Author: News Room

Google says it has pulled AI model Gemma from its AI Studio platform after a Republican senator complained the model, designed for developers, “fabricated serious criminal allegations” about her.In a post on X, Google’s official news account said the company had “seen reports of non-developers trying to use Gemma in AI Studio and ask it factual questions.” AI Studio is a platform for developers and not a conventional way for regular consumers to access Google’s AI models. Gemma is specifically billed as a family of AI models for developers to use, with variants for medical use, coding, and evaluating text…

As 5G tech becomes the norm across the cellular world, offering faster speeds and more reliable connections, choosing the very best 5G phone has become essential. Whether you’re streaming high-definition videos, gaming on the go, or expect an upcoming phone to be fully future-proof, we’ve included options to fit every budget here. Firstly, you need to be living somewhere with 5G coverage, which, as 5G has become more common, is increasingly widespread. If you live in the middle of nowhere and rarely venture into a large city, you won’t see the benefits of 5G. You’ll also need to sign up…

Logitech’s Alto Keys K98M mechanical keyboard is now available in North America after its initial launch in China and other select markets. The $149.99 Alto Keys K98M is an almost full-size 1800-layout keyboard, offering a slightly compact design that maintains a number pad. But what makes the K98M special for a mass-market Logitech board is that it’s fully hot-swappable with standard Cherry MX-compatible key switches and uses an internal gasket mount for a semi-soft typing feel. Logitech is taking some belated cues from enthusiast keyboards.The Alto Keys has a two-piece plastic case with a translucent top portion and opaque bottom…

The Microsoft Zune is mostly just a footnote in tech history. Microsoft spent years — and vast sums of money — trying to create a true competitor to Apple’s iPod, without ever coming close to actually pulling it off. The Zune was simply too little, too late.You know what’s surprising about the Zune, though? Microsoft made a lot of the right bets with the Zune. The company saw — well ahead of most of the rest of the tech industry — that adding social features could make its product stickier. It understood that these pocketable devices might eventually be useful…

There is no more chaotic activity than willfully entering a grocery store without a list.I know. Some people thrive on vibes-based grocery shopping. They can come up with meals on the fly, buy what’s on sale and work around that, or follow some bizarre “3-3-2-2-1” rule or whatever I’m always seeing on Instagram. I am not one of these people.But while I know a list is essential for my survival at the store, I’ve never been able to work out a reliable meal planning and grocery list-making system. Every week I write out a list by hand, and every week…

Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 104, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome, happy belated Halloween, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.)This week, I’ve been reading about lotteries and Jennifer Lawrence and religious AI, shame-watching Finding Mr. Christmas, turning MyMind into my daily journal / commonplace book, learning a lot about Taylor Sheridan for some reason, letting James Hoffman teach me about cold brew, attempting to replace most of my laptop time with iPad Pro time, and trying my very best to not…

Ayaneo is best known for its retro gaming handhelds, but the company has now confirmed its first phone will be coming soon. Ayaneo briefly teased that it was working on a phone back in August during the event where it unveiled the dual-screen Pocket DS. Of course, many of the company’s gaming handhelds run a custom take on Android, so putting a cellular modem in one isn’t much of a stretch.We don’t know much about the handheld. The video offers a quick glimpse at a pretty standard-looking rectangle. There are dual cameras in the top-left corner, and you can make…

There are plenty of good smartwatches out there, and Google’s last-gen Pixel Watch 3 is one of them. Right now, the 45mm / Wi-Fi model is available at Amazon, Walmart, and Target for $199.99 ($100 off), which is a new low price and $150 less than the Pixel Watch 4. In her review, our own Victoria Song noted how impressed she was by the larger size’s lengthy battery life, as well as how versatile a companion it was to Android phones, particularly Pixel devices. For example, you can use the watch as a remote for your Google TV, download offline…

Best Buy’s early Black Friday deals are already live, with discounts to be had on everything from smartphones and gaming PCs to wireless headphones. If you’re in the market for a new 4K TV, Best Buy is also offering an exclusive doorbuster deal on LG’s 48-inch B5 OLED, bringing the price of the 4K TV down to just $529.99 ($770 off) for a limited time. You can also grab the 55-inch model from Amazon, Best Buy, and LG for around $896 ($604 off), an all-time low.LG’s entry-level B Series offers one of the most affordable ways to jump into the…

Whenever I review a phone, one of the first things I do after setting it up is charge it to full and then just… let it run, using it as my only phone for as long as I can, resisting every urge to charge it along the way.The Oppo Find X9 Pro lasted for three full days. 74 and a half hours, to be a little more exact. I couldn’t quite believe it either, so I ran it again. This time I turned on the power-hungry always-on display, and the phone ran for 50-odd hours before the battery hit low…

Stumped by the sheer amount of choice when it comes to the very best noise-cancelling headphones? Don’t worry – we’ve done all the legwork by testing out all the big brand ANC headphones on sale, plus plenty of lesser-known models, so by the time you’ve scrolled down, you should have a solid shortlist. From Sony and Bose, to Apple and Sennheiser, there are all sorts of in-ear and over-ear noise-cancelling headphones fighting for the coveted spot in (or around) your lugholes. Some excel at the noise-cancellation part. Others provide better sound. And some do both. They’re all available across different…

Most people claw their mitts around a gamepad when playing games. One controller rules them all, with a D-pad, buttons, thumbsticks and triggers. But life wasn’t always so tidy. Early arcades were a mad lab of experimentation – a mess of oddball controls while everyone figured out what ‘standard’ could be. Take Defender. This hard-as-nails sideways scrolling Space Invaders had a stick that only went up and down, along with a bevvy of buttons for thrust, fire, reverse, smart bomb and hyperspace. Meanwhile, Tempest had you spin a dial to whirl a spaceship around 3D vector webs, while Centipede’s trackball sent your Bug Blaster skittering at speed around…