Author: News Room

Augmented reality wearables provider Xreal has launched a new “X By Xreal” (XBX) subbrand, with its first customizable, lightweight smart glasses coming to the US in July. The new a01 AR glasses will be available starting at $299, featuring a “highly stable anti-shake mode” and interchangeable front frames.While the a01 lacks the degrees-of-freedom (DoF) support we typically see on more premium AR glasses to track the wearer’s movements and head rotations, it does include what Xreal is calling the “industry-first spatial anti-shake algorithm.” This preserves image clarity by reducing shake during turbulent motions, like when you’re riding the subway or…

Today, I’m talking with Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, in a conversation we recorded just after the Google I/O developer conference. This is the fifth year Sundar and I have sat down after I/O, and it’s become one of my favorite Decoder traditions.There’s always a lot of news at I/O, and this year was no exception — Google has powerful new Gemini models, it’s putting AI agents in everything, and it’s making huge changes to Search on both the web and YouTube that will once again reshape the information ecosystem.That’s a lot to talk about, and Sundar and I…

Once upon a time, you could probably guess why most things appeared on your feed. Maybe you followed the creator who posted it; maybe you’d liked their stuff in the past; maybe all your friends were into them. That’s not how it works anymore, though. The stuff you see on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube Shorts, and elsewhere has become much harder to trace — the feeds are run by algorithms with lots of conflicting incentives, and they are being gamed by an army of internet users you might not even know exist.On this episode of The Vergecast, The Verge’s Mia Sato…

Ferrari makes some of the fastest cars on the planet, so it’s anyone’s guess how the Italian automaker ended up being so incredibly late to the EV party. Long after most automakers have drastically scaled back their EV ambitions, canceled battery-powered models, or curtailed factory plans, Ferrari emerges from the shadows with a real weird one: the all-electric Luce.Ferrari unveiled the Luce Monday at the Vela di Calatrava, a massive architectural sporting complex located on the outskirts of Rome. In many ways it’s the most anticipated and also the most over-hyped EV to come out since battery-powered models first arrived…

If you’re looking for ways to make staying cool and hydrated easier this summer, Woot is currently selling a refurbished GE Profile Opal 2.0 Ultra Nugget Ice Maker for $264.99 through June 3rd. That’s $184 less than buying new at its full price, and comes with a 90-day warranty. If you want a brand new model, it’s also on sale for $359 ($90) at Best Buy, or $449 ($50 off) with a side tank included (Amazon, Best Buy, GE).If you’re unfamiliar with nugget ice, it’s the soft, chewable ice that cools drinks quickly and doesn’t melt as fast as crushed…

The Fitbit app is no more. Along with the launch of the new Fitbit Air (which you can expect a full review of once we’ve spent more time with it), Google has officially replaced it with Google Health, as previously announced, and many of the responses we’ve seen so far are full of confusion, frustration, and requests to get the old app back.One post on Reddit calls out a common issue, saying, “I can’t even completely fill up my home screen. They only have 2 large tiles available and I can’t just scroll down to see everything.” The landing page…

Companies often include background props in their product imagery that serve as set dressing, but one of Govee’s decorative choices is raising some eyebrows. An eagle-eyed Verge reader spotted that two copies of a book with “white supremacy” plastered on the spine were included in a lifestyle image on Govee’s website, in a scene that seemingly depicts a child’s bedroom.You’d be forgiven for assuming that this is the result of some failed generative AI experiment, or the work of a rogue designer. (The image didn’t contain any C2PA and SynthID data when we checked, but that doesn’t necessarily rule out…

The Memorymoog is legendary for being an absolutely massive-sounding synth and being incredibly unreliable. But now you can enjoy its classic Moog sound without the headaches or the sky-high vintage price, thanks to Arturia’s Memory V emulator.The Memorymoog was only made between 1982 and 1985, and was the last polyphonic synth made by Moog before it declared bankruptcy in 1987. People loved its sound, which was described as being six Minimoogs in a box, and the Memorymoog+ was among the first synths to adopt MIDI. It also came out right as the synth industry was shifting from analog to digital.It…

Part of what made the first two Spider-Verse features so much fun to watch was the way they cleverly incorporated many of the lesser-known Spider-people Sony can legally use in its projects. Normies (read: people who don’t read comics) came to love Hailee Steinfeld’s Spider-Gwen, John Mulaney’s Spider-Ham, and Nicolas Cage’s Spider-Man Noir. And Sony took the films’ success as a sign that it could re-create a similar kind of magic with other characters who exist in Spider-Man’s orbit, like Venom and Madame Web, with varying levels of success.Amazon’s live-action Spider-Noir series is Sony’s latest attempt at cashing in on…

Oppo launched a new smartphone accessory that makes it easier to snap selfies using your smartphone’s rear cameras that typically feature better sensors than front-facing cameras. The Bubble offers similar functionality to the recently announced Insta360 Snap with a screen providing live camera previews so you can properly frame shots, plus remote camera controls and a shutter button. What sets the Bubble apart is a thinner design, wireless capabilities up to nearly 33 feet away, and, unfortunately, limited device compatibility.The Oppo Bubble is currently available in China for 499 yuan, or around $73, but the company hasn’t confirmed if the…

Nvidia announced more than two years ago that it was working to replace its Control Panel app on Windows with a new Nvidia app. After porting across various features to the Nvidia app, Nvidia is announcing today that it has officially retired the Control Panel app.“With the introduction of our most recent Nvidia App update, all actively supported Nvidia Control Panel features for GeForce users have been modernized and transitioned to the new client,” says Nvidia. “After 20 years of dedicated service, the classic Nvidia Control Panel is officially retiring for Game Ready and Studio Drivers. For Nvidia RTX PRO…

Spotify, one of the most popular music streaming services, is expanding beyond music, podcasts, and traditional audiobooks yet again – this time by turning long-form magazine journalism into something you can listen to on your commute. Starting today, Spotify is adding more than 650 narrated magazine articles to its audiobook library, pulling in stories from publications including Wired, GQ, Rolling Stone, The Atlantic, Vogue, Pitchfork, and Vanity Fair. The company says that each narrated article is under two hours long and will count towards Premium subscribers’ monthly audiobook allowance, which in many regions currently sits at 15 listening hours per…