Motorola announced the first phone in its midrange Edge 60 series, which ships with a novel twist: a faux-canvas finish. The Edge 60 Fusion looks the part otherwise, with its molded camera module and surprisingly slim body, but the basic specs match the low price tag just 299.99 (around $390) in the UK.The canvas-effect finish might be one of the phones main draws, but its only available on the amazonite (read: teal) version of the phone. Its also launching in blue and pink colors, but these use a faux leather finish instead. Every version has IP68 and 69 ratings, meaning the phone is fully protected against dust, immersion in water, and high-pressure sprays.Theres some international variation in the Edge 60 Fusions specs, but the model launching in the UK is slim for its size, at less than 8mm thick, despite fitting in a fairly large 5,200mAh battery behind its 6.67-inch OLED screen. Models elsewhere pack an even bigger 5,500mAh cell, but run a touch thicker.The Fusion comes with up to 12GB of RAM and 512GB of storage, but is likely to be held back by the relatively basic MediaTek Dimensity chipset used either a 7300 or 7400, depending on the market, but theres not much difference between them. Cameras are limited too it may look like four on the back, but one is the flash and another a flicker sensor, so you only really get a 50 megapixel main lens and a 13 megapixel ultrawide.The Fusion is expected to be the first in a series of Edge 60 phones there were five models across last years Edge 50 line. None of those launched in the US, and this years phones likely wont either, so American buyers will have to make do with Januarys $299.99 Moto G Power, which lacks the Fusions OLED display and canvas feel, but has wireless charging. Motorola is expected to announce its updated Razr flip phones soon, with rumors predicting a wooden finish, in a throwback to 2014s wood-backed Moto X.See More:

T-Mobile has officially closed its joint venture deal with the fiber provider Lumos, after taking down its webpage dedicated to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the process, as reported by Fierce Network. The now-blank page outlined T-Mobiles culture of fairness, respect, and inclusion and was online until at least March 26th, the Internet Archive shows.Its removal seems like a direct response to the threats from Federal Communications Chair Brendan Carr, who said companies should get busy ending any sort of their invidious forms of DEI discrimination during an interview with Bloomberg last month. He suggested that major deals, such as T-Mobiles plan to acquire most of US Cellular, wont happen if DEI is still in play.T-Mobile executive vice president Mark Nelson has already indicated that the company plans on complying with Carrs orders. In a March 27th letter to the FCC, he stated T-Mobile is conducting a comprehensive review of its DEI policies, programs, and activities, adding that the joint venture with Lumos will not promote invidious forms of discrimination. As pointed out by Fierce Network, the FCC signed off on the deal on March 28th. The Verge reached out to T-Mobile with a request for comment but didnt immediately hear back.Since becoming FCC chair, Carr has probed the DEI practices at Comcast, Verizon, and Disney. The Energy and Commerce Committee Democrats have responded by opening an investigation of their own, which will examine the time and resources the FCC has spent on bogus investigations.

Meta is reportedly preparing a higher-end version of its Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses with a built-in screen to launch as early as by the end of the year, Bloomberg reports.The new glasses, codenamed Hypernova, can run apps and display photos, all controlled using hand gestures and capacitive touch on the sides of the frame. Bloomberg reports that the screen will only be visible on the right lens at the lower-right quadrant, and is best viewed when looking downward. When the device is turned on, a home screen appears and displays icons horizontally, similar to a Meta Quest.Hypernova will also feature an improved camera compared to the current model, and will continue building upon the idea of having an AI chatbot on your face, according to Bloomberg.Bloomberg says that Hypernova will cost over $1,000 and could sell for as high as $1,300 to $1,400. For comparison, the current Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses start at $299.Meta is reserving advanced augmented reality technology for its still-in-development Orion glasses. In contrast, the Hypernova will target the mid-tier smart glasses shown off in droves at CES, such as the Rokid Glasses that display green text.However, the Hypernova will command a higher price tag than other options, likely since it will come with the Orions neural wristband controller, codenamed Ceres.Meta is also working on a next version of Hypernova, with the codename Hypernova 2, that will have two screens, Bloomberg reports. The company is apparently planning to launch Hypernova 2 in 2027.

U.S. National Security Adviser Michael Waltz in the White House Oval Office on March 13, 2025. | Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images<br>Last week, National Security Advisor Michael Waltz inadvertently invited a journalist to a Signal chat discussing a planned military strike. Today, a new Washington Post report says that he has also discussed sensitive military positions and powerful weapons systems relating to an ongoing conflict, using his personal Gmail account.Waltz, along with other members of the National Security Council, used Gmail for highly technical conversations with colleagues at other government agencies, according to emails the Post saw, with headers showing that others on the emails used their government-issued accounts. Waltz also had less sensitive, but potentially exploitable information sent to his Gmail, like his schedule and other work documents, some unnamed government officials told the outlet. The Post quotes National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes saying, Waltz didnt and wouldnt send classified information on an open account, and that Hughes says hes seen no evidence of Waltz using his personal email as described.The Posts report puts the advisers communications practices back in the spotlight after Waltz invited The Atlantic editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, to a Signal chat about a military strike in Yemen that took place later that day. Attorney General Pam Bondi indicated that the incident probably wont be criminally investigated in response to questions at a press conference Sunday night, while suggesting that people should be discussing what was in Hillary Clintons home, seemingly referring to the personal email server scandal that cropped up late in her last Presidential campaign.Since then, a Wired report detailed how his public Venmo account had revealed the names of hundreds of his associates, including journalists and military officers. And like most of us, personal online account info for Waltz and other Trump administration officials has been found in online database leaks, including several passwords for Waltzs email address, writes Spiegel International.

Visible, the budget wireless brand owned by Verizon, is offering a new premium plan that looks like a heck of a deal compared to its parent companys offerings.The new Visible Plus Pro plan (I didnt say the name was good) costs $45 per month. For that price you get unlimited 5G Ultrawideband (UW) data, which is an awfully good deal when you consider that Verizons own entry-level unlimited plan, Unlimited Welcome, starts at $65 per month and doesnt include 5G UW.This new Plus Pro plan also comes without throttling. Many lower-cost carrier plans and MVNOs tend to offer a certain allotment of premium data. Once you exceed your allowance, you might see slowdowns at times when the network is busy. But Visibles fine print states that both its Plus and Plus Pro plan are not subject to any data prioritization limitations. So that rules.It gets better: the Plus Pro plan includes unlimited hotspot usage at up to 15 Mbps. Verizons basic plan doesnt include any hotspot data, just the option to add it for an extra $10 per month. Theres also 4K video streaming and service for one cellular smartwatch included. You can probably guess what Im going to say next, but just to reiterate, Verizons basic unlimited plan doesnt include any of that.This would all be less of a good deal if Verizon puts Visible traffic on a lower network tier than its own postpaid customers. Network operators commonly put different kinds of customers on certain service tiers called Quality of Service Class Indicators, or QCIs. This helps with overall traffic prioritization when theres congestion, usually putting first responders on the fastest tier.Verizon didnt immediately respond to my question about Visible Plus Pros QCI, but Android Authoritys comprehensive comparison between Visible and Verizon suggests that Visibles premium plan is actually assigned a higher-priority QCI than Verizons Unlimited Welcome at least, thats been the case in the past. Well update this article if Verizon responds to our request.Its all too rare to read about an ISPs new plan and think Huh, that sounds like a good deal, actually. But thats the case here, even after going through the fine print.See More:

Roblox is launching a new type of ad that, if watched, will give players things like in-game currency and power-ups, according to an announcement from the company.The full-screen video ads, called Rewarded Video ads, can be up to 30 seconds long. The ads will be available to buy programmatically via Googles advertising solutions and direct buying (Direct IO) in the coming weeks, Roblox says.Owners of Roblox experiences must be at least 18 to show ads, and only public experiences are eligible, according to a page on its creator hub. Roblox says it only shows ads to players that are 13 and older.The new ads are part of an expansion of Googles Immersive Ads format. Google writes in a separate announcement today that they can show up as a billboard ad you see driving through a virtual city or an ad on the big screen during a virtual football game. The company claims these ads blend naturally into the game environment.Roblox says it will start selling other ad formats through Googles platform in the coming months, including billboards and entire rows on the Roblox home page.

Some Google Pixel users have found that their At a Glance widget has been showing outdated weather forecasts, as reported by Android Police. But the company says in a statement to The Verge that its addressing the issue.According to one user on Reddit who has been dealing with the problem, the current temperature is fairly accurate, but the expected high/low forecast hasnt been correct in the past week. The expected temperatures in the weather app itself were also accurate, they said.Another user on Googles support forums said that their Pixel 8As lock screen was showing the weather for the correct location, but in the morning it shows yesterdays forecast as the temperature today and in the evening it shows todays forecast as the weather tomorrow.In a statement this afternoon, Google spokesperson Matthew Flegal says that were currently rolling out a fix for an issue causing outdated weather forecasts on the At a Glance widget for some Pixel users.

What was once a humble research lab has transformed into one of the biggest consumer technology companies of all time.OpenAI, founded in 2015 to develop artificial general intelligence (AGI) AI systems with human-level intelligence has transformed dramatically since launching ChatGPT, which was once considered to be the fastest-growing consumer application in history. Most cofounders have left either to create a competitor or work for one. The company has secured billions in funding and partnerships with Apple and Microsoft, even announcing a $500 billion datacenter project called Stargate. Meanwhile, it faces copyright lawsuits from authors and news organizations, legal action from cofounder Elon Musk over the companys alleged departure from its original mission, and criticism for burning through cash despite projected billions in revenue. After Altmans brief ouster, OpenAI is now expected to restructure from a nonprofit-led organization to a full for-profit company to stabilize operations and reassure investors.As San Franciscos hottest AI company continues to barrel towards ever growing valuations, its claims become more nebulous. Altman expects we may see the first AI agents join the workforce and materially change the output of companies in 2025, and says his team is now confident we know how to build AGIas we have traditionally understood it. A decade since it was founded, OpenAI has become synonymous with the future of AI, with the tech industry and beyond closely monitoring its next moves.All of the news and updates about OpenAI continue below.OpenAI just raised another $40 billion round led by SoftBankChatGPTs Ghibli filter is political now, but it always wasOpenAI says our GPUs are melting as it limits ChatGPT image generation requestsChatGPT is turning everything into Studio Ghibli art and it got weird fastChatGPTs new image generator is delayed for free usersOpenAI rolls out image generation powered by GPT-4o to ChatGPTOpenAI reshuffles leadership as Sam Altman pivots to technical focusChatGPT accused of saying an innocent man murdered his childrenWhat does OpenAI really want from Trump?The questions ChatGPT shouldnt answerOpenAI announces GPT-4.5, warns its not a frontier AI modelChatGPT is a terrible, fascinating, and thrilling to-do list appMira Murati is launching her OpenAI rival: Thinking Machines LabOpenAI is rethinking how AI models handle controversial topicsOpenAI lays out plans for GPT-5What $200 of ChatGPT is really worthInside OpenAIs $14 million Super Bowl debutI tested ChatGPTs deep research with the most misunderstood law on the internetChatGPT drops its sign-in requirement for searchHeres OpenAIs new logoSoftBanks Masayoshi Son says AGI will arrive much earlier than he thoughtChatGPTs agent can now do deep research for youOpenAI launches new o3-mini reasoning model with a free ChatGPT versionSam Altmans Stargate is science fictionDeepSeek, Stargate, and the new AI arms raceOpenAI and SoftBank are starting a $500 billion AI data center companyLas Vegas police release ChatGPT logs from the suspect in the Cybertruck explosionOpenAIs Sam Altman says we know how to build AGIYou can now call 1-800-CHATGPTChatGPTs AI search engine is rolling out to everyoneSoras AI video revolution is still a ways offInside the launch and future of ChatGPTiOS 18.2 is rolling out now, adding ChatGPT integration and more Apple Intelligence toolsOpenAI has finally released SoraMicrosofts AI boss and Sam Altman disagree on what it takes to get to AGISam Altman lowers the bar for AGIOpenAIs 12 days of shipmas include Sora and new reasoning modelChatGPTs search results for news are unpredictable and frequently inaccurateSiris big ChatGPT upgrade is here for better and worseOpenAI plans to release its next big AI model by DecemberOpenAI was a research lab now its just another tech companyOpenAIs for-profit switch could include equity for Sam AltmanOpenAI says Iran tried to influence US elections with ChatGPTElon Musk is suing OpenAI and Sam Altman againOpenAI is making ChatGPT cheaper for schools and nonprofitsFormer OpenAI board member explains why they fired Sam AltmanOpenAI has a new safety team its run by Sam AltmanChatGPT has a Scarlett Johansson problemChatGPT will be able to talk to you like Scarlett Johansson in HerOpenAI releases GPT-4o, a faster model thats free for all ChatGPT usersSam Altman rejoins OpenAIs board after investigation into sudden firingOpenAI introduces Sora, its text-to-video AI modelOpenAI says theres only a small chance ChatGPT will help create bioweaponsOpenAI CEO Sam Altman is still chasing billions to build AI chipsChatGPT is winning the future but what future is that?Sam Altman on being fired and rehired by OpenAIMicrosoft joins OpenAIs board with Sam Altman officially back as CEOSam Altman to return as CEO of OpenAIWhat happened to Sam Altman?Sam Altman fired as CEO of OpenAIJony Ive is reportedly developing an AI gadget with OpenAIs Sam AltmanSam Altman sells superintelligent sunshine as protestors call for AGI pauseAs conservatives criticize woke AI, here are ChatGPTs rules for answering culture war queriesOpenAI announces ChatGPT Plus at $20 a monthChatGPT provesAIis finally mainstream and things are only going to get weirderOpenAIs new chatbot can explain code and write sitcom scripts but is still easily tricked

Drastic reductions in force are upending agencies within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).Thousands of people who work at the CDC were notified by email today that they were subject to the Trump administrations efforts to cull federal workforce jobs, Wired reports. Top officials were among those either put on administrative leave, laid off, or reassigned to remote roles, the Washington Post reports.HHS announced last week that it would slash its workforce by 20,000 people. Now, the nation is starting to see how that purge is rolling out, affecting programs meant to prevent and treat HIV infection and sexually transmitted disease, respiratory diseases, and foodborne illnesses, to name a few.Were going to have patients die, Jade Pagkas-Bather, an infectious disease doctor at the University of Chicago, tells Wired. Unnecessary, preventable death.Unnecessary, preventable death.HHS, on the other hand, says the changes will save $1.8 billion a year. Over time, bureaucracies like HHS become wasteful and inefficient even when most of their staff are dedicated and competent civil servants, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. said in a press release when HHS announced its restructuring last week. Kennedy is a staunch anti-vax crusader who has spread disinformation falsely linking vaccines to autism. The FDAs Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER) regulates vaccines, and director Peter Marks resigned on Friday, writing that it has become clear that truth and transparency are not desired by the Secretary, but rather he wishes subservient confirmation of his misinformation and lies. The FDA as weve known it is finished, with most of the leaders with institutional knowledge and a deep understanding of product development and safety no longer employed, Robert Califf, FDA commissioner under Joe Biden and Barack Obama, wrote on LinkedIn today. In an email to The Verge, HHS press secretary Vianca Rodriguez Feliciano maintains that ongoing critical public health efforts will remain a top priority and will not be impacted by this administrative realignment.See More:

Members of ZeniMax Workers United, a union of over 300 quality assurance workers in Texas and Maryland, have voted to authorize a strike.The vote, which passed with over 94 percent in favor of authorization, does not mean workers have gone on strike like SAG-AFTRA members have in the ongoing video game voice actors strike. But should contract negotiations break down, the ZeniMax union now has the permission to call a strike.This authorization comes as contract negotiations between union members and parent company Microsoft continue into a second year.The strike authorization is the latest escalation between the union and management. Last year, ZeniMax Workers United participated in a one-day strike claiming that Microsoft did not adequately address employee concerns over its return to office policies and its outsourcing practices. Those concerns have come up again in negotiations alongside better pay and benefits.Our in-house contractors have been working on minimal wages with no benefits, including no paid sick time, said associate QA tester Aubrey Litchfield in the press release announcing the strike authorization. Workers are choosing not to start families because of the uncertainty of finances. Weve released multiple titles while working fully remote. When will enough be enough?Our quality assurance team is an integral part of our business and is key to our ability to deliver games our players will love, Microsoft spokesperson Delaney Simmons says in a statement to The Verge. We respect the teams right to express their viewpoints and are deeply committed to reaching a fair and equitable resolution that acknowledges the teams contributions. There has been substantial progress over the course of the negotiations, reaching tentative agreements on a majority of the topics at the table. We have presented a package proposal that we believe is fair if accepted it would result in immediate compensation increases, even more robust benefits and is in alignment to the companys hybrid model of 3 days in office. We look forward to continuing this progress during negotiations.ZeniMax Workers United is one of several unions under the Microsoft umbrella. It formed in 2023 and was once the largest union within the company with 300 members before Activision Quality Assurance United organized roughly 600 quality assurance workers last year.At GDC 2025, the Communications Workers of America (CWA) announced the launch of the United Videogame Workers, a nationwide direct-join union open to any worker in the video game industry.See More:

More than 1,900 scientists and engineers have signed a letter saying they see real danger in this moment as the Trump administration slashes federal support for scientific research.Wise investments by the US government have built up the nations research enterprise, making it the envy of the world, says the open letter published on Monday. Astoundingly, the Trump administration is destabilizing this enterprise by gutting funding for research, firing thousands of scientists, removing public access to scientific data, and pressuring researchers to alter or abandon their work on ideological grounds.The letter was penned by members of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, which was created by Congress under President Abraham Lincoln to advise policymakers. Each person signed to express their individual support rather than as representatives of the universities and research institutions with which they are affiliated.They accuse the Trump administration of censorship through executive orders and funding threats meant to stop any initiatives the president and his close allies dislike, including efforts to address climate change and develop vaccines.The White House didnt immediately respond to The Verges request for comment.In less than 100 days in office, President Donald Trump and billionaire-backer Elon Musk have laid waste to the scientific arms of federal agencies including the Environmental Protection Agency, Health and Human Services, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Trump administration is investigating more than 50 universities as part of its efforts to eliminate programs meant to support students from underrepresented and historically marginalized groups.The quest for truth the mission of science requires that scientists freely explore new questions and report their findings honestly, independent of special interests, the letter says. The administration is engaging in censorship, destroying this independence.By threatening to withhold $400 million in funding, the administration has already managed to strong arm Columbia University into changing school policies and academic programs. Other institutions have had to halt research, layoff staff, and stop graduate student enrollment, the letter notes.The US is at risk of losing an entire generation of scientists as a result, the signatories warn. More than 1,200 scientists are already thinking about leaving the US because of the Trump administrations drastic actions, making up 75 percent of respondents in a separate poll by the journal Nature.A climate of fear has descended on the research community, National Academies members write in the letter. We are sending this SOS to sound a clear warning: the nations scientific enterprise is being decimated. See More:

The Pixel 10 Pro Fold might not look all that different. | Image: OnLeaks via <em><a href="https://www.androidheadlines.com/google-pixel-10-pro-fold">Android Headlines</a></em>You probably shouldnt expect major changes to Googles next Pixel foldable. Renders shared with Android Headlines by reliable leaker Onleaks show a Pixel 10 Pro Fold that looks very similar to its predecessor, potentially indicating that it could largely be just a spec bump.As shown in the renders, the Pixel 10 Pro Fold appears to feature the same stacked rear camera setup as the Pixel 9 Pro Fold, along with a hole-punch camera on the external display and one on the top-right corner of the inner screen. The upcoming phone also seems to have a similarly-sized bezel and nearly the same dimensions as the Pixel 9 Pro Fold when unfolded: 6.1 x 5.9 x 0.21 inches.It does look like Google may have shrunk the gap between the screen and the devices hinge on the left side of the display, which would be a plus.The Pixel 10 Pro Fold will also likely come equipped with an upgraded Tensor G5 processor. Sources tell Android Headlines that the device could have a lower price compared to the Pixel 9 Pro Fold, which starts at $1,799.Google might not be making any big changes to the standard Pixel 10, either, as another set of renders OnLeaks shared with Android Headlines hint at …Read the full story at The Verge.

A year and a half ago, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) worked with state attorneys general to shut down Prehired, a shady tech sales bootcamp program that a court said deceptively saddled students with millions of dollars in loans. Now, as the federal watchdog is being dismantled by Elon Musks Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a consumer advocacy group says the company is relaunching its old pitch under a new name: FastTrack.Prehired was an online program that offered training for entry-level software sales roles, promising that students would only have to pay the courses cost once they landed a job that paid more than $60,000 within 12 months of finishing. In a 2023 complaint, the CFPB and 11 states claimed that these were deceptively marketed loans with buried terms that left students on the hook even if they didnt get a job. After students had signed up, Prehired allegedly claimed theyd benefit from converting these loans into settlement agreements with the company, which actually made it harder for them to fight debt collectors.In November 2023, a court approved an order shutting down Prehired and permanently banning it from offering similar loans in the future. The company had already filed for bankruptcy. Prehired was ordered to refund $4.2 million paid by student borrowers on the income share agreements, and void $27 million worth of outstanding loans.Prehired, however, has allegedly done little to honor those terms. Last year, former Prehired students came across a new company called FastTrack, which looked suspiciously similar. It offered the same member success guarantee of landing a job with a salary of at least $60,000 within 12 months of completing the program, featured the same images on its website, and even displayed reviews that appeared to have actually been reviews of Prehired. It also featured a page of blogs authored by Joshua Jordan the name of the executive who previously ran Prehired (the author of those blogs has since been swapped out).There it was verbatim, just staring right at us the exact same sales pitchIn December 2024, the former Prehired students flagged the new FastTrack program to the Student Borrower Protection Center (SBPC), the nonprofit group that originally blew the whistle on Prehired. We did a side-by-side comparison of what we had saved as records of his old scheme, and there it was verbatim, just staring right at us the exact same sales pitch, says Mike Pierce, SBPCs executive director.FastTrack is offering interest-free financing for $30,000 in deferred dues, rather than an income share agreement, but Pierce says the guarantee offered is basically the same as Prehireds. We knew that was a lie at Prehired because eventually he drove a bunch of students who didnt get jobs into court and then into debt collection, he says. I would assume that thats a lie here too, because it doesnt seem like any other piece of the deal is any different.If FastTrack which Pierce says apparently launched soon after the initial consent order is simply a renamed Prehire, it is likely that Jordan has flagrantly violated the terms of the Prehired settlement, SBPC research and policy analyst Ella Azoulay says in a blog post. In letters sent on Monday to state AGs, SBPC claimed that Jordan appears to at least be violating the clear intent of the Prehired settlement, and FastTrack is at the very least engaged in the same unlawful conduct that resulted in the settlement agreement.FastTrack, which claims it has helped hundreds of members, could put a whole new crop of students at risk of wasted time and financial damage. Prehired used tactics that we had never seen a fraudster do before, Pierce says. That included a mass filing of debt collection actions against former students to get them to pay their income share agreements, and later push them into arbitration.One former Prehired attendee is Chris Belcher, a former Marine who signed up for the course in 2019 to get into tech sales. Belcher soon joined the company as a commission-based contractor, marketing the program to the military and to tech companies that might be interested in hiring Prehired students. But he says he was unable to recruit new businesses and left after a few months. Thats when he says Prehired started harassing the crap out of him. Belcher says hed gotten a job selling windows the glass, not the software yet Prehired was coming to collect on the $15,000, seeming to take credit for Belcher landing a role in an unrelated field. Belcher says he held firm in refusing to pay the fee.Belcher says hes not entirely surprised to see Jordans name pop up again with a similar program, because hes come to see many such businesses as suspect, though commonplace. It just doesnt surprise me, having learned about the shadiness of this side of this business, he says. He now advises people trying to get skills to go into tech sales not to take classes like those Prehired offered if they cost any money to do so.Instead of doing their job, we have watched the Trump CFPB fire its enforcement attorneys, shut down the agency, [and] take the name off the buildingUnder normal circumstances, the CFPB would have already initiated a new action against FastTrack and Jordan, says Pierce, who previously worked at the agency. But now, its been greatly weakened by President Donald Trump and DOGE. A backlog of cases built up under Russell Vought, acting director of the Office of Budget and Management, who ordered staff to stop working on February 10th and a judge only just ruled last Friday that they could get back to work while a broader case is pending. This injunction means the judge believes the workers union will likely prevail in claiming the Trump administration unlawfully dismantled the CFPB, but reaching that conclusion could take months and if a Republican-led Congress formally shuts the agency down, much less can be done. The CFPB is supposed to be monitoring these consent orders to make sure that corporate criminals follow the terms of their deals here, Pierce days. Instead of doing their job, we have watched the Trump CFPB fire its enforcement attorneys, shut down the agency, [and] take the name off the building. So of course, thats a giant open for business sign for every two-bit fraudster in America. For now, as a battered CFPB is getting back to business, the SBPC is turning to state AGs as a last line of defense, Pierce says. But that doesnt mean theyre a sustainable replacement for a federal watchdog. You cant have the kind of scale and resources in a state AGs office that you get in Washington when you have a federal regulator with thousands of employees whose only job day in and day out is to watch for financial fraud, he says. This doesnt mean that the state agencies werent doing their jobs. It means that CFPB has a mission and the resources to do its job, and when it doesnt, people get hurt.See More:

Dbrand wants you to feel less guilty about having your face buried in a screen all day and not getting outside to touch grass. The companys latest collection of skins lets you wrap your gadgets in bright green artificial turf so you can touch grass whenever you want and no matter where you are.The Touch Grass collection is available now through Dbrands website for more than 100 different devices with pricing similar to its other premium skins: $29.95 for smartphones, $49.95 for tablets, and $69.95 for laptops.Despite the April 1st timing, the Touch Grass collection isnt a prank, Dbrand CEO Adam Ijaz assures The Verge. Each year, April 1st rolls around and companies trip over themselves to see who can be the least funny. We, on the other hand, take the opportunity to launch real products. Are they drenched in satire? Yes but theyre real products you can buy.The skins are covered in thousands of tiny polyethylene strands using a technique called electrostatic flocking, Ijaz explains. Each polyethylene strand is electrically charged, causing it to stand upright and propel directly onto an adhesive-coated surface. In this application, the adhesive coating is applied directly to our classic 3M vinyl skin material.1/4Image: DbrandTo ensure users dont end up covered in tiny green pieces of artificial grass and to prevent the particles from finding their way inside devices, the strands are embedded into an adhesive layer that covers roughly 25% of the strands height, Ijaz says. The company subjected the skins to 10,000 abrasive rub cycles during durability testing and found no issues with strands detaching or bald patches forming.However, the company found its traditional methods for cutting the skins resulted in the fake grass strands eventually breaking off at the edges. The solution was to switch to laser cutting instead of die-cutting. The heat from laser cutting effectively cauterizes (melts) the polyethylene strands along the perimeter, Ijaz says. This melting creates a sealed edge, bonding together the strands around the border. Ultimately, this was the key to preventing blades of grass around the edge from loosening or shedding over time.The biggest issue that Dbrand has found with the Touch Grass skins is that they also tend to function as effective yet unintentional lint catchers, but the company says they can be easily cleaned by gently wiping them.Its a fun idea, but in a time when microplastics are turning up in some very concerning places, we may not need another product potentially adding to the problem when its eventually discarded.See More:

Smartphones are great. Theyre also a lot. The idea of a more balanced device, one that gives you all of the most important and useful features of a smartphone but keeps you out of the infinite-doomscrolling loops, has been an enticing one for a long time. Nailing that balance, though, turns out to be almost impossible.On this episode of The Vergecast, we try and get it right. The Verges Allison Johnson joins the show to talk about the new Light Phone III, and then we run through a list of a few dozen things your phone can do and we wonder if your perfect, sane, functional phone should be able to do them. Some things are easy, some are surprisingly difficult. Were still not sure what to do with Snapchat.After that, The Verges Andy Hawkins catches us up on all things Tesla Takedown. After this weekends coordinated set of protests, we talk through what the protestors want, why theyre pointing their anger at Tesla in particular, and how well know if its working. Andy also walks us through the tariff chaos coming for the auto industry, and tells us a little about the surprisingly cool new Nissan Leaf. Finally, we answer a question from the Vergecast H …Read the full story at The Verge.

Every time I see mAh on a consumer product, I cringe. Megahertz are starting to bruise, too. Thats because the most critical components of portable gadgets batteries and processors should really be measured in watts: its the one common spec that gives you a real idea of what your device can do.With watts, you can tell how much literal power is under the hood how much energy is provided by your battery and how much is coursing through your chip. Watts determine whether theres enough cooling to let that processor run free, instead of overheating and throttling prematurely. Watts can even tell you how much battery life you have left, based on the watt-hours (Wh) of battery remaining and the wattage at which your device is draining. You can do it all with elementary school math so why arent watts everywhere? Consumers are regularly exposed to wattage measurements when buying light bulbs or reading their power bills. But many gadget manufacturers insist on measuring their batteries in milliamp-hours and their chip speed in megahertz or gigahertz, neither of which are a good measure of a devices true power. The Steam Deck gaming handheld is my go-to example of how handy watts can be. With a 15-watt maximum processor wattage and up to 9 watts of overhead for other components, a strenuous game drains its 49Wh battery in roughly two hours flat. My eight-year-old can do that math: 15 plus 9 is 24, and 24 times 2 is 48. You can fit two hour-long 24-watt sessions into 48Wh, and because you have 49Wh, youre almost sure to get it. With the least strenuous games, Ill sometimes see my Steam Deck draining the battery at a speed of just 6 watts which means I can get eight hours of gameplay because 6 watts times 8 hours is 48Wh, with 1Wh remaining in the 49Wh battery.The Steam Deck OLED. Photo: Vjeran Pavic / The VergeAt its most basic, the watt is a measure of work. Its the amount of energy it takes to do something at a particular speed, whether its heating up food in your 1,000-watt microwave or providing the 2-3 watts a smartphone needs while youre browsing websites on its screen. Its also specifically a measure of electricity watts are volts times amps and a measure of battery capacity, like my Steam Deck example above. (My colleague Thomas Ricker can also help you calculate watt-hours for off-grid energy storage and home backup.)Perhaps most intriguingly, watts are used as a roundabout measure of heat. If youve ever seen a computer processor with a certain TDP, or thermal design power, measured in watts, thats the amount of cooling required to run that chip at its normal speed. A chip is only as fast as it can be cooled, which is why watts are more important than megahertz.Todays laptops have long broken the 5GHz barrier, meaning their chips can theoretically do work five billion times per second. Phone chips are coming close, too. But in small and constrained battery-powered devices, they can only maintain those speeds briefly before they overheat. Its why a MacBook Pro with a fan has better sustained performance than a MacBook Air without one, even if they both have the exact same chip. Its part of why a 15-watt processor will generally feel slower than a 28-watt one, even if both can hit 5GHz. More power and more cooling means youre not just a sprinter; you can go the distance.Unfortunately, manufacturers arent always fond of sharing watts with us. Theyd prefer to quote bigger, more impressive-sounding numbers instead, advertising a power bank or phone with a 5,000mAh battery rather than a 19.4Wh pack. You can convert mAh to Wh, but only if you know the devices voltage, which is another spec thats often obscured. Some chip makers even hide the wattage of their chips so you wont know youre using a weaker version, such as an 80-watt Nvidia RTX 4080 laptop graphics chip instead of a 150-watt one, though admittedly more power doesnt always make a big difference.James Watt left behind a legacy of pushing confusing specsManufacturers also prefer to share what percentage of your battery is remaining rather than an actually useful number like the watt. They prefer to let you choose vague power modes like performance, balanced, and battery saver, instead of using the smarter watt so you can decide exactly how fast your battery is draining.I feel like the Steam Deck and other PC gaming handhelds should be a wakeup call that watts are the better way. Its wonderful to think crap, my PC needs to last an extra hour before I get to my next outlet and make that a reality just by rebalancing an elementary school equation.But if not, I will blame the inventor James Watt himself, who left behind a legacy of pushing confusing specs. While the watt is a genuinely useful unit of measurement, Watt didnt come up with it. Instead, he coined a different phrase thats been misleading people for more than two centuries now. The watt was indeed named for James Watt, more than 60 years after his death, because of his marketing coup. Watt was the man who first popularized the phrase horsepower as a way to sell his improved steam engine into all sorts of industry.According to Watts own biographer, he didnt even come up with the idea of comparing engines to the horses they could replace; thats widely credited to steam engine pioneer Thomas Savery. Plus, documents from Watt suggest that his definition of horsepower was based on some back-of-the-napkin math! Effectively, a guy told Watt that he wanted a steam engine that could do the work of 12 horses to turn a 24-foot-tall wheel two and a half turns each minute, Watt guessed each horse would pull 180 pounds of weight, and so one horsepower became 32,400 foot-pounds per minute and was later rounded up to 33,000.But even though a real horse has significantly more than one horsepower, at least over short periods, the unit of horsepower stuck around. It has become one of the most enduring examples of inventing a spec to help sell products, and it might be the reason we have to endure bullshit specs like mAh now. Free the watt, or else Ill start measuring gadgets in horsepower out of spite. The official conversion rate is 746 watts to 1 horsepower. Did you know AMD recommends a 1-horsepower power supply for its latest graphics card? Heck, Nvidias 5090 needs three-quarters of a horses power all by itself. Theres no better unit than the watt. I just wish companies would let us know it.See More: Tech

So much of our online and technological lives rely on standards, the sets of rules designed to make sure our favorite gadgets and services work together. At their best, they make everything work seamlessly, and we never need to worry about whats happening behind the scenes. But at their worst, they leave us perplexed about why our new stuff just wont work and wondering how we could make it better.In this special issue from The Verge, we explore the way specs and protocols affect our productivity and passions from the promise of a more efficient streaming video codec, to the power of the watt as a way to understand our gadgets, to our perpetual frustration with Micro USB. These are the ways specs and standards run our digital lives.

Zuck bought himself a position of honor at Trumps inauguration. | Image: Kenny Holston-Pool/Getty ImagesMark Zuckerberg having spent months cozying up to President Donald Trump will now be looking to reap the benefits as European tech regulators bear down on Meta. The EU is expected to impose fines against the social media giant any day now, having preliminarily ruled in July 2024 that Facebook and Instagrams pay or consent advertising model violates the blocs Digital Markets Act (DMA).Zuckerberg was swift to congratulate Trump following the election results in November, making several journeys to Mar-a-Lago, tithing $1 million to Trumps inauguration fund, and embedding himself as one of several wealthy US tech leaders to foster an oligarchy around the President. Metas policies have also evolved to embrace Trumps playbook, having appointed UFC CEO and noted Trump supporter, Dana White, to its board, alongside ditching third-party fact-checkers and disbanding the Meta diversity team.Under the DMA and Digital Services Act (DSA), the EU can financially penalize Meta up to ten percent of its annual revenue $16 billion based on the companys 2024 earnings for failing to comply with regulatory requirements that Zuckerberg has accused of institutionalizing censorship across social media platforms. According to the Wall Street Journal, Meta is worried that the expected DMA ruling against Metas pay or consent model could impact its European revenue, which accounts for almost a quarter of its overall earnings, by forcing the company to allow European users to limit personalized ads on Facebook and Instagram for free.Zuckerberg has already voiced his distaste for EU regulations, having called for Trump to prevent the EU from fining American tech companies over antitrust violations in January. The Wall Street Journal reports that Zuckerberg has also directed Meta executives in recent weeks to push US trade officials to help the company fight against the anticipated EU fine. Zuckerberg himself paid a visit to Washington in February to beg officials for help.The EU is under pressure to scale back penalties against US tech companies or risk further retaliation atop of the tariffs that have already been threatened by the Trump administration. Well see how effective Zucks bootlicking has been when the EU renders its imminent decision.

A screenshot from the Palworld dating sim, called Palworld! ~More Than Just Pals~.The developers of Palworld and PUBG: Battlegrounds have announced details of dating simulators set in the universes of their respective games.The Palworld dating sim, technically called Palworld! ~More Than Just Pals~, was actually announced ahead of April Fools Day last year. But yesterday, developer Pocketpair released a second trailer for the game and published an official Steam listing, so it seems like its a bit closer to actually releasing.According to the Steam page, You, the protagonist, enroll as a transfer student in the prestigious Palpagos Private Academy. You will meet unique friends (pals) and enjoy school life through friendship and romance. Its up to you whether you stay friends with the pals, develop romantic relationships with them, or even dismember and eat them.Palworlds initial trailer stated the game would release on an April 1st, 2025, but the newly launched Steam page says its release date is to be announced.PUBGs dating sim, called Winner Winner Romantic Dinner, is an April Fools Day promotion that will let you get to know the games weapons as characters that have been personified.Winner Winner Romantic Dinner is set in a high school within the PUBG universe, where players take on the role of a student preparing for a school festival, according to a press release. The game features characters inspired by PUBGs iconic firearms, with branching storylines that lead to multiple unique endings.The PUBG dating sim will be available from April 1st to April 29th.

ChatGPTs latest image generator which has gone viral for its ability to generate uncanny recreations of Studio Ghibli art is now available for everyone, after OpenAI initially delayed the rollout beyond its paid tiers following heavy demand.CEO Sam Altman announced on X that the image generation update has now rolled out to all free users. There are usage limits, though ChatGPT itself doesnt elaborate saying only that free users have limited access to image generation. Altman has previously posted that the free tier would get three image generations a day, however, and thats exactly what the tool allowed before telling me to pay up.Powered by the companys GPT-4o model, the updated image generation initially launched on March 25th, and was always planned to be available across the ChatGPT Plus, Pro, Team, and Free subscription tiers. The free rollout was delayed just a day after launch, as Altman joked that our GPUs are melting following high demand. At one point ChatGPT picked up a million new users in a single hour.Yesterday OpenAI completed a new funding round that saw it raise another $40 billion, the largest funding round for a private tech company in history, leaving the company now valued at $300 billion.

Ampler made one of the first modern e-bikes I ever tested, and now its selling the first commercial electric bikes the Nova and Nova Pro Im aware of that can be charged over a USB-C port integrated right into the frame. Hell, that same jack will even charge your gadgets in a pinch, but not in the US because this e-bike is for Europe only.Estonia-based Ampler is best known for making reliable direct-to-consumer e-bikes from its home in Tallinn using decent, mostly off-the-shelf parts that can be serviced at any local bike shop. Adding USB-C charging from a laptop charger you might already own makes a ton of sense as Europe standardizes on the port to eliminate redundancy and reduce waste. It also makes it easier to find a compatible bike charger if you leave yours at home.You can charge the relatively small 48V 336Wh integrated batteries (removable for service only) on the Nova series e-bikes from zero to full in as little as three hours from a USB-C PD 3.1 charger operating at up to 140W. Thats very respectable. Some e-bikes fitted with a battery this same size can take five hours or longer to refill from chargers with proprietary connectors, and others fitted with larger batteries and 300-plus-watt charging bricks can bring that down to around two hours. Fortunately, 240W USB-C chargers are now starting to ship, so USB-C is well in position to compete.1/10Ampler has also tested its bikes to work with less capable Ikea and MacBook chargers that support the older USB-C PD 3.0 spec. If you dont already have such a charger, Ampler will sell you its own 140W USB-C PD 3.1 charger for 80 (about $87). And while the USB-C port is bidirectional on the Nova series, its only capable of charging your USB-C gadgets at a modest 15W. Both the 2,990 (about $3,230) Nova and 3,490 (about $3,770) Nova Pro are available in step-through and step-over frames in three sizes to accommodate most riders, with EU standard 250W motors maxing out at a basic 25km/h. Theyre essentially improved Stout and Stella models designed to be more compatible with accessories like U-locks, third-party saddles, and child carriers. The base Nova model is fitted with wide 27.5-inch tires and depends on an oily chain and derailleur for its nine-speed transmission. The Nova Pro, however, is the bike Id opt for, with its slightly larger 28-inch wheels, Gates Carbon belt drive, and a 10-speed Shimano Deore drivetrain baked into the hub.Both the Nova and Nova Pro are available to preorder starting today in the UK, EU, and Switzerland, with shipping set to begin in June. Ampler is backed by official service centers in Germany and a network of Ampler Friendly workshops scattered around Europe. Each bike comes with a two-year warranty and a 14-day return policy.See More:

Mar 30Richard LawlerThis attempt at a first orbital launch from Europe lasted about 30 seconds.Drone footage provided by Isar Aerospace (a startup incubated as part of the Bavaria One space program) shows the first test flight of its Spectrum orbital vehicle in Norway. The flight termination system was triggered before it attempted a first-stage separation, and the rocket fell into the sea, though Isar called it a success and said it has more vehicles in production.Andoya Spaceport general manager Ingun Berget told TV 2 the flight was aborted because the rocket wasnt going where it was supposed to go.Mar 28Emma RothNASA and Boeing investigate Starliners anomalies before its next crewed flightNASA via Getty ImagesNASA and Boeing are preparing the Starliner for its next flight after technical issues left the spacecraft unable to ferry its astronauts back to Earth for months. On Thursday, NASA announced that its working with Boeing to resolve Starliners in-flight anomalies before a crewed flight that could take place later this year or in early 2026.The Boeing Starliner took off successfully for the first time last June, bringing Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore to the International Space Station for what was supposed to be about a week. However, issues with the Starliners thruster, valve, and helium systems led NASA to bring the Starliner back to Earth in September, while Williams and Wilmore returned aboard SpaceXs Crew-9 earlier this month.Read Article >Mar 27Emma RothKaty Perry blasts off to space next month.On April 14th, the pop star will join Jeff Bezos fianc Lauren Sanchez and CBS host Gayle King aboard the New Shepard rocket as part of Blue Origins first all-female flight. The rocket will lift off from Launch Site One in West Texas, with a launch window opening at 9:30AM ET.Image: Blue OriginMar 18Richard LawlerSpaceX Crew-9 and the Boeing Starliner astronauts have landed safely.Right on schedule, the Dragon capsule deployed its parachutes and landed off the coast of Florida as recovery crews began the process of bringing the capsule onboard a recovery ship and extracting its crew.Image: NASA (YouTube)Mar 18Richard LawlerThe Starliner astronauts are on their way back to Earth.Last night, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, along with Crew-9 members Aleksandr Gorbunov and Nick Hague, left the ISS in a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft now that the Crew-10 mission has arrived to relieve them. NASA will resume coverage of their return mission this afternoon, as they are expected to splash down off the coast of Florida at about 5:57PM ET, ending a voyage that started last June.Mar 7Andrew LiszewskiSpaceXs latest Starship explosion lights up the sky over the Caribbean againBOCA CHICA BEACH, TEXAS MARCH 06: SpaceX Starship Flight 8 prepares for takeoff from Orbital Launch Pad A at Boca Chica beach on March 06, 2025 in Boca Chica Beach, Texas. The SpaceX Starship Flight 8 test launched and successfully caught its booster upon descent. (Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images) Screenshot: SpaceXStop us if youve heard this one before. Similar to the aftermath from SpaceXs failed seventh test flight on January 16th, yesterdays explosion following the launch of Starships eighth test flight created another spectacle in the night sky as debris rained down over parts of the Caribbean causing flights to be delayed and diverted in Florida and Turks and Caicos Islands.Following a successful launch, Starship separated from the Super Heavy booster rocket which returned to the launch pad and was captured by the launch tower for the third time. But during the upper stages ascent burn, an energetic event in the aft portion of Starship resulted in the loss of several Raptor engines, according to a statement SpaceX shared to its website last night. That caused Starship to lose attitude control and spin uncontrollably before exploding. SpaceX lost communications with the craft nine minutes and 30 seconds after the launch.Read Article >SpaceXs 8th Starship flight test ends in another explosion.SpaceX recently listed some explanations for how its seventh Starship flight test ended, and now another report is coming. Flight 8s launch and Super Heavy booster rocket separation was successful, with the booster returning to the pad.However, before reaching the engine cutoff point nearly nine minutes into the flight, the Starship began to tumble, then exploded (according to SpaceX, ...experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly and contact was lost) without attempting its planned payload deploy demo.The resulting debris field caused the FAA to issue a ground stop order at several Florida airports until 8PM ET.Europes Ariane 6 rocket takes off on its first commercial mission.Arianespace CEO Stphane Isral has said that Ariane 6 is key to giving Europe an autonomous access to space, despite delays that pushed its debut from 2020 all the way to 2024.Now its made a second successful launch, with the VA 263 mission carrying CSO-3, an optical spy satellite for the French military.Mar 4Umar ShakirSpaceXs next Starship test flight has been delayed again.SpaceX called off Starships eighth flight test yesterday after the countdown timer was put on hold at T-minus 40 seconds to resolve issues with the Super Heavy booster. The new launch will happen as soon as Wednesday, March 5th.Feb 27Emma RothJeff Bezos is sending Katy Perry to spacePhoto by Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for iHeartRadioKaty Perry will fly to space during Blue Origins next crewed mission, the Jeff Bezos-owned space company has announced. The pop star will join CBS host Gayle King and Bezoss fianc Lauren Snchez aboard the New Shepard rocket this spring, marking its 11th human flight.Along with Perry and Snchez, who is known for her work as a news anchor and correspondent, the crew will include research scientist and activist Amanda Nguyen, film producer Kerianne Flynn, and former NASA rocket scientist Aisha Bowe. Snchez first revealed her plans to lead an all-female Blue Origin mission in 2023, but she didnt mention who she would take on the flight at the time.Read Article >Feb 24Andrew LiszewskiSpaceX thinks it knows why Starship exploded on its last test flightSpaceX believes it has determined why Starship exploded during its seventh test flight. Image: SpaceXSpaceX believes it knows what caused the explosion during the seventh test flight of its Starship spacecraft and Super Heavy booster on January 16th, 2025. Fires in the aft section of Starship, located between the bottom of its liquid oxygen tank and rear heat shield, caused all but one of Starships engines to execute controlled shut down sequences leading to a loss of communication and eventually the spacecrafts safety system triggering its own destruction.The goal of the seventh test flight was to test several upgrades SpaceX made to its heavy-lift rocket system. After a successful launch and completing a full duration burn, the Super Heavy booster separated from Starship and triggered a boostback burn designed to return it to the launch site. Following a landing burn, the Super Heavy booster was successfully caught mid-air by the launch tower at Starbase for the second time.Read Article >Jan 17Andrew LiszewskiSpaceXs fiery Starship explosion put on a fantastic show but delayed and diverted flightsThe falling debris field from the SpaceX Starship explosion lit up the night sky over the Caribbean, Screenshot: YouTubeFalling debris from the SpaceX Starship explosion yesterday created what looked like a meteor shower, or a colorful fireworks show based on videos shared by people in the area, but it also delayed flights.Eight and a half minutes after launch yesterday, the upper stage of the SpaceX Starship experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly, following the separation from its booster and the start of its ascent to space.Read Article >Jan 17Richard LawlerThats not a meteor shower, that was a Starship.SpaceX noted that for this seventh Starship flight test, a significant number of tiles will be removed to stress-test vulnerable areas across the vehicle.We dont know if that had anything to do with the vehicle experiencing a rapid unscheduled disassembly during its ascent burn, but the aftermath of its destruction was visible to at least a few tourists in Turks and Caicos.Jan 17Emma RothSpaceX catches Starship booster for a second time but loses the spacecraftScreenshot: SpaceXSpaceX successfully caught its Super Heavy booster for the second time. During Starships 7th test flight from Boca Chica, Texas, Super Heavy descended into the launch towers chopstick arms, allowing it to grab the booster.Despite the successful catch, SpaceX lost communications with the Starship spacecraft mounted atop the booster. It successfully separated from the Super Heavy booster, but during that ascent phase, a couple of the engines dropped out, and then shortly thereafter, we lost communication with the vehicle, SpaceXs Kate Tice said during the stream. We are assuming that we have lost the ship.Read Article >Jan 16Thomas RickerBezos Blue Origin successfully launches SpaceX rivalNew Glenn launching from Cape Canaveral this morning. Image: Blue OriginThe billionaire space race entered a new phase today when Jeff Bezos Blue Origin successfully launched its 320-foot-tall New Glenn rocket from Cape Canaveral in Florida.At 2:03AM ET this morning, New Glenns seven reusable BE-4 engines ignited to propel the NG-1 rocket into space, with the second stage and payload reaching orbit to achieve Blue Origins primary mission goal. It also successfully activated its Blue Ring Pathfinder payload vehicle which is receiving data and performing well.Read Article >Jan 15Emma RothBlue Origin prepares for a high-stakes New Glenn launchImage: Blue OriginFollowing a scrubbed launch attempt and weather-related delays, Blue Origin will once again try to send its New Glenn rocket into space for the first time. During the attempt, the Jeff Bezos-owned space company aims to reach orbit, helping to further its goals of shuttling Project Kuiper satellites, equipment, and eventually humans into space.Launch is currently scheduled for 2:03AM ET, after a wayward boat created an unplanned hold event.Read Article >Jan 15Jess WeatherbedTwo private landers head to the moon to aid future NASA astronautsThe landers have a long journey ahead of them. Image: SpaceXA SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral on Wednesday morning carrying two private lunar landers into orbit in support of NASAs future Artemis landing crews. The Blue Ghost and Resilience landers, built by Texas-based Firefly Aerospace and Japans iSpace aerospace firms respectively, aim to provide data on the Moons environment and test technologies that will help to one day return astronauts to the lunar surface.The SpaceX launch and private lander contracts are the latest to fall under NASAs Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative the first phase of the Artemis moon exploration program thats set to launch its first crewed mission in April 2026. Following the Falcon 9s first stage successfully separating and touching down back on Earth after launch, Blue Ghost was delivered to a lunar transfer orbit by the rockets second stage about 65 minutes after liftoff, with Resilience being deployed about 30 minutes later.Read Article >Jan 14Wes DavisReturning SpaceX rockets are disrupting airline flights.Qantas airlines airline has delayed some flights to avoid the rockets splashdown in the Indian Ocean, reports The Guardian. Some at the last minute, says Ben Holland, head of Qantass operations center:While we try to make any changes to our schedule in advance, the timing of recent launches have moved around at late notice which has meant weve had to delay some flights just prior to departure.Qantas South Africa flights delayed by falling debris from SpaceX rockets, airline says[The Guardian]Jan 14Jess WeatherbedBlue Origin sets a new window for New Glenn launch.Following yesterdays launch attempt being scrubbed, the NG-1 launch was first pushed to no earlier than Tuesday and now no earlier than ThursdayThe rocket launch has been kicked down the road several times because of unfavorable conditions, including ice forming in a purge line on an auxiliary power unit during Mondays attempt.Jan 13Emma RothNew Glenn: Blue Origins big rocket launch is... scrubbedImage: Blue OriginBlue Origin is preparing for its biggest launch yet, but on Monday morning the attempt was scrubbed for technical reasons after several delays were made throughout the three-hour launch window. The window originally opened at 1AM ET.Its unclear when the Jeff Bezos-owned commercial space company will next attempt to send its 320-foot-tall New Glenn rocket into space for the first time.Read Article >Jan 11Wes DavisBlue Origins New Glenn launch is delayed again.Citing conditions at sea that are still unfavorable for booster landing, the company posted that its pushing the mission back 24 hours to a three-hour launch window starting Monday at 1AM ET.Its the second delay since its January 10th target. Blue Origin will likely livestream the launch on its website and YouTube channel. See our write-up below for more mission details.Jan 7Quentyn KennemerBlue Ghost Lunar Lander scheduled to launch on January 15thImage: Firefly AerospaceA lander hasnt successfully reached the surface of the Moons cratered Mare Crisium region since the Soviet Luna 24 probe landed there to collect samples in August 1976. But SpaceX is prepping a launch thatll send not one, but two landers there on Wednesday January 15th, Firefly Aerospace has announced.SpaceXs Falcon 9 is scheduled to launch at approximately 1:11 AM EST, and will not only have Firefly Aerospaces Blue Ghost 1 lander on board, but also the Resilience lander from the Japanese robotic spacecraft firm iSpace. It will take 45 days for the craft to journey to the Moon before it spends another 14 days carrying out surface operations. Theres no word on whether well be able to watch it take off.Read Article >

OpenAI has raised $40 billion in a new investment round led by SoftBank, vaulting the company to a $300 billion valuation. Its the largest funding round for a private tech company in history, according to CNBC.OpenAI is set to receive $10 billion up front (SoftBank will invest $7.5 billion along with $2.5 billion from an investor syndicate, according to Bloomberg). The remaining $30 billion is slated to arrive by years end, CNBC reported but only if it officially converts into a for-profit company by then. If not, it reportedly stands to lose a quarter of the deal.The funding comes just a few months after OpenAI announced Stargate, a $500 billion joint venture with backing from SoftBank, Oracle, and the Abu Dhabi fund MGX to build out massive AI datacenters over the next four years. The company has been in a full sprint lately: On Monday, CEO Sam Altman posted that OpenAI gained 1 million users in a single hour in large part thanks to a new feature called Images in ChatGPT that went viral due to its ability to produce Studio Ghibli inspired AI art. Altman also announced on Wednesday that the company would release a powerful new open-weight language model with reasoning in the coming months. The funding announcement claims that ChatGPT serves 500 million people every week.Despite the explosive growth the startup has seen thanks to ChatGPT, its still burning a ton of cash. Bloomberg recently reported that the startup is expecting to earn $12.7 billion in revenue this year alone, which is a massive jump from the $3.7 billion it earned in annualized recurring revenue last year. Still, the report claims OpenAI doesnt expect to be cash flow positive until 2029, when its projections predict a whopping $125 billion in revenue.OpenAIs funding announcement emphasized the startups goal of building AGI that benefits all of humanity. Altman has been clear that itll take a lot to pull this all offcompute, energy, global infrastructure, and yes, a staggering amount of cash. This round, the startup claims, brings it one step closer.

The release of Apples iOS 18.4 on Monday includes good news for robot vacuum owners. The update includes support for controlling robot vacuums and adding them to automations and scenes in the Apple Home app via the Matter protocol. With the official rollout of iOS 18.4, companies like Roborock, iRobot, and Ecovacs are introducing firmware updates so their robovacs will be fully compatible with Apple Home.Roborocks firmware update enhances the implementation of the Matter protocol across several of its premium robot vacuum models, according to a press release from the company. Roborock models that will be getting this expanded Matter support include the S8 MaxV Ultra, Saros Z70, Saros 10, Saros 10R, Qrevo Curv, Qrevo Edge, and Qrevo Master.Roborock says the supported models will receive the firmware update sometime between April 1st and April 10th, allowing users to control their robovacs through the Home app on devices including the iPhone, Apple Watch, HomePod, and iPad. The update will also improve connectivity and Matter support with smart home platforms based on Google Home and Amazon Alexa. (Thats of course why Matter was created in the first place to help make smart home devices platform-agnostic.)Additional models, including the Roborock S8 Max Ultra and Qrevo Slim, will be getting Matter support in updates scheduled to be released in the upcoming weeks and months. iRobot announced that the Roomba Combo 10 Max robot and Auto Wash Dock, released last August, will be its first robovac compliant with Matter protocol and compatible with the Apple Home ecosystem. Users will be able to start, stop, and schedule cleanings for specific rooms using the Home app or voice commands through Siri. Several of Ecovacs robot vacuums, including the Deebot X2, X2 Combo, T50, T50 Max, and X8, will also be getting Matter 1.4 firmware updates starting today. The updates will start rolling out across these models in phases, Ecovacs Associate Brand Marketing Director, Michelle Jones, told The Verge in an email.Apple originally announced support for robot vacuums in Apple Home through Matter during WWDC 2024 as one of the many changes coming with iOS 18, though the features will be limited to power control, switching between vacuuming and mopping modes, and specifying which rooms to clean. Matter doesnt support more advanced cleaning features like mapping and configuring zones for robovacs to avoid, so those functions might only be available through each manufacturers own app.See More:

Smart plugs are great, but unfortunately, they cant automate everything. Thankfully, there is a cheap cube-like contraption called the SwitchBot Bot that can add a touch of modern functionality to your garage door, light switch, and other traditional devices. It would normally run you $29.99, but right now you can buy it directly from SwitchBot for just $20.99 ($9 off) using promo code BKLP15 or at Amazon for $22.49 (about $8 off) if youre a Prime member.RelatedSwitchBots smart switch button pusher is incredibly easy to set up: just use the included tape to mount it to a standard button or rocker switch, which will let you use your phone to control devices you would typically turn on and off via a button. It works with compatible garage door openers and light switches, along with coffee makers, rice cookers, pet feeders, monitors, laundry machines, and other button-based gadgets. It also lets you create schedules and, when paired with a SwitchBot hub, issue voice commands via Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, and Siri. It even supports Matter, though you will need to own the latest SwitchBot Hub 2 to take advantage of the newer smart home standard.SwitchBot Smart Switch Button Pusher$21$3030% off$21If youve ever wished you had a robot that could push a button for you, thats precisely what the SwitchBot Bot does. Its simple, smart, and works on anything with a button. Stick it on the device you want to turn on or off, and youre set.$21 at SwitchBot (with code BKLP15)$22 at Amazon (Prime exclusive)There are some caveats to bear in mind, though. You cant use the Bot on toggle switches, for one thing. Also, while the button pusher supports Bluetooth, youll have to buy a separate hub if you want to control it remotely. That said, the SwitchBot Hub Mini is currently on sale at Amazon for $27.99 ($12 off), which is worth considering.See More:

Microsoft is making its AI features widely available on Copilot Plus PCs equipped with Intel and AMD chips. One of the most notable of these features will be Live Captions, which translates audio to English subtitles from dozens of different languages in real time.Microsoft first started testing Live Captions on Intel and AMD devices last December, and its now available through the latest Windows 11 update. The update also includes Cocreator, an AI tool in Paint that creates an image based on a text description and what youre currently drawing. On top of that, Microsoft is also expanding access to its AI image editor and generator in the Photos app.These features were previously only available on Copilot Plus PCs with Qualcomm chips. Microsoft started testing Recall, an AI feature that takes screenshots of your activity on a Copilot Plus PC and lets you search through them, with Intel and AMD devices last year, though theres still no word when it will become widely available.Additionally, Microsoft is updating Voice Access an accessibility feature that lets people control their PC with their voice on Qualcomm-powered Copilot Plus PCs. Microsoft says Voice Access users on these devices will now be able to communicate with their PCs using more descriptive and flexible language. Its also adding the ability to translate 27 languages into Simplified Chinese. Microsoft says it plans to roll out both of these features to Intel and AMD devices in the future.

Following months of testing, Plex has started to roll out its redesigned mobile app to Android and iOS devices, and it will arrive to everyone within the next week. The new app comes with an updated navigation system that should make it easier to access different parts of the app and find content to watch, along with a dedicated tab for centralized media libraries.It also has a button in the top-right corner of the screen for your Watchlist and more artwork across detail pages for shows and movies, as well as cast and crew profiles. In a post on the Plex forum, the company outlines a ton of improvements it has made to the app since the preview, including faster load times and scrolling, the addition of a sleep timer, and picture-in-picture support.Plex plans on rolling out a way to download a whole season at once, the ability to cast to more devices, UI improvements for ratings and reviews, and more. Its also working on a revamp of its TV app, which it started testing earlier this year.The new app isnt the only big change Plex has made this month. The company announced that its raising the price of its Plex Pass to $6.99 a month on April 29th and will also start requiring a subscription to stream content while away from home.

Apple has released iOS 18.4, and one of the biggest features is priority notifications, which use Apple Intelligence to highlight important notifications that may require your immediate attention, according to Apples patch notes.The priority notifications will appear at the top of your notification stack on your Home Screen, as shown in the below picture from Apples website.The update (as well as the just-released iPadOS 18.4, and macOS Sequoia 15.4) also expands the availability of Apple Intelligence to many new languages, including French, German, Italian, Portuguese (Brazil), Spanish, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese (simplified) as well as localized English for Singapore and India, according to an Apple press release. EU users will also be able to use Apple Intelligence on iPhone and iPad.Apple Intelligence is now available on Vision Pro as well as part of visionOS 2.4. And Apple is launching a Vision Pro app for iOS with todays software updates to help you find content for the headset.Other notable features in todays software updates include a recipes section for News Plus subscribers and some changes to Photos.

The Echo Show 8 is one of the devices Alexa Plus is currently available on.Amazon has officially launched its AI-powered Alexa Plus but its only available to a small number of customers to start, Amazon spokesperson Kristy Schmidt confirmed to The Verge. As shown on its early access page, Alexa Plus also doesnt come with all the features Amazon showcased during its recent devices event, like the ability to brainstorm gift ideas, order groceries with your voice, or access Alexa Plus in your browser.There are some other missing features that dont yet meet Amazons standards for public release, according to a report from The Washington Post. Alexa Plus still cant order takeout from Grubhub using context from a conversation, nor can it identify family members around the house and give them reminders to do chores. You wont be able to access Kids Plus features, such as Stories With Alexa, either.For now, Alexa Plus is only available on Echo Show 8, 10, 15, and 21 devices. Amazons Alexa Plus early access page shows that the assistant can currently do things like order an Uber, identify objects, draft emails, and search for particular products.Alexa Plus can also summarize uploaded documents at launch, but Amazons early access page notes that its still working on rolling out the ability to delete these files. In the meantime, you can always contact Customer Service to have original attachments deleted, Amazon says. Amazon announced Alexa Plus in February, which is available on most Echo devices for $19.99 per month, or for free through Prime. You can sign up to be notified about early access for Alexa Plus on Amazons website. Were releasing a bunch of features to start, and well continue to launch new features in waves, Schmidt said

Amazon has launched a new AI model, Nova Act, which is designed to perform tasks like online shopping in your browser. For now its only available to developers in a research preview, but Amazon is also expanding access to its other Nova AI models through a web portal, making them easier to find and use.Nova Act is a new model whose function sounds similar to OpenAIs Operator agent. Amazon says Act can carry out web searches, make purchases, or answer questions about whats on the screen, including the option to perform tasks on a schedule. It can also recognize more detailed instructions such as telling it dont accept the insurance upsell while making a purchase. Act is currently only accessible to developers, but Amazon says its already being put to use carrying out some online tasks in the upgraded Alexa Plus assistant.Act is the first product to be released by Amazons Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) Labs, which says its dream is for agents to perform wide-ranging, complex, multi-step tasks like organizing a wedding or handling complex IT tasks to increase business productivity. Amazon and OpenAI are far from the only companies chasing AI agents right now, in the hope that people are willing to pay for AI assistants capable of performing tasks rather than simply answering questions or generating Ghibli art.An Amazon demonstration of Nova Act using Google Maps to check biking distance to a train station. Image: AmazonAct joins the other five Nova models first announced in December 2024, which include a trio of understanding models, along with image and video generators. Rather than claiming to offer the most powerful AI models around, Amazon has instead emphasized the speed and value of the Nova suite, which it says are at least 75 percent less expensive than comparable rivals.Amazon is now adding a way for developers and other people in the US to more directly access these models: a website that lets them use the models to answer queries or generate content. The models were previously only available through Amazon Bedrock, an AI model platform within Amazon Web Services that offers access to Nova alongside third-party models from DeepSeek, Anthropic, Meta, and more. Rohit Prasad, SVP of Amazon AGI, says the site is meant to let developers quickly test their ideas with Nova models, and then implement them at scale in Amazon Bedrock.See More: