iPhone 15 Pro owners will soon have one less reason to consider upgrading to an iPhone 16 series handset. Visual Intelligence, Apple's equivalent to Google Lens, is coming to the 2023 Pro-series flagships, according toDaring Fireball.
Owners of the iPhone 16 and 16 Pro can trigger Visual Intelligence with a long press of their dedicated camera button. But like the recently announced iPhone 16e (which also supports the feature), the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max don't have a physical camera button. So, all three phones will have to assign it to the Action button or use a Control Center shortcut, which will arrive in an upcoming software update.
Apple hasn't said which iOS version will bring the Apple Intelligence visual search feature to the iPhone 15 Pro series. However, Daring Fireball's John Gruber suspects it will be in iOS 18.4, which could arrive "any day now" for beta testers.
Cherlynn Low for Engadget
Part of the Apple Intelligence suite of AI features, Visual Intelligence lets you point your camera at something and use AI to analyze it in real time. It does a few things on its own, but it gets more useful with info from its persistent onscreen shortcuts to ChatGPT or Google Image Search.
So, say you find a set of towels in your closet with a unique pattern. You really like those dang towels and want to buy more, but you can't remember where you got them. Activate Visual Intelligence, choose the Google search shortcut and see if your beloved rags are among the web results that pop up. Alternatively, you could use ChatGPT to ask it about the product and where to order it.
Visual Intelligence can also do a few things without the help of Google or OpenAI. You can interact with text: translate, read aloud and summarize. Or learn about a business you point your phone toward: view its hours, menu and services or buy something from it.
So, iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max owners should get a taste of that before long. And perhaps even sooner for those willing to brave the (sometimes rough) waters of beta software.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/an-ios-update-will-give-iphone-15-pro-owners-visual-intelligence-205030298.html?src=rss
ChatGPT has surpassed 400 million weekly active users. "We feel very fortunate to serve 5 percent of the world every week," OpenAI COO Brad Lightcap said on X about the new audience stat. This figure is twice the weekly active user count reported by the company in August 2024, which was double the figure it posted in November 2023.
The latest milestone for the AI assistant comes after a huge uproar over new rival platform DeepSeek earlier in the year, which raised questions about whether the current crop of leading AI tools was about to be dethroned. OpenAI is on the verge of a move to simplify its ChatGPT offerings so that users won't have to select which reasoning model will respond to an input, and it will make its GPT-4.5 and GPT-5 models available soon in the chat and API clients. With GPT-5 being made available to OpenAI's free users, ChatGPT seems primed to continue expanding its audience base in the coming months.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/chatgpt-reaches-400m-weekly-active-users-203635884.html?src=rss
Nvidia's RTX 50-series makes its first foray below the $1,000 mark starting this week, with the $749 RTX 5070 Ti—at least in theory.
The third-fastest card in the Blackwell GPU lineup, the 5070 Ti is still far from "reasonably priced" by historical standards (the 3070 Ti was $599 at launch). But it's also $50 cheaper and a fair bit faster than the outgoing 4070 Ti Super and the older 4070 Ti. These are steps in the right direction, if small ones.
We'll talk more about its performance shortly, but at a high level, the 5070 Ti's performance falls in the same general range as the 4080 Super and the original RTX 4080, a card that launched for $1,199 just over two years ago. And it's probably your floor for consistently playable native 4K gaming for those of you out there who don't want to rely on DLSS or 4K upscaling to hit that resolution (it's also probably all the GPU that most people will need for high-FPS 1440p, if that's more your speed).
Crafty cuttlefish employ several different camouflaging displays while hunting their prey, according to a new paper published in the journal Ecology, including mimicking benign ocean objects like a leaf or coral, or flashing dark stripes down their bodies. And individual cuttlefish seem to choose different preferred hunting displays for different environments.
It's well-known that cuttlefish and several other cephalopods can rapidly shift the colors in their skin thanks to that skin's unique structure. As previously reported, squid skin is translucent and features an outer layer of pigment cells called chromatophores that control light absorption. Each chromatophore is attached to muscle fibers that line the skin's surface, and those fibers, in turn, are connected to a nerve fiber. It's a simple matter to stimulate those nerves with electrical pulses, causing the muscles to contract. And because the muscles are pulling in different directions, the cell expands, along with the pigmented areas, changing the color. When the cell shrinks, so do the pigmented areas.
Underneath the chromatophores, there is a separate layer of iridophores. Unlike the chromatophores, the iridophores aren't pigment-based but are an example of structural color, similar to the crystals in the wings of a butterfly, except a squid's iridophores are dynamic rather than static. They can be tuned to reflect different wavelengths of light. A 2012 paper suggested that this dynamically tunable structural color of the iridophores is linked to a neurotransmitter called acetylcholine. The two layers work together to generate the unique optical properties of squid skin.
Adidas’s site and app will soon get “Buy with Prime” Amazon fulfillment, allowing Prime members to receive free shipping and streamlined returns when ordering directly from the three-stripe brand.
Beginning in the spring, paying US-based Amazon Prime subscribers will see Prime-eligible items for sale on adidas.com and through the Adidas app. By logging into their Amazon account during checkout, those items will be fulfilled by Amazon. In addition to faster free shipping, Prime members who make purchases this way will be able to view and track the purchase through their Amazon account.
If you do the bulk of your shopping on Amazon then Buy with Prime may be a handy way to centralize your purchase history into one easy-to-find location, or at least make your subscription fee go a little further on the websites of other brands.
While Adidas is joining thousands of other companies registered in the direct-to-consumer Buy with Prime program, it seems to be a notable score for Amazon when it comes to brand clout. Other notable brands linked up with the program include Belkin, Steve Madden, Laura Mercier, Izod, MrBeast, and more.
An American Airlines plane on the tarmac at the Miami International Airport on February 19, 2025 in Miami, Florida. | Photo: Joe Raedle / Getty Images
American Airlines has announced support for Apple’s Share Item Location feature, potentially making it easier for passengers to be reunited with lost luggage tracked with an AirTag. The airline transported 226,405,000 passengers around the world last year, making it the busiest and one of the largest carriers in the US.
Share Item Location was first introduced as part of the iOS 18.2 update released last December. AirTag users are able to generate a shareable link within Apple’s Find My app on iPhones, iPads, or Macs allowing others to access an interactive map showing the location, or last known location, of a missing item.
The link will be deactivated when a lost item is recovered and the location sharing can be turned off at any time. The links also automatically expire after seven days.
“We’ve introduced the ability for customers to easily and securely share the location of their AirTag or Find My network accessory directly with the airline,” an American Airlines spokesperson told View from the Wing’s Gary Leff. “Customers can generate a link through Apple’s Share Item feature available on iOS 18.2 or later and share it with American in the rare case when a bag is delayed for any trips with a segment from or to a U.S. airport. Customers just need to scan the QR code at the baggage office to start their claim and provide their information.”
Airlines like United, Delta, and Air Canada integrated the Share Item Location feature into their lost luggage procedures soon after it was released. Additional carriers, including Lufthansa Group and Virgin Atlantic, announced support earlier this month.
This is Rumor Replay, a weekly column at 9to5Mac offering a quick rundown of the most recent Apple product rumors, with analysis and commentary. Today: iPhone 17 rumors and camera bars galore, plus Siri delays and Vision Pro upgrades. Here are this week’s Apple rumors.
Comedian and actor Kevin Hart has been forced to modify a number of social media posts to more conspicuously disclose his brand partnerships. The star took to social media to include more explicit language in sponsored posts for JPMorgan Chase and athletic apparel brand Fabletics, in which Hart owns equity. Hart frequently promotes both brands...
The $599 iPhone 16e is many things, but don't you dare call it a budget phone. I hesitate to even call it "cheap." As a successor to the $429 iPhone SE, it's hard not to see the 16e as a disappointment. Sure, it's $200 less than the vanilla iPhone 16 (which I argued was a great deal at launch), and the 16e also packs in the latest A18 chip with support for Apple Intelligence. But it's no longer a small phone, and it pushes Apple's cheaper iPhone option well beyond $500. That's something we'll likely never see again. (And it's potentially terrible news for future iPhone pricing, as well.)
Given the sheer amount of new hardware in the iPhone 16e — including a larger 6.1-inch OLED screen, Apple's first in-house "C1" modem and that aforementioned A18 chip — it's easy to make excuses for the price. The 16e is certainly far closer in specs to the iPhone 16 than the third-gen SE was to the iPhone 13. But I'd argue that Apple didn't exactly need an OLED screen for this model, and there are likely other ways to cut down costs. (It's even stranger Apple kept out MagSafe and fast wireless charging, which would have been cheaper to implement, and arguably more useful, than a large OLED display.)
Apple
And while it's nice to have the A18 chip (albeit with one less GPU core) and full Apple Intelligence support, I agree with my colleague Igor Bonifacic that users aren't exactly clamoring for those AI features. If we had to blame one culprit for the iPhone 16e's pricing, though, it's likely Apple Intelligence. After all, Apple is still fighting to prove it isn't too far behind Microsoft, Google and OpenAI. In any other year, Apple might have been able to justify throwing an older chip in the 16e, but that's not possible when it's in the middle of an AI hype war.
Mostly, I'm just sad that Apple is once again raising the price of admission to its walled garden without much justification. There's something special — noble, even — about sub-$500 smartphones. They're a reminder of a saner era of smartphones, when prices were being driven down by phones like the Moto G. These days you're left with Android phones like the Pixel 8a (and potentially the upcoming Pixel 9a), as well as the $400 Samsung Galaxy A35 and $499 Galaxy A55.
Apple
Now that the dream of a sub-$500 iPhone is well and truly dead, it feels like Apple is just setting the stage for future price jumps. A $600 or $650 iPhone 17e will certainly look like a deal compared to a $850 or $900 iPhone 17. And just wait for the inevitable $2,000 iPhone foldable, which could potentially be specced beyond $3,000.
Of course, you could be a smart Apple shopper and opt for used or refurbished iPhones. I recently picked up a refurbished iPhone 14 Plus as an early Mothers' Day gift for $420, and Amazon currently has listings for iPhone 14 Pros right under $500. Those devices won't support Apple Intelligence, but I'd argue sticking to the used market is simply a more useful form of intelligence.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/a-599-iphone-16e-is-a-cruel-joke-200507275.html?src=rss
Approximately 500 NIST staffers, including at least three lab directors, are expected to lose their jobs at the standards agency as part of the ongoing DOGE purge, sources tell WIRED.
Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos says the money will go toward projects like Alfonso Cuarón’s film Roma, which was made in Mexico and went on to international acclaim.
Cable company Altice agreed to give Warner and other record labels the names and contact information of 100 broadband subscribers who were accused of pirating songs.
The subscribers "were the subject of RIAA or third party copyright notices," said a court order that approved the agreement between Altice and the plaintiff record companies. Altice is notifying each subscriber "of Altice's intent to disclose their name and contact information to Plaintiffs pursuant to this Order," and telling the notified subscribers that they have 30 days to seek relief from the court.
If subscribers do not object within a month, Altice must disclose the subscribers' names, phone numbers, addresses, and email addresses. The judge's order was issued on February 12 and reported yesterday by TorrentFreak.
Engineers who work for Elon Musk’s SpaceX have been brought on as senior advisers to the acting administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), sources tell WIRED.
On Sunday, Sean Duffy, secretary of the Department of Transportation, which oversees the FAA, announced in a post on X that SpaceX engineers would be visiting the Air Traffic Control System Command Center in Virginia to take what he positioned as a tour. “The safety of air travel is a nonpartisan matter,” Musk replied. “SpaceX engineers will help make air travel safer.”
By the time these posts were made, though, according to sources who were granted anonymity because they fear retaliation, SpaceX engineers were already being onboarded at the agency under Schedule A, a special authority that allows government managers to “hire persons with disabilities without requiring them to compete for the job,” according to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM).
Evidence instead shows that Meta "took precautions not to 'seed' any downloaded files," Meta's filing said. Seeding refers to sharing a torrented file after the download completes, and because there's allegedly no proof of such "seeding," Meta insisted that authors cannot prove Meta shared the pirated books with anyone during the torrenting process.
Whether or not Meta actually seeded the pirated books could make a difference in a copyright lawsuit from book authors including Richard Kadrey, Sarah Silverman, and Ta-Nehisi Coates. Authors had previously alleged that Meta unlawfully copied and distributed their works through AI outputs—an increasingly common complaint that so far has barely been litigated. But Meta's admission to torrenting appears to add a more straightforward claim of unlawful distribution of copyrighted works through illegal torrenting, which has long been considered established case-law.
Many members of The Verge’s staff enjoy cooking — and all enjoy eating. Inspired by that admittedly obvious thought, we asked them to say which kitchen tools they most enjoy using these days.
We got a wide and fascinating array of answers. They include gadgets that need to be charged, such as electric kettles, blenders, and smart thermometers, as well as simpler, non-powered tools like egg holders, spreader knives, and wooden spoons. (Sometimes simpler can be better.)
So check out how our writers and editors hone their foodie skills, and let us know in the comments what your favorite kitchen tool is. (And feel free to check out our previous listing of favorite kitchen gadgets.)
Charged gadgets
As new parents, my wife and I heat up water a lot, whether it’s for baby formula or for our third cup of a caffeinated beverage to get us through the afternoon. We used to heat our water in a teapot on the stove — the horror — but after getting an electric kettle over the holidays, our lives have been forever changed. With this, the water heats up way faster, and the kettle turns itself off once the water is too hot, meaning it won’t whistle through the house (and possibly wake the baby).
It’s the only kitchen gadget that has a permanent spot on our counters. Maybe I’ll heat up some tea for myself right now. — Jay Peters, news editor
After realizing we’re not a family who likes to get their hands dirty while cooking (we leave that part to mixers and blenders), an automatic soap dispenser has become one of the most used devices in our kitchen. We opted for a cheap $25 option from Amazon that lets you adjust how much foaming soap is dispensed and lasts for a couple months between charges, but companies like Simplehuman sell pricier $80 versions wrapped in brushed metal or other fancy finishes that could better match your decor. We find we use less soap now that it’s always perfectly portioned out, and buying refills in bulk is much cheaper. There’s now one in every bathroom in our home. — Andrew Liszewski, senior reporter
I may take some heat for this, but anyone who tells you that frozen Junior Mints, M&M’s, or — gasp — Sno-Caps are the perfect companion for an at-home movie night is unequivocally wrong. Popcorn is the true film snack, and Presto’s basic air popper has been my go-to in recent years for quickly whipping up large batches of the timeless treat.
The PopLite doesn’t require oil, nor do you need to shake or stir it like you do traditional stovetop methods. You just toss in the kernels, plug it in, and let the hot air do the work for you. Admittedly, it’s a little loud and bigger than I’d like for a single-use appliance that sits in my pantry, but you’d be hard-pressed to find a more foolproof method of making popcorn. Well, unless you’re into prefab bags of Orville Redenbacher. Even I can’t fault you for that. — Brandon Widder, senior commerce editor
For the past few years, the Instant Pot has been a staple in my kitchen. From making rice to slow-cooking stews and even frying up chicken, it can do just about anything. The best part is that the Instant Pot can cook most recipes in a fraction of the time it would take in the oven or on the stove. Rice, for example, takes just six minutes to cook (not counting the amount of time it takes to build pressure), and there’s no fussing with covering the pot or adjusting the heat. Sometimes, it’s just easier — and much less stressful — to let the Instant Pot take the wheel. — Emma Roth, news writer
How often do you blend things? Is it never? Maybe the reason is that taking out, assembling, and cleaning up after a normal blender is just way too much work. Do you know how many sauces I’ve thickened since getting an immersion blender? This thing is small, quick to set up, and you can mostly clean it with just a blast under the faucet. You’re going to blend so many things. — Jacob Kastrenakes, executive editor
My wife and I bought this small blender to make ourselves smoothies and protein shakes. It’s now used to make purees for our baby. C’est la vie. — Antonio G. Di Benedetto, reviewer
A meat thermometer is essential in my kitchen, and I haven’t found one as easy to use as the Typhur InstaProbe. I just flip and probe, and then I have a temperature reading in seconds — there’s no need to press any buttons or fiddle with any settings. I’ve used it for well over a year and haven’t had to change its batteries once; it always just works when I pull it out of the drawer (not the case with other digital alternatives I’ve tried). It’s also waterproof, so it’s easy to clean. — Jennifer Pattison Tuohy, reviewer
Simple tools
One of the first things I did when I got my own place was purchase a food chopper. Perhaps puritan chefs will disagree with my methods, but this saves me so much time. I like to make tikka masala, which requires dicing ginger. If you’ve ever tried to dice ginger, you know that a food chopper would come in handy. This one did break recently, so I’ll probably replace it with a fancier one. — Kylie Robison, senior AI reporter
Spreading knives are fantastic, especially if you make as many sandwiches as I do. The broad, flat blade is perfect for spreading peanut butter, cream cheese, or whatever, and the serrated edge is sharp enough for removing crusts and slicing bagels.
The one I used growing up was a Cutco, a relic of my dad’s brief, unsuccessful stint as a knife salesman. This is not that knife. That knife costs $94 today, which feels like a bit much — even if the one my parents have is still in great shape after 45 years — so I got this Wüsthof instead. The handle isn’t quite as comfortable, but it’s a quarter of the price, so I’ll live. — Nathan Edwards, senior reviews editor
My partner and I have the unfortunate habit of buying interesting foodstuffs with the intention of eventually using them — and then finding them in the back of the fridge two months later, growing something, well, interesting. To try and track what we’ve refrigerated, we tried all sorts of phone and tablet apps, but in the end, what finally worked was a simple, inexpensive, and thin magnetic whiteboard. It sticks to the door of the refrigerator, along with some dry markers, and now we record what entrees and side dishes are in the fridge. As each is consumed, the entry gets erased.
It’s a simple solution, and it’s not perfect. We still occasionally find a scientific experiment blooming in the back of the fridge, but it’s made us a lot less likely to waste food. — Barbara Krasnoff, reviews editor
I never realized how much joy I could get from a grater until my partner and I picked up a Microplane last year. Whether I’m zesting lemons or creating big, pillowy clouds of grated parmesan for my pasta, the Microplane is an absolute pleasure to use. We still keep a big, blunt box grater around for the occasional vegetable, but the Microplane’s sharper blades are better for absolutely everything else.
It’s not just us, either — we’ve since gifted this twice, to rave reviews. And if you know me in real life, then I’m afraid it’s only a matter of time before a Microplane comes your way, too. — Dominic Preston, news editor
It’s kind of weird how much I like our Gripstics. Bag of chips open? Quick, grab a Gripstic. Kids vibing between two different cereals this week? A well-placed Gripstic will ensure they don’t get all squishy. Tiny package of chocolate chips you used for a recipe that is now kind of open in your cupboard for who knows how long? Just fold the top over, slide a Gripstic on it — the small blue one, thank you — and stop worrying so much.
I don’t know about you or your family’s shopping and eating habits, but try as we might to shop on the outside walls of the grocery store, we inevitably come home with many products packaged in single-use plastic bags. That in and of itself is a frustration, only compounded by those same products going bad if they’re not stored properly. The Gripstics are a simple solution to this universal problem, and one that I’m certain has paid for itself many times over. — Christopher Grant, group publisher, The Verge and Polygon
Pretty much every meal I cook includes garlic, so I genuinely don’t know why it took me so long to get a simple garlic press. But ever since I threw one in the cart absentmindedly on a recent IKEA run, it’s become one of my most-used kitchen tools. I still have to peel the garlic, which I find interminably annoying, but I haven’t had to slice or mince garlic since adding it to my utensil drawer. The press turns the garlic into a kind of mush, and it’s not consistent in the pieces it makes (sometimes larger slivers of garlic get caught around the edges of the press), but for my needs, which is mostly just tossing garlic into a sauté pan or a soup, it’s a dream. — Kristen Radtke, creative director
I love a humble piece of bread and butter, but I hate spreading cold, hard butter on bread. Luckily, I haven’t had to since June 2023, when I finally got an airtight ceramic butter dish to store room temperature butter indefinitely. Am I recommending you do the same? No — I’m not prepared to debate anyone on the science behind keeping butter from spoiling. (The FDA says it can be left at room temperature for only one to two days.) All I will say is that the combination of salted butter, an airtight container, and a pair of kids who help me go through it one well-buttered grilled cheese sandwich at a time, has been more than enough to address my own fears.
There are many options like the small Sweese that I use. It just happened to be the first Amazon pick I didn’t return, because it was the first that fit a single block of Kerrygold almost perfectly. — Sean Hollister, senior editor
My mom bought me this strange-looking juicer. I was skeptical at first, but I love how it folds flat so that it doesn’t catch on the shallow drawer that I store my kitchen spatulas in. And, of course, it works well as a juicer and is pretty easy to clean. — Helen Havlak, publisher, The Verge
Once you get a set of narrow measuring spoons, you’ll never go back. Rather than having to carefully pour a teaspoon or tablespoon of spice into a round measuring spoon that doesn’t fit through the neck of your spice jar, you can just scoop directly from the jar. I absolutely love mine for recipes that require a lot of different spices. This stainless steel set from King Arthur Baking feels solid and has held up well for me despite frequent trips through the dishwasher over the last five years. — Helen Havlak, publisher, The Verge
If you’re a backyard chicken owner (or live in Europeor Asia), this elegant countertop egg holder is an excellent way to display your ladies’ efforts and have easy access to eggs. The Hovico Egg Skelter’s metallic spiral design pushes the oldest eggs to the end so you can use them first. It’s then easy to add the newly laid (or purchased) ones to the top. As a bonus, it doubles as a nice decorative piece for your kitchen counter. (Note: fresh, unwashed eggs do not need to be refrigerated as they have a natural coating.) — Jennifer Pattison Tuohy, reviewer
We have a drawer full of silicon spatulas in our kitchen that I use exclusively for flipping eggs and nothing else. For any other cooking task, I use my beloved wooden spoon. I love that it’s firm but doesn’t scratch ceramic pots and pans, and there is nothing better for deglazing a pan than a wooden spoon, which perfectly scrapes up all the delicious brown bits of a sear after you add a little vinegar or alcohol. While my other spatulas and spoons have broken or the silicone has begun to tear, my wooden spoon is almost indestructible. Bury me with it. — Kristen Radtke, creative director
How Changing Consumer Behaviors Are Redefining the Future of Restaurant Delivery The food delivery industry is in the midst of a transformation, driven largely by the evolving preferences and behaviors of consumers. As we approach 2025, there are three main […]
