The Cetra Open Wireless aren’t like most other gaming earbuds. They’re large, with an open-style design that rests just outside of your ears, letting game audio mix with sounds in your environment. These allow for immersion, but only if your environment is quiet enough. And turning them up might let those nearby hear what you’re … Read more
OpenAI offers app integrations in ChatGPT to allow you to connect your accounts directly to ChatGPT and ask the assistant to do things for you. For instance, with a Spotify integration, you can tell it to create personalized playlists that will show up right in your Spotify app. To get started, make sure you’re logged … Read more
“Someone might be watching everything I’m doing on my screen,” I tell myself in public. Even when I’m doing nothing of consequence — just making my little Wordle guesses — there’s a sense of unease that stays with me. It’s never bothered me too much, and I generally save the sensitive stuff like banking for … Read more
I just got back from the GDC Festival of Gaming, a big industry-focused event in San Francisco that was formerly known as the Game Developers Conference. While the show is mostly about educational sessions and networking opportunities for working developers, there were also a bunch of games that I got to play. Here are some … Read more
Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 119, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome, hope your agents are well, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.) This week, I’ve been reading about Pixar’s future and flight MH370 and sports gambling … Read more
Some European retailers have stopped selling certain headphones after an EU-funded study found that they contained hormone-disrupting chemicals. The study included leading brands such as Apple, Beats, Samsung, Bose, JBL, and Sennheiser. Online stores Bol.com, Coolblue, and Mediamarkt didn’t respond to inquiries from The Verge about which headphones they pulled, but local news outlets report … Read more
After the departures, only Manuel Kroiss—known as “Makro”—and Ross Nordeen will remain of the 11 cofounders who helped Musk set up xAI in San Francisco in March 2023. Last month, Musk criticized the coding team for falling behind in a town hall meeting that was posted online. He detailed a reorganization after several other co-founders … Read more
NASA assessed 1-in-276 odds for loss of crew on the first flight of astronauts aboard SpaceX’s Crew Dragon in 2020. For Boeing’s Starliner in 2024, the probability was 1 in 295. You wouldn’t be wrong to question those numbers given the proven performance of Dragon and Starliner. This chart from NASA’s Office of Safety and … Read more
In the lead up to the Tumbler Ridge school shooting in Canada last month, 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar spoke to ChatGPT about her feelings of isolation and an increasing obsession with violence, according to court filings. The chatbot allegedly validated Van Rootselaar’s feelings and then helped her plan her attack, telling her which weapons to … Read more
And then there were two: Of the original eleven cofounders who kickstarted xAI with Elon Musk three years ago, only a pair remains as the deep learning lab continues a personnel overhaul to compete with Anthropic and OpenAI. That rebuilding, insists Musk, is by design. “xAI was not built right first time around, so is … Read more