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Earlier this week, WinFuture reported it, and today, Bloomberg is reporting it too, saying that the move “will happen as early as this week.” The change is apparently happening as part of a broader shifts at Oppo, OnePlus’ parent company.
Applications open on July 22nd at 10AM ET, and you’ll need to have a Switch 2 and an active Nintendo Switch Online membership to participate. Applications will be accepted in “the order that they are received,” so if you want a chance to try it, be ready on this page that day.
Selections will be announced on August 7th at 9AM ET. The test will run at specific times from August 21st through August 23rd.
[The Duskbloods]
On Pablo Torre Finds Out, comedian Dan Soder talks about the backlash that pushed EA to remove microtransaction paywalls it had added to single-player modes.
We’ll see how long that holds, but as the crew of Shutdown Fullcast points out, EA could sell things people want, like a SWAC addition, or what I want: a Pony Excess DLC pack that lets me recruit Eric Dickerson with cash and cars.
AI data center projects are continuing to pop up across the US, with frequent opposition from locals concerned about their impact. Here are a few recent articles about the projects:
Along with his usual morning tweets in support of right-wing politics, against certain immigrants to the US, and boosting data centers, the sometimes-trillionaire writes, “Once we have completed our review for security vulnerabilities, we will make the entire codebase of 𝕏 open source, with no exceptions.” (He didn’t mention how Grok Build had apparently made exposing your code a little too easy.)
He also tweeted separately about its mysteriously busted algorithm, saying that it “…barraging you with similar content due to a few likes” is another problem.
Matt Reeves’ follow-up to The Batman has been delayed once again, and Warner Bros. now plays for the film to debut on Feb. 18, 2028. In the meantime, you can check out this new screen test from the film.
Spotify gave free users the ability to separate out their kids’ listening habits in May, but limited the initial rollout to Argentina, Colombia, Denmark, Italy, New Zealand, and Sweden. Now Spotify is expanding the feature to free users in the US, UK, Australia, France, Germany, and the Netherlands.
As Polygon reports, buying something from Crunchyroll’s store will require a Mega or Ultimate subscription, which got a price increase earlier this year. The basic Fan subscription tier isn’t included. Crunchyroll also says its updated store will focus more on convention-style products, like “collectibles, curated drops, and limited-release products.”
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In an interview with A Rabbit’s Foot, the man who loves pushing technological boundries enough to anger his fans with controversial remasters had this to say about people who oppose artificial intelligence in film making:
“It’s very much like sitting here saying, ‘Well, I believe the horse and the buggy is really where it’s at. These cars, they break down, they need gas, there’s all kinds of problems with them and pretty soon they’ll be making them into tanks, and then they’ll be killing people. It’s terrible.’ There’s nothing you can do about it. That’s progress, it’s the future.”
The original 1080P Elfin Flip Plus mustered just 500 ISO lumens of brightness, but the two new models bump that to a more useable 1,600 ISO lumens thanks to an upgrade to a triple laser light source. The $799 Elfin Flip Laser is still limited to 1080P, but the $999 Elfin Flip 4K also gets a welcome boost in resolution.
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Alongside an upgraded version of its towering Skelly, Home Depot is introducing several new animatronics this year, including a $179 six-foot-tall hipster bartender — err, mixologist — with tattoos and a well coiffed beard and mustache. John the Last Call Mixologist also stirs a drink in a hand while speaking one of five different prerecorded phrases.
If you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement.
Apple’s on-device generative AI service has officially been registered with China’s cyberspace regulator, clearing a major hurdle for device rollout. To navigate local regulations, Apple is tapping domestic tech giants, integrating Alibaba’s Qwen and Baidu’s AI models to power the experience for Chinese users, as reported last year.
Meanwhile, Apple and the EU are waiting to see who blinks first.
If you are, Withings’ BodyScan 2 is available to buy starting today. Why is the scale $600? Well, it measures 60 biomarkers, and it’s positioned as a “longevity station.”
It also offers noninvasive metabolic metrics like glucose resilience via bioimpedance spectroscopy and foot sweat. Yes, foot sweat.
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The $53 billion offer was submitted earlier this month, but Stripe and private equity firm Advent have yet to receive a response. They “are seeking to advance discussions in the coming weeks,” according to sources speaking to Reuters.
The largest US electrical grid operator, PJM, will add $6.3 billion in electricity costs for consumers across 13 states due to the booming energy demands of data centers. The rate hikes will hit millions of households and businesses over the next two years, adding to the $29 billion in costs that data centers have added to PJM regions since 2024.
OpenAI, on its status website, confirmed that there were “elevated errors” affecting ChatGPT. During the outage, when I tried to access ChatGPT on the web, all that loaded was an error message. The company confirmed impacted services had recovered at 8:39PM ET.
Update: OpenAI says the issues are resolved.
[OpenAI Status]
Apple’s lawsuit said that OpenAI “never responded” to outreach in February. But NBC News reports OpenAI did respond, though communication stopped after one of Apple’s lawyers apparently mixed up OpenAI staffers with the last names Wang and Chang.
The WGAE and WGAW are jointly filing a lawsuit alleging the merger violates antitrust law, following a similar lawsuit filed by a dozen state attorneys general. The WGA says it has “opposed the merger since day one,” adding:
[T]he proposed Paramount-Warner Bros. merger would reduce competition between buyers of film and television writing services, giving the combined entity increased incentive and ability to suppress writers’ compensation, erode deal terms, create new barriers for emerging writers to build sustainable careers and diminish the volume and diversity of content reaching audiences.
Disclosure: The Verge’s editorial staff is also unionized with the Writers Guild of America, East.
Judge James Boasberg temporarily blocked a State Department policy restricting visas to foreign officials who “demand that American tech platforms adopt global content moderation policies.” Boasberg wrote that a group representing tech researchers could likely prove it violates the First Amendment by categorizing research as “foreign censorship” based on viewpoint.
[CourtListener]
The AI translations are expanding to Japanese, Korean, French, German, and Italian on Instagram and Bahasa, Indonesian, Arabic, French, Vietnamese, and Thai on Facebook, according to Instagram boss Adam Mosseri.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, the partnership also includes new episodes of Mythical Kitchen and Last Meals, and follows similar deals to bring other YouTube shows to Netflix, like content from digital media brands. Mythical Entertainment’s shows will begin premiering on the same day on both platforms starting September 7th.
[The Hollywood Reporter]
Here it is, given to Bloomberg:
While we take these allegations seriously, we’re not aware of any evidence that this complaint has merit. We believe in fair competition and allowing people the freedom to work wherever they choose, and we’re focused on building innovative technology that empowers people everywhere.
Apple sued OpenAI on Friday, alleging the company stole hardware secrets.
“Claude for Teachers” gives verified US educators complimentary Claude access, including “a library of teaching skills and a direct connection to evidence-based curricula, mapped to academic standards in all 50 states,” Anthropic wrote. It’s part of a recent push by both Anthropic and OpenAI to introduce education-specific AI tools, for university students and beyond.
[X (formerly Twitter)]
On particularly bad days, it should pair great with the also-new meteor emoji. There’s also going to be a pickle.
Check out a preview of the new additions, which are expected to be widely available in the spring, in this post from Unicode Emoji Subcommittee-Chair Jennifer Daniel.
