Normal view

There are new articles available, click to refresh the page.
Yesterday — 30 December 2024Main stream

Apple promised next-gen CarPlay in 2024, so where is it?

By: Wes Davis
30 December 2024 at 10:10
Apple’s CarPlay concept, showing a badge that reads “First models arrive in 2024.”
Apple’s new CarPlay is still just a concept. | Screenshot: Apple

We still haven’t seen the “next generation of CarPlay” that Apple first announced in 2022 and continues to say on its CarPlay webpage is arriving in 2024, as MacRumors points out. And barring some spectacular surprise, it’s not coming today or tomorrow. What gives?

So far, we’ve only seen changes like CarPlay mapping directions appearing in the instrument cluster in cars from manufacturers like Polestar, Porsche, and Lincoln. That’s even the case for vehicles like the 2024 Lincoln Nautilus, which has the screen real estate to support Apple’s vision for its dashboard-spanning infotainment software. Porsche and Aston Martin had announced their cars would be the first to get the new CarPlay, but both recently declined to give Wired a timeline for its rollout.

Screenshot of Apple’s website description of next-gen CarPlay. Screenshot: Apple
Apple’s website still says “First models arrive in 2024,” which seems... unlikely.

Other companies that Apple said would support its new CarPlay have been noncommittal about the software since it was announced. Some have closed the door on full support more forcefully since then, like when Mercedes-Benz CEO Ola Källenius told The Verge’s Nilay Patel in April that Apple won’t be taking over all the screens in its cars.

Outside of Apple’s initial pronouncement that so many cars would use its big CarPlay update, automakers like General Motors and Rivian have taken a stand against both it and Google’s Android Auto. That’s not a popular position, particularly for GM, but both have indicated it’s about having more control over their vehicles.

Despite the lukewarm reception of Apple’s ideas, the company has continued to talk about its plans for the software. It’s just not clear what cars, if any, it will ever show up in.

Apple could bring its ‘Pro’ OLED displays to the entire iPhone 17 line

By: Wes Davis
30 December 2024 at 07:31
A picture of the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max next to each other.
Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

One of the big benefits of buying a “Pro” iPhone is currently that you get a fancy high-refresh rate OLED display, but that may become standard across the iPhone 17 lineup, according to a Weibo leak from Digital Chat Station spotted by MacRumors. The outlet notes that Digital Chat Station leaked accurate details about the iPhone 15 line’s camera sensors and the display panel of the iPhone 12.

The rumor is a bit vague, saying only that the base iPhone 17 will have a high refresh rate. But it follows some more specific supply chain whispers we’ve heard in recent months. MacRumors pointed to one in February that suggested Apple will use the same LTPO panel tech, which drives Apple’s variable refresh rate “ProMotion” iPhone 16 Pro displays, for all of next year’s phones. That was later echoed by others, including display supply chain analyst Ross Young in September.

The next set of iPhones is also expected to replace the base model “Plus” iPhone with an iPhone 17 “Slim” in 2025, which Young suggested will have ProMotion, too. Instead of differentiating by display tech, Apple could stratify the lineup in different ways, like by giving the iPhone 17 Pro Max a smaller Face ID sensor and Dynamic Island cutout, as well as 12GB of RAM for both sizes of iPhone 17 Pro and 8GB for the standard and Slim models.

The whole line is rumored to have 24MP front-facing cameras instead of the 12MP found in current iPhones, and they may all use an Apple-designed Wi-Fi / Bluetooth chip for the first time.

Before yesterdayMain stream

More of the DJI Flip folding drone appears in new leaked images

By: Wes Davis
29 December 2024 at 15:19
A picture of the DJI Neo drone
The DJI Flip is expected to fly nearly twice as long as the DJI Neo, pictured here. | Photo by Thomas Ricker / The Verge

New images of the rumored DJI Flip folding drone hit late last week, showing the compact, light-colored drone both folded and unfolded, and even in a carrying case. The images appeared in posts by Igor Bogdanov, who has shared other credible DJI leaks in the past.

Bogdanov added in a post yesterday that DJI is preparing a new Cellular Dongle 2 module for the compact drone. The new leaks join earlier images of ND filters for the Flip, its propeller set, and charging hub, which Bogdanov wrote can charge two batteries in a minimum of 45 minutes, and can use “a 65W parallel charger.”

Oh, how. Flip gonna have a Cellular Dongle 2. #dji #djiflip pic.twitter.com/CbpZpnSHj0

— Igor Bogdanov (@Quadro_News) December 28, 2024

Below are some of the other pictures Bogdanov posted, including of its front screen, which drone leaker Jasper Ellens notes shows “all the handsfree Quickshots we know from the Neo.”

Ellens posted a short video of the drone yesterday, writing that the Flip’s registration numbers put it in DJI’s FPV drone category, meaning that it could allow for first-person streaming during flight. In early December, he also leaked details like the drone’s compact folding approach and that it should get about 30 minutes of flight thanks to a battery that’s bigger than the one in DJI’s Neo selfie drone.

Fun fact. The #DJIFLIP product numbers are registered under the #FPV product line of DJI. This drone will be a #hybrid in many ways. I wish you all happy holidays and see you in the new year. Thank you for reading. Fly safe, stay safe. Cheers! Jasper pic.twitter.com/csGagm0U2M

— Jasper Ellens | X27 (@JasperEllens) December 28, 2024

YouTube is testing a floating ‘Play something’ button

By: Wes Davis
29 December 2024 at 13:58
YouTube logo on an abstract background
Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge

YouTube is testing a new floating “Play something” button that will pick a video for you, 9to5Google spotted in the YouTube app for Android. The button floats just above the bottom bar of the app, and when tapped, it picks a YouTube video to play for you.

Just as in earlier versions of this feature YouTube’s been testing, the new button reportedly uses the portrait-oriented YouTube Shorts player to show videos, regardless of whether they’re vertically formatted Shorts or standard YouTube videos. Hopefully that changes by the time the feature gets a wide release.

Other incarnations the company has been testing for over a year include a “Play Something” banner and a simple button that looks like a black-and-white YouTube logo. If the feature’s name sounds familiar, perhaps it’s because Netflix retired a similar random video picker last year called “Surprise Me,” which originally launched in 2021 as “Play Something.”

Spotify showed porn videos in search results for some popular artists

By: Wes Davis
29 December 2024 at 12:29
An illustration of the Spotify logo surrounded by noise lines in white, purple, and green.
Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge

A Reddit user posted a screenshot overnight of a Spotify search that brought a surprise: a pornographic video tucked into suggested results for the rapper M.I.A. Here’s a NSFW link to the thread. The video shown in their screenshot didn’t appear for us, but we found others after scrolling through dozens of results in the “Video” tab.

One of the accounts that posted videos we saw has published erotic audio for years but has sprinkled in sexually graphic videos more recently. Another account, which was named with a long string of alphanumeric characters, has been publishing equally nonsensically-titled explicit videos as a podcast account since mid-November.

Spotify representative Laura Batey told The Verge in an email that the examples we provided “have been removed due to violation of our policies.” Those policies include forbidding sexually explicit material. We asked Spotify for more information on how the videos made it past its moderation and will update here if it responds.

The videos we found appear to be unmoderated podcast uploads, and reporting them isn’t very convenient. The Spotify app lacks a button for doing so — instead, users have to copy the content’s URL and head to a webpage for reporting possible violations.

Porn on Spotify isn’t a new thing. Other recent Reddit posts contain examples of unexpected explicit video in search results and even erotic audio tracks being suggested in one user’s Discovery Weekly algorithmic playlist. A 2022 Vice story also detailed sexually explicit audio on the platform, as well as other content like graphic nudity in user-made playlist cover art.

Is your iPhone sharing photos data with Apple by default?

By: Wes Davis
29 December 2024 at 10:05
Screenshot of the Enhanced Visual Search toggle.
iOS 18 introduced an “Enhanced Visual Search” toggle for the Photos app. | Screenshot: iOS 18 Settings app

Apple occasionally makes choices that tarnish its strong privacy-forward reputation, like when it was secretly collecting users’ Siri interactions. Yesterday, a blog post from developer Jeff Johnson highlighted what feels like such a choice: an “Enhanced Visual Search” toggle for the Apple Photos app that is seemingly on by default, giving your device permission to share data from your photos with Apple.

Sure enough, when I checked my iPhone 15 Pro this morning, the toggle was switched to on. You can find it for yourself by going into the Photos settings on your phone (through the iOS Settings app) or a Mac (in the Photos app’s settings menu). Enhanced Visual Search lets you look up landmarks you’ve taken pictures of or search for those images using the names of those landmarks.

To see what it enables in the Photos app, swipe up on a picture you’ve taken of a building and select “Look Up Landmark,” and a card will appear that ideally identifies it. Here are a couple of examples from my phone:

A split-screen image showing two searches, one correctly identifying a cathedral, the other misidentifying a building as the New Melleray Abbey near Dubuque, Iowa. Screenshots: Apple Photos
That’s definitely Austin’s Cathedral of Saint Mary, but the image on the right is not a Trappist monastery, but the Dubuque, Iowa city hall building.

On its face, it’s a convenient expansion of Photos’ Visual Look Up feature that Apple introduced in iOS 15 that lets you identify plants or, say, find out what those symbols on a laundry tag mean. But Visual Look Up doesn’t need special permission to share data with Apple, and this does.

A description under the toggle says you’re giving Apple permission to “privately match places in your photos with a global index maintained by Apple.” As for how, there are details in an Apple machine-learning research blog about Enhanced Visual Search that Johnson links to:

The process starts with an on-device ML model that analyzes a given photo to determine if there is a “region of interest” (ROI) that may contain a landmark. If the model detects an ROI in the “landmark” domain, a vector embedding is calculated for that region of the image.

According to the blog, that vector embedding is then encrypted and sent to Apple to compare with its database. The company offers a very technical explanation of vector embeddings in a research paper, but IBM put it more simply, writing that embeddings transform “a data point, such as a word, sentence or image, into an n-dimensional array of numbers representing that data point’s characteristics.”

Like Johnson, I don’t fully understand Apple’s research blogs and Apple didn’t immediately respond to our request for comment about Johnson’s concerns. It seems as though the company went to great lengths to keep the data private, in part by condensing image data into a format that’s legible to an ML model.

Even so, making the toggle opt-in, like those for sharing analytics data or recordings or Siri interactions, rather than something users have to discover seems like it would have been a better option.

Correction December 29th: An earlier version of this story misstated the location of the Enhanced Visual Search toggle. It is in iOS Settings under Apps > Phone and in Photos > Settings in the macOS Photos app. The headline was also made clearer.

Meta’s ‘software update issue’ has been breaking Quest headsets for weeks

By: Wes Davis
28 December 2024 at 15:08
A photo of the Quest 3, its controllers, and the charging dock.
A Meta Quest 3 on a charging dock. | Photo by David Pierce / The Verge

Meta updated a note on the top of its Quest support site to say that a “software update issue” has been bricking Quest 2, Quest 3, and Quest 3S headsets. The company writes that while “most” people can now use their headsets normally, it’s “actively working on resolving the issue for all users.”

That Meta is now saying it’s working on a fix “for all users” may be good news for Quest 2 and 3 owners who’ve reported that Meta wouldn’t fix or replace their headsets because they were out of warranty. Some Reddit users say the company has emailed a confirmation that they were getting out-of-warranty service for the issue, and a Meta support forum community manager wrote in an update yesterday that Meta’s customer support “should have new directions on how to support users now.”

We're aware that some new Meta Quest 3S devices are having trouble with the initial software update. Our team is working on a solution but in the meantime, please use our software update tool (https://t.co/bgR14KPfvv) to resolve this issue. We appreciate your patience while we…

— Meta Quest Help (@MetaQuestHelp) December 6, 2024

Meta posted on December 6th that there were software update issues affecting “some new Quest 3S devices,” but didn’t mention Quest 2 or 3 headsets or what software version was involved, either then or in an earlier version of the new support site message that UploadVR reported this week. The company announced on December 9th that it was rolling out its most recent update, Meta Quest v71, adding features like a revamped virtual desktop display connection method and keyboard passthrough support in virtual environments.

The US proposes rules to make healthcare data more secure

By: Wes Davis
28 December 2024 at 10:34
Art rendering of transparent laptop in front of a wall of surveilling eyes.
Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

The US Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) is proposing new cybersecurity requirements for healthcare organizations aimed at protecting patients’ private data in the event of cyberattacks, reports Reuters. The rules come after major cyberattacks like one that leaked the private information of more than 100 million UnitedHealth patients earlier this year.

The OCR’s proposal includes requiring that healthcare organizations make multifactor authentication mandatory in most situations, that they segment their networks to reduce risks of intrusions spreading from one system to another, and that they encrypt patient data so that even if it’s stolen, it can’t be accessed. It would also direct regulated groups to undertake certain risk analysis practices, keep compliance documentation, and more.

The rule is part of the cybersecurity strategy that the Biden administration announced last year. Once finalized, it would update the Security Rule of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), which regulates doctors, nursing homes, health insurance companies, and more, and was last updated in 2013.

US deputy national security advisor Anne Neuberger put the cost of implementing the requirements at “an estimated $9 billion in the first year, and $6 billion in years two through five,” writes Reuters. The proposal is due to be published in the Federal Register on January 6th, which will kick off the 60-day public comment period before the final rule is set.

Hackers hijacked legitimate Chrome extensions to try to steal data

By: Wes Davis
28 December 2024 at 08:00
A collection of warning signs, bugs, and notifications emulating malware or a cyber attack. The images are placed in a connected web against a blue background.
Illustration by Carlo Cadenas / The Verge

A cyberattack campaign inserted malicious code into multiple Chrome browser extensions as far back as mid-December, Reuters reported yesterday. The code appeared designed to steal browser cookies and authentication sessions, targeting “specific social media advertising and AI platforms,” according to a blog post from Cyberhaven, one of the companies that was targeted.

Cyberhaven blames a phishing email for the attack, writing in a separate technical analysis post that the code appeared to specifically target Facebook Ads accounts. According to Reuters, security researcher Jaime Blasco believes the attack was “just random” and not targeting Cyberhaven specifically. He posted on X that he’d found VPN and AI extensions that contained the same malicious code that was inserted into Cyberhaven.

Other extensions possibly affected include Internxt VPN, VPNCity, Uvoice, and ParrotTalks, as Bleeping Computer writes.

Our team has confirmed a malicious cyberattack that occurred on Christmas Eve, affecting Cyberhaven's Chrome extension. Here's our post about the incident and the steps we're taking: https://t.co/VTBC73eWda

Our security team is available 24/7 to assist affected customers and…

— Cyberhaven (@CyberhavenInc) December 27, 2024

Cyberhaven says hackers pushed an update (version 24.10.4) of its Cyberhaven data loss prevention extension containing the malicious code on Christmas Eve at 8:32PM ET. Cyberhaven says it discovered the code on December 25th at 6:54PM ET and removed it within an hour, but that the code was active until December 25th at 9:50PM ET. The company says it released a clean version in its 24.10.5 update.

Cyberhaven’s recommendations for companies that may be affected include that they check their logs for suspicious activity and revoke or rotate any passwords not using the FIDO2 multifactor authentication standard. Prior to publishing its posts, the company notified customers via an email that TechCrunch reported Friday morning.

Marriott and Starwood hotels will have to get better at data security

By: Wes Davis
23 December 2024 at 15:52
Brand logo on a Marriott hotel
A Marriott Hotel in Germany. | Photo by Matthias Balk/picture alliance via Getty Images

The Federal Trade Commission announced on Friday it finalized an order (pdf) requiring Marriott International and subsidiary Starwood Hotels to improve their digital security, reports BleepingComputer. The FTC charged the companies with lax security practices that resulted in three big breaches detected in 2015, 2018, and 2020, “affecting more than 344 million customers worldwide,” leaking passport details, payment cards, and other info.

The shortest breach lasted 14 months before it was detected, while the longest one saw attackers maintain access for four years, starting in 2018. The beefed-up security programs they've agreed to establish include creating policies to only keep information for as long as it’s needed and publishing a link allowing US customers to request the deletion of information tied to their email address or loyalty account.

Hotels have been one of many key targets for hackers, with one breach last year catching FTC Chair Lina Khan among the many people left waiting to check in when a ransomware attack forced MGM Resorts to fall back on using pen and paper.

The FTC announced its charges in October, accusing the companies of having “deceived consumers” with false claims of “reasonable and appropriate data security.” Their alleged failures included having bad password and firewall practices and not patching outdated software and systems. The same day the FTC revealed the charges, the Connecticut Attorney General’s office announced Marriott had agreed to a $52 million settlement.

Beyond improving their security, the companies are now forbidden “from misrepresenting how they collect, maintain, use, delete or disclose consumers’ personal information; and the extent to which the companies protect the privacy, security, availability, confidentiality, or integrity of personal information.” Other requirements include that they keep compliance records and submit to FTC inspections. The order will stay in effect for 20 years.

Honey’s deal-hunting browser extension is accused of ripping off customers and YouTubers

By: Wes Davis
23 December 2024 at 14:18

The PayPal Honey browser extension is, in theory, a handy way to find better deals on products while you’re shopping online. But in a video published this weekend, YouTuber MegaLag claims the extension is a “scam” and that Honey has been “stealing money from influencers, including the very ones they paid to promote their product.”

Honey works by popping up an offer to find coupon codes for you while you’re checking out in an online shop. But as MegaLag notes, it frequently fails to find a code, or offers a Honey-branded one, even if a simple internet search will cover something better. The Honey website’s pitch is that it will “find every working promo code on the internet.” But according to MegaLag’s video, ignoring better deals is a feature of Honey’s partnerships with its retail clients.

MegaLag also says Honey will hijack affiliate revenue from influencers. According to MegaLag, if you click on an affiliate link from an influencer, Honey will then swap in its own tracking link when you interact with its deal pop-up at check-out. That’s regardless of whether Honey found you a coupon or not, and it results in Honey getting the credit for the sale, rather than the YouTuber or website whose link led you there.

Paypal VP of corporate communications Josh Criscoe said in an email to The Verge that “Honey follows industry rules and practices, including last-click attribution.”

MegaLag isn’t the first to make such claims. A 2021 Twitter post advises using Honey’s discount codes in a different browser to avoid it taking the affiliate credit. A Linus Media Group employee also explained in a 2022 forum reply that Linus Tech Tips dropped Honey as a sponsor over its affiliate link practices.

Honey’s convenience has resulted in the extension being recommended widely, including in almost 5,000 Honey-sponsored videos across about 1,000 YouTube channels, according to MegaLag. We’ve even recommended it here at The Verge; now we do not.

Here is Criscoe’s full statement:

Honey is free to use and provides millions of shoppers with additional savings on their purchases whenever possible. Honey helps merchants reduce cart abandonment and comparison shopping while increasing sales conversion.

Trump announces new tech policy picks for his second term

By: Wes Davis
23 December 2024 at 06:44
Kratsios standing at a podium with the Web Summit logo on a colorful wall behind him.
Michael Kratsios appearing at the Web Summit in 2019. | Photo by Rita Franca/NurPhoto via Getty Images

In a pair of Truth Social posts on Sunday, Donald Trump announced a set of picks for his administration’s tech policy team that will report to David Sacks, Trump’s “AI and crypto czar.” The picks include Michael Kratsios, who will lead the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) if confirmed by the Senate.

Kratsios, who served in Trump’s first term as the White House chief technology officer, also briefly held an acting undersecretary role at the Department of Defense near the end of the term. He later became a managing director at Scale AI and has been helping lead Trump’s tech policy transition team.

The President-elect also picked his former deputy CTO, Dr. Lynne Parker, as Executive Director of the Presidential Council of Advisors for Science and Technology. Directing the Presidential Council of Advisers for Digital Assets (AKA the “Crypto Council”) will be former college football player and unsuccessful Republican congressional candidate Bo Hines. Advising Trump on AI policy as part of the OSTP will be Sriram Krishnan, who has extensive Silicon Valley experience, with roles at Andreessen Horowitz, X, Meta, and Snap.

Sacks is close with Elon Musk, who Trump has charged with gutting the US government as part of the not-yet-established Department of Government Efficiency — and who recently helped send Congress into chaos by posting relentlessly to stop a US spending bill.

All of Canoo’s employees are reportedly on a ‘mandatory unpaid break’

By: Wes Davis
22 December 2024 at 10:11
A photo showing a Canoo EV
Image: Canoo

Days after furloughing dozens of its employees without pay, EV startup Canoo told the remainder of its staff they will be on a “mandatory unpaid break” through at least the end of the year, TechCrunch reported Friday. A company email seen by the outlet said employees would be locked out of Canoo’s systems by the end of Friday, with their benefits continuing through the end of this month.

The report follows Canoo’s announcement last week that it was idling its Oklahoma factories and furloughing employees while it worked “to finalize securing the capital necessary to move forward with its operations.” As TechCrunch notes, the company reported that it had only about $700,000 left in the bank last month.

Also on Friday, the company announced a 1-for-20 reverse stock split, effective December 24th. Canoo says the consolidation aims to keep its stock listed on the Nasdaq exchange and attract “a broader group of institutional and retail investors.”

Canoo was founded in 2017 to sell electric vans and trucks to adventure-seeking customers but has mostly only ever made vehicles for the US government. As The Verge’s Andrew Hawkins wrote last year, analysts have warned of its risk of insolvency as it’s teetered on the edge of running out of cash since 2022. Canoo has lost a steady stream of executives since then, including all of its founders and, more recently, its CFO and general counsel.

Apple is working on a doorbell camera with Face ID

By: Wes Davis
22 December 2024 at 06:16
A picture of a Google Nest doorbell camera.
A Google Nest doorbell camera. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge

Apple is working on a new smart doorbell camera that uses Face ID to unlock your door, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman in today’s Power On newsletter. The camera could be released by the end of 2025 “at the soonest,” Gurman writes.

The lock would work just like your iPhone, automatically unlocking your door when you or another resident looks at it. Like biometric login info on other Apple devices, the camera would be equipped with the company’s Secure Enclave chip that stores and processes Face ID information separately from the rest of the system’s hardware.

Gurman writes that this device will “likely” work with existing third-party HomeKit smart locks and that the company may also partner with a smart lock company “to offer a complete system on day one.” He expects the camera will make use of Apple’s in-house “Proxima” combination Wi-Fi / Bluetooth chip that’s rumored for new HomePod Mini and Apple TV devices next year.

This doorbell camera joins a broader collection of rumors surrounding a renewed Apple push into the smart home that’s centered around Apple Intelligence. Those include another new smart home camera, a possible Apple-branded TV, and new smart home displays — one a simple iPad-like device that magnetically attaches to wall mounts or speaker bases, while another display sits on the end of a robotic arm attached to a larger base.

Gemini can now tell when a PDF is on your phone screen

By: Wes Davis
21 December 2024 at 14:33
Vector illustration of the Google Gemini logo.
Illustration: The Verge

In the latest version of the Files by Google app, summoning Gemini while looking at a PDF gives you the option to ask about the file, writes Android Police. You’ll need to be a Gemini Advanced subscriber to use the feature though, according to Mishaal Rahman, who reported on Friday that it had started rolling out.

If you have the feature, when you summon Gemini while looking at a PDF in the Files app, you’ll see an “Ask about this PDF” button appear. Tapping that lets you ask questions about the file, the same way you might ask ChatGPT about a PDF. Google first announced this screen-aware feature during its I/O developer conference in May.

Rahman posted a screenshot of what it looks like in action:

Other context-aware Gemini features include the ability to ask about web pages and YouTube videos. For apps or file types without Gemini’s context-aware support, the assistant instead offers to answer questions about your screen, using a screenshot it takes when you tap “Ask about this screen.”

The US finalizes CHIPS Act funding for Samsung and Texas Instruments

By: Wes Davis
21 December 2024 at 09:48
Illustrations of a grid of processors seen at an angle with the middle one flipped over to show the pins and the rest shrouded in a green aura
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

The US Commerce Department has awarded Samsung and Texas Instruments with a combined over $6 billion in “direct funding under the CHIPS Incentives Program’s Funding Opportunity for Commercial Fabrication,” according to a pair of announcements published on Friday.

Samsung will get the larger of the two awards at $4.745 billion. The Commerce Department says the company will use this as part of its planned $37 billion investment in Texas chip facilities that include two new “leading-edge logic fabs and an R&D fab” in Taylor, Texas, and the expansion of its plant in Austin.

The company was originally slated to receive $6.4 billion. In a statement reported by Bloomberg, the company said that its “mid-to-long-term investment plan has been partially revised to optimize overall investment efficiency,” which suggests the company has dialed back its plans, according to the outlet.

Texas Instruments will receive $1.61 billion to bolster the $18 billion it plans to spend on projects like constructing two wafer fabs in Texas and a third in Utah. The Commerce Department announced smaller awards this week too, including $407 million in funding for Amkor Technology, a US-based company that...

Read the full story at The Verge.

Here’s the first CoPilot plus mini PC with Intel’s new Core Ultra 9 processors

By: Wes Davis
21 December 2024 at 08:45
Picture of the Asus NUC 14 Pro AI
Image: Asus

Asus has announced the Asus NUC 14 Pro AI, the first Copilot Plus-capable AI mini PC that crams an Intel Core Ultra 9 processor into a form factor resembling a black M4 Mac Mini. First introduced at IFA in September, Asus is providing a little more detail about the mini PC’s specs than it did before, but still isn’t saying it will become available or how much it will cost.

The NUC 14 Pro AI will come in five CPU configurations, from the Core Ultra 5 226V processor with 16GB of integrated RAM to a Core Ultra 9 288V processor with 32GB of RAM. The company says it has up to 67 TOPS of GPU performance and 48 NPU TOPS, and that its M.2 2280 PCIe Gen 4 x 4 slot supports 256GB to 2TB NVMe SSDs.

All of that is packed into a PC that measures 130mm deep and wide and just 34mm tall; comparatively, the Mac Mini is 127mm deep and wide and 50mm tall. Here are some pictures from Asus’ website:

The Asus NUC 14 Pro AI features a fingerprint sensor on top and a Copilot button on the front for speaking voice commands to Microsoft’s AI assistant. Also on the front are two USB-A ports, a Thunderbolt 4 port, a headphone jack, and a power button. Around the back, you’ll find a 2.5Gbps ethernet jack, another Thunderbolt 4 port, two more USB-A ports, and an HDMI port. For connectivity, it features Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4.

Asus still hasn’t said when the NUC 14 Pro AI will be available, nor how much it will cost.

Apple’s App Store is inviting me to ‘search the way you talk’

By: Wes Davis
17 December 2024 at 15:47
The image displays Apple’s blue App Store logo in front of a pink and black background.
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

I opened the App Store today to find an emulator I’d read about, and a new prompt appeared under the search bar inviting me to “search the way you talk.” I hadn’t seen the prompt before on my iPhone 13 Pro Max, and quite frankly, I had missed the iOS 18.1 update note about it.

As it describes, Apple's update in October added, “App Store search lets you use natural language to find what you’re looking for more easily.” It’s also not the only place Apple is adding natural language search with iOS 18, in addition to Photos, Music, and Apple TV.

While some others had seen a splash screen in October, I’d only spotted the same simple search prompts as before. When I asked around at The Verge, several others hadn’t seen it before, although closing the app and relaunching it caused the message to appear in at least one case, and a few social media posts have popped up from other people noticing it for the first time.

The prompt in the hint bubble suggested trying something like “Apps that help me work out,” so of course, I gave it a try.

Screenshot showing the new App Store prompt. Screenshot: iOS App Store

How well does it work? When I searched “emulators that feature multiple consoles,” the top result was the multi-console Delta app. Cool. “Apps that only emulate single consoles” gave me the PS Remote Play, PlayStation, and Xbox apps — less good, but it did follow those with Gamma, a PS1 emulator app. And when I asked for “Video games that can help me work out,” well...

Screenshot of an App Store search result that includes a game called “Twerk Race 3D — Fun Run Game” Screenshot: iOS App Store
This isn’t exactly what I was looking for, but I certainly would never have found this otherwise.

Overall, it seems like an improvement to me. Twerk Race 3D is not an app that would help me work out, but it does seem like the search engine worked in spirit. I never felt like the App Store’s search was helpful for anything besides finding an app I already knew the name of. Plus, searching with the usual one-or-two-word terms might not give me the same variety as switching up how I phrase a natural language prompt.

Nvidia’s $249 dev kit promises cheap, small AI power

By: Wes Davis
17 December 2024 at 10:27

Nvidia announced the latest in its Jetson Orin Nano AI computer line, the Jetson Orin Nano Super Developer Kit. Sort of like a Raspberry Pi but for powerful AI processing, the tiny $249 computer packs more of an AI processing punch than the kit did before — for half the price. It’s available to buy now.

The Jetson Nano line has been a low-cost way for hobbyists and makers to power AI and robotics projects since its introduction in 2019. Nvidia says the Nano Super’s neural processing is 70 percent higher, at 67 TOPS, than the 40 TOPS Nano. It also has 50 percent more memory bandwidth, at 102GB/s, which should speed up those operations.

The Jetson Orin Nano Super kit uses essentially the same hardware as the original Orin Nano kit, and the company says it will get the same performance gains with a new JetPack update. Nvidia says the boost comes from “a new power mode which increases the GPU, memory, and CPU clocks.”

Nvidia’s Jensen Huang showed off the Nano Super in a video:

The developer kit includes a reference carrier board and a Jetson Orin Nano 8GB system-on-module, comprised of an Nvidia Ampere GPU with tensor cores and 6-core Arm CPU. Nvidia calls the Nano Super Developer Kit “an ideal solution” for building chatbots or visual AI agents, as well as AI-based robots.

Blackmagic’s Vision Pro immersive camera can be yours for only $29,995

By: Wes Davis
16 December 2024 at 12:46

Blackmagic has announced that its URSA Cine Immersive commercial camera for shooting high-quality 3D immersive video is now available to preorder “direct from Blackmagic Design Offices,” with the first deliveries going out in early 2025. The camera, which could enable more immersive content for the Vision Pro, costs $29,995 — or a mere 8.6 Vision Pros.

First revealed in June, the Cine Immersive will let cinematographers shoot 90fps video in stereoscopic 3D at 8160 x 7200 resolution per eye — or more than twice the estimated per-eye resolution of the Vision Pro’s screens. They’ll be able to edit the footage using the proprietary Apple Immersive Video format in DaVinci Resolve Studio, which Blackmagic plans to add support for early next year.

Blackmagic Design CEO Grant Petty said the DaVinci update will enable “a true end-to-end workflow for Apple Immersive Video.” He added that the company is “looking forward to working closely with filmmakers” on immersive videos ahead of the camera’s wider release later in 2025.

Blackmagic included images of the camera in its email to The Verge. It looks cool, so I’ve included them for your perusal:

The Vision Pro has some immersive content outside of Apple’s videos — in apps like Amplium or Explore POV — but none of them quite have the quality of Apple’s videos. Until now, Apple has been the only company producing content with its format, and only a handful of such videos are available at this point. That could change, eventually, if studios take advantage of Blackmagic’s new camera and DaVinci update.

❌
❌