Author: News Room

Whether you’re a PC or console gamer, we’ve all loved, fought and died on countless imaginary worlds. From Grand Theft Auto to The Witcher, the most special video games are filled with beautiful vistas, wonderful characters and truly memorable missions. Whether it’s dispatching Mongol invaders on Ghost of Tsushima’s eponymous island, wandering the irradiated wasteland of the US Capitol in Fallout 3 or indulging in a game of Gwent on The Witcher’s Skellige Isles, these lands hold a special place in our hearts that make us homesick for a world we’ve never physically visited. So when DLC packs offer up…

It’s been rumored for months now that Apple was planning to release a device early this year that would serve as a smart home hub with a display, similar to devices that its main smart home competitors, Amazon and Google, have both offered for years. The device is expected to be the first Apple smart home hub with support for Apple Intelligence. It’s also rumored to run on tvOS and support native Apple apps like Calendar, Notes, and, according to recent rumors, compatibility with Apple’s Messages app.Apple said last week that its upgraded smart assistant is taking “longer than we…

Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 74, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome, sorry in advance for my terrible TV taste, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.) This week, I’ve been reading about Bybit, Walmart, and sports analytics; devouring the first season of Running Point and the seventh season of Drive to Survive; listening to Scam Inc and Tested; obsessing over my progress in Fantasy Hike; getting the hang of Tiny Wings again; and making a lot of pancakes for a toddler who…

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) is still pushing to break up Google, according to a revised proposal filed Friday with federal Judge Amit Mehta. As in its proposal last year, the DOJ says Google should be forced to sell its web browser, Google Chrome, and potentially Android, as punishment for being a monopolist, as Judge Mehta found last year, reports The New York Times.In its new filing, the DOJ calls Google “an economic goliath” that it says “has denied users of a basic American value—the ability to choose in the marketplace.” To deal with that, “Google must divest the…

Warner Bros. Home Entertainment is aware of potential issues affecting select DVD titles manufactured between 2006 – 2008, and the company has been actively working with consumers to replace defective discs.Where possible, the defective discs have been replaced with the same title. However, as some of the affected titles are no longer in print or the rights have expired, consumers have been offered an exchange for a title of like-value.Consumers with affected product can contact the customer support team at [email protected]. Read the full article here

The biggest Apple news of the week was the announcement of a sky blue MacBook Air and an M3-powered iPad Air; however, in the deals world, it was all about the Apple Watch Series 10. That’s because, right now, Apple’s flagship smartwatch is on sale at Amazon, Walmart, and Best Buy in its 42mm base configuration with Wi-Fi starting at $299 ($100 off), its lowest price to date. You can also grab it in the larger 46mm variant at Amazon and Best Buy for $329 (also $100 off).Apple’s latest mainline watch is a pretty minor update of the Series 9,…

Samsung finally made a folding device I can get behind. No, not a phone. I’m still unconvinced by foldable phones – doubly so by the ones designed so you can run two apps simultaneously. I think one app running at once is often too much for a phone, given how much mine steals my attention. And I’m also not talking about the Flexible Cabinbag, a massive folding tablet that can disguise itself as a briefcase, like the world’s most stupid Transformer. Instead, the folding gadget that’s caught my eye is Samsung Flex Gaming. Let’s get one thing out of the way: the name…

When the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 arrives, likely this July, it could be a pretty decent upgrade over the Z Flip 5 I own. It’ll reportedly have a slightly bigger battery than the Flip 6, which had a slightly bigger one than the Flip 5, plus a much bigger outer screen.Unfortunately, I can’t wait a few more months. After a year and a half with a Flip, I’ve reached my breaking point.To be clear, my phone never cracked. My folding Flip never even sprouted a green line of doom along its crease. The factory screen protector did begin to…

The biggest YouTuber in the world is looking beyond videos to build a multibillion-dollar empire. For the last several months, Jimmy Donaldson, aka MrBeast, has been talking with investors about raising $200 million in a funding round that would value his holding company, Beast Industries, at more than $5 billion. An investor pitch deck I’ve obtained gives an unprecedented look at the fast-growing, money-losing business of MrBeast and his future plans. (Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw first reported that MrBeast is raising money last week.)To justify that eye-popping valuation of at least $5 billion, investors are betting that the future of MrBeast’s…

Meta may have caved on their content moderation policies for the sake of “free speech”, but there’s a world of other Big Tech companies out there – and more social media platforms for conservatives to de-censor. On Thursday, Rep. Jim Jordan subpoenaed Alphabet, the parent company of Google, demanding documents that show whether YouTube removed content at the request of the Biden-Harris administration – acting, in his words, as “a direct participant in the federal government’s censorship regime.”Although Republican party hardliners have long argued that Big Tech tilts algorithms and content moderation policies against their social media content, the overall…

Reddit’s automatic moderation tool is flagging the word “Luigi” as potentially violent — even when the content isn’t.But Reddit does appear to be flagging comments that mention “Luigi” in some cases, even those unrelated to Mangione — just not in the way that it first appeared to be. The Reddit spokesperson said that because r/popculture had recently fallen down to a single moderator, automod features kicked in, including a way to filter for “keywords that could — but don’t necessarily — indicate violating content.” The remaining moderator of r/popculture told The Verge that the mod team didn’t add “Luigi” to…

AliveCor has suffered another setback in its long-running patent case against Apple. Today, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has upheld a decision that the medical device maker’s EKG patents are not actually patentable. As a result, the Apple Watch won’t face a second import ban from the International Trade Commission (ITC).This back and forth between AliveCor and Apple began in 2021. AliveCor went to the ITC claiming Apple had infringed on its EKG patents. The ITC ruled in AliveCor’s favor, recommending an import ban that would’ve prevented the sale of Apple Watches with the EKG feature…