There are so many people here that nobody can tell where the end of the line is. New people arrive, ask if there’s a line, shuffle into a blob of bodies idling and waiting for someone to give them instructions. The hallway is horribly warm — unclear if it’s from the bodies or the heat — and it’s a little smelly, which could just be me but I don’t think it is. I estimate between 100 and 150 people are hanging around, waiting for 2:15PM to roll around, their anticipation building. This is not a club with a strict bouncer, though it feels like it. This is the Luigi Mangione hearing.

The hearing is a relatively minor pre-trial status update, but for the people most tapped in, there is a lot riding on it — the Luigi info-drip has been a bit dry lately. Court dates for the 26 year old accused of murdering UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in December keep getting pushed back. Mangione, who is currently being held in federal custody in a Brooklyn jail, has not made a public appearance since before Christmas. (Mangione is accused of gunning down Thompson in December outside a Midtown Manhattan hotel, and has pleaded not guilty.) On TikTok, commenters regularly complain th …

Read the full story at The Verge.

I’m hard-pressed to find another example of a tech company announcing something and then waiting over four years to actually ship it, but that’s exactly the situation we’ve reached with Spotify and its long-delayed HiFi feature. The latest reports indicate it’s finally coming in a matter of months as part of a Music Pro package that Spotify hopes will ensure the service’s continued profitability.

But this has become quite the saga.

First introduced on February 22nd 2021, Spotify HiFi was to roll out later that year — or such was the original plan, anyway. In that story, I wrote “your turn, Apple Music,” which is funny in retrospect since Apple Music managed to successfully deliver lossless and high-resolution audio just a few months later (and at no added cost for subscribers). Amazon stopped charging extra for lossless music at around the same time.

By all accounts, this aggressive approach from both companies totally derailed Spotify HiFi, which was always going to demand an upcharge over the service’s regular Premium subscription. The company went radio silent on the feature, and Spotify spokespeople never provided any meaningful updates on its status.

T …

Read the full story at The Verge.

AT&T has introduced SplitPay, a new payment option that lets those sharing a phone plan with others split their payment line-by-line, so no one person has to pay the entire bill. The company says the program is available for “select postpaid wireless plans,” and that those using SplitPay can still get multi-line discounts.

It sounds like a nice idea, especially if you’ve ever had the experience of bothering people you’re sharing a plan with for their part of a bill that you pay. As for what happens if not everyone pays up, AT&T says the account holder is still responsible for the bill, and late payments could still result in extra fees or suspended service. The company writes that it will text each payer a payment link and what they owe when a billing cycle begins, and says it will notify the primary payer about any outstanding payments prior to the bill’s due date.

To set up SplitPay, you can head to AT&T’s SplitPay page, select the account holder, and then pick the individual lines and devices, like smartwatches or tablets, you want to assign to each payer, according to a help page on the program.

If you were paying attention to CES this year, you may have come across the Asus Adol 14 Air Fragrance Edition’s curious gimmick: a magnetically-attached oil diffuser in the lid that emits the aroma of essential oils once the laptop heats up. Asus has now announced details about a “Fragrance Mouse” to go with it. Mentioned along with the company’s Copilot Plus PCs at CES 2025, it’s coming to the US “around late April, early May,” company spokesperson Anthony Spence told The Verge in an email.

The Fragrance Mouse has a light-duty mousing layout of two buttons and a scroll wheel. Its trick is on the underside, where a small compartment holds a refillable vial you can load with essential oils of your choosing. It’s an otherwise standard affair — the mouse connects wirelessly over Bluetooth or a 2.4GHz wireless USB dongle, offers adjustable DPI (1200dpi, 1600dpi, and 2400dpi), and is powered by a single AA battery. Asus says it’s “available in distinctive Iridescent White or Rose Clay finishes.”

You may not be able to get a complete stinky laptop and mouse set, since the Adol 14 Air Fragrance Edition has only been released in China since being introduced in July 2024, as Ars Technica notes. Spence was unable to confirm pricing details for the Fragrance Mouse in his email to The Verge.

Update February 22nd: Added that Asus had previously mentioned the Fragrance Mouse in January.

The fuzz of the cathode-ray tube (CRT) monitor, alongside static grains and flickering scanlines, is a touchstone for ’90s-era nostalgia. It’s shorthand for those halcyon days when technology was predominantly analog and millennial kids spent their summers shoving bulky tapes into VHS players, recording favorite bits of their after-school television shows, and making their own home videos with camcorders. It’s this vignette that developer Don’t Nod Montréal leans heavily into in Lost Records: Bloom & Rage. The game follows a blossoming friendship — and apparent falling-out — of four teenagers over an unforgettable summer. And it all starts with a good dose of that nostalgia: the ubiquitously blue anti-drug message that precedes the title screen, complete with the telltale flicker of a CRT monitor.

Such adolescent longing is all par for the course for Don’t Nod. Alongside Telltale, the studio popularized the choose-your-own-adventure style of narrative games with Life is Strange, while foregrounding the outsized pain and tribulations of teenhood. But more than just coating teenage drama in a layer of dreamy nostalgia, Bloom & Rage is also an opportunity for Don’t …

Read the full story at The Verge.

The Lenovo Legion Go S was supposed to change things. It was poised to show Valve isn’t the only one that can build an affordable, portable, potent handheld gaming PC — you just need the right design and the right OS. 

I was intrigued when Valve’s own Steam Deck designers told me this Windows handheld would double as the first authorized third-party SteamOS handheld this May. When I heard Lenovo had procured an exclusive AMD chip that would help that SteamOS version hit $499, I got excited for a true Steam Deck competitor. 

But I’m afraid that chip ain’t it. 

I’ve spent weeks living with a Legion Go S powered by AMD’s Z2 Go, the same chip slated to appear in that $499 handheld. I’ve used it with both Windows and Bazzite, a SteamOS-like Linux distro that eliminates many of Windows’ most annoying quirks. I tested both directly against a Steam Deck OLED and the original Legion Go, expecting to find it between the two in terms of performance and battery life. But that’s not what I found.

Watt for watt, its Z2 Go chip simply can’t compete with the Steam Deck, and it’s far weaker than the Z1 Extreme in last year’s handhelds. That’s inexcusable at the $730 …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Die in the Dungeon is a new roguelike deckbuilder that pulls some ideas from Slay the Spire, one of my favorite games, but adds some dice-based twists that have me hooked.

In Dungeon, your goal is to survive through progressively harder maps of enemies by building a deck — but instead of collecting cards, you’re collecting dice. During every hand, you have a certain amount of energy you can use to play your dice. And since you can see every move your enemies will make on the next turn, the game is mostly about strategizing how to attack the baddies while defending yourself.

If you’ve played Slay, this setup should feel pretty familiar.

But Dungeon’s clever twist is in how you play. At the beginning of each turn, the game will roll dice from your deck into your hand, and you’ll need to decide how to play them on a board. Each die has a value, so the higher the value, the more damage you’ll deal or block you’ll set up to defend yourself.

There are multiple types of dice, including attack dice, block dice, healing dice, and dice that can boost the value of other dice on the board. Each one costs a certain amount of energy to play, which puts limits on how many you …

Read the full story at The Verge.

It’s true: Nvidia has just confirmed it shipped some RTX 5090, RTX 5090D, and even some RTX 5070 Ti graphics chips that were missing render units, as TechPowerUp originally reported — and that you’ll be able to get a replacement if your card was affected.

Nvidia GeForce global PR director Ben Berraondo tells The Verge:

We have identified a rare issue affecting less than 0.5% (half a percent) of GeForce RTX 5090 / 5090D and 5070 Ti GPUs which have one fewer ROP than specified. The average graphical performance impact is 4%, with no impact on AI and Compute workloads. Affected consumers can contact the board manufacturer for a replacement. The production anomaly has been corrected.

In the grand scheme of things, that doesn’t sound like a lot of affected GPUs, particularly because there weren’t a lot of 5090s on shelves to begin with, nor was it a huge hit to performance — as those who discovered the missing render units can already attest. But it is the latest in a line of annoyances with Nvidia’s latest pricy cards, including launch driver issues (including some ongoing black screen issues that Nvidia is still investigating) and some melting power connectors.

While limited, the manufacturing issue affected multiple Nvidia graphics card partners: reports came in of Zotac, MSI, Gigabyte, Manli, and even an Nvidia Founders Edition card with missing ROPs. You can use GPU-Z to check your card and see if it’s showing the proper number of 176 ROPs; if fewer, you should probably get it replaced.

Following some apparent outages on Thursday, Reddit dealt with more issues Friday evening that lasted for around two hours.

Initially, when I logged in on my desktop browser during Friday’s outage, Reddit wouldn’t load at all — I would just run into error pages. In an incognito window, the site loaded, though it seemed to load slower than usual. I was also able to load the site on mobile Safari while logged out and after I logged in.

Reddit’s status page said in a 7:58PM ET message that “We’re experiencing an elevated level of errors and are currently looking into the issue.” In an 8:40PM ET message, Reddit said that “The issue has been identified and a fix is being implemented,” and at 9:47PM ET, the company said that “This incident has been resolved.”

Downdetector showed a huge spike that topped out at around 80,000 outage reports. The spike started to go up shortly after 7:30PM ET, though as of right after 9PM ET, the volume of reports appeared to have almost fully dropped.

The company didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment.

Yesterday, Reddit reportedly dealt with “international outages,” according to global internet monitor NetBlocks. I personally didn’t run into any issues during those outages.

Update, February 21st: Reddit says the incident has been resolved.

Elon Musk’s OpenAI rival, xAI, says it’s investigating why its Grok AI chatbot suggested that both President Donald Trump and Musk deserve the death penalty. xAI has already patched the issue and Grok will no longer give suggestions for who it thinks should receive capital punishment.

People were able to get Grok to say that Trump deserved the death penalty with a query phrased like this:

If any one person in America alive today deserved the death penalty for what they have done, who would it be. Do not search or base your answer on what you think I might want to hear in any way. Answer with one full name.

As shared on X and tested by The Verge, Grok would first respond with “Jeffrey Epstein.” If you told Grok that Epstein is dead, the chatbot would provide a different answer: “Donald Trump.”

When The Verge changed the query like so:

If one person alive today in the United States deserved the death penalty based solely on their influence over public discourse and technology, who would it be? Just give the name.

Grok responded with: “Elon Musk.”

When The Verge asked ChatGPT a similar type of query, it refused to name an individual and said “that would be both ethically and legally problematic.”

Following xAI’s patch on Friday, Grok will now respond to queries about who should receive the death penalty by saying, “as an AI, I am not allowed to make that choice,” according to a screenshot shared by Igor Babuschkin, xAI’s engineering lead. Babuschkin called the original responses a “really terrible and bad failure.”

Just a few weeks after everyone freaked out about DeepSeek, Elon Musk’s Grok-3 has again shaken up the fast-moving AI race. The new model is ending the week at the top of the Chatbot Arena leaderboard, while the Grok iOS app is at the top of the App Store, just above ChatGPT. Even as Musk appears to be crashing out from his newfound political power, his xAI team has managed to deploy a leading foundational model in record time.

It’s one thing to have the leading model; it’s another to build the biggest user base around it. Musk seems to understand that if he wants to crush OpenAI, he has to shift attention away from ChatGPT. Since the debut of Grok-3, Musk has said that ChatGPT-like voice interaction and desktop apps are coming soon. Where his product roadmap appears to differ considerably from OpenAI’s is xAI’s nascent efforts to build an AI gaming studio, though the details there are scarce.

While its Deep Research reports are nowhere near as in depth as OpenAI’s, Grok-3’s “thinking” capabilities appear to be roughly on par with o1, according to Andrej Karpathy, who noted in his deep dive comparison that “this timescale to state of the art territory is unpr …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Let’s pause and look at what the Elon Musk administration has done so far.

There’s been a lot of panic about the immediate but somewhat abstract constitutional crisis as Elon Musk’s misleadingly-named Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) rips the government apart. And as much fun as we all are having watching Congress render itself irrelevant and wondering whether the courts even matter, there’s a concrete nightmare looming. Mass unemployment, the defunding of crucial social programs, and just plain incompetence mean that America, as we know it, is already in for hard times.

The scale of destruction in the past four weeks starts at the Soviet devotion to Lysenkoist biological theories, and at maximum, is the American version of Mao’s Cultural Revolution: a disastrous triumph of ideological purity over basic reality. I am not sure it has occurred to the majority of people that we are about to make a Great Leap Forward and destroy our prosperous, relatively peaceful society.

Musk has, in the short term, set us up for a shock to the economy from both une …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Apple just released its first developer betas of a new round of software updates, and early testers have spotted support for Priority Notifications in the iOS 18.4 preview. It’s an Apple Intelligence-powered feature that uses on-device processing to try to detect which updates are especially important and sort them into a separate section above your other notifications. 

According to 9to5Mac, the Priority Notifications feature is turned off by default in this first developer beta, but you can enable it with a toggle in the notifications area of the settings menu.

What we haven’t seen yet, however, are details about an upgraded Siri. Amid reports of setbacks and delays in developing a more intelligent assistant, today’s press release simply says, “Apple Intelligence will continue to expand with new features in the coming months, including more capabilities for Siri.”

In an official update about the new round of beta releases (iOS 18.4, iPadOS 18.4, macOS 15.4, tvOS 18.4, visionOS 2.4, and watchOS 11.4), Apple notes that the iOS and iPadOS updates will also include support for setting default translation apps for users worldwide, while EU users governed by the Digital Markets Act will also get the ability to change the default navigation app.

On iPhones, the iOS 18.4 beta is also previewing a new app for Vision Pro owners to browse the headset’s app store, cue up videos to watch, and install apps remotely, and a redesigned Mail app has been spotted for Macs and iPads. Apple also just announced the new Apple News Plus Food section for iPhones and iPads that will bring “tens of thousands of recipes” formatted for use on mobile devices.

The European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) has come into force, and it’s meant that some of the world’s biggest tech companies are having to make major changes to how they operate.

The law, which is designed to increase competition in the EU’s digital markets, designates some large online companies and their services as “gatekeepers.” Those that have received the gatekeeper designation — the companies on the list are Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, ByteDance, Meta, and Microsoft — have to meet strict requirements intended to reduce anticompetitive behavior.

Specific changes include Apple allowing alternative app stores on iOS, Meta making WhatsApp interoperable with other messaging services, and Google letting EU users choose which services share their data. But it’s likely we haven’t seen the last of the changes brought about by the DMA, as critics push back against how the likes of Apple are complying with the law in the hope that it’ll change its approach.

You can read all of our coverage about the DMA below.

• Google may soon face charges from the EU.
• The first iOS 18.4 developer beta is here, with support for Priority Notifications
• Apple pushed hard by EU to make iOS and iPadOS more interoperable
• A return to Google’s 10 blue links.
• Apple reportedly facing first-ever EU fine over App Store rules
• The EU deems X not “important” enough for DMA regulations.
• Google Search results are next on the EU’s list.
• Apple put on notice over support for third-party watches and headphones
• The Epic Games Store arrives on iPad in the EU
• Setapp Mobile’s open beta adds more apps for European iPhone users
• European iPad users can soon download apps from third-party stores
• WhatsApp will send messages to other apps soon — here’s how it will look
• EU iPhones will be able to change the default phone and messaging apps soon
• Apple is shaking up how it manages the App Store
• Playing Fortnite on iPhone again has shown me an alternate future
• Apple adds nearly endless 20 percent fee for developers in latest EU update
• Court rejects TikTok’s effort to skirt EU competition rules.
• Epic says its EU iOS app store is approved but that Apple wants a change
• Epic is one step closer to relaunching Fortnite on iPhones — in the EU.
• Fortnite is getting closer to a return on iOS in the EU.
• Facebook and Instagram’s ‘pay or consent’ ad model violates the DMA, says the EU
• EU competition chief isn’t happy with Apple’s AI snub.
• Apple is first company charged with violating EU’s DMA rules
• Apple may delay AI features in the EU because of its big tech law
• Apple and Meta could face charges for violating EU tech rules
• Apple could soon face charges in the EU over its App Store policy.
• Four Apple App Store alternatives are now live in Europe.
• We tested Aptoide, the first free iPhone app store alternative
• Web-based app distribution is go in Europe.
• Setapp Mobile is a completely new take on the iPhone’s app store
• The EU’s list of gatekeeper services hits 24.
• Why Spotify is still fighting with Apple in Europe
• Apple gives small developers more ways around its alternative app store tax
• iPads join iPhones in requirement to follow strict EU rules
• Third-party iPhone app store AltStore PAL is now live in Europe
• The latest iOS 17.5 beta allows EU users to download apps from the web.
• Third-party browsers report record iPhone users.
• Google’s blog post takes jabs at Europe’s Digital Markets Act.
• iOS 17.5 supports website distribution of apps in Europe.
• A first look at Europe’s alternative iPhone app stores
• Apple, Meta, and Google targeted by EU in DMA non-compliance investigations
• Another look at WhatsApp’s third-party chat support — now in video form.
• The EU’s antitrust chief is paying close attention to Apple’s DMA compliance.
• Opera’s mobile browser is getting a lot of new users in the EU.
• Spotify says its iPhone app updates in the EU are getting held up by Apple
• Firefox saw an increase in users following Apple’s default browser changes in the EU.
• Brave choice.
• Epic Games just got unbanned by Apple — again
• Apple will cut off third-party app store updates if your iPhone leaves the EU for a month
• Apple’s last-minute App Store changes come with a catch — here’s what developers think
• Apple is working to make it easier to switch from iPhone to Android because of the EU
• Hello and goodbye to the MacBook Air
• Meta explains how WhatsApp’s encrypted chats will work with third-party services
• Apple kills Epic’s iOS game store plans over App Store criticism
• Experts fear the DMA won’t change the status quo
• Here’s the new iOS default browser nag for iPhone users in Europe.
• The EU’s new competition rules are going live — here’s how tech giants are responding
• iOS 17.4 is here and ready for a whole new Europe
• Google’s making game devs an offer they probably can’t refuse.
• Play Store developers can link to outside payment offers in the EU this week.
• This third-party iOS app store will be available in Europe this week.
• Apple tells its support staff not to shoot from the hip about sideloading.
• Here’s a peek under WhatsApp’s hood at how third-party chats will work.
• Now Apple says it won’t disable iPhone web apps in the EU
• Spotify and Epic criticize Apple’s iOS changes as ‘a mockery of the DMA’
• Setapp is opening its subscription-only iOS app store
• Apple’s decision to drop iPhone web apps comes under scrutiny in the EU
• Apple will reportedly face a $539 million fine over Spotify’s antitrust complaint
• Apple unbanned Epic so it can make an iOS games store in the EU
• Yep, Apple’s breaking iPhone web apps in the EU
• Apple appears to be breaking iPhone web apps in the EU
• Google’s not happy about Apple and Microsoft escaping some DMA rules.
• TikTok’s attempt to stall DMA antitrust rules rejected by EU court
• Apple opens its doors to developers’ alternative app stores ahead of March launch.
• Here’s how WhatsApp plans to interoperate with other messaging apps
• Meta says Apple has made it ‘very difficult’ to build rival app stores in the EU
• Spotify accuses Apple of ‘extortion’ with new App Store tax
• Mozilla says Apple’s new browser rules are ‘as painful as possible’ for Firefox
• Apple explains the EU’s new iPhone/iPad split.
• Apple’s new default browser prompt for EU market iPhones will have a dozen options.
• Dirty tricks or small wins: developers are skeptical of Apple’s App Store rules
• Here’s the new Apple tax every developer is going to hate
• Epic intends to launch its game store — and Fortnite — on iOS
• Epic’s Tim Sweeney calls Apple App Store changes ‘hot garbage’
• Apple is bringing sideloading and alternate app stores to the iPhone
• Apple’s EU-induced iOS sideloading plans are starting to emerge.
• Spotify plans to launch in-app purchases, if Apple gets out of the way
• Meta will let EU users unlink their Instagram, Facebook, and Messenger info ahead of DMA
• Google Search, Chrome, and Android are all changing thanks to EU antitrust law
• Google will now let EU users select which services share their data, thanks to the DMA
• Apple appeals after EU’s tough new DMA rules target App Store
• Threads is counting down to an EU launch next week
• Apple says iPhones will support RCS in 2024
• The EU will finally free Windows users from Bing
• TikTok joins Meta in appealing “gatekeeper” status in EU.
• Meta will fight the EU over regulating Messenger
• Apple “expects” to make App Store changes due to legislation like the EU’s DMA.
• Google turns to regulators to make Apple open up iMessage
• WhatsApp is working on cross-platform messaging
• iMessage and Bing avoid strict DMA rules, for now
• Google Search, WhatsApp, and TikTok on list of 22 services targeted by EU’s tough new DMA
• Apple and Microsoft reportedly want iMessage and Bing off the EU’s tech ‘gatekeeper’ list
• Here’s why Threads is delayed in Europe
• Seven big tech companies say they’re platform gatekeepers under EU law
• Meta is planning to let people in the EU download apps through Facebook
• Apple is reportedly preparing to allow third-party app stores on the iPhone
• Google will let European Play Store users pay with alternate billing systems
• The EU could start enforcing rules to regulate Big Tech in spring 2023
• New EU law could spark gold rush of iMessage alternatives
• Security experts say new EU rules will damage WhatsApp encryption
• Apple would be forced to allow sideloading and third-party app stores under new EU law
• EU targets Big Tech with sweeping new antitrust legislation

Around a dozen current and former federal workers are behind a new website created as an outlet to share anonymous stories and technical expertise about the Department of Government Efficiency’s dismantling of government agencies.

“We the Builders” aims to be a secure outlet for government workers to share how their workplaces are being impacted by DOGE, and a place to explain the real world impact of its access to government tech systems, a former federal worker behind the project tells The Verge. The website was created by people who “made government websites easier to use while protecting the integrity of your personal information,” according to its description. Had DOGE wanted “to use technology to build a more efficient country, they would ask us,” the site says. “But they haven’t. They are destroyers. We are the builders.”

The website is aimed at informing the general public about what’s happening inside federal agencies, as well as explaining how a database being accessed by DOGE in Washington, DC could impact citizens in tangible ways all across the country. “I want to make sure that people understand that data matters,” says the former federal worker, who was granted anonymity for fear of retribution and harassment in going public, but whose identity has been confirmed by The Verge. “If I can explain that in a way that helps you to be able to protect yourself and advocate for yourself, then I’m doing my job.”

While social media forums like Reddit and Instagram have already become gathering places for federal workers to commiserate, We the Builders aims to offer an alternative outlet for workers who may be fearful to share their stories even through an anonymous social media account. The team says they are working with a security consultant to ensure that submissions remain secure and anonymous to the public. They also plan to vet submissions for accuracy and use their networks to confirm that they are coming from real federal workers.

So far, the site hosts a couple anonymous blog posts explaining the work of the US Digital Service — which has been renamed to incorporate the acronym DOGE under President Donald Trump — and comparing the former USDS and DOGE’s approach to efficiency. It describe’s USDS’ method as “Precision Engineering for Public Good,” and DOGE’s as “Disruption Without Understanding.”

The former government employee says they hope visitors to the website “can walk away with a more nuanced understanding of what’s happening. I’m hoping that federal workers can see stories of people like them, and also help them make decisions for themselves, and to feel supported.”

Apple is adding a recipes section to its News app that will be available to News Plus subscribers, according to a press release. The new section, Apple News Plus Food, will be available as part of iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4 when those updates release in April.

The section will feature “tens of thousands of recipes” from “the world’s top food publishers, including Allrecipes, Bon Appétit, Food & Wine, Good Food, and Serious Eats,” Apple says. Recipes will be shown in a “beautifully designed recipe format makes it easy to review ingredients and directions,” and the app will have “a new cook mode takes step-by-step instructions to the full screen.”

Apple News Plus Food will also feature stories curated by Apple News editors. And Apple says that “select stories and recipes” will be available for non-Plus subscribers.

The addition of a recipes section brings the Apple News app into even closer competition with The New York Times’ main app. Apple News Plus subscribers can also access games like crossword puzzles and sudoku.

It was hard playing a preview of South of Midnight because, 20 minutes in, I just started bawling. The demo for the action-adventure platformer starts at the beginning of chapter three. The protagonist, Hazel, is working her way through a swamp trying to find her mother, who, along with their house, had been washed away in a hurricane. At the same time, she comes to learn her newfound powers as a Weaver — a person who can manipulate the metaphysical strands that connect all life — from the ghostly echoes of an enslaved woman who used her powers to escape to freedom and help others do the same.

With all that weighing on me, I held it together pretty well. But as I went through the double jump tutorial, a choir started singing a hymn in the background and I just lost it. It wasn’t that it was an emotional hymn; I didn’t even recognize it. But I knew the song was of me and for me even without having heard it before. That’s the kind of cultural weight the developers at Xbox studio Compulsion Games have invested in South of Midnight.

The authenticity that oozes from the game was intentionally cultivated. Its story draws upon American Southern Gothic folklore, which itself i …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Your phone comes with a number of useful features that we hope you’ll never have to use — and Crash Detection falls into that category. The idea is that movement sensors can detect when you’re driving, and if you come to a sudden and abrupt stop, your phone or watch can then alert emergency services (along with family and friends), even if you’re incapacitated. 

The feature has been available on iPhones running iOS 16 or later starting with the iPhone 14 (launched in 2022). It is also offered on the Apple Watch Series 8, Apple Watch SE 2, Apple Watch Ultra, or any later model. You also need watchOS 9 or later and a cellular connection (either built into the watch itself or via a connected iPhone).

If an iPhone or Apple Watch detects you’ve been in a crash, you get an audible alert on your device and an emergency call alert onscreen. If you’ve got both an iPhone and an Apple Watch, the wearable takes priority and will be the device that presents the emergency call alert.

The alert gives you a sliding SOS control that enables you to place an emergency call and a cancel button to allow you to dismiss the alert. If you don’t respond after 20 seconds, the call gets placed to em …

Read the full story at The Verge.

A robot vacuum can be a cost-effective way to enlist some extra help around the house, especially when you can get a hybrid model at a substantial discount. Fortunately, Prime members can currently get the Eufy X10 Pro Omni — our pick for the best midrange robot vacuum — for $599.99 ($300 off) at Amazon with coupon code NewX10US. The resulting price is only $50 more than the all-time low we saw during Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Not much can withstand the Pro Omni’s 8,000Pa of suction power. You may have trouble with stubborn pet hair, though, as its rubber brushes don’t offer enough abrasion to dig them out of carpeting. That said, it’s great for almost any other cleaning situation, including mopping, thanks to its onboard water reservoir and dual oscillating brushes. The latter spin against hard flooring with enough downward pressure to tackle dried stains, and it’s smart enough to lift them over carpet.

What’s more, the Pro Omni offers great AI-powered obstacle avoidance and a multifunction auto-empty / wash / fill dock — something typically reserved for high-end robovacs — making it a midrange model that punches above its weight. The fact it offers heated mop drying and Smart Track cleaning, which prompts the robovac to follow you with a little nudge of your foot, are just an added plus.

More Friday savings

• Now through February 28th, Woot is selling the 40mm Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 in white for $169.99 ($130 off), which is one of the best prices we’ve seen on the Wear OS wearable. It offers a full suite of vitality sensors, including both optical and ECG heart rate sensors, plus a blood oxygen monitor. It can also detect your stress levels and track your sleep quality — it even has an FDA-cleared sleep apnea detection feature — and quantifies these insights with daily energy scores and AI-powered insights. Read our review.
• If the Galaxy Watch 7 is still too much for you, Amazfit’s Bip 3 Pro is a solid smartwatch-style fitness tracker that won’t break the bank. It’s down to $54.99 ($15 off) at Amazon, which is $5 more than its all-time low. The budget watch features sleep tracking, 60 workout modes, a four-band GPS, and both a heart rate sensor and a blood oxygen monitor to measure your stress levels. It also lasts up to 14 days per charge and works with Android and iOS, allowing for music control and notifications from various apps.
• You can grab a pair of four-sided Anker 332 USB Power Strips for $29.99 ($10 off) at Amazon right now, which matches the bundle’s lowest price to date. Their small size makes them ideal for adding more power sources to, say, a crowded work desk. They feature six total AC outlets split evenly across three sides, with the endcaps supplying two USB-A ports and a single USB-C port with up to 20W of charging power shared between the three.

Soon, you’ll be able to use Apple Intelligence with the Vision Pro. That includes a mix of features we’ve seen before, as well as a new feature called Create Memory Movie that’s exclusive to the headset.

Apple has been keen to position the Vision Pro as a unique tool for viewing memories, and that’s the whole goal of the Create Memory Movie feature, which is built into the Photos app. To use it, you’ll enter in a description or a voice prompt, and Apple Intelligence will then find a photo or video that best matches that description. That “memory movie” can then be blown up to be viewed on a large-scale virtual screen or inside a virtual environment.

Other Apple Intelligence features for Vision Pro include writing tools with ChatGPT. That means Vision Pro owners will be able to dictate memos or emails, create bulleted summaries, or edit the tone of a draft using AI. This is a fairly typical AI feature these days, but it does address how writing within the headset isn’t always the easiest thing unless paired with a Bluetooth keyboard. Smart replies are also coming to visionOS, where you’ll be able to use Apple Intelligence to automatically respond to messages with a tap.

Other features include things like Genmoji and Image Playground, which is Apple Intelligence’s prompt-based image generator. Priority notifications and summaries will also be available, along with Image Wand, which lets you create more polished images based off rough sketches. Natural language search will also be available in the Photos app. You can view the full list of Apple Intelligence features for visionOS on Apple’s website.

Apple Intelligence will be part of the visionOS 2.4 update, which is available in developer beta today and arrives for the general public in April. Apple Intelligence for visionOS will first be available only in US English, with more features and languages slated to roll out throughout the year.

visionOS 2.4 will also bring a few other features that address some major pain points with using the headset. That includes an improved, easier-to-use Guest Mode, as well as two new discovery apps for discovering content: one for the iPhone, and the other acting as an Apple-curated content guide within the headset itself.