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Image: The New York Times

Wordle now has a native app for Meta Quest so that you can easily play the game in virtual reality. The free app is available for Meta Quest 2, Meta Quest 3, and Meta Quest Pro.
Based on screenshots in a Meta blog post and an NYT video, the game looks like, well, Wordle in VR: you’ll have six attempts to guess a five-letter word. But if you have wanted to play the game in an app on your Quest, that’s now something you can do.

Image: The New York Times

“We’re always looking for unique and creative opportunities to reach audiences with our games,” NYT Games general manager Jonathan Knight says in an interview for Meta’s blog post. “This collaboration reflects our embrace of innovative technologies and exploration of new formats and experiences, like mixed reality, to bring our games to life. Wordle is the perfect choice for this virtual environment, given its simple, user-friendly interface that audiences everywhere have come to love.”
We’ve asked The New York Times if it is planning to bring its other games to the Quest. If it ports Connections, watch out for thrown headsets.

Image: The New York Times

Wordle now has a native app for Meta Quest so that you can easily play the game in virtual reality. The free app is available for Meta Quest 2, Meta Quest 3, and Meta Quest Pro.

Based on screenshots in a Meta blog post and an NYT video, the game looks like, well, Wordle in VR: you’ll have six attempts to guess a five-letter word. But if you have wanted to play the game in an app on your Quest, that’s now something you can do.

Image: The New York Times

“We’re always looking for unique and creative opportunities to reach audiences with our games,” NYT Games general manager Jonathan Knight says in an interview for Meta’s blog post. “This collaboration reflects our embrace of innovative technologies and exploration of new formats and experiences, like mixed reality, to bring our games to life. Wordle is the perfect choice for this virtual environment, given its simple, user-friendly interface that audiences everywhere have come to love.”

We’ve asked The New York Times if it is planning to bring its other games to the Quest. If it ports Connections, watch out for thrown headsets.

Read More 

The marquee feature isn’t here yet, but there’s still a lot to appreciate in iOS 18. | Photo: Allison Johnson / The Verge

It’s a weird year for iOS.
Usually, the new software version arrives all at once. Not so with iOS 18. The foundational stuff has arrived, and in a normal year, things like RCS support and a redesigned control center would be more than enough. But iOS 18’s headline feature, Apple Intelligence, isn’t even part of this initial release, and we may not see some of its most interesting features until well into 2025. The iOS 18 rollout starts now, and it’s just going to keep on rolling for the foreseeable future.
iOS 18 is an ambitious update, even without Apple Intelligence in the picture. Customization options are at an all-time high, and with some tinkering, you’ll be able to personalize your iPhone like never before. It’s almost un-Apple-like.
Control Center could morph into a little remote control for my phone
Control Center is a good place to start. The quick-access settings panel has looked and functioned in basically the same way for most of the past decade, but it gets a big overhaul in iOS 18. I think this is Apple at its best: everything you need is still there and the vibe is overwhelmingly familiar, but once you dig in, you can see how it’s a massive change.
Controls are divided into pages now, with the familiar stuff like connectivity and focus modes in the places you’d expect them to be on the first page. And each page is highly customizable: you pick the controls you want to add or remove and decide where you want them and what size they should be. It’ll get even more interesting when third-party apps start adding their own controls.

You can rearrange and resize controls to your heart’s content.

Adding controls is way easier now: just grab ‘em from this panel and drop them in.

The new layout took me a minute to get used to. At first, I was swiping too far down the screen and skipping to the second or third page of controls. It took a week or so to retrain that muscle memory, and you can just delete the additional pages if you want to. Personally, I’m hoping I can turn the new control center into a little remote control for my phone and use it to cut down on the number of trips I make to individual apps.
Another change to iOS 18 will either be an insignificant addition or a huge deal — no in-between: the addition of RCS. I’m in the latter category, and let me tell you, it was a thrill to see my first RCS messages go through to my friends on Android. Without any input on my part, after I downloaded the iOS 18 beta, my messages started falling back to RCS rather than SMS. The whole thing has worked surprisingly well. I see typing indicators and read receipts, and tapbacks show up as reactions and not a whole extra message, finally.
You can ugly up your homescreen in unprecedented ways
The real moment of truth will be when my friends finally upgrade to iOS 18 and we’ll be able to message photos to each other without a lot of complicated side channeling. I have shown remarkable restraint in not asking my iPhone-owning friends to download beta software, but you can bet my campaign to get them all to upgrade to iOS 18 starts today. If you’re an iPhone owner who regularly messages someone on Android, please consider doing the same. This incarnation of RCS on the iPhone isn’t going to end the blue-bubble, green-bubble wars, but it will relieve the biggest pain points in cross-platform messaging for people on both sides.
Equally important as sharing priceless memories with my friends? The fact that iOS 18 will also allow you to ugly up your homescreen in unprecedented ways. You can go full Alex Cranz on your homescreen if you’re a weirdo, or you can just put the friggin’ icons exactly where you want them for the first time since the invention of the iPhone. Imagine!

You can finally put apps anywhere you want on the grid.

If you want to really go for it, you can tint the app icons to match your wallpaper.

Apple has shown off the app icon tinting feature with a lot of pretty examples, but personally, I haven’t been able to find a way to use them that doesn’t end up looking too “Material Ew.” But putting icons anywhere I want on the screen already feels so intuitive, I can’t believe we couldn’t do this before.
You know this is a big update when an entirely new Passwords app is only, like, the fourth most interesting thing going on. It’s self-explanatory, and after poking around for a bit, I’m convinced that this is an app for your parents who refuse to learn how to use a password manager. You can save passwords and access them from your iOS, iPad, and macOS devices, as you’d expect. But you can also share individual passwords or groups of passwords with other people, which would be handy for families and people in the same household.
Even without AI, there’s a lot to dig into
The catch, of course, is that everyone needs to be in the Apple ecosystem, and since I frequently jump between iOS and Android, it’s not something I can really use in the long term. Incidentally, using a first-party Apple password manager would also make switching away from iOS in the future that much harder, which is probably no accident. But if my parents were all in on Apple, I’d absolutely make sure they were using it.
One feature I know I’ll be using for the long haul? Transcription in Voice Memos. This might be one for my fellow journalists, but friends, it is good. For years, I’ve used Pixel phones to record and transcribe interviews, and the Pixel has basically remained unchallenged as the best tool for the job. In iOS 18, Voice Memos will finally transcribe your recordings, in real time or after the fact, and it’s on par with the Pixel Recorder app as far as quality goes. It may not be a feature for the masses, but if you know, you know.

Photo: Allison Johnson / The Verge
Voice memo transcription is surprisingly good, and I know my fellow journalists will be all over it.

A new control center and a more customizable app grid don’t look like much on paper. And plenty of people will probably just leave them alone, which is fine. But if you don’t mind putting in a little effort, you’ll find iOS 18 pretty rewarding — no artificial intelligence required.
Still, AI is the big missing piece here. I’ve been able to preview some of it in early betas: the new glowing Siri will make you go “Oooh” out loud the first time you use it, and the first iteration of Apple Intelligence will offer email summaries, notification digests, and writing tools. I’ve yet to be truly wowed by any of this, but the big stuff — or so we’ve been told again and again — is yet to come. Siri will gain contextual awareness and the ability to actually do stuff for you, which is potentially a big deal. That’s all coming in a later update; until then, you’ll mostly be stuck with the same old assistant.
For now, Apple Intelligence is still slowly coming into focus. But even without the big AI features, iOS 18 is off to a good start. Apple just needs to finish it.

The marquee feature isn’t here yet, but there’s still a lot to appreciate in iOS 18. | Photo: Allison Johnson / The Verge

It’s a weird year for iOS.

Usually, the new software version arrives all at once. Not so with iOS 18. The foundational stuff has arrived, and in a normal year, things like RCS support and a redesigned control center would be more than enough. But iOS 18’s headline feature, Apple Intelligence, isn’t even part of this initial release, and we may not see some of its most interesting features until well into 2025. The iOS 18 rollout starts now, and it’s just going to keep on rolling for the foreseeable future.

iOS 18 is an ambitious update, even without Apple Intelligence in the picture. Customization options are at an all-time high, and with some tinkering, you’ll be able to personalize your iPhone like never before. It’s almost un-Apple-like.

Control Center is a good place to start. The quick-access settings panel has looked and functioned in basically the same way for most of the past decade, but it gets a big overhaul in iOS 18. I think this is Apple at its best: everything you need is still there and the vibe is overwhelmingly familiar, but once you dig in, you can see how it’s a massive change.

Controls are divided into pages now, with the familiar stuff like connectivity and focus modes in the places you’d expect them to be on the first page. And each page is highly customizable: you pick the controls you want to add or remove and decide where you want them and what size they should be. It’ll get even more interesting when third-party apps start adding their own controls.

The new layout took me a minute to get used to. At first, I was swiping too far down the screen and skipping to the second or third page of controls. It took a week or so to retrain that muscle memory, and you can just delete the additional pages if you want to. Personally, I’m hoping I can turn the new control center into a little remote control for my phone and use it to cut down on the number of trips I make to individual apps.

Another change to iOS 18 will either be an insignificant addition or a huge deal — no in-between: the addition of RCS. I’m in the latter category, and let me tell you, it was a thrill to see my first RCS messages go through to my friends on Android. Without any input on my part, after I downloaded the iOS 18 beta, my messages started falling back to RCS rather than SMS. The whole thing has worked surprisingly well. I see typing indicators and read receipts, and tapbacks show up as reactions and not a whole extra message, finally.

The real moment of truth will be when my friends finally upgrade to iOS 18 and we’ll be able to message photos to each other without a lot of complicated side channeling. I have shown remarkable restraint in not asking my iPhone-owning friends to download beta software, but you can bet my campaign to get them all to upgrade to iOS 18 starts today. If you’re an iPhone owner who regularly messages someone on Android, please consider doing the same. This incarnation of RCS on the iPhone isn’t going to end the blue-bubble, green-bubble wars, but it will relieve the biggest pain points in cross-platform messaging for people on both sides.

Equally important as sharing priceless memories with my friends? The fact that iOS 18 will also allow you to ugly up your homescreen in unprecedented ways. You can go full Alex Cranz on your homescreen if you’re a weirdo, or you can just put the friggin’ icons exactly where you want them for the first time since the invention of the iPhone. Imagine!

Apple has shown off the app icon tinting feature with a lot of pretty examples, but personally, I haven’t been able to find a way to use them that doesn’t end up looking too “Material Ew.” But putting icons anywhere I want on the screen already feels so intuitive, I can’t believe we couldn’t do this before.

You know this is a big update when an entirely new Passwords app is only, like, the fourth most interesting thing going on. It’s self-explanatory, and after poking around for a bit, I’m convinced that this is an app for your parents who refuse to learn how to use a password manager. You can save passwords and access them from your iOS, iPad, and macOS devices, as you’d expect. But you can also share individual passwords or groups of passwords with other people, which would be handy for families and people in the same household.

The catch, of course, is that everyone needs to be in the Apple ecosystem, and since I frequently jump between iOS and Android, it’s not something I can really use in the long term. Incidentally, using a first-party Apple password manager would also make switching away from iOS in the future that much harder, which is probably no accident. But if my parents were all in on Apple, I’d absolutely make sure they were using it.

One feature I know I’ll be using for the long haul? Transcription in Voice Memos. This might be one for my fellow journalists, but friends, it is good. For years, I’ve used Pixel phones to record and transcribe interviews, and the Pixel has basically remained unchallenged as the best tool for the job. In iOS 18, Voice Memos will finally transcribe your recordings, in real time or after the fact, and it’s on par with the Pixel Recorder app as far as quality goes. It may not be a feature for the masses, but if you know, you know.

Photo: Allison Johnson / The Verge
Voice memo transcription is surprisingly good, and I know my fellow journalists will be all over it.

A new control center and a more customizable app grid don’t look like much on paper. And plenty of people will probably just leave them alone, which is fine. But if you don’t mind putting in a little effort, you’ll find iOS 18 pretty rewarding — no artificial intelligence required.

Still, AI is the big missing piece here. I’ve been able to preview some of it in early betas: the new glowing Siri will make you go “Oooh” out loud the first time you use it, and the first iteration of Apple Intelligence will offer email summaries, notification digests, and writing tools. I’ve yet to be truly wowed by any of this, but the big stuff — or so we’ve been told again and again — is yet to come. Siri will gain contextual awareness and the ability to actually do stuff for you, which is potentially a big deal. That’s all coming in a later update; until then, you’ll mostly be stuck with the same old assistant.

For now, Apple Intelligence is still slowly coming into focus. But even without the big AI features, iOS 18 is off to a good start. Apple just needs to finish it.

Read More 

The Apple Watch Ultra’s Modular face can display watchOS 11’s Training Load feature and information from the Vitals app. | Photo by Victoria Song / The Verge

Apple has just released watchOS 11, the latest version of its smartwatch operating system, alongside iOS 18 and iPadOS 18. The update, available for the Apple Watch Series 6 and later models, will finally allow users to take rest days without breaking their activity streak and introduces FDA-cleared sleep apnea detection.
Sleep apnea is a condition that can cause a person to stop breathing during sleep and can lead to an increased risk of hypertension and Type 2 diabetes if left untreated. Apple’s sleep apnea detection feature, which uses the accelerometer to monitor for small wrist movements associated with sleep interruptions, was announced alongside the new Apple Watch Series 10 and is now available for both the Apple Watch Series 9 and the Apple Watch Ultra 2. If sleep apnea is detected, the Apple Watch will alert the user and provide additional information that can be shared with a doctor, who can make a formal diagnosis.

Other health features now available with watchOS 11 include Training Load, which compares the intensity and duration of workouts over the past week to the past 28 days so athletes can see if the strain on their body is above or below their previous efforts. Activity Rings can also now be paused, allowing users to take breaks for injury or illness without ending their streak, while the fitness app’s summary tab can be customized so users can prioritize widgets showing the health metrics they care most about.
A new Vitals app provides an overnight summary of health metrics like heart rate, breathing rate, wrist temperature, blood oxygen levels, and how long you slept, and the Apple Watch’s Cycle Tracking will also display gestational age — the current length of a pregnancy — and adds the ability to track pregnancy symptoms.
The Apple Watch’s double tap gesture can now be used to scroll through apps like Messages or Calendar, while the Translate app is now available on your wrist with support for 20 languages and will automatically pop up in the Smart Stack when traveling to an area with a language other than your own.
The Photos watchface has been redesigned for watchOS 11, too, and now uses machine learning to search through your library and recommend which photos would make for good watchfaces based on criteria like composition, aesthetics, and facial expressions. The clock will be framed around the selected image automatically, but you’ll also be able to customize the layout of the face, including a preferred font for the time.

The Apple Watch Ultra’s Modular face can display watchOS 11’s Training Load feature and information from the Vitals app. | Photo by Victoria Song / The Verge

Apple has just released watchOS 11, the latest version of its smartwatch operating system, alongside iOS 18 and iPadOS 18. The update, available for the Apple Watch Series 6 and later models, will finally allow users to take rest days without breaking their activity streak and introduces FDA-cleared sleep apnea detection.

Sleep apnea is a condition that can cause a person to stop breathing during sleep and can lead to an increased risk of hypertension and Type 2 diabetes if left untreated. Apple’s sleep apnea detection feature, which uses the accelerometer to monitor for small wrist movements associated with sleep interruptions, was announced alongside the new Apple Watch Series 10 and is now available for both the Apple Watch Series 9 and the Apple Watch Ultra 2. If sleep apnea is detected, the Apple Watch will alert the user and provide additional information that can be shared with a doctor, who can make a formal diagnosis.

Other health features now available with watchOS 11 include Training Load, which compares the intensity and duration of workouts over the past week to the past 28 days so athletes can see if the strain on their body is above or below their previous efforts. Activity Rings can also now be paused, allowing users to take breaks for injury or illness without ending their streak, while the fitness app’s summary tab can be customized so users can prioritize widgets showing the health metrics they care most about.

A new Vitals app provides an overnight summary of health metrics like heart rate, breathing rate, wrist temperature, blood oxygen levels, and how long you slept, and the Apple Watch’s Cycle Tracking will also display gestational age — the current length of a pregnancy — and adds the ability to track pregnancy symptoms.

The Apple Watch’s double tap gesture can now be used to scroll through apps like Messages or Calendar, while the Translate app is now available on your wrist with support for 20 languages and will automatically pop up in the Smart Stack when traveling to an area with a language other than your own.

The Photos watchface has been redesigned for watchOS 11, too, and now uses machine learning to search through your library and recommend which photos would make for good watchfaces based on criteria like composition, aesthetics, and facial expressions. The clock will be framed around the selected image automatically, but you’ll also be able to customize the layout of the face, including a preferred font for the time.

Read More 

Image: Apple

Apple officially released macOS Sequoia on Monday, bringing features like the ability to wirelessly mirror your iPhone on your Mac, window tiling tools, and more. There are Apple Intelligence features on the way, too, but they aren’t available yet.
iPhone mirroring is arguably the coolest new feature in macOS Sequoia, and in his testing, my colleague David Pierce said it might change how you use your phone. When you open the phone mirroring app, your iPhone pops up, and you can navigate around it using your mouse and type things with your keyboard. Your iPhone’s notifications can also show up on your Mac. And later this year, you’ll be able to drag and drop things between your iPhone and your Mac.
I’m excited to mess around with the window tiling features, too. I’ve relied on BetterSnapTool for years to quickly arrange my windows, but it could be nice to have these new window tiling tools available without a separate app download.
macOS Sequoia is also getting some features that are coming to Apple’s other platforms, including the new Passwords app and upgrades to iMessage. And Apple Intelligence will be able to help with your writing or create images, but like with iOS, the initial Apple Intelligence tools won’t launch until sometime this fall. (On Macs, Apple Intelligence will only work on computers with M1 chips or newer.)
macOS Sequoia is compatible with:

iMacs from 2019 and later
iMac Pro
Mac Studio
Mac Pros from 2019 and later
Mac Minis from 2018 and later
MacBook Airs from 2020 and later
MacBook Pros from 2018 and later

Image: Apple

Apple officially released macOS Sequoia on Monday, bringing features like the ability to wirelessly mirror your iPhone on your Mac, window tiling tools, and more. There are Apple Intelligence features on the way, too, but they aren’t available yet.

iPhone mirroring is arguably the coolest new feature in macOS Sequoia, and in his testing, my colleague David Pierce said it might change how you use your phone. When you open the phone mirroring app, your iPhone pops up, and you can navigate around it using your mouse and type things with your keyboard. Your iPhone’s notifications can also show up on your Mac. And later this year, you’ll be able to drag and drop things between your iPhone and your Mac.

I’m excited to mess around with the window tiling features, too. I’ve relied on BetterSnapTool for years to quickly arrange my windows, but it could be nice to have these new window tiling tools available without a separate app download.

macOS Sequoia is also getting some features that are coming to Apple’s other platforms, including the new Passwords app and upgrades to iMessage. And Apple Intelligence will be able to help with your writing or create images, but like with iOS, the initial Apple Intelligence tools won’t launch until sometime this fall. (On Macs, Apple Intelligence will only work on computers with M1 chips or newer.)

macOS Sequoia is compatible with:

iMacs from 2019 and later
iMac Pro
Mac Studio
Mac Pros from 2019 and later
Mac Minis from 2018 and later
MacBook Airs from 2020 and later
MacBook Pros from 2018 and later

Read More 

Photo: Nilay Patel / The Verge

Apple is rolling out iOS 18 and iPadOS 18, which will introduce a bunch of new features to the iPhone and iPad. One of the biggest changes with today’s launch is the addition of RCS messaging, which should help improve communication with Android users.
First announced in June, RCS messaging will finally allow iPhone and Android users to share high-res photos and videos, see typing indicators, and use read receipts. (Messages from Android users will still appear in green bubbles, though.)
Some other messaging upgrades in iOS 18 include new text effects and formatting options in iMessage and the ability to schedule messages to send later. iPhone users will also be able to send messages via satellite.

Additionally, iOS 18 includes new homepage customization options to rearrange, resize, and change the colors of app icons and widgets. There’s a big design overhaul coming to the Photos app, too, along with a revamped iPhone Control Center and the launch of Apple’s new password management app.
iOS 18 also adds the ability to control Matter devices locally from the Home app without a home hub (you’ll need an iPhone 15 Pro or newer for Thread devices). The updated Home app will let you give guests access to locks, garage doors, and alarm systems. There’s a new way to unlock doors without taking out your phone as well, but there are no smart locks that support hands-free unlocking yet.
As for what’s new with iPadOS 18, the update will finally bring a calculator app to the iPad after over a decade without one. You can download the update to your iPhone or iPad by heading to Settings, selecting General > Software Update, and then following the steps to install iOS 18.
If you’ve been wanting to try out the new AI features coming to Apple’s devices, you’re going to have to wait for iOS 18.1. Apple is rolling out new tools to help you rewrite and summarize text, generate images with Image Playground, and interact with a more conversational Siri as part of the iOS 18.1 public beta in October.

Photo: Nilay Patel / The Verge

Apple is rolling out iOS 18 and iPadOS 18, which will introduce a bunch of new features to the iPhone and iPad. One of the biggest changes with today’s launch is the addition of RCS messaging, which should help improve communication with Android users.

First announced in June, RCS messaging will finally allow iPhone and Android users to share high-res photos and videos, see typing indicators, and use read receipts. (Messages from Android users will still appear in green bubbles, though.)

Some other messaging upgrades in iOS 18 include new text effects and formatting options in iMessage and the ability to schedule messages to send later. iPhone users will also be able to send messages via satellite.

Additionally, iOS 18 includes new homepage customization options to rearrange, resize, and change the colors of app icons and widgets. There’s a big design overhaul coming to the Photos app, too, along with a revamped iPhone Control Center and the launch of Apple’s new password management app.

iOS 18 also adds the ability to control Matter devices locally from the Home app without a home hub (you’ll need an iPhone 15 Pro or newer for Thread devices). The updated Home app will let you give guests access to locks, garage doors, and alarm systems. There’s a new way to unlock doors without taking out your phone as well, but there are no smart locks that support hands-free unlocking yet.

As for what’s new with iPadOS 18, the update will finally bring a calculator app to the iPad after over a decade without one. You can download the update to your iPhone or iPad by heading to Settings, selecting General > Software Update, and then following the steps to install iOS 18.

If you’ve been wanting to try out the new AI features coming to Apple’s devices, you’re going to have to wait for iOS 18.1. Apple is rolling out new tools to help you rewrite and summarize text, generate images with Image Playground, and interact with a more conversational Siri as part of the iOS 18.1 public beta in October.

Read More 

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

What’s next after the PS5 Pro? A report from Reuters focuses on Sony’s plans beyond this fall’s new $700 system, saying that the battle to win a contract for the chip powering a future PlayStation 6 came down to AMD vs. Intel, with others like Broadcom eliminated earlier, with AMD eventually winning out.
According to Reuters, since AMD makes the chip in the PS5 and PS5 Pro, maintaining backwards compatibility in a possible move was part of “months” of discussions in 2022 between executives and engineers at Sony and Intel. However, Intel’s bid was blocked because they couldn’t agree on how much profit Intel would make from each chip it would design as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) handled the manufacturing process.

Besides the recent embarrassment of crashing Raptor Lake CPUs, Intel has been a bystander in the AI chip boom and ceded manufacturing of some next-gen tech to TSMC as it attempts to rebuild its capabilities. The chipmaking division also racked up $7 billion in losses last year, and last month, the company announced 15,000 layoffs. Meanwhile, its upcoming chip plant in Ohio has been delayed, although it did secure Microsoft as a customer for its advanced 18A chip process.
While AMD has also trailed Nvidia’s leadership in the AI chip market and flagship GPUs, its data center products now make up over half of its sales. In a recent interview, AMD exec Jack Huynh said that besides merging its RDNA gaming graphics and CNDA data center efforts into a single “UDNA,” with its gaming priority set to increasing scale at lower price points.
The report says a deal could’ve produced $30 billion in revenue for Intel, which is quoted in the article saying, “We strongly disagree with this characterization but are not going to comment about any current or potential customer conversations.”

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

What’s next after the PS5 Pro? A report from Reuters focuses on Sony’s plans beyond this fall’s new $700 system, saying that the battle to win a contract for the chip powering a future PlayStation 6 came down to AMD vs. Intel, with others like Broadcom eliminated earlier, with AMD eventually winning out.

According to Reuters, since AMD makes the chip in the PS5 and PS5 Pro, maintaining backwards compatibility in a possible move was part of “months” of discussions in 2022 between executives and engineers at Sony and Intel. However, Intel’s bid was blocked because they couldn’t agree on how much profit Intel would make from each chip it would design as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) handled the manufacturing process.

Besides the recent embarrassment of crashing Raptor Lake CPUs, Intel has been a bystander in the AI chip boom and ceded manufacturing of some next-gen tech to TSMC as it attempts to rebuild its capabilities. The chipmaking division also racked up $7 billion in losses last year, and last month, the company announced 15,000 layoffs. Meanwhile, its upcoming chip plant in Ohio has been delayed, although it did secure Microsoft as a customer for its advanced 18A chip process.

While AMD has also trailed Nvidia’s leadership in the AI chip market and flagship GPUs, its data center products now make up over half of its sales. In a recent interview, AMD exec Jack Huynh said that besides merging its RDNA gaming graphics and CNDA data center efforts into a single “UDNA,” with its gaming priority set to increasing scale at lower price points.

The report says a deal could’ve produced $30 billion in revenue for Intel, which is quoted in the article saying, “We strongly disagree with this characterization but are not going to comment about any current or potential customer conversations.”

Read More 

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Google appears to be working on a way to finally synchronize notifications across devices in its ecosystem, according to Android Authority’s Mishaal Rahman, who discovered code references to a new “sync across devices” option in the Android 15 beta.
The snippet is apparently located under the Notifications section of Settings, nestled between “sensitive notifications” and a new “notification cooldown” option he spotted last week. There’s no Android notification syncing feature at the moment, as Rahman notes. So if you dismiss a notification on your Android tablet, the same notification will still greet you over on your phone later. This would, I’m sure, be a welcome change for most.

Screenshot: Android Authority
This code string from the Android 15 beta appears to show a new cross-device syncing feature.

The sync code also lies under an Android-specific controller, implying that the feature would be a little treat for all of the Android ecosystem rather than for Pixel devices alone, writes Rahman. But there’s apparently no accompanying description that would confirm that, so there’s still a possibility that this could be a Pixel exclusive.

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Google appears to be working on a way to finally synchronize notifications across devices in its ecosystem, according to Android Authority’s Mishaal Rahman, who discovered code references to a new “sync across devices” option in the Android 15 beta.

The snippet is apparently located under the Notifications section of Settings, nestled between “sensitive notifications” and a new “notification cooldown” option he spotted last week. There’s no Android notification syncing feature at the moment, as Rahman notes. So if you dismiss a notification on your Android tablet, the same notification will still greet you over on your phone later. This would, I’m sure, be a welcome change for most.

Screenshot: Android Authority
This code string from the Android 15 beta appears to show a new cross-device syncing feature.

The sync code also lies under an Android-specific controller, implying that the feature would be a little treat for all of the Android ecosystem rather than for Pixel devices alone, writes Rahman. But there’s apparently no accompanying description that would confirm that, so there’s still a possibility that this could be a Pixel exclusive.

Read More 

LG’s ThinQ ON hub is at the center of its new smart home efforts. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge

After years of being on the fringes of home automation, LG is now making a big play in the smart home. It has a shiny new multi-protocol hub, is opening its ThinQ platform to work with more smart home devices, and will soon allow other platforms to integrate its appliances into their ecosystems.
ThinQ’s shift from being solely an app to control LG appliances and electronics to becoming a competitor to smart home platforms like Samsung’s SmartThings and Apple Home has been spurred by the standardization of smart home connectivity through initiatives like Thread and Matter and the rapid development of artificial intelligence.
“Until now, the smart home was all about the connectivity of smart devices, but with the emergence of generative AI, it’s time to move to the next chapter,” LG’s chief engineer of smart home, Daejong Kang, told The Verge in an interview. “Until now, we’ve been talking about technical readiness. Now, we are ready to provide solutions.”
Kang says its new ThinQ ON hub will power these solutions using voice control and generative AI. With Matter, Thread, Zigbee, and Wi-Fi connectivity on board, the new hub is also a smart speaker with a built-in voice assistant called the AI Agent. The voice assistant is just in the hub for now, but Kang said it will come to more LG appliances.

Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge
The ThinQ ON is a smart speaker / hub powered by USB-C. It has four buttons, including volume up, volume down, and a button to summon the AI Agent or mute the microphone.

Powered by LG’s artificial intelligence, which it calls “Affectionate Intelligence,” the AI Agent should be able to learn from your usage patterns, monitor your appliances, and allow for voice control of connected devices.
“It can understand the circumstances in the home and control things depending on your condition and living style,” says Kang. “For example, if it starts to get too warm in your home, it can understand conditions in the home and automatically control the temperature and fan speed.”
Adjusting climate automatically based on sensors is something you can do today with smart home automations. But LG is adding a level of autonomy here, allowing the AI Agent to control your home’s climate based on what it knows about your home and your preferences, along with what it thinks is best. An autonomous AI Agent in the home is ambitious, not to mention potentially creepy. It will be interesting to see if LG can pull this off.
At the IFA tech show in Berlin this month, LG demoed several scenarios in which the AI Agent automatically controlled the home environment, most of which relied on LG appliances. However, Kang says the company is opening up the platform to more products to “layer experiences over connectivity” and provide more value to its customers.
It’s this new, more open approach from LG that really caught my attention. Home appliances are a large missing piece of the smart home puzzle. Manufacturers have been sticking Wi-Fi chips in them for a decade, but few have done much with the technology beyond remote diagnostics and some remote control. Most are siloed in manufacturer apps with limited interaction with anything else in your home.
LG’s new, more open approach should allow users to integrate their appliances into their smart homes however they want.
With its new hub, LG is integrating other smart home devices into its ecosystem to work alongside its appliances (something Samsung has already done with SmartThings). However, it’s also planning to allow its appliances to work in other ecosystems, something Samsung has not allowed so far. This should allow users to integrate their appliances into their smart home however they want.
LG’s new hub is central to these ambitions. As a Matter controller and Thread border router that also supports Zigbee (but not Z-Wave), the ThinQ ON will be capable of supporting hundreds of devices — from smart locks and lights to robot vacuums, smart sensors, and plugs. These will all then be controllable through LG’s ThinQ app.
The hub and app also have a new operating system to manage and control these devices. The good news is LG isn’t building its own. Instead, it bought a well-established one. Earlier this year, LG acquired a majority stake in Athom, and Kang says they have already ported Athom’s Homey OS to the ThinQ ON.
Homey is a powerful smart home platform with its own hub that integrates with hundreds of manufacturers and services. Many of these integrations will come to ThinQ, says Kang. This includes support for integration with devices from manufacturers like Aqara, Philips Hue, Ecobee, Eve, Nanoleaf, Sonos, TP-Link, and more. Kang didn’t share a timeline for when these integrations will go live but said the hub should arrive in the US and Europe next year.
LG is opening up access to its appliance, but not through Matter

Image: LG
LG appliances — which currently work with the ThinQ app for features like remote control, monitoring, and troubleshooting — could soon work with other smart home platforms.

In addition to incorporating third-party smart home devices into its smart home solution, LG plans to allow other platforms to integrate LG appliances. “Later this year, we will open our APIs to control LG appliances and support an SDK for other companies to connect to our appliances,” says Kang.
This could allow platforms like Home Assistant to integrate LG’s connected appliances, including washers and dryers, vacuums, refrigerators, ovens, dishwashers, induction cooktops, and AC units. LG did announce a partnership with Samsung through the Home Connectivity Alliance to control its appliances in SmartThings and vice versa, but that hasn’t materialized yet.
“We will open our APIs to control LG appliances and support an SDK for other companies to connect to our appliances,” says Daejong Kang
Interestingly, while LG is opening its APIs and providing SDKs for other ecosystems to connect its smart appliances to their platforms, Kang says they have yet to decide if they will make them Matter devices. “We are considering it; the Matter standard is really good, but due to the certification process of Matter, it is a lot of money [to certify all LG’s devices], and it’s really, really slow,” says Kang.
Eagle-eyed LG watchers will recall that the company announced it was putting Google Home Hub capability into its televisions, allowing you to use an LG TV as a Matter controller for Google Home. While that is still the plan, Kang says the Google Home integration is one more option for users but that the ThinQ ON hub is the best route if you want to use LG’s services with its appliances. Google Home hub support is slated for LG’s 2025 TVs.
LG has been dabbling in home automation for years but has never presented a cohesive solution for users to control their appliances alongside the rest of their smart home. If it pulls off the transformation of the ThinQ platform powered by Homey, it will essentially do what Samsung did when it purchased SmartThings a decade ago — create an open smart home platform that integrates with its home appliances. This could position LG as a major competitor to Apple, Amazon, and Google in the smart home.
Based on its track record in this space, I’m not convinced LG will actually follow through on all these promises. But I’d like to be proven wrong.

LG’s ThinQ ON hub is at the center of its new smart home efforts. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge

After years of being on the fringes of home automation, LG is now making a big play in the smart home. It has a shiny new multi-protocol hub, is opening its ThinQ platform to work with more smart home devices, and will soon allow other platforms to integrate its appliances into their ecosystems.

ThinQ’s shift from being solely an app to control LG appliances and electronics to becoming a competitor to smart home platforms like Samsung’s SmartThings and Apple Home has been spurred by the standardization of smart home connectivity through initiatives like Thread and Matter and the rapid development of artificial intelligence.

“Until now, the smart home was all about the connectivity of smart devices, but with the emergence of generative AI, it’s time to move to the next chapter,” LG’s chief engineer of smart home, Daejong Kang, told The Verge in an interview. “Until now, we’ve been talking about technical readiness. Now, we are ready to provide solutions.”

Kang says its new ThinQ ON hub will power these solutions using voice control and generative AI. With Matter, Thread, Zigbee, and Wi-Fi connectivity on board, the new hub is also a smart speaker with a built-in voice assistant called the AI Agent. The voice assistant is just in the hub for now, but Kang said it will come to more LG appliances.

Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge
The ThinQ ON is a smart speaker / hub powered by USB-C. It has four buttons, including volume up, volume down, and a button to summon the AI Agent or mute the microphone.

Powered by LG’s artificial intelligence, which it calls “Affectionate Intelligence,” the AI Agent should be able to learn from your usage patterns, monitor your appliances, and allow for voice control of connected devices.

“It can understand the circumstances in the home and control things depending on your condition and living style,” says Kang. “For example, if it starts to get too warm in your home, it can understand conditions in the home and automatically control the temperature and fan speed.”

Adjusting climate automatically based on sensors is something you can do today with smart home automations. But LG is adding a level of autonomy here, allowing the AI Agent to control your home’s climate based on what it knows about your home and your preferences, along with what it thinks is best. An autonomous AI Agent in the home is ambitious, not to mention potentially creepy. It will be interesting to see if LG can pull this off.

At the IFA tech show in Berlin this month, LG demoed several scenarios in which the AI Agent automatically controlled the home environment, most of which relied on LG appliances. However, Kang says the company is opening up the platform to more products to “layer experiences over connectivity” and provide more value to its customers.

It’s this new, more open approach from LG that really caught my attention. Home appliances are a large missing piece of the smart home puzzle. Manufacturers have been sticking Wi-Fi chips in them for a decade, but few have done much with the technology beyond remote diagnostics and some remote control. Most are siloed in manufacturer apps with limited interaction with anything else in your home.

With its new hub, LG is integrating other smart home devices into its ecosystem to work alongside its appliances (something Samsung has already done with SmartThings). However, it’s also planning to allow its appliances to work in other ecosystems, something Samsung has not allowed so far. This should allow users to integrate their appliances into their smart home however they want.

LG’s new hub is central to these ambitions. As a Matter controller and Thread border router that also supports Zigbee (but not Z-Wave), the ThinQ ON will be capable of supporting hundreds of devices — from smart locks and lights to robot vacuums, smart sensors, and plugs. These will all then be controllable through LG’s ThinQ app.

The hub and app also have a new operating system to manage and control these devices. The good news is LG isn’t building its own. Instead, it bought a well-established one. Earlier this year, LG acquired a majority stake in Athom, and Kang says they have already ported Athom’s Homey OS to the ThinQ ON.

Homey is a powerful smart home platform with its own hub that integrates with hundreds of manufacturers and services. Many of these integrations will come to ThinQ, says Kang. This includes support for integration with devices from manufacturers like Aqara, Philips Hue, Ecobee, Eve, Nanoleaf, Sonos, TP-Link, and more. Kang didn’t share a timeline for when these integrations will go live but said the hub should arrive in the US and Europe next year.

LG is opening up access to its appliance, but not through Matter

Image: LG
LG appliances — which currently work with the ThinQ app for features like remote control, monitoring, and troubleshooting — could soon work with other smart home platforms.

In addition to incorporating third-party smart home devices into its smart home solution, LG plans to allow other platforms to integrate LG appliances. “Later this year, we will open our APIs to control LG appliances and support an SDK for other companies to connect to our appliances,” says Kang.

This could allow platforms like Home Assistant to integrate LG’s connected appliances, including washers and dryers, vacuums, refrigerators, ovens, dishwashers, induction cooktops, and AC units. LG did announce a partnership with Samsung through the Home Connectivity Alliance to control its appliances in SmartThings and vice versa, but that hasn’t materialized yet.

Interestingly, while LG is opening its APIs and providing SDKs for other ecosystems to connect its smart appliances to their platforms, Kang says they have yet to decide if they will make them Matter devices. “We are considering it; the Matter standard is really good, but due to the certification process of Matter, it is a lot of money [to certify all LG’s devices], and it’s really, really slow,” says Kang.

Eagle-eyed LG watchers will recall that the company announced it was putting Google Home Hub capability into its televisions, allowing you to use an LG TV as a Matter controller for Google Home. While that is still the plan, Kang says the Google Home integration is one more option for users but that the ThinQ ON hub is the best route if you want to use LG’s services with its appliances. Google Home hub support is slated for LG’s 2025 TVs.

LG has been dabbling in home automation for years but has never presented a cohesive solution for users to control their appliances alongside the rest of their smart home. If it pulls off the transformation of the ThinQ platform powered by Homey, it will essentially do what Samsung did when it purchased SmartThings a decade ago — create an open smart home platform that integrates with its home appliances. This could position LG as a major competitor to Apple, Amazon, and Google in the smart home.

Based on its track record in this space, I’m not convinced LG will actually follow through on all these promises. But I’d like to be proven wrong.

Read More 

Image: Netflix

We’re still a little ways out from the season 2 premiere of Castlevania: Nocturne, but after months of waiting, Netflix has shared a general window for the show’s return.
Ahead of Geeked Week 2024, Netflix has dropped a new Castlevania: Nocturne trailer teasing how Richter Belmont (Edward Bluemel), Annette (Thuso Mbedu), Maria (Pixie Davies), and Alucard (James Callis) will continue their war against vampire queen Erzsebet Báthory (Franka Potente). The teaser’s shots of Nocturne’s heroes make it seem like season 2 will see them being haunted by memories of all they’ve lost. But the brief flashes of a cross engulfed in pink flames also feels like it could be a nod to the show bringing back certain characters like Drolta Tzuentes (Elarica Johnson).
The teaser makes clear that as bleak as things have gotten for Richter and his allies, they still intend to slash down any monsters that cross their paths. And while Netflix hasn’t given the season an exact premiere date, we now know the show will return in January 2025.

Image: Netflix

We’re still a little ways out from the season 2 premiere of Castlevania: Nocturne, but after months of waiting, Netflix has shared a general window for the show’s return.

Ahead of Geeked Week 2024, Netflix has dropped a new Castlevania: Nocturne trailer teasing how Richter Belmont (Edward Bluemel), Annette (Thuso Mbedu), Maria (Pixie Davies), and Alucard (James Callis) will continue their war against vampire queen Erzsebet Báthory (Franka Potente). The teaser’s shots of Nocturne’s heroes make it seem like season 2 will see them being haunted by memories of all they’ve lost. But the brief flashes of a cross engulfed in pink flames also feels like it could be a nod to the show bringing back certain characters like Drolta Tzuentes (Elarica Johnson).

The teaser makes clear that as bleak as things have gotten for Richter and his allies, they still intend to slash down any monsters that cross their paths. And while Netflix hasn’t given the season an exact premiere date, we now know the show will return in January 2025.

Read More 

Image: Microsoft

Microsoft is unveiling new features in its $30 per user Microsoft 365 Copilot monthly subscriptions that are designed to improve AI integration inside of Office apps. Excel is getting Python integration inside of Copilot, PowerPoint has an improved AI-powered narrative builder, Word is getting better at AI-assisted drafts, and Copilot will be able to help you organize your Outlook inbox, too.
After bringing Python to Excel last year, Microsoft is now combining its Python support with Copilot to let Excel users easily perform advanced analysis on spreadsheet data. “Now, anyone can work with Copilot to conduct advanced analysis like forecasting, risk analysis, machine learning, and visualizing complex data — all using natural language, no coding required,” says Jared Spataro, corporate vice president of AI at work at Microsoft. “It’s like adding a skilled data analyst to the team.”

The Copilot and Python integration inside of Excel enters public preview today, just as Microsoft makes Copilot in Excel generally available to its Microsoft 365 Copilot subscribers. Microsoft has also added Copilot support for XLOOKUP and SUMIF, conditional formatting, and the ability for the AI assistant to produce more charts and PivotTables.
Copilot in PowerPoint is also getting improvements, with an improved narrative builder that’s designed to let you quickly create a first draft of a slide deck. The AI assistant will even soon use a company’s branded template to create drafts or company-approved images from SharePoint libraries.
Copilot in Microsoft Teams will summarize conversations that happened in the text chat as well as spoken ones in meetings later this month. This will help meeting organizers make sure they didn’t miss any unanswered questions that were typed into the chat. “Our customers tell us Copilot in Teams has changed meetings forever — in fact, it’s the number one place they’re seeing value,” says Spataro.

Image: Microsoft
Copilot is getting more useful inside of Outlook inboxes.

I’ve personally been waiting for improvements to Copilot in Outlook beyond drafting and summaries, and now Microsoft is starting to allow its AI assistant to organize your inbox. A new “prioritize my inbox” feature lets Copilot automatically prioritize emails. Later this year, you’ll also be able to “teach Copilot the specific topics, keywords, or people that are important to you,” according to Spataro. These emails will then also be marked as high priority in your inbox.
Later this month, Microsoft is also improving Copilot in Word to let you reference data from emails and meetings, alongside data from documents. This will make it easier to bring in attachments from emails or entire talking points from meetings. Microsoft is also rolling out Copilot in OneDrive later this month, making it easy to summarize and compare up to five files to spot differences between them.

Image: Microsoft
OneDrive’s file comparison tool.

Microsoft’s improvements to Copilot in Office are designed to make the AI assistant more enticing to businesses, alongside a new Copilot Pages feature and AI agents that will automate certain tasks. Recent reports have suggested there has been a lukewarm reception to Microsoft’s paid Copilot version for businesses, due to bugs and a reluctance to pay the $30 per user price.
Microsoft says 60 percent of the Fortune 500 now use Copilot and that the number of people who use Copilot daily at work “nearly doubled quarter-over-quarter.” Both of these data points appear to include the free version of Copilot. Microsoft has won over a big customer for Microsoft 365 Copilot: Vodafone is signing up for 68,000 Microsoft 365 Copilot licenses for its 100,000 employees, after trialing the AI assistant and seeing early benefits.

Image: Microsoft

Microsoft is unveiling new features in its $30 per user Microsoft 365 Copilot monthly subscriptions that are designed to improve AI integration inside of Office apps. Excel is getting Python integration inside of Copilot, PowerPoint has an improved AI-powered narrative builder, Word is getting better at AI-assisted drafts, and Copilot will be able to help you organize your Outlook inbox, too.

After bringing Python to Excel last year, Microsoft is now combining its Python support with Copilot to let Excel users easily perform advanced analysis on spreadsheet data. “Now, anyone can work with Copilot to conduct advanced analysis like forecasting, risk analysis, machine learning, and visualizing complex data — all using natural language, no coding required,” says Jared Spataro, corporate vice president of AI at work at Microsoft. “It’s like adding a skilled data analyst to the team.”

The Copilot and Python integration inside of Excel enters public preview today, just as Microsoft makes Copilot in Excel generally available to its Microsoft 365 Copilot subscribers. Microsoft has also added Copilot support for XLOOKUP and SUMIF, conditional formatting, and the ability for the AI assistant to produce more charts and PivotTables.

Copilot in PowerPoint is also getting improvements, with an improved narrative builder that’s designed to let you quickly create a first draft of a slide deck. The AI assistant will even soon use a company’s branded template to create drafts or company-approved images from SharePoint libraries.

Copilot in Microsoft Teams will summarize conversations that happened in the text chat as well as spoken ones in meetings later this month. This will help meeting organizers make sure they didn’t miss any unanswered questions that were typed into the chat. “Our customers tell us Copilot in Teams has changed meetings forever — in fact, it’s the number one place they’re seeing value,” says Spataro.

Image: Microsoft
Copilot is getting more useful inside of Outlook inboxes.

I’ve personally been waiting for improvements to Copilot in Outlook beyond drafting and summaries, and now Microsoft is starting to allow its AI assistant to organize your inbox. A new “prioritize my inbox” feature lets Copilot automatically prioritize emails. Later this year, you’ll also be able to “teach Copilot the specific topics, keywords, or people that are important to you,” according to Spataro. These emails will then also be marked as high priority in your inbox.

Later this month, Microsoft is also improving Copilot in Word to let you reference data from emails and meetings, alongside data from documents. This will make it easier to bring in attachments from emails or entire talking points from meetings. Microsoft is also rolling out Copilot in OneDrive later this month, making it easy to summarize and compare up to five files to spot differences between them.

Image: Microsoft
OneDrive’s file comparison tool.

Microsoft’s improvements to Copilot in Office are designed to make the AI assistant more enticing to businesses, alongside a new Copilot Pages feature and AI agents that will automate certain tasks. Recent reports have suggested there has been a lukewarm reception to Microsoft’s paid Copilot version for businesses, due to bugs and a reluctance to pay the $30 per user price.

Microsoft says 60 percent of the Fortune 500 now use Copilot and that the number of people who use Copilot daily at work “nearly doubled quarter-over-quarter.” Both of these data points appear to include the free version of Copilot. Microsoft has won over a big customer for Microsoft 365 Copilot: Vodafone is signing up for 68,000 Microsoft 365 Copilot licenses for its 100,000 employees, after trialing the AI assistant and seeing early benefits.

Read More