Google is finally moving on from Google Assistant.

The company will be upgrading “more” users from Google Assistant to Gemini “over the coming months,” according to a blog post. The classic Google Assistant “will no longer be accessible on most mobile devices or available for new downloads on mobile app stores” at some point “later this year.”

“Additionally, we’ll be upgrading tablets, cars and devices that connect to your phone, such as headphones and watches, to Gemini,” Google says. “We’re also bringing a new experience, powered by Gemini, to home devices like speakers, displays and TVs.”

The company says it will share more details “in the next few months.” (I would guess that Google will announce information around that new experience at Google I/O in May.) In the meantime, “Google Assistant will continue to operate on these devices,” according to Google.

Google initially launched Google Assistant in 2016. Now, though, Gemini has become the catch-all branding for many of Google’s AI and assistant-like efforts, so it’s not too surprising that the company is officially retiring Google Assistant.

Google releases a lot of products, but it shuts down a lot of them, too. Some didn’t deserve to be discontinued (we pine for the days of Reader and Inbox), and some probably weren’t long for this world from the start. (What was Google Wave supposed to be, anyway?) The company actually used to shut down products with quarterly “spring cleanings,” but now, it just does so whenever it’s time for another product to be put out to pasture.

Follow along here for all our coverage of everything Google sends to the graveyard.

• Google is officially dumping Assistant for Gemini
• Google’s taking the extra search box out of your search results
• Saluting the Chromecast, one of the great HDMI dongles
• Google is discontinuing the Chromecast line
• Google is ending an experiment that let you annotate search results
• PDF organizer Stack is the latest app to hit the Google graveyard
• Google is killing infinite scroll on search results
• Today I learned there is a messaging service in Google Maps, and now it’s going away
• Google is shutting down developer access to Google Fit APIs.
• The Google One VPN service is heading to the Google graveyard
• Not everyone is losing Google Podcasts after today.
• Google Podcasts’ time is almost up.
• Google Pay replaced Google Wallet — now it’s going away to make room for Google Wallet
• Google Search’s cache links are officially being retired
• Hey Google, I was using that button!
• Google Assistant Driving Mode will shut down in February
• Google removes 17 features from Google Assistant
• Google is losing its Fitbit leaders and laying off hundreds of AR employees
• Google is finally saying goodbye to Google Play Movies & TV
• You can listen to podcasts through Google Podcasts until March 2024.
• Google News hammers the final nail into its magazine subscriptions coffin.
• Google’s whiteboarding app is joining the graveyard
• Google Podcasts is going to the graveyard as YouTube Music takes over
• Gmail’s basic HTML view will go to the Google graveyard in 2024
• Google kills Pixel Pass without ever upgrading subscriber’s phones
• We need Google Reader more than ever.
• Who killed Google Reader?
• Google has reportedly killed its Project Iris augmented reality glasses
• Google sunsets Domains business and shovels it off to Squarespace
• The real Q project.
• RIP Google Currents.
• Google will shut down Currents, the work-focused Google Plus replacement
• Google will shut down Dropcam and Nest Secure in 2024
• Google Stadia is how you shut down a service right
• Google’s Duplex on the Web joins the Google graveyard.
• Google’s worst hardware flop was introduced 10 years ago today
• Google’s handy scrollable Snapshot of your day has disappeared from phones
• A very brief history of every Google messaging app
• Alphabet is shutting down Loon, its internet balloon company
• Google to shut down Android Things, a smart home OS that never took off
• Google discontinues its Google Nest Secure alarm system
• Google kills off app that let you check in on loved ones during an emergency
• Android 11 officially drops support for Google’s Daydream VR
• Google is delaying the shutdown of Chrome apps, but you probably weren’t using them anyway
• Google Plus is officially gone after its mobile apps are rebranded as Google Currents
• These engineers are trying to rescue a ‘Bookbot’ from the Google graveyard
• Google is finally killing off Chrome apps, which nobody really used anyhow
• What we can learn from a decade of dead Google projects
• Google is shutting down its Cloud Print feature in 2020
• Google is open sourcing Cardboard now that the Daydream is dead
• Google Clips is dead
• Google is discontinuing the Daydream View VR headset, and the Pixel 4 won’t support Daydream
• Google finally gives Reader the respect it deserves with an actual gravestone
• Google Hire is the next Google tool to be shut down
• YouTube discontinues private messages to focus on keeping things public
• Google shuts down Nest app for Apple Watch and Wear OS
• How to replace Google’s Trips app
• The YouTube Gaming app is shutting down this week
• Google clarifies Works with Nest shutdown, provides extension on existing connections
• Google’s Nest changes risk making the smart home a little dumber
• Google ends sales of the Pixel 2 and 2 XL
• Google+ is officially deleting consumer data starting April 2nd
• The original Google Hangouts will start to disappear this October
• Google discontinues Chromecast Audio, but you can grab one for $15 while supplies last
• Google halted Chinese data collection program after Dragonfly backlash
• Google will shut down Google+ four months early after second data leak
• Google is ending Play Service support for Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich
• Google is shutting down Allo
• Google is shutting down Google+ for consumers following security lapse
• Google’s Inbox app is shutting down in March 2019
• Google Goggles is dead; long live Google Lens
• Google is starting to phase out the old Gmail design
• Google is using the impending death of its blob emoji to promote Allo
• Google is finally replacing its bad emoji blobs in Android O
• Google is killing Gchat for good and replacing it with Hangouts
• Google is shutting down Spaces, its experimental group messaging app
• Google confirms the end of its modular Project Ara smartphone
• Google will end support for Chrome apps on Windows, Mac, and Linux
• Google will shut down Picasa this spring
• Google takes the ‘last step’ to shut down its failed social network Buzz
• Google Reader to shut down July 1st
• Google discontinues Listen podcast app, Google Apps for Teams, and Google Video for Business
• Google’s latest ‘spring cleaning’ moves all video content to YouTube, kills iGoogle and Symbian Search app
• Google Wave is officially dead starting today
• Google’s spring cleaning ends support for BlackBerry Sync, Picasa plug-ins for iPhoto, and more
• Google kills off more experimental services, including Wave, Gears, and Knol
• Google Buzz to shut down in a few weeks, Google Labs dies today

Reddit is going rolling out a feature that lets you hide an ad from your feed for “at least a year,” the company says in a post spotted by Ars Technica.

When the update is available to you, you’ll be able to see the “Hide” option for “any ads that appear in feeds, such as your home or subreddit feed,” Reddit says.

The option looks like an eye with a line through it, as shown in a screenshot. When an ad becomes visible again after you hide it, you can re-hide it if you’d like, according to the company.

Reddit says it’s rolling out the update this week that ads the feature and that it will “gradually become available across iOS, Android, and www.reddit.com over the next several weeks.”

Last year, Reddit added filters that let users limit ads from “sensitive” categories like alcohol, dating, gambling, and politics and activism.

A federal judge has once again blocked California’s landmark online child safety law from taking effect. In a ruling on Thursday, US District Court Judge Beth Labson Freeman granted a preliminary injunction in favor of NetChoice, saying the technology trade group’s claims that the law violates the First Amendment would likely succeed.

The law, called the California Age-Appropriate Design Code Act (CAADCA), was signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom in 2022 and covered online platforms “likely” to be accessed by children. Along with restricting the use of dark patterns, the law would require these platforms to estimate the age of users and apply specific privacy settings for children. NetChoice argued that its requirements are too vague, as it asked platforms to make “subjective” decisions about content and could have a chilling effect on free speech.

Judge Labson Freeman previously blocked CAADCA in 2023, a ruling the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals partially upheld last year. As noted by Courthouse News, the ruling later returned to Judge Labson Freeman to make a decision on the remaining parts of the law. NetChoice said this decision will block the “entirety” of CAADCA.

“Even if the Court were to accept that the Act advances a compelling State interest in protecting the privacy and well-being of children, the State has not shown that the CAADCA is narrowly tailored to serve that interest,” Judge Labson Freeman writes. “The Act applies to all online content likely to be accessed by consumers under the age of 18, and imposes significant burdens on the providers of that content.”

NetChoice, which represents companies like Meta, Netflix, X, and Amazon, has won several requests to block child safety laws in states across the US. It recently sued to block Maryland’s Kids Code law, which would prevent kids from accessing inappropriate content online.

“While protecting children online is a goal we all share, California’s Speech Code is a trojan horse for censoring constitutionally protected but politically disfavored speech,” Chris Marchese, NetChoice’s director of litigation, said in a press release. “This decision puts other states on notice that censorship regimes masquerading as ‘privacy protections’ will not survive judicial review.”

When I saw iRobot’s latest robot vacuums announced this week, my first thought was, “These don’t look like Roombas; they look like midrange models from Roborock, Ecovacs, and Dreame.” Of course, as the original robot vacuum manufacturer, iRobot’s products likely inspired the design of most of its competitors. But Roombas have always had a uniqueness that sets them apart from the crowd. 

With these new models, the company is capitulating to the homogeneity of the current crop of vacuums, sacrificing many of its signature features and moving from high-end to middle-of-the-road in a quest to recapture a bigger slice of the market.

Long known for its innovation in home robotics, iRobot is marketing its new line as “breakthrough new products.” But the only notable innovation I’ve seen so far is an onboard dust compacting bin. The rest is largely a reheat of every midrange robot vacuum on the market today. 

Then, a day after launching eight new robot vacuums — the biggest product launch in its history — iRobot warned that it was in such dire financial straits that it could shut down in 12 months. Suddenly, it all became clear. 

They don’t look like Roombas beca …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Vampire Survivors isn’t just a bullet hell survival game where you maneuver around simple 8-bit stages and kill thousands of monstrous enemies — it’s also a juggernaut of an indie title that blew up in popularity enough to even get the green light on a TV show spinoff.

First launched on Steam in December 2021 under Early Access, the game had a meteoric rise in 2022, becoming one of the consistently most played games on Valve’s Steam Deck and winning the BAFTA Award for Best Game (yes, it beat Elden Ring).

Several of us here at The Verge are fully Vampire-pilled, obsessively playing it each time a new content update or DLC drops. There’s just something so satisfying about those gem pickup sounds.

Check out our ongoing coverage of the unstoppable indie.

• Vampire Survivors now has an official wiki.
• Vampire Survivors will get cross-save with its next content patch.
• Vampire Survivors comes full circle with Castlevania DLC expansion
• Vampire Survivors launches on PlayStation later this month.
• Vampire Survivors is coming to Apple Arcade
• Vampire Survivors is getting Among Us-themed DLC.
• The first of Vampire Survivors’ story mode “Adventures” will be available on December 6th.
• Vampire Survivors’ new ‘adventures’ will make the game even more replayable.
• It’s October, so Vampire Survivors got a winter-themed update.
• Vampire Survivors could be getting cross-saves and an ‘adventures’ mode
• Vampire Survivors feels like a different game with a friend
• Anybody down for some 300-player Vampire Survivors local co-op?
• Noclip released a documentary about Vampire Survivors.
• Vampire Survivors is coming to Nintendo Switch in August — with local co-op!
• Vampire Survivors is being turned into a TV show
• Vampire Survivors’ new fantasy-themed expansion launches in April for just $2
• Vampire Survivors might finally be getting vampires in new expansion
• Xbox Game Pass’ November lineup includes two of the best games of the year
• Vampire Survivors has finally reached 1.0.
• Vampire Survivors’ new higher price is still worth sinking your teeth into
• Deals PSA: Today’s the last day to buy Vampire Survivors on Steam for just $2.99
• The new cheats menu in Vampire Survivors makes me wish more games had them
• My big fat Italian vampire-slaying family
• Slaying monsters in Vampire Survivors is like walking through a casino

Six to Start, the company behind Zombies, Run! and Marvel Move, has laid off all but two of its staff, The Verge has learned. The news was delivered last week to staffers in a Zoom call, in which they were told that parent company OliveX could no longer afford to keep Six to Start afloat and would shut down the company if they can’t find a buyer. Laid-off staffers were also served redundancy notices, which The Verge has confirmed.

The ZRX: Zombies, Run! app is an immersive fitness game that plops walkers and runners into audio-based storytelling. When enemies, be they the undead or Marvel villains, “chase” you, you’re encouraged to pick up speed. At the end of an episode, you can also collect items to trade for badges or in-game buildings. First founded in 2012, the app says it has about 10 million users worldwide.

Such immersive storytelling games, especially Marvel Move, are expensive to produce. They involve writing storylines, hiring voice actors to perform the material, and artists to create graphics. One source with knowledge on the matter noted that it’s unlikely the app will completely shut down for now, as there are plenty of loyal Zombies, Run! players and subscribers. Instead, it’s likely OliveX is trying to massively lower costs by slashing or completely pausing new content, relying on the hundreds of episodes still in the archive. OliveX is apparently actively looking for buyers, and there may already be interested parties, the source says.

OliveX first acquired Six to Start in 2021, but another source, speaking on condition of anonymity, claims Six to Start staffers clashed with both OliveX and its owner, Animoca Brands. The games’ anti-capitalist themes were at odds with the parent companies’ aims to create crypto and NFT projects. The source claims that working under OliveX was “agony.” To date, there have been no NFTs within any of Six to Start games.

It’s unclear what will happen for ZRX: Zombies, Run! subscribers in the short-term. While there is an extensive library of content, part of the draw was regular releases of new episodes. The Verge reached out to OliveX and Six to Start for comment, but did not immediately receive responses.

Briefly, here’s what’s up with Tesla over the past few weeks: its stock is down more than 50 percent since December; Tesla sales in California are plummeting; Cybertruck deliveries are reportedly paused because the vehicles are falling apart; protesters are demonstrating outside Tesla showrooms across the country; and Tesla owners are selling their cars to avoid getting called Nazis.

But that’s not all. According to data from YouGov, a market research firm, the public’s impression of the company has never been worse, reaching its lowest point since YouGov began tracking Tesla in 2016. YouGov asks members of the public daily questions about Tesla to gauge overall sentiment. (Sherwood first reported the data.)

As of March 12th, the net impression for respondents across the political spectrum is -12.8. “Impression” measures whether consumers have a positive or negative impression of a given brand. The company fares even worse with liberals, with a -35.5 net impression. Moderates sit at a -9.2 net impression. Conservatives are the only group with a positive net impression of Tesla, measured at 7.5.

YouGov also asks whether respondents would consider purchasing a Tesla. According to YouGov data, around 8 percent of liberals indicated they would consider purchasing a Tesla, down from 12 percent at the beginning of 2022. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the percentage of conservatives who say they would consider buying a Tesla has increased from 6.7 percent to 8.4 percent. Even those numbers are lagging: when looking at the average response rate for all carmakers, 10 percent of the general population say they would consider buying a vehicle.

There are also more indications that Tesla sales are slowing down. New registrations in the US fell 11 percent in January compared to a year prior, Automotive News reported. That follows reports of nosediving sales in several European countries, including France, Norway, Spain, and Germany.

As his company is in free fall, billionaire owner Elon Musk is attempting to cash in on his close relationship with the White House. On Tuesday, in what can only be described as an advertising event, President Donald Trump turned the White House driveway into a pop-up Tesla showroom, reading from a Tesla sales pitch and vowing to purchase a vehicle. Musk’s proximity to the Trump administration follows the hundreds of millions of dollars he poured into getting Trump elected. On the same day as the Tesla stunt, The New York Times reported that Musk has indicated he wants to throw in another $100 million into other Trump groups.

Ford has hired a former Twitch, PlayStation, and Lululemon executive to lead the automaker’s digital services business. Mike Aragon, who previously led as CEO of Lululemon’s defunct Mirror home workout machine, is joining Ford as president of “integrated services.”

The company says Aragon will lead a team “responsible for building out and marketing a suite of services and experiences” across Ford Pro (business and fleet), Ford Blue (core passenger vehicles), and Ford Model e (electric vehicles). The company says it has more than 800,000 paid subscriptions across its lineup, including for services like its BlueCruise hands-free driving system and fleet management software.

In a press release, Ford CEO Jim Farley says Aragon will help build the company’s early success with integrated services and has “a proven track record of helping great hardware companies create valuable digital ecosystems.” That track record includes the PlayStation Network service and leading Twitch’s content teams.

Aragon is filling a role previously held by Peter Stern, a former Apple services vice president, who helped build Apple’s paid subscription offerings including Apple TV Plus, Fitness Plus, News Plus, and more. Farley had hyped Stern’s hiring in 2023 and mentioned that the industry’s “biggest change” is getting into “digital product and physical services.” Paid subscriptions have become the biggest revenue drivers for companies such as Apple. Stern is now CEO of Peloton, whose key product is a bike with a subscription service.

Newsmax agreed to pay $40 million to settle claims that it defamed the voting machine company Smartmatic. The two companies reached a “confidential” settlement agreement last September, but a regulatory filing spotted by The Independent has revealed how much the conservative media outlet will pay.

Newsmax has paid $20 million to Smartmatic so far, with plans to pay off the remainder by July. The settlement also includes the option to buy shares in Newsmax, which plans to list on the NYSE on March 31. Smartmatic sued Newsmax in 2021 after the network aired false allegations that its voting machines helped Joe Biden win the 2020 presidential election. It claimed Newsmax “deliberately disseminated a continuous stream of falsehoods,” harming Smartmatic’s business.

Newsmax still faces another lawsuit from the voting machine company Dominion. “While Newsmax Media is vigorously defending the Dominion suit, an unfavorable outcome in the matter could have a material adverse effect on the Company’s financial position, results of operations and cash flows,” Newmax’s filing reads. 

Smartmatic settled with One America News last year, while a judge recently ruled to allow its $2.7 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox Corp. to continue. Fox News agreed to pay Dominion $787 million in 2023.

After a season 3 finale that left open plenty of possibilities for a return, it’s now confirmed: Ted Lasso is coming back. The Apple TV Plus sitcom is getting a fourth season, though it appears to be still fairly early in development.

In an interview on the New Heights podcast, star Jason Sudeikis confirmed that season 4 is being written now, and that it will follow the eponymous coach as he leads a new women’s soccer team. Aside from Sudeikis, there’s no other word on what characters might be returning, although much of the creative team will be back, including writer (and Roy Kent actor) Brett Goldstein.

“As we all continue to live in a world where so many factors have conditioned us to ‘look before we leap,” Sudeikis said in a statement. “In season 4, the folks at AFC Richmond learn to ‘leap before they look,’ discovering that wherever they land, it’s exactly where they’re meant to be.”

Ted Lasso remains one of the biggest hits for Apple TV Plus, so the return isn’t too surprising. And the news comes as Apple is on a steady run of returning series, including the second seasons of both Silo and Severance, alongside the fourth season of Mythic Quest.

There’s a lot to explore in Google Maps, but you may not always know where to look. It’s great if you’re trying to drive through a crowded city or find out which local coffee shop has the best-rated bagels, but there are also other, lesser-known features worth investigating. These include historical imagery on Google Street View. 

Google Maps actually makes it easy to switch between different time periods. On either desktop or mobile, you can go back to when Google’s Street View cars first started patrolling the streets — in some areas, you can go back as far as 2007 — and see how roads and places looked years ago.

So whether you have a practical purpose or just want to take a nostalgia trip, here’s how to go about it. These instructions apply to the latest versions of Google Maps for the web, Android, and iOS.

Street View on desktop

If you’re using Google Maps in a desktop browser, you can get to Street View by clicking anywhere on the map where Street View is available (which is most roads and famous landmarks), then clicking the Street View panel at the bottom. (It will look like a small square photo with a curved arrow.)

Alternatively, select a specific destination …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Apple Intelligence is technically lots of things, but there’s only one feature with the potential to actually meaningfully change the way you use your phone. That would be Siri, which Apple said last year it had turned from a quasi-helpful voice assistant into an AI-powered helper that could understand everything about you and accomplish things on your behalf. Sounds cool, right? It was one of the flagship features of the iPhone 16 lineup, a big part of the way Apple promoted its new devices. Except it doesn’t exist. And it won’t anytime soon.

On this episode of The Vergecast, we talk about exactly where things went wrong with Siri — and with the whole gadget industry, which became so enraptured with the promise of AI that it sort of forgot to make good gadgets. Nilay and David discuss the problems and promise with Alexa, the still-enticing ideas behind “ambient computing,” and what it’ll take for Apple to make things right. (Side note: if you haven’t read John Gruber’s essay on the subject at Daring Fireball, you should — we recorded this episode before it published, but it’s an excellent summary of the situation.)

Subscribe: Spotify | Apple Podcast …

Read the full story at The Verge.

iPhone and Android users will be able to exchange end-to-end encrypted (E2EE) RCS messages in the near future thanks to newly updated RCS specifications. The GSM Association announced that the latest RCS standard includes E2EE based on the Messaging Layer Security (MLS) protocol, enabling interoperable encryption between different platform providers for the first time.

The GSM Association said it had started working to enable E2EE on messages sent between Android and iPhone in September last year. E2EE is a privacy and security feature that prevents third parties, such as messaging providers or cell carriers, from viewing the content of your texts. The GSMA says the new RCS standard was developed in collaboration with “mobile operators, device manufacturers, and technology providers,” including Apple.

“End-to-end encryption is a powerful privacy and security technology that iMessage has supported since the beginning, and now we are pleased to have helped lead a cross industry effort to bring end-to-end encryption to the RCS Universal Profile published by the GSMA,” said Apple spokesperson Shane Bauer. “We will add support for end-to-end encrypted RCS messages to iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and watchOS in future software updates.”

Apple introduced RCS support to iPhones as part of an iOS 18 update in September. While Apple’s proprietary iMessage system already supported E2EE, this wasn’t extended to RCS messaging because the previous RCS standard didn’t provide cross-platform support. Google Messages also enabled E2EE by default for RCS texts, but only conversations between Google Messages users were E2EE, and not those exchanged with iMessage users or users of other RCS clients on Android.

“We’ve always been committed to providing a secure messaging experience, and Google Messages users have had end-to-end encrypted (E2EE) RCS messaging for years,” Google spokesperson Ed Fernandez told The Verge. “We’re excited to have this updated specification from GSMA and work as quickly as possible with the mobile ecosystem to implement and extend this important user protection to cross-platform RCS messaging.”

Update, March 14th: Added statement from Google.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Read our full AirPods 4 review.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Read the full story at The Verge.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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