Video game consultants like Laura Kate Dale came into 2023 with a lot of hope. Since 2020, accessibility in games had become a mainstream discussion, bolstered by high-profile releases like The Last of Us Part II, and it appeared things could only get better. Yet, as the year drew on, she says, "there started to be signs that, behind the scenes, accessibility advancement was slowing down."
Now, that momentum has come to a relative standstill. Consultants speaking to The Verge paint a picture of repetitive conversations, fighting to maintain basics that should already be established, and a sense that the broader industry has taken its foot off the gas after the early months of the incipient covid-19 pandemic provided a real sense of hope that accessibility was here to stay.
"The gaming culture of that time is a reflection of catering to the disabled experience, because accessibility was sorely needed by everyone," says Kaemsi, an online broadcaster. "The rise of accessibility back in 2020 was almost a promise that, when we started recovering from the lockdowns, the world would start considering everyone in all facets of living, and all we needed to do was give people a chance to …
SwitchBot claims its lock is the first retrofit smart lock with 3D facial recognition. As a retrofit lock, it can be installed without replacing your existing lock. Instead, the Ultra attaches to the rear of your lock and controls it using a mechanical motor, leaving the front unchanged, so you can still use your keys. The Vision keypad is mounted outside of your door and connects to the lock via Bluetooth.
Unlike most retrofit locks, Switchbot’s Lock Ultra, and its predecessors Switchbot Lock Pro and Switchbot Lock, are compatible with nearly all existing locks in Europe and America. In addition to facial recognition, when connected to the keypad, the lock can be controlled with a fingerprint, a keycode, and an NFC card. Without the keypad, it works with a traditional key, app control, and auto-unlocking using geofencing (which activates the lock when your smartphone arrives at your house).
The company says the Ultra can get up to nine months of battery life on the included rechargeable battery and also has a backup battery that lasts for up to five years. It works over Bluetooth and requires one of Switchbot’s gateways to connect to Wi-Fi and integrate with smart home systems, including Apple Home (through Matter), Amazon Alexa, and Google Home.
The lock can also work with the new SwitchBot Hub 3 ($119.99), the company’s latest smart home hub designed to control and integrate SwitchBot’s Bluetooth products. The Hub 3 can bridge up to 30 SwitchBot devices to Matter ecosystems such as Apple Home.
The new Hub is a complete revamp from the second-gen version. Larger and with a sleek, all-black design, it comes with an integrated stand and features a display, a dial, and four customizable buttons.
The hub also functions as a temperature and humidity sensor, as well as a light and motion sensor. Its display can wake up on motion and show information such as indoor temperature and door lock/unlock status, and the buttons can control smart home scenes.
The dial can connect to compatible devices to control them, for example, adjust the brightness of lights, the volume on connected TVs, and the temperature of a thermostat. SwitchBot says the hub can control Matter devices that are integrated with Apple Home, and it will work with Home Assistant.
The Hub is also an IR controller and can integrate with over 100,000 IR device codes.
The new products are now available to preorder from SwitchBot’s website, with shipping slated for June.
When you select “hear the highlights,” a playback bar will appear at the bottom of the screen. | Image: Amazon
Amazon is testing new AI-generated audio summaries that will let you listen to two AI “hosts” chat about a product’s features. Along with product details, the AI audio clips also draw information from user reviews and information from the web.
The audio summaries open with a “friendly reminder” that you’re listening to an AI-generated clip, followed by an introduction to an “expert” AI host who’s supposed to give you a rundown of a product’s features. It’s similar to Google’s AI-generated audio overviews, which have two AI hosts discuss your research, documents, or slides in a podcast-like format.
In the clip for the SHOKZ OpenRun Pro, the AI host introduces us to “Max,” who says the key difference about these headphones is that they “conduct sound through your cheekbones instead of going into your ears.” The AI host then follows up with questions about the headphones, like who would benefit from the design and whether the sound quality is up to par.
“While the microphone gets praise for noise cancellation, some users find they’re not loud enough for an immersive music experience,” the AI “expert” Max says. “But customers do mention they’re better than earpods in certain situations.”
Amazon’s AI-generated audio summaries are currently only available to some customers in the US, but the company plans on bringing them to more products and customers in the “coming months.”
At last month's rapturously received Slate debut, it took an executive's quip that "Slate" and "Tesla" use the same five letters to shift my brain into high gear. I've covered the EV world for 15-plus years, and I virtually never spend time on counterfactuals. There's quite enough to cover in the real world.
But … I'm of the opinion Tesla could, and should, have launched a small, simple, cheap compact pickup truck-in other words, what Slate debuted-rather than the pickup it did produce, the Cybertruck. That expensive and polarizing vehicle has been, to put it bluntly, a sales disaster. Over 18 months, Tesla has sold only about 50,000, versus projections of many times that volume. Worse, while EV crossover utilities sell tens of thousands a month, the more expensive EV pickup trucks to date have not.
The path not taken
The company that led the world in EV production for more than a decade could have launched an inexpensive small pickup that would have democratized EVs to a whole new class of buyers. Tesla likely could have offered more range at the same price due to its in-house battery cell production. And it would have been a global product, likely to be sold in Europe and Ch …
Apple hasn’t announced when the Mr. Scorsese series will be released.
After directing dozens of documentaries over his 60-year career, legendary filmmaker Martin Scorsese will now have his own life chronicled for Apple TV Plus. In its announcement, Apple says the five-part Mr. Scorsese documentary series will explore how themes like “the place of good and evil in the fundamental nature of humankind” have shaped Scorsese’s filmography as far back as his student work at New York University.
Apple hasn’t mentioned a release date for the docuseries, which is being directed by Rebecca Miller (She Came to Me, Personal Velocity). Mr. Scorsese will benefit from “exclusive, unrestricted access to Scorsese’s private archives,” according to Apple, alongside extensive interviews with Scorsese himself that dive into how his own life experiences have influenced his work.
The series also includes “never-before-seen interviews” with the filmmaker’s friends, family, and creative collaborators, including Robert De Niro, Leonardo DiCaprio, Mick Jagger, Robbie Robertson, Steven Spielberg, and Miller’s husband, Daniel Day-Lewis.
“[Scorsese’s] work and life are so vast and so compelling that the piece evolved from one to five parts over a five-year period,” said Miller. “Crafting this documentary alongside my longtime collaborators has been one of the defining experiences of my life as a filmmaker.”
Altman suggested that the acquisition could increase OpenAI’s value by $1 trillion, and envisioned a “family of devices” being born from the partnership. Information about the first device, which Altman is aiming to release by late 2026, has been kept tightly under wraps since its development was confirmed last year over concerns that competitors will set about trying to copy the product before it’s launched to the public.
Altman dropped some hints during the call that shape our expectations, however, including that it will be unobtrusive, fully aware of a user’s life and surroundings, and will serve as a “third core device” a person would put on a desk after a MacBook Pro and an iPhone. OpenAI is already predicting that the device will be popular, with Altman saying that it will ship “faster than any company has ever shipped 100 million of something new before.”
Altman told OpenAI employees on the call that they have “the chance to do the biggest thing we’ve ever done as a company here.” The Journal reports that Ive referred to the project as “a new design movement,” and harkened back to his Apple career that saw him work closely with Steve Jobs before his passing in 2011. Now teamed up with Altman, Ive said, “the way that we clicked, and the way that we’ve been able to work together, has been profound for me.”
Fujifilm has a new pint-size addition to its X-series cameras coming in late June: the X Half. It’s an 18-megapixel “half-frame” camera with a portrait-oriented sensor and viewfinder and a fixed 32mm-equivalent f/2.8 lens.
Despite being digital, the X Half is all about the vintage film aesthetic. The $849.99 camera is so dedicated to an analog-like lifestyle that it’s got an entire secondary screen just for picking one of its 13 film simulations, and it doesn’t shoot RAW photos at all — just JPGs, for a more what-you-see-is-what-you-get experience.
Fujifilm’s definition of a half-frame is a bit different from the traditional one. Usually, a half-frame film camera like the Pentax 17 captures images measuring 18mm x 24mm (around half the size of full-frame / 35mm format). But the X Half uses a 1-inch-type sensor measuring 8.8mm x 13.3mm, which is about half the dimensions of the APS-C sensors in other Fujifilm cameras like the X100VI and X-T5. So I guess it counts on a technicality.
But like the Pentax 17 and other actual half-frame cameras, the X Half is all about taking casual, fun snapshots and bringing it with you everywhere. It weighs just 8.5 ounces / 240 grams and is small enough to fit in most small bags or even some oversized pockets. The X Half is close in size to a traditional disposable camera, but unlike a one-time-use film camera it has a proper glass autofocusing lens with aspherical corrections, and it even shoots some basic 1080 x 1440 video. (Though, in my briefing on the camera, Justin Stailey of Fujifilm North America described the lens as having “some character.” Which is often a colorful way of saying the lens isn’t the sharpest.)
Once you take some shots via the X Half’s traditional optical viewfinder (that’s right, there’s no EVF or hybrid finder here) or its portrait-orientation 2.4-inch touchscreen, you can connect to a dedicated smartphone app (launching slightly after the camera) for extra functions. You can create your own two-up diptychs like a traditional half-frame camera, though here you can pick out the two side-by-side pictures, or you can opt for two videos or one picture and one video.
Fujifilm has baked other analog-inspired features into the X Half app, like a Film Camera Mode that collects your next 36, 54, or 72 images and arranges them into a contact sheet. But the film nerdiness goes deeper than that, as the digital film strip will be branded with the film simulation you used. There’s even a faux film advance lever for making diptychs, and in Film Camera Mode it forces you to use it between taking each shot.
You can lean further into the film kitsch by adding filters, like a light leak effect, expired film look, or a ’90s-era time and date stamp to the corner. Of course, since the camera does not shoot RAW, your chosen filter and film simulation are fully baked into the JPG file. You can’t undo any of them or change it later in post-processing like you’d normally be able to with a RAW.
Fujifilm is certainly taking a unique approach with the X Half, trying to capture the interest of younger photo enthusiasts who in recent years have been drawn to the imperfections and vibes of vintage film and aging point-and-shoot digital cameras. I don’t know how many of them will be jumping at the opportunity to scratch that creative itch with an $850 camera compared to alternatives costing a fraction of that — like a $70 Camp Snap for digital or any 35mm disposable film camera for $10 to $20 — but even if it’s half the fun I had with the Pentax 17 it should prove a good time.
Dyson’s new PencilVac uses green LEDs on both sides to illuminate dust and dirt. | Image: Dyson
Dyson has announced what it’s claiming is the “world’s slimmest vacuum cleaner.” At first glance, its new PencilVac looks like a broom rather than a vacuum because the battery, motor, and electronics are all integrated into a thin handle that’s just 38mm in diameter — the same thickness as Dyson’s Supersonic r hair dryer. It weighs in at just under four pounds and is powered by the company’s smallest and fastest vacuum motor yet.
The PencilVac is designed to be a replacement for the slim Dyson Omni-glide, which launched in 2021 with a cleaning head that used two spinning brushes so it could suck up dust and dirt in multiple directions. The new PencilVac is not only slimmer and lighter than the Omni-glide, it uses four spinning brush bars that Dyson calls Fluffycones.
As the name implies, the Fluffycones each feature a conical design that causes long hairs to slide down to the narrow end of each brush and fall off so they can be sucked up instead of getting tangled up around the brushes. The Fluffycones slightly protrude at the sides for better edge cleaning, and are paired with green LED lights (instead of the lasers that Dyson’s other vacuums use) that illuminate dust and debris so you can see when floors have been properly cleaned.
Other innovations Dyson is introducing with the PencilVac include a motor that’s just 28mm in diameter but spins at 140,000RPM to generate 55AW of suction, and a new two-stage dust filtration system that prevents clogging and performance loss as the vac fills up. Given its size, the PencilVac has a smaller dust bin than Dyson’s other cleaners, but uses a new design that compresses dust as it’s removed from the airflow to help maximize how much dirt the bin can hold.
The PencilVac magnetically connects to a floor dock for charging and storage, and features a small LCD screen that shows the cleaning mode and an estimate of how long before the battery dies. It’s also Dyson’s first vacuum to connect to the MyDyson mobile app, which offers access to additional settings, alerts for when the filter needs to be cleaned, and step-by-step maintenance instructions.
The vacuum’s slim design does come with some trade-offs when compared to the company’s larger models. Its cleaning head is designed for use on hard floors, not carpeting, and while it can be swapped with alternate attachments like a furniture and crevice tool, it doesn’t convert to a shorter handheld vac. Runtime is also limited to just 30 minutes of cleaning at its lowest power setting, but its battery is swappable and Dyson will sell additional ones to extend how long you can clean.
Dyson hasn’t revealed pricing details yet, and while the PencilVac will launch in Japan later this year, it won’t be available in the US until 2026.
Microsoft employees have discovered that any emails they send with the terms "Palestine" or "Gaza" are getting temporarily blocked from being sent to recipients inside and outside the company. The No Azure for Apartheid (NOAA) protest group reports that "dozens of Microsoft workers" have been unable to send emails with the words "Palestine," "Gaza," and "Genocide" in email subject lines or in the body of a message.
"Words like 'Israel' or 'P4lestine' do not trigger such a block," says NOAA organizer Hossam Nasr. "NOAA believes this is an attempt by Microsoft to silence worker free speech and is a censorship enacted by Microsoft leadership to discriminate against Palestinian workers and their allies."
Microsoft confirmed to The Verge that it has implemented some form of email changes to reduce "politically focused emails" inside the company.
"Emailing large numbers of employees about any topic not related to work is not appropriate. We have an established forum for employees who have opted in to political issues," says Microsoft spokesperson Frank Shaw in a statement to The Verge. "Over the past couple of days, a number of politically focused emails have been sent to tens of tho …
A lawsuit against Google and companion chatbot service Character AI — which is accused of contributing to the death of a teenager — can move forward, ruled a Florida judge. In a decision filed today, Judge Anne Conway said that an attempted First Amendment defense wasn’t enough to get the lawsuit thrown out. Conway determined that, despite some similarities to videogames and other expressive mediums, she is “not prepared to hold that Character AI’s output is speech.”
The ruling is a relatively early indicator of the kinds of treatment that AI language models could receive in court. It stems from a suit filed by the family of Sewell Setzer III, a 14-year-old who died by suicide after allegedly becoming obsessed with a chatbot that encouraged his suicidal ideation. Character AI and Google (which is closely tied to the chatbot company) argued that the service is akin to talking with a video game non-player character or joining a social network, something that would grant it the expansive legal protections that the First Amendment offers and likely dramatically lower a liability lawsuit’s chances of success. Conway, however, was skeptical.
While the companies “rest their conclusion primarily on analogy” with those examples, they “do not meaningfully advance their analogies,” the judge said. The court’s decision “does not turn on whether Character AI is similar to other mediums that have received First Amendment protections; rather, the decision turns on how Character AI is similar to the other mediums” — in other words whether Character AI is similar to things like video games because it, too, communicates ideas that would count as speech. Those similarities will be debated as the case proceeds.
While Google doesn’t own Character AI, it will remain a defendant in the suit thanks to its links with the company and product; the company’s founders Noam Shazeer and Daniel De Freitas, who are separately included in the suit, worked on the platform as Google employees before leaving to launch it and were later rehired there. Character AI is also facing a separate lawsuit alleging it harmed another young user’s mental health, and a handful of state lawmakers have pushed regulation for “companion chatbots” that simulate relationships with users — including one bill, the LEAD Act, that would prohibit them for children’s use in California. If passed, the rules are likely to be fought in court at least partially based on companion chatbots’ First Amendment status.
This case’s outcome will depend largely on whether Character AI is legally a “product” that is harmfully defective. The ruling notes that “courts generally do not categorize ideas, images, information, words, expressions, or concepts as products,” including many conventional video games — it cites, for instance, a ruling that found Mortal Kombat’s producers couldn’t be held liable for “addicting” players and inspiring them to kill. (The Character AI suit also accuses the platform of addictive design.) Systems like Character AI, however, aren’t authored as directly as most videogame character dialogue; instead, they produce automated text that’s determined heavily by reacting to and mirroring user inputs.
“These are genuinely tough issues and new ones that courts are going to have to deal with.”
Conway also noted that the plaintiffs took Character AI to task for failing to confirm users’ ages and not letting users meaningfully “exclude indecent content,” among other allegedly defective features that go beyond direct interactions with the chatbots themselves.
Beyond discussing the platform’s First Amendment protections, the judge allowed Setzer’s family to proceed with claims of deceptive trade practices, including that the company “misled users to believe Character AI Characters were real persons, some of which were licensed mental health professionals” and that Setzer was “aggrieved by [Character AI’s] anthropomorphic design decisions.” (Character AI bots will often describe themselves as real people in text, despite a warning to the contrary in its interface, and therapy bots are common on the platform.)
She also allowed a claim that Character AI negligently violated a rule meant to prevent adults from communicating sexually with minors online, saying the complaint “highlights several interactions of a sexual nature between Sewell and Character AI Characters.” Character AI has said it’s implemented additional safeguards since Setzer’s death, including a more heavily guardrailed model for teens.
Becca Branum, deputy director of the Center for Democracy and Technology’s Free Expression Project, called the judge’s First Amendment analysis “pretty thin” — though, since it’s a very preliminary decision, there’s lots of room for future debate. “If we’re thinking about the whole realm of things that could be output by AI, those types of chatbot outputs are themselves quite expressive, [and] also reflect the editorial discretion and protected expression of the model designer,” Branum told The Verge. But “in everyone’s defense, this stuff is really novel,” she added. “These are genuinely tough issues and new ones that courts are going to have to deal with.”
Signal is taking proactive steps to ensure Microsoft’s Recall feature can’t screen capture your secured chats, by rolling out a new version of the Signal for Windows 11 client that enables screen security by default. This is the same DRM that blocks users from easily screenshotting a Netflix show on their computer or phone, and using it here could cause problems for people who use accessibility features like screen readers.
While Signal says it’s made the feature easy to disable, under Signal Settings > Privacy > Screen Security, it never should’ve come to this. Developer Joshua Lund writes that operating system vendors like Microsoft “need to ensure that the developers of apps like Signal always have the necessary tools and options at their disposal to reject granting OS-level AI systems access to any sensitive information within their apps.”
Despite delaying Recall twice before finally launching it last month, the “photographic memory” feature doesn’t yet have an API for app developers to opt their users’ sensitive content out of its AI-powered archives. It could be useful for finding emails or chats (including ones in Signal) using whatever you can remember, like a description of a picture you’ve received or a broad conversation topic, but it could also be a massive security and privacy problem.
Lund notes that Microsoft already filters out private or incognito browser window activity by default, and users who have a Copilot Plus PC with Recall can filter out certain apps under the settings, but only if they know how to do that. For now, Lund says that “Signal is using the tools that are available to us even though we recognize that there are many legitimate use cases where someone might need to take a screenshot.”
The trade association backing some of the biggest news publishers in the US slammed Google’s newly expanded AI Mode, which trades traditional search results for an AI chatbot-like interface. In a statement on Wednesday, the News/Media Alliance said the new feature is “depriving” publishers of both traffic and revenue.
During Google I/O on Tuesday, the company announced that it’s expanding AI Mode to all users in the US, which appears in a new tab directly within Search. When users enter a query, AI Mode serves up an AI-generated response alongside a list of relevant links.
“Links were the last redeeming quality of search that gave publishers traffic and revenue,” Danielle Coffey, the CEO and president of News/Media Alliance, said in the statement. “Now Google just takes content by force and uses it with no return, the definition of theft. The DOJ remedies must address this to prevent continued domination of the internet by one company.”
This week, an internal document disclosed as part of Google’s antitrust trial over its search dominance showed that the company decided against asking publishers for permission to have their work included in its AI search features, as reported by Bloomberg. Instead, publishers must opt out of search results completely if they don’t want their work included in AI features.
Google Search head Liz Reid said during her testimony that allowing publishers to opt out of individual features would add “enormous complexity,” according to Bloomberg. “By saying a publisher could be like, ‘I want to be in this feature but not that feature,’ it doesn’t work,” Reid said. “Because then we would essentially have to say, every single feature on the page needs a different model.”
Microsoft has announced that a new “Retro Classics” collection is now available to Game Pass subscribers. Reminiscent of the Nintendo Switch Online classic games library, the collection includes Pitfall, Grand Prix, and more than 50 other Activision titles from the 1980s and 1990s. It’s not as many titles as the 1,300 retro games that Antstream, Microsoft’s partner in the offering, has available on its streaming service, but it won’t cost Game Pass subscribers any extra.
Retro Classics, which Microsoft writes is part of its “commitment to game preservation and backwards compatibility,” is available on Xbox consoles, PC, or via Xbox cloud gaming on compatible devices like some LG and Samsung smart TVs and the Meta Quest headset. Other games included in the collection include Cosmic Ark, MechWarrior 2: 31st Century Combat, and Atlantis.
Based on screenshots, it looks like the collection will include titles from the original PlayStation, the SNES, MS-DOS, and more. Players will be able to collect achievements and participate in events like tournaments and community challenges as well.
Microsoft says this is only the start; the collection will expand to include more than 100 games from Activision and Blizzard eventually. Like Nintendo’s retro collection, you’re out of luck if you don’t have Microsoft’s gaming subscription, as the titles in the collection aren’t available for sale separately.
Antstream Arcade separately announced a temporary deal for Game Pass subscribers. Until June 4th, members can sign up for a year of access to Antstream’s library, which includes more than 1,300 games, for $9.99 via the Microsoft Store.
Here is the full collection of launch titles for the Retro Classics collection, which Activision’s Dustin Blackwell sent to The Verge:
Activision prototype #1
Atlantis
Atlantis II
Barnstorming
Baseball
Beamrider
Bloody Human Freeway
Boxing
Bridge
Caesar II
Checkers
Chopper Command
Commando
Conquests of the Longbow: The Legend of Robin Hood
Cosmic Ark
Crackpots
Decathlon
Demon Attack
Dolphin
Dragster
Enduro
Fathom
Fire Fighter
Fishing Derby
Freddy Pharkas: Frontier Pharmacist
Freeway
Frostbite
Grand Prix
H.E.R.O.
Kaboom!
Laser Blast
MechWarrior
MechWarrior 2: 31st Century Combat
Megamania
Pitfall II: Lost Caverns
Pitfall!
Police Quest 1
Pressure Cooker
Quest for Glory 1
Riddles of the Sphinx
River Raid
River Raid II
Robot Tank
Sky Jinks
Space Quest 2
Space Quest 6
Space Treat Deluxe
Spider Fighter
Star Voyager
Tennis
The Adventures of Willy Beamish
The Adventures of Willy Beamish
The Dagger of Amon Ra
Thwocker
Title Match Pro Wrestling
Torin’s Passage
Trick Shot
Vault Assault
Venetian Blinds
Zork I
Zork Zero
Update, May 21st: Added list of Retro Classics launch titles.
Artist and musician Brian Eno — who also composed the iconic Windows 95 operating system startup chime — called on Microsoft today to “suspend all services that support any operations that contribute to violations of international law,” saying the company plays a role in “surveillance, violence, and destruction in Palestine.” It’s the latest high-profile instance of the tech giant being pressed on its contracts with the Israeli government.
“I gladly took on the [Windows 95] project as a creative challenge and enjoyed the interaction with my contacts at the company,” Eno wrote on Instagram. “I never would have believed that the same company could one day be implicated in the machinery of oppression and war.”
The musician — who was a member of the influential rock band Roxy Music and has also had a long, storied solo career — specifically called out Microsoft’s contracts with Israel’s Ministry of Defense. Microsoft acknowledged last week that it has contracts with the Israeli government for cloud and AI services, but claimed that an internal review conducted found “no evidence” that its tools were used to “target or harm people” in Gaza.
Microsoft has been taken to task in recent weeks over its business dealings with the Israeli government specifically. The outcry over Microsoft’s contracts relates to Israel’s ongoing bombardment of Gaza following the October 7th, 2023, Hamas attack. Human rights groups, including commissions at the United Nations, have accused Israel of war crimes and genocidal acts in its military operation that has killed thousands; as of this month, the Gaza Health Ministry reported more than 52,000 deaths, though some researchers say that number could be as high as 109,000 people.
Some of Microsoft’s fiercest critics are its own employees opposed to the company’s ties to Israel.
Earlier this week during Microsoft’s developer conference, multiple onstage events were disrupted, including CEO Satya Nadella’s keynote speech on Monday. During the event, Microsoft employee Joe Lopez interrupted Nadella, yelling, “How about you show Israeli war crimes are powered by Azure?” The following day, a protester described only as a “Palestinian tech worker” disrupted another executive’s presentation. On Wednesday, protesters disrupted a third session — and in the commotion, Microsoft inadvertently revealed internal messages regarding Walmart’s use of AI.
In April, Microsoft employee Ibtihal Aboussad disrupted a 50th-anniversary event, calling Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman “a war profiteer.” Another employee disrupted a second Microsoft event the same day. The acts of protest were organized by the No Azure for Apartheid group, which calls for Microsoft to terminate contracts with the Israeli government and endorse a permanent ceasefire, among other demands. Aboussad was fired from the company; the second protester, Vaniya Agrawal, was dismissed early after putting in her resignation.
Microsoft did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Eno, a longtime critic of the Israeli government who’s backed pro-Palestine efforts, said on Instagram he would use his original earnings from the Windows 95 startup chime to help “the victims of the attacks on Gaza.”
The Chevy Silverado EV Trail Boss is being positioned as the ultimate off-roader. | Image: Chevy
The 2026 Chevy Silverado EV is going off road — way off road — with the addition of the Trail Boss trim to the electric pickup’s lineup. The electric version of the automaker’s popular off-road trim, Trail Boss offers more capability and — insanely — even more range for the already class-leading Silverado EV.
The upgraded electric truck has 2-inches of extra lift for more clearance while grinding gravel and climbing boulders, including 35-inch all-terrain tires and 18-inch wheels. Despite the added height, the Trail Boss will get a staggering GM-estimated range of 478 miles if you opt for the max range battery.
And in terms of maneuverability, Sidewinder mode enables all four tires to turn in the same direction for diagonal driving. It sounds similar to the Silverado’s sister truck, GMC’s Hummer EV with its Crab Walk and King Crab diagonal driving features.
But Sidewinder is also available to the RST trim, so what else is cool about Trail Boss? How about a trim-exclusive Terrain mode, which offers additional control while traversing uneven trails at low speeds. Compared to other drive modes, Terrain unlocks sharper 4-wheel steer, giving drivers better ability to control torque and traction at low speeds.
Speaking of power, the Trail Boss version of the Silverado EV will put out 725 horsepower and 775 lb-ft of torque when combined with the max range battery. That battery also offers a max towing capacity of 12,500 lbs along with a 2,100 payload capacity. Of course, you should expect some range loss while towing heavy loads.
Chevy is also dialing up the tech, offering enhanced Super Cruise with hands-free highway driving on both the Trail Boss and LT trims of the truck. The driver assist feature is also available while towing.
The automaker is also lowering the base price for the Silverado EV to $54,895, including destination charges, which is down from the previous base price of $57,095. The interior features a 17.7 inch center touchscreen alongside an 11-inch instrument gauge, which now comes standard on the Work Truck for the first time.
But the Trail Boss will run a lot higher, with the extended range version starting at $72,095 and the max range blasting off at $88,695. What, you thought all that extra range would be cheap?
Google announced a new SynthID Detector tool at Google I/O that lets you check if content has been made with the assistance of Google’s AI tools.
In a blog post, Google DeepMind’s Pushmeet Kohli describes SynthID Detector as “a verification portal” that can “quickly and efficiently identify AI-generated content made with Google AI.” It’s also able to “highlight which parts of the content are more likely to have been watermarked with SynthID.”
SynthID watermarks are applied to AI-generated images, text, audio, and videos, including content generated by Google’s Gemini, Imagen, Lyria, and Veo models, Kohli says.
Here’s how the tool works, according to Kohli:
When you upload an image, audio track, video or piece of text created using Google’s AI tools, the portal will scan the media for a SynthID watermark. If a watermark is detected, the portal will highlight specific portions of the content most likely to be watermarked.
For audio, the portal pinpoints specific segments where a SynthID watermark is detected, and for images, it indicates areas where a watermark is most likely.
Google is starting to roll out the tool to “early testers,” Kohli says in the post.
“Following the initial testing phase, the portal will gradually be rolled out to users who sign up to the waitlist to gain access to the SynthID Detector,” Kohli tells The Verge. “We will take learnings from this cohort of professionals and work to implement content transparency more broadly.”
I’m on the waitlist, but I haven’t tested the tool myself, so I can’t vouch for how well it might work. And will people actually use it when it’s widely available? I hope so, but we’ll have to wait and see.
Toyota is redesigning and “electrifying” its Rav4 lineup for 2026 with models that aren’t quite EVs, but could masquerade as one. The mega popular SUV will come standard with hybrid powertrains, including a plug-in version with a feature you’d expect in only pure EVs: fast charging.
That’s right, the 2026 Rav4 PHEV can now plug into CCS-compatible DC fast chargers, which means owners can quickly fill up its battery during long road trips — effectively playing imposter amongst all the EVs charging up at rest stops as it secretly conserves its gas tank. Rest stops often lack standard AC level 2 plugs that many plug-in hybrids rely on — the kind you’d have installed at home so you can wake up to a full charge every morning.
The new Rav4’s on-board AC charger can also charge faster now at 11 kW, an upgrade from the previous 6.6kW. It also features a 6th-generation plug-in powertrain with AWD and up to 320 horsepower output. On a single charge, it can travel up to 50 miles without kicking on the engine — up from 42 miles on the 2025 version, and higher than the Prius’ 44 miles. Toyota doesn’t say how large the battery is but covers it under warranty for 10 years or 150,000 miles, whichever comes first.
Meanwhile the regular Rav4 hybrid runs on a 5th-gen system with a max output of 236 horsepower for the AWD version. The interiors now also come standard with larger 12.3-inch digital cluster panels and 10.5-inch infotainment touchscreens. And the Limited, XSE, and the all-new GR-Sport models come with a bigger 12.9-inch center touchscreen.
The hybridization of the Rav4 comes after Toyota decided to switch its Camry sedan to an all-hybrid lineup last year. Toyota has doubled down on building more hybrid options instead of full EVs, although it has recently improved its only full electric that is now known as the bZ. Toyota says it will reveal pricing for the new Rav4 when it goes on sale later this year.
There have been public failures as well, such as the Humane AI Pin and the Rabbit R1 personal assistant device. “Those were very poor products,” said Ive, 58. “There has been an absence of new ways of thinking expressed in products.”
In a statement emailed to The Verge, Rabbit founder Jesse Lyu called Ive his “hero,” saying, “It’s an honor to get mentioned by Jony Ive and Sam Altman about rabbit and rabbit r1. However, we don’t like to be put side by side with Humane, a company that stopped trying, got acquired, and shut down.” You can read his comments in their entirety below.
Our initial reviews certainly backed up Ive’s impression, as David Pierce said the Pin “doesn’t work,” and called the R1 “a worse and less functional version of your smartphone.”
Humane, which, like io, was led by former Apple employees, has already disappeared into the mist of an acquihire by HP and shut down all AI Pins in February.
The Rabbit R1 is still going, even if its “large action model” hype and momentum appear to have dissipated. Earlier this month, the company added a memory log that can help its AI assistant have context for interactions. It’s also offering a free a free trial of Intern, its “upgraded AI-native operating system that coordinates multiple agents to get things done,” even if you don’t own an R1, as it continues to work on rabbitOS 2.0.
Jesse Lyu, founder and CEO of Rabbit:
First of all, Jony Ive is my hero. His work has inspired me since my teenage years, so much so that I decided to follow his path and create a startup to build dedicated experiences with both hardware and software.
rabbit is one of the first companies exploring the new AI era and thinking deeply about the new definition of human-machine interaction, just like the original Macintosh or iPhone.
It’s an honor to get mentioned by Jony Ive and Sam Altman about rabbit and rabbit r1. However, we don’t like to be put side by side with Humane, a company that stopped trying, got acquired, and shut down.
On the flipside, for a small team like rabbit, we don’t have tremendous resources, $6.4 billion, like Jony and Sam have. We acknowledge that when r1 first rolled out, the experience was rough and we needed to fix the early product issues. The fact is that today we’re still working hard and keep improving the experience. We’ll see what rabbit can offer by 2026.
It’s a great honor that Jony and Sam, both of whom I have a tremendous amount of respect for, decided to join rabbit in this new adventure to create their own product. We welcome all competition, whether it’s from big companies or startups. I believe healthy competition will benefit the end customer. I’m personally very excited to see the next magic that Jony will create, and rabbit will learn a lot from his work.
As a startup with limited resources like rabbit, it will always be a David vs Goliath situation. However, it’s always exciting when Goliath is the legendary Jony Ive.
Update, May 21st: Added response from Rabbit’s CEO.
In its antitrust case against Meta, the US Federal Trade Commission is asking a judge to consider an alternate reality. In that world, the company never bought Instagram and WhatsApp. The two apps remained competitive with Facebook, developing features that competed for users' attention. And that competition created a thriving ecosystem of social media apps where people can connect with their friends and family.
Meta has spent the past several days - during which it's begun lodging its case-in-chief in a Washington, DC, courthouse - building a counternarrative. In its telling of this alternate present, Instagram and WhatsApp are shadows of what they are in our world. They lacked the resources, expertise, and vision to become robust and valuable online platforms, let alone formidable competitors. And consumers are the ones who ultimately suffered.
One of Meta's key witnesses for this defense is WhatsApp cofounder Brian Acton, who was called on Tuesday to help make its case that WhatsApp users, just like Instagram ones, benefited from Meta's acquisition. Acton was the second app founder to testify in the case, after Instagram cofounder Kevin Systrom delivered mostly blistering te …
OpenAI is buying io, a hardware company founded by former Apple design chief Jony Ive and several other former engineers from his time there, including Scott Cannon, Evans Hankey, and Tang Tan.
Ive won’t be joining OpenAI, and his design firm, LoveFrom, will continue to be independent, but they will “take over design for all of OpenAI, including its software,” in a deal valued at nearly $6.5 billion, Bloomberg reports.
About 55 hardware engineers, software developers, and manufacturing experts will join OpenAI as part of the acquisition. That includes Cannon, Hankey, and Tan. The first devices following the acquisition are set to launch in 2026.
In an interview with Bloomberg, Ive called AI hardware misfires like the Humane Pin and Rabbit R1 “very poor products,” and said that “there has been an absence of new ways of thinking expressed in products.”
The first product isn’t intended to be an iPhone killer, though: “In the same way that the smartphone didn’t make the laptop go away, I don’t think our first thing is going to make the smartphone go away,” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told Bloomberg. “It is a totally new kind of thing.”
The Wall Street Journalreports that Altman and LoveFrom have been working together for two years and have considered options like headphones and devices with cameras.
The first product the team has been working on “has just completely captured our imagination,” Ive said in a video.
“Jony recently gave me one of the prototypes of the device for the first time to take home, and I’ve been able to live with it, and I think it is the coolest piece of technology that the world will have ever seen,” Altman said.
“I am absolutely certain that we are literally on the brink of a new generation of technology that can make us our better selves,” Ive said.
“We gathered together the best hardware and software engineers, the best technologists, physicists, scientists, researchers and experts in product development and manufacturing,” Ive and Altman said in a joint post. “Many of us have worked closely for decades. The io team, focused on developing products that inspire, empower and enable, will now merge with OpenAI to work more intimately with the research, engineering and product teams in San Francisco.”
“AI is an incredible technology, but great tools require work at the intersection of technology, design, and understanding people and the world,” Altman said in a statement. “No one can do this like Jony and his team; the amount of care they put into every aspect of the process is extraordinary.”
“I have a growing sense that everything I have learned over the last 30 years has led me to this moment,” Ive said. “While I am both anxious and excited about the responsibility of the substantial work ahead, I am so grateful for the opportunity to be part of such an important collaboration. The values and vision of Sam and the teams at OpenAI and io are a rare inspiration.”
“A number of us looked at each other and said, ‘This is probably the most incredible technology of our career,’” Hankey said in an interview with Bloomberg.
Update, May 21st: Added information from The Wall Street Journal.
