Volvo is continuing to drop hints about its upcoming high-tech electric sedan, the ES90, ahead of the EV’s official reveal next month. Today, the Swedish automaker provided new details about the ES90’s range and battery efficiency, calling it “a car that goes further and charges faster than any electric Volvo before.”

That’s mostly thanks to the ES90’s new-for-Volvo 800-volt architecture, putting it on par with other fast-charging EVs like the Hyundai Ioniq 5 and Kia EV6. The new architecture is an upgrade from previous Volvo EVs, like the $80,000 EX90 SUV, which features a 400-volt system.

Volvo claims that the ES90 will be able to add 300km (186 miles) of range in just 10 minutes when plugged into a 350kW fast-charging station (depending on the outdoor temperature). Moreover, it will offer a driving range of up to 700km (435 miles) under the more generous WLTP testing cycle.

Automakers are increasingly trending toward higher voltage systems in the hopes of luring in more customers who are turned off by slow charging speeds and the prospect of being stuck at a public charging station for 40 minutes or more. Stellantis, parent company of Jeep and Ram, recently announced a new 800-volt flexible architecture for some of its upcoming EVs.

Volvo said it needed to upgrade a number of its components in order to support the higher voltage system, including battery cells, motors, inverters, and thermal parts. The new motors were lighter and more efficient, and the overall system now creates less heat, meaning the battery can be charged at a faster rate without overloading the electrical system.

Volvo also plans to introduce a new, in-house-developed battery management software for the ES90, provided by Breathe Battery Technologies, which also received investments from Volvo’s corporate venture capital arm. The new software will slash the amount of time it takes to charge from 10 to 80 percent by as much as 30 percent, down to 20 minutes.

The ES90 will also feature a slew of recycled materials, including 29 percent of the aluminum, 16 percent of polymers, and 18 percent of steel. Wood panels inside the ES90 are made from FSC-certified wood, Volvo says. The automaker is also introducing a new blockchain-based battery “passport” to track raw materials like lithium, cobalt, nickel, and graphite used in the battery. 

Two years ago, the last time Framework had an event in San Francisco, California, the highlight was the Framework Laptop 16 — a laptop promising the “holy grail” of upgradable graphics cards, and easily one of the most ambitious laptops ever made.

But today, the Framework Laptop 16 got little mention at its new event, which focused on the new, similarly gamer-oriented Framework Desktop instead. While the Desktop and Framework’s original 13-inch laptop both got the latest AMD processors today, we don’t yet know if or when the Framework Laptop 16 might leap forward too.

The only mention of Framework’s flagship laptop was a new “One Key Module” that will experimentally be available for the Framework community to build their own electromechanical keyboards, should they choose to, that would be thin enough to fit in the Laptop 16’s extremely thin Input Module bay. (You can see how the Input Modules work in my video here.)

While Framework did finally ship its promised M.2 adapter bay in December, which will let you stick extra SSDs or other peripherals into a Framework Laptop 16 instead of a discrete graphics card, my big question is: is the promising but somewhat problematic laptop a dead end, or will it get new mainboards and new chips in the future?

I tracked down Framework CEO Nirav Patel at the event today, and he wouldn’t say much, but he was clear on one thing: “We’re nowhere near done with Framework Laptop 16.”

I pushed my luck, asking: Is today the day he can assure us that the Laptop 16 will eventually see at least one GPU upgrade or snap-on secondary battery?

“Today is not that day,” he told me.

I want to see Framework succeed, and perhaps it’s too early to begin to wonder otherwise — it was still shipping preordered batches of the Laptop 16 to buyers through the middle of last year.

But we’ve pushed the company pretty hard on the GPU in the past specifically because it’s a thing rivals have tried and failed at before — Dell/Alienware even got sued over the failed promise of the Alienware Area-51m, which never bothered to ship a second generation of its supposedly upgradable GPUs.

Framework has resisted our pushes so far, stopping short of confirming it in our 2023 story: here’s his exact language at the time. It’d be nice if Framework could assure buyers that the upgrades are absolutely coming. But personally, there’s more than a few things about that laptop I’d like to change, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Framework was doing a bit of a rethink even if it does deliver.

Razer is adding a fresh gaming laptop to the pile of new models up for preorder today: the Blade 18. Like its smaller (but far from small) Blade 16 cousin, the new Razer Blade 18 will come with Nvidia’s RTX 50-series GPUs and Intel Arrow Lake CPUs. But one major way it differs is its large 18-inch display, which has dual modes allowing it to run at either 3840 x 2400 at 240Hz or 1920 x 1200 at 440Hz.

The Blade 18 will start at $3,199.99 with an RTX 5070 Ti and climb to $4,499.99 with an RTX 5090. But if either the Blade 18 or the already announced $2,799.99 Blade 16 are the right pricey option for you, you’ll have to wait until late-April for them to actually ship.

Razer isn’t the only PC manufacturer offering new gaming laptops for preorder today. As Nvidia already teased, a variety of new notebooks sporting RTX 50-series GPUs now have finalized pricing, and there are fresh offerings from the likes of Asus ROG, MSI, and HP. Back when many of these laptops were first announced at CES in January, they mostly had estimated prices or no pricing at all.

Asus’s flagship ROG Strix Scar 16, with its new wraparound RGB lighting, starts at $3,299.99 with an RTX 5080 GPU and $4,299.99 with a top-of-the-line RTX 5090. The sleeker Zephyrus G14, which is a Verge favorite for balancing gaming performance with everyday usability, starts at $2,499.99 with an RTX 5070 Ti. And the larger Zephyrus G16 starts with the same GPU at $2,699.99. The G14 can go up to the RTX 5080, but the G16 will go all the way to an RTX 5090 once those higher-end configurations come a little later.

MSI has its RTX 5090-equipped Titan 18 HX AI is up for preorder for an astounding $5,999.99. (That’s not even MSI’s ridiculous Dragon Edition Norse Myth, which is still listed as “coming soon.”) The company has some of its slightly more down-to-Earth gaming laptops up for preorder as well, like the Stealth 18 HX AI with an RTX 5070 Ti starting at $2,999.99.

Lots of these gaming laptops are sitting at the high end with high prices, and some are more expensive than their last-gen versions with 40-series GPUs. Like, previous generations we may have to wait until cheaper mobile GPUs are announced and brought to market to get something not priced into the stratosphere. Hopefully the mobile versions of Nvidia’s new cards won’t be saddled some of the problems that have hit its latest desktop class, like mediocre improvements over their last-gen counterparts, power issues, or manufacturing missteps.

The first PCIe Gen 5 SSDs from the likes of Seagate and Crucial began hitting the market nearly two years ago, but Samsung has been notably absent with its own model. That will change in March with the arrival of the Samsung 9100 Pro series, its first consumer-ready pure PCIe Gen 5 SSD built with NVMe 2.0. At launch, it will be available in 1TB (starting at $199.99), 2TB ($299.99), and 4TB ($549.99) capacities in an M.2 form factor, with or without heatsinks. An 8TB configuration, a first for Samsung NVMe SSDs, is slated for the second half of 2025.

By the numbers, the 9100 Pro’s theoretical maximum random read and write speeds — 2,200K and 2,600K input-output operations per second (IOPS) — are at least twice as fast as the last-gen Samsung 980 Pro, a PCIe Gen4 SSD. Our earliest comparison of that SSD with Seagate’s Firecuda 540 and Crucial’s T700 showed no noticeable benefits for PC gaming; however, the difference may be more evident for heavier computing workflows. If nothing else, it’d be nice to know you’re future-proofed, at least until PCIe Gen 6 arrives.

The gains might be more apparent if you’re talking about large-volume file transfers, though, which videographers or software engineers working with large datasets might appreciate. Samsung says the 9100 Pro (built on its V Nand TLC V8 with a custom controller) can reach sequential read and write speeds of up to 14.8GBps and 13.4GBps, respectively. That’s roughly double the last-gen 980 Pro, and about 2-3GBps per second faster than the earliest PCIe 5 SSDs can manage.

The White House has named Amy Gleason as the acting administrator of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). The news, delivered by an unnamed White House official to CNBC and other media outlets, follows days of obfuscation in courtrooms, the press, and the pseudo-department itself. It designates Gleason a likely target for the nigh-continuous legal challenges over DOGE’s access to sensitive data and freezing of government funds — while potentially shielding its high-level leader Elon Musk.

Gleason’s LinkedIn profile indicates she previously served in the US Digital Service (which has since been converted to serve DOGE’s efforts) and worked for the healthcare investment firm Russell Street Ventures. It’s unclear when she was given her current title or whether there are plans for a permanent head of DOGE. And earlier today, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt refused to name a formal administrator for the group. “I am not going to reveal the name of that individual from this podium,” Leavitt said, telling reporters she would be “happy to follow up” later to provide it.

Gleason was already identified as a possible leader in a February 18th Wired story, where USDS employees described her as a liaison between DOGE, USDS, and other agencies. But at that point, Wired noted that “little is known about her official role” and said even employees weren’t sure who was supposed to be in charge.

The government has been cagey about who formally runs DOGE while leaving little doubt about who’s in charge. Leavitt and others have repeatedly identified Musk as overseeing DOGE’s overall operation. At the same time, they’ve denied that he has any formal association with it, saying he’s merely a special government employee serving as an advisor.

This extends to statements made under oath in weeks of courtroom drama — as numerous state attorneys general and private actors argue that DOGE is operating illegally, while the government seeks to insulate Musk and avoid naming anyone the challengers could sue. A February 17th court filing asserted that Musk had “no actual or formal authority” in DOGE. Later, in a hearing on February 24th, Department of Justice lawyer Bradley Humphreys told Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly that he didn’t know if anyone led the organization at all.

“Is there an administrator of DOGE at the present time?” Kollar-Kotelly asked.

“I don’t know the answer to that,” Humphreys replied.

Apple has acknowledged a peculiar bug with the iPhone’s dictation feature that briefly displays “Trump” when someone says the word “racist.” The Verge has been unable to reproduce the issue, but it picked up attention on Tuesday after a video demonstrating the strange substitution went viral on TikTok and other social media.

The company provided a statement to The New York Times and Fox News confirming the bug. “We are aware of an issue with the speech recognition model that powers dictation, and we are rolling out a fix as soon as possible,” an unnamed spokesperson said, according to Fox News.

Apparently the issue boils down to phonetic overlap between “Trump” and “racist.” The company told Fox News that other words with an “r” consonant are also occasionally affected. But John Burkey, who formerly worked on the Siri team at Apple, told the Times that Trump’s name appearing “smells like a serious prank” that could have been purposefully carried out by someone internally.

Regardless of the technical reason behind it, the awkward glitch comes a day after Apple announced plans to invest more than $500 billion in the United States over the next four years. The company is looking to blunt the potential impact of tariffs put into place by President Donald Trump, with a 10 percent tariff already in effect on goods imported from China, and a 25 percent tariff threatened for chips.

Back in June 2020, when this article was first written, people were taking to the streets to organize for justice and protest against systemic racism and police brutality. It was revised two years later when people were taking to the streets to protest the possibility that the Supreme Court might overturn Roe v. Wade (and we know how that turned out).

Currently, in the first months of the new Trump presidency, people are once again wondering how they can make their opinions known. While some may choose to call their representatives or attend town hall meetings, others might be planning to attend protest demonstrations. And because we’ve all become used to carrying a great deal of our personal data with us via our phones and / or watches, it has become more important than ever to guard that data if there is a chance of confrontation or arrest.

The following tips have to do with your phone. If you also have a smartwatch, you may want to simply leave that home.

Be aware

If you’re attending or even just watching the protests, then be aware: not only is your phone a trove of information about you and the people you communicate with, but it also functions as a tracking device …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Since its app fiasco last year, Sonos has been busy slowly rebuilding its reputation with customers. This latest sale, which is exclusive to existing customers, seems to be a part of that strategy — and we’re not complaining, because the deals are solid. Through March 2nd, Sonos is taking 25 percent off one select Sonos product up to $2,500, though you’ll have to sign in (or create an account) to see the discounted prices. To qualify, you must have registered a Sonos product by February 19th, 2025.

The Sonos sale includes a wide range of audio gear, many of which are down to new all-time low prices. For example, the Sonos Ace is cheaper than ever at $336.75 ($112.25 off). Along with delivering good sound and noise cancellation, the Ace supports TV Audio Swap so you can pair it with Sonos soundbars for private listening. That includes the latest Sonos Beam and Sonos Ray, both of which are also on sale for some of their best prices at $374.25 ($124.75 off) and $209.25 ($69.75 off), respectively. The Beam is the larger, more capable of the two, with support for Dolby Atmos as well an eARC HDMI port. That said, the entry-level Sonos Ray also produces balanced, dynamic sound for its size, even if it’s not on the same level.

Alternatively, if you’re looking for a powerful yet portable speaker, the Sonos Move 2 is down to $336.75 ($112.25 off). The six-pound speaker features stereo sound that can fill up any outdoor patio or room, and also comes with a built-in handle for greater portability. If you prioritize portability over power, though, the smaller and waterproof Sonos Roam 2 is also on sale for $134.25 ($44.75 off).

Last but not least, the Sonos sale also includes its newest smart speakers. You can, for example, buy the Sonos Era 100 and Sonos Era 300 for an all-time low of $186.75 ($62 off) and $336.75 ($112.25 off), respectively. Both speakers offer support for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth audio, and line-in playback via an optional 3.5mm to USB-C adapter. The Sonos Era 300, however, is designed to deliver an excellent spatial audio experience with Dolby Atmos support.

As part of its February Xbox update, Microsoft is making it easier to invite your friends to an Xbox Cloud Gaming session by letting you generate shareable links. You can send the link through an Xbox message or by copying it to your clipboard for pasting into any messaging app you want. Players can accept the invite on a supported PC or mobile web browser and jump in right away or receive a code to enter on any TVs or streaming devices with Xbox gaming features.

Willing participants must have an Xbox account, with some games requiring an active Game Pass Ultimate subscription. It also requires each player to have an “entitlement” to the game, presumably by owning it outright or having access through Game Pass or a free-play period. You can invite as many friends as the game allows and revoke access to the link at any time. Some games will also allow you to remove unwanted players from your session.

This new feature arrives as part of the continued expansion of Xbox Cloud Gaming, which recently added the ability to stream your own games on your Xbox console or on mobile, PC, and TVs. (Previously, you could only stream select Game Pass titles.) That feature launched with 50 supported titles, but Microsoft recently expanded it with about half a dozen, including notable additions like Blasphemous II, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, and Subnautica.

It’s time to put all the lessons I’ve learned about Infinity Nikki’s gacha system to the test. There’s a new event coming to the game and with that comes a new outfit I actually want this time. 

After the game taught me an unfortunate lesson on the gacha economy, I’ve kinda taken it easy with Infinity Nikki, and have found myself enjoying it way more at a slower pace.

Updates come about once a month, and when I first started playing, I’d blaze through all the new and shiny quests within days only to spin my wheels at the tail end of the month desperate for something new to do. With that in mind, I slowly worked my way through all the Lunar New Year content, completing everything I wanted mere hours before the event was due to wrap up. It feels like I’ve finally gotten into a steady rhythm with the game. I know how to play and how to spend and I’m happy again enjoying the game for what it is.

With the flashy fireworks in the distance, I took a look ahead to the next event, Eerie Season, due to start February 26th. It’s an oddly themed update. Typically games save their spooky events for October not March. But the community has been clamoring for more darker themed clothing since the overwhelming majority of the game’s items are pink and pastel so this seems like a response to that. The update will also flesh out the Queen’s Palace Ruins, an area of the game that’s visually interesting with its dilapidated and haunted castle vibe but devoid of any story or quest content. I am interested in poking at the darker bits of Infinity Nikki’s story and the overall lore of the world and Eerie Season seems poised to give me just what I’m looking for.

One of the things that’s helped me stick to my guns about not spending any extra money is the fact that premium outfits have never really moved me at all. Everything’s cute, of course, but nothing’s made me sit up and go “I must have this!” However, that apathy disappeared the moment I took a look at the premium outfits for Eerie Season.

I saw that cowboy outfit and audibly cursed. I’m from the midwest, we don’t have cowboys here. I don’t even like cowboys like that but … I must have this. So I’ve decided to apply all the tricks and tips I’ve learned about gacha game to acquiring this one outfit without spending any extra money. I think I’ll be able to do it, too.  

After that rather frustrating lesson on exactly how gacha games can fleece even the most clear-eyed players, I haven’t spent any more money and have ignored the game’s clothing slot machine. As a result, I’ve amassed a small but tidy sum of premium currency, although not enough to get the cowboy outfit outright. After some light mathing, I’ve determined that I’ll need another 4,000 or so of the premium currency (or roughly $15). Thankfully, with what the battle pass and the new event quests will provide, I’m reasonably confident that I’ll have more than enough to get the entire outfit without any extra spending.

Weirdly enough, I’m excited about it. Not just because I’ll have an outfit that I truly want but also because there’s a thrill to making, executing, and succeeding with a plan. We’ll see how that goes when the new event starts February 26th.

8BitDo has released an upgraded version of its Ultimate controller now available to preorder through Amazon for $59.99 in purple, black, and white color options. The new 8BitDo Ultimate 2 features a similar asymmetrical stick layout to 8BitDo’s original Ultimate controller that launched in 2022, but adds additional buttons, interactive LED lighting, and tunneling magneto-resistance (TMR) joysticks that are even more durable than Hall effect sticks.

We still don’t know if Nintendo will switch to Hall effect joysticks for the Switch 2, but companies like GuliKit have already moved away from them in favor of TMR. The technology has already long been used in hard drives to boost storage capacities. For controllers, it allows for joysticks that draw less power, which can improve battery life while nearly eliminating the risk of joystick drift that plagued the Nintendo Switch and other modern controllers before magnetic Hall effect technology was adopted.

8BitDo is also bringing over the RGB Fire Ring lighting effects first introduced on its smaller-sized Ultimate C wired Xbox controller. As the branding implies, both joysticks feature a ring of color-changing LEDs around their base with several lighting modes that react to button presses (including the triggers) or the direction the joysticks are being pushed.

The Ultimate 2’s triggers still use Hall effect sensors for improved accuracy and reliability, but 8BitDo has introduced a switch that lets you swap their behavior between longer draw triggers ideal for racing games and short pull tactile triggers for quicker responses while playing first-person shooters. And like the budget-minded 8BitDo Ultimate 2c, the Ultimate 2 has an extra pair of customizable shoulder buttons on the back.

The controller connects to 8BitDo’s Ultimate Software V2, which is also available as a mobile app, allowing buttons to be remapped and the sensitivity of joysticks and triggers to be adjusted. The controller has support for motion controls for games that support it, and a charging dock is still included.

Connectivity options include Bluetooth, a wired USB-C connection, or a low-lag 2.4GHz wireless connection using an included USB-C dongle. But like the cheaper Ultimate 2C, 8BitDo has only made its new Ultimate 2 controller compatible with PCs running Windows 10 and later or Android devices running Android 9.0 and newer.

Versions of the new Ultimate 2 compatible with the Xbox, iOS, or Nintendo Switch (and presumably the Switch 2) haven’t been announced yet, but 8BitDo previously released additional versions of the original Ultimate controller with alternate compatibility.

Technicolor Group, the French VFX giant that owns some of Hollywood’s most in-demand post-production houses, appears to be on the brink of collapse — putting thousands of jobs at risk.

Variety reports that Technicolor has begun winding down operations after failing to secure a new round of investment necessary to keep the entire international outfit running. In a message sent to employees on Monday, Technicolor CEO Caroline Parot claimed that COVID-19 era setbacks and the 2023 writers strike were two sources of the “severe cash flow pressures” the company has been struggling to deal with.

Parot also said Technicolor — which operates in the U.S., Canada, Europe, India, and Australia — “must face reality,” and explained that the company has petitioned the Paris Commercial Court to initiate receivership proceedings.

“In each country, the appropriate framework for orderly protection and way forward is currently being put in place to allow, when possible, to remain in business continuity,” Parrot said. “This decision was not taken lightly; every possible path to preserve our legacy and secure the future of our teams will be thoroughly explored to offer a chance to each of its activity to be pursued with new investors.”

Parot’s latest message to employees came days after workers in the US received WARN notices informing them of the potential for imminent mass layoffs, and Technicolor’s pivot to receivership in France gelled with the company’s recent move in the UK to file for administration.

Technicolor Group, which owns Moving Picture Company (Dune, Spider-Man: No Way Home), The Mill (Detective Pikachu, Severance), Mikros Animation (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, Orion and the Dark), and Technicolor Games (Mass Effect: Legendary Edition), is no stranger to financial woes. The company was spun-off from Vantiva SA (formerly known as Technicolor SA) in 2020 after the latter filed for Chapter 15 bankruptcy and underwent a large-scale restructuring. Parot also pointed to Technicolor’s separation from Vantiva as a factor that contributed to its current “difficult operational situation.”

Warner Bros. Discovery is making even more big changes to its troubled gaming efforts. As reported by Bloomberg, the company’s gaming division is canceling the Wonder Woman game announced in 2021 and shutting down three studios: Wonder Woman developer Monolith Productions, MultiVersus developer Player First Games, and Warner Bros. Games San Diego.

WBD confirmed the changes in a statement to Kotaku’s Ethan Gach. “We have had to make some very difficult decisions to structure our development studios and investments around building the best games possible with our key franchises — Harry Potter, Mortal Kombat, DC and Game of Thrones,” according to the statement. “After careful consideration, we are closing three of our development studios Monolith Productions, Player First Games and Warner Bros. Games San Diego. This is a strategic change in direction and not a reflection of these teams or the talent that consists within them.”

As for why Wonder Woman is being canceled, “our hope was to give players and fans the highest quality experience possible for the iconic character, and unfortunately this is no longer possible within our strategic priorities,” the statement says. “This is another tough decision, as we recognize Monolith’s storied history of delivering epic fan experiences through amazing games.”

Warner Bros. Discovery says in the statement that it remains “focused on and excited about getting back to producing high-quality games for our passionate fans and developed by our world class studios and getting our Games business back to profitability and growth in 2025 and beyond.”

The cancellation and shutdowns are yet another rough spot in Warner Bros.’ gaming efforts. Player First Games recently announced that MultiVersus will be taken offline, ending a development period that has already included a long hiatus and a relaunch. Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League was a flop, with that game receiving its last season less than a year after launch. A previous report from Bloomberg said that WB’s gaming division suffered $300 million in losses last year.

2023’s Hogwarts Legacy has been a success for WB, and the company is reportedly working on a definitive edition for the game with more content.

Framework, the modular computer company, has just announced its first desktop PC, which is something it absolutely did not need to do — but I’m glad it did.

Partly because the world needs more tiny 4.5-liter mini-ITX PCs, partly because it uses AMD’s most powerful APU ever (Strix Halo) with some actual gaming chops and up to 128GB of unified LPDDR5x memory… and partly because it looks like this.

Yes, you can create your own front panel out of 21 interchangeable (and freely 3D printable) tiles, pick your own two front I/O ports, and yes, that’s a standard-size mini-ITX motherboard below, along with a custom thermal system co-developed by Cooler Master and Noctua with standard 120mm fans, a semi-custom 400W Flex ATX power supply co-developed by FSP, a whole lot of seemingly perfect-length cables for a relatively cable-light system, your choice of black or translucent side panels… and, at left, an optional LAN party carry handle!

Just don’t look for any memory slots — it’s soldered. “We spent months working with AMD to explore ways around this but ultimately determined that it wasn’t technically feasible to land modular memory at high throughput with the 256-bit memory bus,” writes Framework.

Below, find a closer look at Framework’s desktop motherboard and cooling; you only get a PCIe x4 port, not PCIe x8 or x16, and no legacy connectors like SATA, but it’s more loaded than the image lets on: Framework says it’s got onboard 5Gbps Ethernet, two USB4, two DisplayPort, one HDMI, not one but two M.2 2280 NVMe SSD slots for up to 16TB of storage, and a Wi-Fi 7 module, plus what appear to be two full-size USB-A ports and a headphone jack (at the rear).

Here’s a little bit of the build process, as told by the images Framework sent us:

And here are some better images of the Framework Desktop mainboard’s I/O, in a rack-mounted, daisy-chained configuration that the company expects some AI enthusiasts might snap up — thanks to the local AI chops and 128GB of memory on the highest-end Ryzen AI Max Plus 395 Plus config.

“With Framework Desktop, you can run giant, capable models like Llama 3.3 70B Q6 at real-time conversational speed right on your desk,” the company claims, adding, “With USB4 and 5Gbit Ethernet networking, you can connect multiple systems or Mainboards to run even larger models like the full DeepSeek R1 671B.”

Framework CEO Nirav Patel says it was also designed with LANs in mind — though with a bit less bulk than the massive CRT moniotrs and desktops of old.

What kind of gaming chops might it really have? My colleague Antonio has seen in his time with the Asus Z13 gaming tablet that Strix Halo is roughly around the performance of an Nvidia RTX 4060 mobile chip. AMD gaming architect boss Frank Azor was also here with some 1080p benchmarks at high settings; it apparently can’t quite play the most demanding games (like Black Myth Wukong and Starfield) at over 60fps at native resolution with everything turned up, but the claim is that even 1440p at 60fps is possible with AMD’s FSR upscaling.

Even if you’re not getting your money’s worth out of AI, though, the prices on these desktops don’t seem all that outlandish. While a desktop with 16 CPU cores, 40 graphics cores, 80MB of cache of the 395 Plus chip, and 128GB of memory will cost $1,999 — not including bring-your-own storage and OS — you can pick one with 8 CPU cores, 32 graphics cores, 40MB of cache and 32GB of memory for $1,099. There’s also a 395 Plus with just 64GB of RAM for $1,599. Or, you can buy a mainboard alone for $799 if you provide your own mini-ITX case and power supply, too.

If you are looking for the most powerful mini-PC, Patel suggested the $1,999 model compares favorably to an Apple Mac Studio, which can cost over twice as much for the same 128GB of RAM.

Framework says these desktops and mainboard should be available to preorder today, with plans to ship in Q3. If you’re reading these words shortly after they were published, I’m currently at a Framework event in San Francisco, where the company also just introduced a new AMD-powered version of its Framework Laptop 13 and the new Framework Laptop 12: its first budget laptop, its first touchscreen, and its first convertible.

Framework, the modular repairable computer company, says budget laptops generally suck — and it plans to fix that this year. Today, it’s previewing a computer called the Framework Laptop 12 that’ll be its smallest laptop yet, its first with a touchscreen, its first with a 2-in-1 convertible hinge, and its first with a rubber-esque shock absorbing TPU outer edge to make it more suitable for kids and students, too.

“We build products to fix what we see as a broken industry, and few categories are as emblematic of the problems with consumer electronics as entry-level laptops,” writes Framework CEO Nirav Patel, continuing:

They tend to be janky, locked-down, disposable, underpowered, and frankly, boring machines.  Shamefully, these are the products that PC brands market for use by students and young people around the world.  Instead, we believe these are the people who most need thoughtfully designed, long-lasting computers.

Patel says the Framework Laptop 12 “is in many ways the product I started the company to create,” and that it will be “our easiest product ever to repair.” It will come with a 13th Gen Intel Core i3 or i5 chip (circa 2023), a 1920×1200 screen at over 400 nits of brightness with both touch and stylus support, up to 48GB of RAM and up to 2TB of NVMe storage, and Wi-Fi 6E.

Based on the image below, it would appear that the Framework Laptop 12 will also have four of Framework’s Expansion Card slots, which is how Framework lets you pick your own ports.

Despite the claim that the Framework Laptop 12 is designed to fix entry-level laptops, Framework isn’t sharing any idea of pricing today, beyond that it will be “lower cost” compared to the Framework Laptop 13, which typically starts at around $750 for a DIY model with previous-gen chips or $1,100 for a prebuilt with the latest ones.

But while Framework products often cost more than you’d pay for the same specs with Dell, HP, or Lenovo, it is the first and only company that has repeatedly delivered on the promise of modular upgrades, letting you easily swap out the entire motherboard and processor as a single module for a new one down the road. For example, Framework is also announcing a new AMD mainboard for its Framework Laptop 13 today, one that can breathe new life into any previous iteration of that laptop, even the original Intel version it released in 2021.

Framework says it’ll open preorders in April and ship in “mid-2025.”

If you’re reading this soon after it was published, I’m probably still at Framework’s event in San Francisco, looking for both this laptop and the just-announced Framework Desktop.

Framework has done it again — it’s built a new AMD-powered modular computer that fits into any previous version of its 13-inch laptop for $449, or that you can buy as a brand-new laptop starting at $899 for DIY or $1,099 entirely prebuilt for you. If you’re reading these words, I’m currently at Framework’s event, where I’m checking it out alongside the just-announced tiny Framework Desktop and possibly the new budget touchscreen convertible Framework Laptop 12.

This 13-inch machine is the company’s second with AMD processors, this time featuring the new-ish Ryzen AI 300 “Strix Point” chips in Ryzen 5 and Ryzen 7, all the way up to the Ryzen 9 HX 370 with 12 CPU cores, half-decent portable gaming chops and 50 TOPS of AI performance. And yes, that makes this Framework’s first Copilot Plus PC.

The changes don’t stop there: Framework says its second AMD laptop gets all the big upgrades of last year’s Intel Core Ultra model, including the optional 2.8K 120Hz screen and presumably the better webcam.

While you don’t get four fully functional Thunderbolt 4 / USB4 ports like you do on Intel models, you can now power four external displays from each of its four ports, up from three on the last AMD, in addition to new Wi-Fi 7, a new cooling system with a single larger 10mm heatpipe like last year’s Core Ultra model (up from twin 5mm heatpipes) with Honeywell PTM7958 phase change thermal interface material, and “a new key structure on the wide keys (e.g. spacebar and shift) that reduces buzzing when your speakers are cranked up.”

They’ve got a plastic structure that spans the full width of the key instead of metal linkages, and says they’ve been thoroughly tested, joking that there’d be no Apple Butterfly Keyboard issues in Framework’s future.

Speaking of the keyboard, it does have Microsoft’s mandatory Copilot key if you buy it as a prebuilt Windows 11 laptop — but you can ditch that if you buy DIY! (Which I’d recommend unless you really need a preinstalled copy of Windows or are quite squeamish, as even Framework’s DIY machines are mostly prebuilt anyhow.)

Lastly, Framework’s now offering translucent bezels, including new colors purple, green, and black, and matching translucent USB-C expansion cards too.

The new Framework Laptop 13 boards and laptops should be available to order today, shipping in April, and Framework says it’s reducing the price of its previous-gen AMD notebooks, as usual, as these new machines roll out.

At the beginning of today’s Framework event in San Francisco, CEO Nirav Patel says he believes Framework is now the fastest growing laptop brand, and “probably the only company that can announce a product that looks the same four years in a row and get cheers.”

“We’re proving it’s possible to build a company around product longevity by actually doing it,” he says.

The US Department of Agriculture’s decision to purge information about climate change from its websites harms organic farmers and threatens their livelihoods, a new lawsuit alleges.

Since President Donald Trump stepped into office, the USDA has removed “scores of vitally important webpages” that mention climate change, the suit says. The administration has been racing to destroy public resources that address climate change and civil rights, sparking legal battles to bring those webpages back.

Trump has repeatedly called climate change a “hoax” and has abandoned US efforts to limit the greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels that are causing climate change. There is overwhelming scientific consensus that pollution from fossil fuels are raising global average temperatures and driving more extreme weather.

Plaintiffs in the suit, filed on behalf of the Northeast Organic Farming Association of New York (NOFA-NY) and two environmental groups, say they’ve already seen those effects on their farms. They previously relied on information on USDA websites to prepare for those consequences, helping them make decisions about planting crops and managing their land.

“We have been reacting to extreme weather and making choices to protect our businesses and our food system for years. Climate change is not a hoax. Farmers, fisherman, and foresters know from experience, that we need every piece of science and intergenerational knowledge to adjust to this new reality,” Wes Gillingham, Northeast Organic Farming Association of New York (NOFA-NY) board president, said in a press release.

An online tool called the “Climate Risk Viewer,” for example, used to show the impacts of climate change on rivers and water sheds, and how that might affect future water supplies. It vanished along with other webpages shortly after USDA Director of Digital Communications Peter Rhee sent an email to staff on January on 30th directing them to “identify and archive or unpublish any landing pages focused on climate change,” according to the lawsuit.

The administration also removed information about how to access funding for “climate-smart farming,” including a webpage for a loan program that supports “sustainable agricultural practices that reduce greenhouse gas emissions … and enhance the resilience of farming operations to climate change.” NOFA-NY used those federal webpages to help farmers find funding and share advice through its free “farmer helpline.“

Taking down policy information also makes it harder for farmers to hold the Trump administration accountable for distributing funds they’d been promised. The administration’s funding freeze, and Trump’s threat to claw back Biden-era climate funding, have faced separate legal challenges. NOFA-NY’s new lawsuit alleges that the Trump administration has violated court orders by stopping payments to farmers under USDA conservation and ‘climate-smart agriculture’ programs.

The Natural Resources Defense Council and Environmental Working Group are also plaintiffs in the suit. They say they relied on the previously publicly available information for their research and advocacy.

The USDA’s removal of all these resources violate three federal laws, the complaint alleges. That includes the the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) that gives the public the right to access key records from any federal agency, the Paperwork Reduction Act that stipulates adequate notice before changing access to information, and the Administrative Procedure Act that governs the way federal agencies develop regulations.

The USDA didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from The Verge, and the Department of Justice declined to comment.

Earlier this month, the Trump administration brought some federal webpages back online to comply with a court order after Doctors for America (DFA), which represents physicians and medical students, similarly filed suit over health data taken off government websites.

Anker has released a new HDMI to USB-C cable that allows you to connect a mobile device to an external display without draining its battery. The Anker Nano USB-C to HDMI Cable Adapter, now available through Amazon for $28.99, is Thunderbolt 5 compatible and includes a USB-C port on the HDMI connector so you can charge your device at up to 140W speeds using a power adapter.

USB-C to HDMI cables are common, but most don’t incorporate power delivery. That’s not an issue when using them with devices like laptops that have multiple USB-C ports, but devices like smartphones, tablets, and handheld consoles with a single USB-C port won’t be able to charge while connected to a display. You can also use USB-C HDMI hubs or an HDMI adapter like the one Apple sells for $69.99, but then you’ll need to supply your own HDMI cable.

Anker’s solution simplifies things, and while the version currently offered is only three feet long, a six foot version will eventually be introduced.

Companies like Ugreen already offer similar solutions that also support 4K displays at up 60Hz, but are limited to 100W of power delivery. If you need more than that, Anker’s got you covered.

Unfortunately, while Anker says there’s a long list of devices compatible with the cable, including iPads, iPhones, ThinkPads, Chromebooks, Google Pixels, Samsung Galaxy phones, and handhelds like the Steam Deck and Asus ROG Ally, it can’t serve as a portable docking solution for the Nintendo Switch. And because of the size of the HDMI connector on the end of the cable, it’s also not compatible with various monitors from Dell, LG, and Samsung because of where their HDMI ports are located.

The Dark Horse Digital service is being shut down, and as part of that, the Dark Horse Comics iOS app will no longer be supported, according to an announcement. Dark Horse Comics says people should download comics they’ve purchased by March 30th, as it will end support for its iOS app and the standalone Plants vs. Zombies comics app the following day.

You can still visit the Dark Horse Digital website if you make an account before the deadline to read the comics you’ve bought — but only through “at least” summer 2025, the company says in a FAQ. You can also sync your website account with the app to download issues, according to the announcement. 

This isn’t totally the end for Dark Horse’s ebook comics; the company says its books will continue being available “on numerous digital reading platforms.” But it says it decided to stop its own direct-to-reader sales because “consumer reading preferences have evolved in different directions.”

According to Dark Horse’s FAQ, you can get a refund for comics you’ve bought this year from its website. But refunds for purchases from the iOS apps “have to be discussed with Apple,” the company says says. 

While it’s nice that Dark Horse gave buyers a heads-up so they can download their purchases and potentially get refunds, it points out in its FAQ that you don’t own digital books themselves, only the license to them. That’s the peril of buying digital, and something Senator Ron Wyden called out today in a letter to the FTC.

Microsoft made OpenAI’s o1 reasoning model free for all Copilot users last month, and now it’s providing unlimited use of this model and Copilot’s voice capabilities to everyone. Previously, both Think Deeper (powered by o1) and Voice in Copilot had limits for free users, but Microsoft is removing these today to allow Copilot users to have extended conversations with the company’s AI assistant.

“We are working hard to scale unlimited access to advanced features to as many people as possible, as quickly as possible, starting today with Voice and Think Deeper,” says the Copilot team. “It’s worth noting you may experience delays or interruptions during periods of high demand or if we detect security concerns, misuse or other violations of the Copilot Terms.“

The unlimited use of Copilot Voice and Think Deeper comes two years after Microsoft first launched Copilot inside its Bing search engine, and just a month after the software maker revamped its Copilot Pro subscription and bundled Office AI features into Microsoft 365.

Microsoft is continuing to sell its $20 per month Copilot Pro subscription, and says users “will retain preferred access to our latest models during peak usage, early access to experimental AI features (more on that coming soon), and additional use of Copilot in select Microsoft 365 apps like Word, Excel and PowerPoint.”