Verge senior news editor Richard Lawler just fired up Nvidia’s just-announced “Studio Voice” feature on his RTX 3070 — and it made his Logitech webcam’s awful built-in microphone sound downright respectable.
Take a listen:
The first clip you’ll hear is Richard on his podcasting mic, then the crummy Logitech C922 webcam mic, and lastly, the webcam mic with Nvidia’s feature turned on.
What a world we live in.
It’s part of an update to the free Nvidia Broadcast app, as is another new feature called “Virtual Key Light” that we found slightly less impressive, at least in our very first test. It’s supposed to “deliver even lighting, as if a physical key light was defining the form and dimension of an individual.” Here are Richard’s before and after shots of that:
Technically, Nvidia says these features require an RTX 4080 or RTX 5090 and are “not recommended for gaming,” and we’re guessing that’s because they hit the GPU hard. “The key light seems to be stretching my 3070 to its limits,” says Richard. “But the voice thing works, I just couldn’t play a game at the same time based on how much VRAM it’s using.”
Nvidia says the new update also “improves voice quality with the Background Noise Removal feature, adds gaze stability and subtle random eye movements for a more natural appearance with Eye Contact, and improves foreground and background separation with Virtual Background.” You can find the Nvidia Broadcast app here.
Google is trying out a new tool that lets AI call businesses to ask questions for you. The feature, called Ask for Me, collects information about the pricing and availability of a service, but it’s only available for nail salons and auto shops for now.
Once you enable the experiment on Google Search Labs, you might see an “Ask for Me” prompt when looking for local nail salons or auto shops in Search. Select it, and Google will ask a series of questions, like whether looking to get an oil change or tile rotation, what kind of car you have, and when you want to book an appointment. You’ll also have to enter your email address or phone number, where you’ll receive updates about your request.
We’re testing right now with auto shops and nail salons, to see how AI can help you connect with businesses and get things done. pic.twitter.com/inf5hhj1BS
In a post on X, Google product lead Rose Yao said the feature is built using Duplex, a tool that similarly uses AI to make reservations or book appointments over the phone. With Ask for Me, Google spokesperson Craig Ewer tells The Verge that “every call begins by announcing that it’s an automated system calling from Google on behalf of a user.”
Businesses can opt out of receiving the automated calls from their Google Business Profile settings, or by asking Google not to call them when they receive a call. Ewer says Google has call quotas in place to ensure businesses don’t get calls too often, adding that any information it collects “can be used to help with similar requests from other users.“
But, just like we saw with Duplex, there’s bound to be some confusion when mechanics or nail salon owners pick up the phone and hear an AI calling from Google on the other end.
A year ago, Google started off 2024 with some layoffs. It hasn’t taken similar steps (yet) in 2025, but employees are fearing the worst. And if the Platforms and Devices team is anything to go by, there’s ample reason for concern. Google has distributed a memo to all US employees working on Android, Pixel hardware, and other projects that offers a “voluntary exit program” guaranteeing severance for anyone willing to step away from their role at the company. The memo went out from platforms and devices SVP Rick Osterloh, according to 9to5Google.
“This comes after we brought two large organizations together last year,” Osterloh wrote. “There’s tremendous momentum on this team and with so much important work ahead, we want everyone to be deeply committed to our mission and focused on building great products, with speed and efficiency.” Voluntary buyouts can often be a precursor to layoffs if not enough employees take Google up on its offer and choose to leave.
Google combined its Android and hardware teams under Osterloh in April. Executives said the streamlined approach would help it integrate AI features across products and services more quickly.
A few months later in October, Alphabet’s chief finance officer Anat Ashkenazi said she would prioritize “cost efficiencies” throughout the company. “There’s really good work that was done, started by Ruth, Sundar and the rest of the lead team to re-engineer the cost base,” she said during her first earnings call as CFO. “But I think any organization can always push a little further and I’ll be looking at additional opportunities.” The cost-cutting measures are partly designed to offset Google pouring so much money into AI.
Google’s Pixel phones have never come anywhere close to the sales numbers enjoyed by Apple and Samsung, but the company is at least trending in the right direction; Counterpoint Research reported that Google recorded its highest-ever quarterly sales volume for smartphones in Q3 2024.
Some employees at Google have recently been circulating a petition that calls for CEO Sundar Pichai to offer exactly this type of optional buyout before resorting to involuntary layoffs. “Ongoing rounds of layoffs make us feel insecure about our jobs,” the petition said, according to CNBC. “The company is clearly in a strong financial position, making the loss of so many valuable colleagues without explanation hurt even more.”
At least for the time being, it appears the voluntary exit program hasn’t been extended to other divisions within Google like search or the DeepMind AI team.
The ShargeRetractable 65 was announced earlier this month, bringing the world a uniquely designed 65W GaN travel charger featuring an integrated and retractable USB-C Power Delivery 3.0 cable. It’s incredibly compact and scratches our geeky itch with a translucent design. If you’re looking for something a little different to throw in your pocket or bag, now is a good time to buy as its first discount brings it down to $39.90 ($10 off) from Amazon when clicking a coupon, or directly from Sharge.
The Retractable 65 hides a surprising amount of utility inside a casing that resembles a miniature record player. Not only do you get the coiling 2.3-foot USB-C cable, but it also has a second USB-C port for charging two devices simultaneously. It’ll smartly split charging capacity between the two, but when using a single cable, the maximum 65W charging speed is a sweet spot for most laptops and tablets. It’s also more than sufficient for most smartphones, cameras, handhelds, and other smaller devices.
More deals to shop today
You can preorder the standard edition of Doom: The Dark Ages on PC for $58.79 (about $11 off) at Fanatical. You can also get the premium edition for $83.99 ($16 off). The latest Doom title, due May 15th, is a prequel to both the original 2016 reboot and the gory follow-up Doom: Eternal. The timeline jump between these games is rather large and wild. The Dark Ages transports us from the hell-opening portals being developed in alien research labs on Mars to medieval-era environments filled with dragons and kaiju — for which you’re given a mech suit to battle. Naturally, that gun-deficient period inspired iD Software to further expand on the series’ excellent melee combat with a range of new weapons, including iron flails and a spiked mace.
Sennheiser’s Momentum Sport earbuds in their olive color are down to $149.95 ($180 off) at Amazon and B&H Photo, which is an all-time low price. Unlike most sporty earbuds that emphasize waterproofing and a secure fit, the Momentum Sport integrate temperature sensors and optical heart rate monitors. We’re still unsure whether the former is actually useful for most people, but the latter is well-implemented and gets within earshot of readings from accurate chest monitors like Garmin’s HRM-Fit. You can even sync your data with the Polar Flow training app or the Polar Vantage V3 watch, further positioning it as a serious asset for fitness buffs. Oh, and the earbuds sound pretty good for music playback, too. Read our review.
A single Google Nest WiFi Pro in its fog green color is down to $119.99 ($80 off) at Amazon, which is its lowest price to date. The Wi-Fi 6E mesh router offers faster speeds and improved network stability compared to older Wi-Fi 6 models. It can cover up to 2,200 square feet, and you can easily add more nodes to cover bigger homes. We like its easy setup process and integrated Thread and Matter connectivity, though its lack of Google Assistant and 10-gigabit ethernet ports might be a damper for some. Read our review.
Forza Horizon 5 is the next Xbox Game Studios title making the jump to PlayStation. The open-world racing game is launching on PS5 this spring and will include the same content as what’s available in its Xbox and PC versions, according to a blog post. If you want to play the game online with your friends, crossplay between PS5, Xbox consoles, and PC will be available.
Forza Horizon 5 will also be getting a new content update on all platforms called Horizon Realms. “Realms will give players the chance to explore a curated collection of some of the community’s favorite previously released Evolving Worlds, alongside some other surprises,” developer Playground Games said in the post.
The game originally launched on Xbox and PC in 2021, and my former colleague Sam Byford called it the “best Forza Horizon yet.” I also had a great time playing it as a portable game, meaning it could be a lot of fun on a PlayStation Portal.
The Video Game History Foundation (VGHF) has launched a digital library with more than 30,000 files of “industry ephemera” from the VGHF’s physical collection. The library, which is launching in early access, includes things like “more than 1,500 full-text searchable out-of-print video game magazines, never-before-seen game development assets, artwork, promotional materials, and more gaming relics,” according to a press release.
Library director Phil Salvador says in a video that this is just the “first wave of open access content” in the library and that VGHF will keep building the library “over the coming years.” I’d recommend watching this video to get an overview of the work involved to make things available; the details about scanning old video game magazines were particularly cool.
I really look forward to seeing what people discover from the library, but it will be hard to top my colleague Tristan Cooper’s great discovery of GamePro history regarding Garfield.
