The rising cost of living and the reliance on internet connections during the COVID-19 pandemic led to the creation of the Affordable Connectivity Program back in 2021. This program provides a $30 monthly subsidy for internet service from a participating ISP and a one-time $100 credit towards the purchase of a computer, tablet, or phone.
Read MoreIvan Mehta / TechCrunch: X has quietly removed the ability for paying subscribers to set an NFT as a profile picture, a feature Twitter launched in early 2022 — On Tuesday, Elon Musk’s X wrote about a grand vision for the company in 2024, which includes launching peer-to-peer payments and more AI-powered tools.
Read MoreCredit: Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority A new version of Google Messages appears to be hiding a new feature. When enabled, the feature allows you to take four-second videos and send them as GIFs. The feature will allow the user to choose the front or back cameras for the GIF. Back in December 2023, Google
Read MoreGet live, up-to-the-minute reports of all the products, trends, and weird stuff we’re seeing at CES in Las Vegas.
Read MoreCredit: Aya Neo The Aya Neo Next Lite is the first third-party handheld to use Valve’s Steam OS platform. This marks a change from other non-Valve PC handhelds, which typically run Windows. The Steam Deck wasn’t the first PC-based handheld console, but it was the first one to use Valve’s Steam OS platform instead of
Read MoreThe Ayaneo Next Lite. | Image: Ayaneo The first non-Valve device with SteamOS preinstalled is about to ship: Ayaneo just announced its next handheld gaming PC, the Next Lite, is running the open-source operating system. Ayaneo is pitching the Next Lite as a cost-effective option, but we don’t know too much about the device just
Read MoreLet’s be honest; sometimes, change can seem overwhelming. That’s true even for something as simple as switching phone service. The good news is switching cell phone carriers doesn’t have to be complicated. In this guide, we explain how to switch your phone carrier while keeping your number, as well as what you’ll need to know
Read MoreFirst, we got AI-powered bird feeders that can tell you who is visiting your backyard, and now, a new pair of AI-supported binoculars can identify over 9,000 species of birds and other wildlife while you’re hiking in the woods or roaming the halls of CES. Okay, there are no birds at CES (and not many
Read MoreSarah Perez / TechCrunch: Sensor Tower: Netflix Games downloads rose 180% YoY to 81.2M globally across the App Store and Google Play in 2023, with Q4 accounting for 53% of downloads — Just over two years ago, Netflix announced it would enter a new business: gaming. Amid a mobile gaming market dominated by free …
Read MoreRachel Metz / Bloomberg: OpenAI launches GPT Store for paid users to share and find custom chatbots, says users made 3M chatbots so far, and it will launch a revenue share program in Q1 — The store will feature a bot leaderboard, and will eventually introduce payments. — OpenAI has launched an online store …
Read MoreThe US is in the midst of the largest Covid surge since Omicron, but with minimal testing and good population immunity, the wave is largely being ignored.
Read MoreConfiguration options for the Apple Vision Pro are starting to take shape — but Apple needs to keep things as simple as possible at first.
Read MoreCredit: Ryan Haines / Android Authority Arm is reportedly aiming to launch an Apple-beating smartphone CPU this year. The CPU is codenamed Blackhawk and will ostensibly be called the Cortex-X5. We’d expect the MediaTek Dimensity 9400 and Samsung Exynos 2500 to offer this CPU. Android phone processors have generally played second fiddle to iPhone chipsets
Read MoreKyle Wiggers / TechCrunch: OpenAI launches ChatGPT Team, a new subscription plan for teams up to 149 people, for $30 per user per month, or $25 per user per month billed annually — OpenAI is launching a new subscription plan for ChatGPT, its viral AI-powered chatbot, aimed at smaller, self-service-oriented teams.
Read More[Bruce Perens] isn’t very happy with the current state of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS), and an article by [Rupert Goodwins] expounds on this to explain Open Source’s need for a new mission in 2024, and beyond. He suggests a focus shift from software, to data. The internet as we know it and all
Read MoreNuphy has upgraded our favorite portable keyboard — here’s the lowdown.
Read MoreApple’s latest iPhones support Qi2 wireless charging and Satechi has chosen CES 2024 to unveil two new charging stands.
Read MoreThe settlement comes over three years after Google and Apple banned X-Mode Social’s tracking software from their app stores. | Image: The Verge / Alex Castro The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has prohibited Outlogic, the massive US data broker formerly known as X-Mode Social, from selling or sharing sensitive information that can be used
Read MoreCatch Up is supposed to make it faster to get up to speed on all the Slack stuff you care — and don’t care — about. | Image: Slack Slack is adding a new feature to its mobile app, meant to help you triage all your unread stuff a little faster. It’s called Catch Up, and
Read MoreIllustration: The Verge OpenAI’s GPT Store, where users can share their custom chatbots, finally launched Wednesday after a monthslong delay. The store brings more potential use cases to ChatGPT and expands OpenAI’s ecosystem beyond what the company builds for customers. Since announcing the GPT Builder program in November, OpenAI said more than 3 million bots
Read MoreA new app store from the creator of ChatGPT invites companies to build custom “GPTs” that add functionality to the chatbot. OpenAI isn’t saying how app builders will get paid.
Read MoreApple Music Classical is coming to more countries later this month, but you still can’t listen offline.
Read MoreThe US Securities and Exchange Commission is under pressure to explain itself after its X account was compromised, leading to wild swings in the bitcoin market.
Read MoreVictrola’s Stream Onyx, a turntable that can stream vinyl straight to your Sonos system, is down to just $360. | Image by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge At CES this week, Victrola announced the forthcoming Stream Sapphire, a new Works with Sonos turntable that can also stream records to thousands of devices, including your
Read MoreSkiers descend a slope of artificial snow below Grubigstein mountain during unseasonably warm weather on January 16, 2023 near Ehrwald, Austria. | Photo by Philipp Guelland/Getty Images Snowpack is shrinking across the Northern Hemisphere thanks to climate change, and many communities could soon face a “snow-loss cliff,” according to the most comprehensive assessment yet. The
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