Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Talkie Soulful Character AI, Chai, iGirl: AI Girlfriend, Romantic AI, Genesia – AI Friend & Partner, Anima: My Virtual AI Boyfriend, Replika, Anima: AI Friend, Mimico – Your AI Friends, EVA AI Chat Bot & Soulmate, and CrushOn.AI are not just the names of 11 chatbots ready to
Read MoreImage: Laura Normand / The Verge Microsoft has been gradually moving Xbox away from the idea of a single piece of hardware in recent years, with ambitions to reach billions of gamers across consoles, PCs, and mobile devices. Now it’s officially bringing four Xbox-exclusive games to PS5 and Nintendo Switch amid an “Xbox Everywhere” effort
Read MoreImage: Blizzard Diablo IV will be the first Activision Blizzard game coming to Xbox Game Pass, launching on the service on March 28th. Once Microsoft completed its billion-dollar acquisition of Activision Blizzard, fans speculated that its games would arrive immediately on the subscription service. Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer said in October of last year,
Read MoreThe Verge It’s official: Microsoft is bringing some Xbox-exclusive games to PS5 and Nintendo Switch. It’s part of a broader strategy shift inside Microsoft’s gaming business to grow games beyond just the company’s Xbox consoles. “We’ve made the decision that we’re going to take four games to the other consoles,” reveals Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil
Read MoreThe Verge Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass service now has 34 million subscribers. That’s up 36 percent from the 25 million Microsoft previously reported more than two years ago. Microsoft revealed the new 34 million figure in an official Xbox podcast today, as part of an announcement that some Xbox exclusives are coming to the PS5
Read MorePhoto by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Microsoft is teasing the potential for unique Xbox hardware in the future and a powerful next-gen console. Four previously exclusive Xbox games are officially coming to the PS5 and Nintendo Switch soon, and Microsoft wants to reassure Xbox fans that it’s still very much invested in the future
Read MoreEnterprise developer software firm Perforce will buy data management provider Delphix for an undisclosed sum, the companies said on Wednesday. The type of data management tools that Delphix offers — most notably virtualization and masking technology that allows for devops testing without misusing personally identifiable information or sensitive corporate data — makes it easier for
Read MorePeloton will continue supporting Apple GymKit integration after customers reacted negatively to the fitness company’s plans to axe the feature. Customer outcry scores a win for GymKit on Peloton On Monday, Peloton announced that it would no longer be supporting Apple’s GymKit health data sharing service on Apple Watch. It wanted to usher users into
Read MoreImage: OpenAI OpenAI is launching a new video-generation model, and it’s called Sora. The AI company says Sora “can create realistic and imaginative scenes from text instructions.” The text-to-video model allows users to create photorealistic videos up to a minute long — all based on prompts they’ve written. Sora is capable of creating “complex scenes
Read MoreTexas-based Intuitive Machines’ inaugural moon mission began early Thursday morning, heading toward what could be the first U.S. lunar landing in more than 50 years. From a report: Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C lander launched from Florida on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, beginning the IM-1 mission. “It is a profoundly humbling moment for all of us at
Read MoreTwo plains zebras in the savannah looking at the camera in Seronera, Serengeti National Park, Tanzania. | Photo by: Sergio Pitamitz / VWPics / Universal Images Group via Getty Images Roughly half of the land targeted by a major tech-backed forest restoration campaign in Africa was never meant to be forest, according to a new
Read MoreCredit: C. Scott Brown / Android Authority Google is launching Gemini 1.5 today, with Gemini 1.5 Pro being available to developers and enterprise users. The firm claims that Gemini 1.5 Pro operates on par with Gemini 1.0 Ultra. Gemini 1.5 Pro reportedly beat Gemini 1.0 Pro on 87% of benchmark tests. Time really flies, but
Read More“The godfather is returning,” Scout CEO Scott Keogh said. “If you think about it, Scout sort of invented the segment.” | Image: Scout The VW-owned brand broke ground on its new factory in South Carolina, where it eventually will churn out hundreds of thousands of rugged, battery-powered off-roaders. And that includes “chunky buttons.” Continue reading…
Read MoreAI fakes are a disinformation menace. But some politicians, executives, and academics see them as a way to extend their reach.
Read MoreThe Verge As part of my job as a tech writer, and as part of my ongoing efforts to get organized at some point, I’ve tested a whole pile of note-taking apps through the years: the simple, the sophisticated, the quirky, the AI-powered, and on it goes. It’s a popular app category, and there’s no
Read MoreAn anonymous reader shares a report: For some Apple Vision Pro buyers, the honeymoon is already over. It’s no coincidence that there’s been an uptick on social media of Vision Pro owners saying they’re returning their $3,500 headsets in the past few days. Apple allows you to return any product within 14 days of purchase
Read MoreThe Apple Original box office hit “Napoleon” will premiere on Apple TV+ at the beginning of March. Image Credit: Apple “Napoleon” had a theatrical release in November 2023, just before Thanksgiving. Apple had signed the order for the project in early 2021, back when it was still known as “Kitbag.” The Apple Original depicts the
Read MoreWhile we await the launch of Windows 12, Windows 11 Pro is the best version of the operating system you can get. It’s a big step up from the free version you will have automatically received and usually runs you $200 for the upgrade. But we occasionally catch good deals on it, and this is
Read MoreEimear Gunn of Kyndryl tells SiliconRepublic.com how workers can keep up as tech continues to advance and why automation, while helpful, is not a ‘silver bullet’. Read more: ‘Those who are unprepared for changes in work will be left behind’
Read MoreAn anonymous reader shares a report: Applying to some of the most common customer and food service jobs in the country now requires a long and bizarre personality quiz featuring blue humanoid aliens, which tells employers how potential hires rank in terms of “agreeableness” and “emotional stability.” If you’ve applied to a job at FedEx,
Read MoreIt’s as if it’s Android Tablet Deals Day on Amazon — with a host of slates dropping to killer prices. Two in particular caught our eye, with significant markdowns on the OnePlus Pad and the Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 FE. Both are solid mid-range tablets and are just $399.99 today. The OnePlus Pad is the
Read MoreIllustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge Meta said Thursday that it will start charging a 30 percent fee when advertisers pay to boost the visibility of their posts in Facebook’s and Instagram’s iOS apps. The change, which goes into effect later this month, stems from a 2022 App Store update where Apple extended its
Read MoreGemini is still new — and it’s already getting an upgrade. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Barely two months after launching Gemini, the large language model Google hopes will bring it to the top of the AI industry, the company is already announcing its successor. Google is launching Gemini 1.5 today and
Read MoreThe model delivers dramatically enhanced performance, with a breakthrough in long-context understanding across modalities.
Read MoreWhen thoughts turn to the modernization and decarbonization of our transportation infrastructure, one imagines it to be dominated by exotic materials. EV motors and wind turbine generators need magnets made with rare earth metals (which turn out to be not all that rare), batteries for cars and grid storage need lithium and cobalt, and of
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