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Image: Instagram

Instagram is expanding “limits,” a safety control you can use to hide DMs and comments from accounts who may be harassing you. Now, instead of just hiding content from recent followers or people who don’t follow you, Instagram will mute incoming messages from everyone except the users on your close friends list.
Even though Instagram first rolled out limits to help creators deal with harassment campaigns, anyone can use the feature if they’re facing unwanted messages and comments from bullies and other bad actors. It could give a way to shut down incoming noise without disconnecting people from a supportive community.

Image: Instagram

When limiting interactions from everyone but close friends, you’ll only see DMs, tags, and mentions from the people on your list. Users not on your close friends list can still interact with your posts, but you won’t see these updates. These accounts also won’t know that you’ve hidden their content. You can also choose to view or ignore the limited comments and DMs.
Instagram lets you limit accounts for up to four weeks at a time, but you can extend it. You can enable limits by tapping your profile, selecting the hamburger menu in the top-right corner of the screen, and choosing Limited interactions. From there, you can toggle on limits for Accounts that aren’t following you, Recent followers, or Everyone but your Close Friends.
Instagram is also building on its restrict feature, which now lets you prevent a user from tagging or mentioning you in addition to hiding their comments. These expanded features come as Instagram faces increased scrutiny from the US government over the safety of its young users. Earlier this year, Meta rolled out a new feature that prevents adults from messaging minors on Instagram and Facebook by default. The company also moved to hide suicide and eating disorder content from teens on both of its platforms.

Image: Instagram

Instagram is expanding “limits,” a safety control you can use to hide DMs and comments from accounts who may be harassing you. Now, instead of just hiding content from recent followers or people who don’t follow you, Instagram will mute incoming messages from everyone except the users on your close friends list.

Even though Instagram first rolled out limits to help creators deal with harassment campaigns, anyone can use the feature if they’re facing unwanted messages and comments from bullies and other bad actors. It could give a way to shut down incoming noise without disconnecting people from a supportive community.

Image: Instagram

When limiting interactions from everyone but close friends, you’ll only see DMs, tags, and mentions from the people on your list. Users not on your close friends list can still interact with your posts, but you won’t see these updates. These accounts also won’t know that you’ve hidden their content. You can also choose to view or ignore the limited comments and DMs.

Instagram lets you limit accounts for up to four weeks at a time, but you can extend it. You can enable limits by tapping your profile, selecting the hamburger menu in the top-right corner of the screen, and choosing Limited interactions. From there, you can toggle on limits for Accounts that aren’t following you, Recent followers, or Everyone but your Close Friends.

Instagram is also building on its restrict feature, which now lets you prevent a user from tagging or mentioning you in addition to hiding their comments. These expanded features come as Instagram faces increased scrutiny from the US government over the safety of its young users. Earlier this year, Meta rolled out a new feature that prevents adults from messaging minors on Instagram and Facebook by default. The company also moved to hide suicide and eating disorder content from teens on both of its platforms.

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Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Amazon now offers restaurant food delivery. And if you pay for Amazon Prime, the delivery part is free.
Amazon is now embedding Grubhub into Amazon.com and the Amazon Shopping app, and Amazon Prime customers paying $139 per year for Amazon Prime will now pay $0 for food delivery fees on orders of $12 or more, among other benefits.
Amazon had previously offered Prime customers a free one-year subscription to GrubHub Plus, but that one auto-renewed at $129 per year. Now, it’s a permanent part of the Amazon Prime subscription.
Amazon says the ordering experience is “identical” to ordering from Grubhub’s website or app and is accessible to all customers, even without Prime.
Amazon and Grubhub say they’ll continue collaborating on other promotions, including food pairings and promotions like the limited Nuka Burger for the Fallout series premiere.
Amazon’s Prime membership comes along with other services like Prime Video, Amazon Music, plus premium add-ons like Amazon’s pharmacy service RxPass ($5 a month for many common medications) or $10 a month for unlimited grocery delivery from Whole Foods and Amazon Fresh.
Prime members can also get $5 off their Grubhub meal of $25 or more, made through Amazon with code PRIME5 (valid through June 2nd).

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Amazon now offers restaurant food delivery. And if you pay for Amazon Prime, the delivery part is free.

Amazon is now embedding Grubhub into Amazon.com and the Amazon Shopping app, and Amazon Prime customers paying $139 per year for Amazon Prime will now pay $0 for food delivery fees on orders of $12 or more, among other benefits.

Amazon had previously offered Prime customers a free one-year subscription to GrubHub Plus, but that one auto-renewed at $129 per year. Now, it’s a permanent part of the Amazon Prime subscription.

Amazon says the ordering experience is “identical” to ordering from Grubhub’s website or app and is accessible to all customers, even without Prime.

Amazon and Grubhub say they’ll continue collaborating on other promotions, including food pairings and promotions like the limited Nuka Burger for the Fallout series premiere.

Amazon’s Prime membership comes along with other services like Prime Video, Amazon Music, plus premium add-ons like Amazon’s pharmacy service RxPass ($5 a month for many common medications) or $10 a month for unlimited grocery delivery from Whole Foods and Amazon Fresh.

Prime members can also get $5 off their Grubhub meal of $25 or more, made through Amazon with code PRIME5 (valid through June 2nd).

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Peter Serafinowicz will host Million Dollar Secret. | Photo: Kate Green / Getty Images for Paramount Pictures UK

Netflix has a new game show on the way called Million Dollar Secret. Netflix says that the eight-episode series will set 11 contestants on the hunt for a 12th one who’s been given a $1 million prize in an effort to be the last person standing (and win that prize).
The show seems to be aimed at the same audience that made the similarly dystopian-in-tone Squid Game: The Challenge the 15th-most watched TV show on Netflix in the second half of 2023 with over 33 million views (enough to slightly edge out CoComelon S1, Suits S1, and The Crown S6 but still well short of CoComelon S8).
Once the $1 million prize holder is found and eliminated by another contestant, the money goes to them, Netflix wrote. But it involves some strategy: players who find that prize early will become everyone else’s target, but if they wait, they stand less of a chance of finding the person who has the cash. Netflix apparently calls it “a game of strategy and alliances.”
British actor Peter Serafinowicz will host Million Dollar Secret. If you don’t know Serafinowicz’s name, you may know his face. He starred as Shaun’s grumpy, responsible roommate (and, later, shower zombie) in Shaun of the Dead, for instance, and as the titular blue hero of Amazon’s canceled-too-soon The Tick. Netflix hasn’t said when the show will premiere yet.

Peter Serafinowicz will host Million Dollar Secret. | Photo: Kate Green / Getty Images for Paramount Pictures UK

Netflix has a new game show on the way called Million Dollar Secret. Netflix says that the eight-episode series will set 11 contestants on the hunt for a 12th one who’s been given a $1 million prize in an effort to be the last person standing (and win that prize).

The show seems to be aimed at the same audience that made the similarly dystopian-in-tone Squid Game: The Challenge the 15th-most watched TV show on Netflix in the second half of 2023 with over 33 million views (enough to slightly edge out CoComelon S1, Suits S1, and The Crown S6 but still well short of CoComelon S8).

Once the $1 million prize holder is found and eliminated by another contestant, the money goes to them, Netflix wrote. But it involves some strategy: players who find that prize early will become everyone else’s target, but if they wait, they stand less of a chance of finding the person who has the cash. Netflix apparently calls it “a game of strategy and alliances.”

British actor Peter Serafinowicz will host Million Dollar Secret. If you don’t know Serafinowicz’s name, you may know his face. He starred as Shaun’s grumpy, responsible roommate (and, later, shower zombie) in Shaun of the Dead, for instance, and as the titular blue hero of Amazon’s canceled-too-soon The Tick. Netflix hasn’t said when the show will premiere yet.

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Image: The Verge

Free ChatGPT users can now access custom GPTs, analyze charts, ask questions about photos, and other features added with GPT-4o in early May.
Features like model and web responses, data analytics, chart creation, vision, file upload, memory, and custom GPTs were available to paid users — ChatGPT Plus, Teams, and Enterprise — but are now open to anyone using ChatGPT.
While free ChatGPT users can discover and use custom GPTs — previously only available to paid subscribers — they won’t be able to create their own. Custom versions of ChatGPT we’ve used already have ranged from an on-demand thesaurus to an Ikea shopping guide. Makers of custom GPTs can also participate in a revenue sharing scheme that OpenAI began testing in March.
Having access to data analytics and chart creation lets users connect OneDrive and Google Drive data to ChatGPT for faster analysis and customizable charts.
However, paying subscribers still have another advantage: fewer message limits. When free users reach the limit of messages or conversations using GPT-4o, they will automatically revert to GPT-3.5.
One feature users won’t hear, no matter which tier they’re on, is the controversial Sky voice. OpenAI pulled the voice, notable for its similarity to Scarlett Johansson’s performance in Her, but its other voices are still available on ChatGPT.

Image: The Verge

Free ChatGPT users can now access custom GPTs, analyze charts, ask questions about photos, and other features added with GPT-4o in early May.

Features like model and web responses, data analytics, chart creation, vision, file upload, memory, and custom GPTs were available to paid users — ChatGPT Plus, Teams, and Enterprise — but are now open to anyone using ChatGPT.

While free ChatGPT users can discover and use custom GPTs — previously only available to paid subscribers — they won’t be able to create their own. Custom versions of ChatGPT we’ve used already have ranged from an on-demand thesaurus to an Ikea shopping guide. Makers of custom GPTs can also participate in a revenue sharing scheme that OpenAI began testing in March.

Having access to data analytics and chart creation lets users connect OneDrive and Google Drive data to ChatGPT for faster analysis and customizable charts.

However, paying subscribers still have another advantage: fewer message limits. When free users reach the limit of messages or conversations using GPT-4o, they will automatically revert to GPT-3.5.

One feature users won’t hear, no matter which tier they’re on, is the controversial Sky voice. OpenAI pulled the voice, notable for its similarity to Scarlett Johansson’s performance in Her, but its other voices are still available on ChatGPT.

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The future is back, baby. | Photo: Dan Seifert / The Verge

After a few years of legal battles, you can once again control grouped speakers using the Google Home app and Google Assistant. The feature was slipped into Android 15 beta 2 last week, and now it’s going out to everyone, so users shouldn’t have to adjust the volume one speaker at a time anymore from their Android phones.
From the Google Home app, you should be able to adjust the volume from the Now Playing screen in the app when you’re playing to multiple speakers just by adjusting the volume as normal — the same goes for Google Assistant-compatible smart speakers. The company says there will be other ways to access its “Group Volume Control” feature later, including from an Android smartphone lock screen or smart displays like the Google Nest Hub.

Google was forced to remove some multiroom audio features after Sonos won its patent lawsuit against the company in 2022. But last year, a US district judge threw out the previous ruling and essentially accused Sonos of being a patent troll. Not wasting any time, Google quickly set about bringing features back into its ecosystem by letting users incorporate speakers into multiple speaker groups at once.

Screenshots: Wes Davis / The Verge
Controlling group volume in the Google Home app on Android (left) and iOS (right).

Google typically rolls out features over time, though the company doesn’t mention anything about that in the Nest Community post about the change, so it may have just flipped a server-side switch to turn this on for everyone. And although it specifically mentions the Android version of the Google Home app, adjusting volume for a speaker group in the iOS app works, too — albeit without the fancy Now Playing UI or the ability to control that volume using your phone’s volume buttons (unless you’re specifically doing it from, for instance, the YouTube Music app with the output selector open).
I should note we couldn’t get Google Assistant on a smartphone to change the volume for a speaker group. Google didn’t immediately respond to a request for more information.

The future is back, baby. | Photo: Dan Seifert / The Verge

After a few years of legal battles, you can once again control grouped speakers using the Google Home app and Google Assistant. The feature was slipped into Android 15 beta 2 last week, and now it’s going out to everyone, so users shouldn’t have to adjust the volume one speaker at a time anymore from their Android phones.

From the Google Home app, you should be able to adjust the volume from the Now Playing screen in the app when you’re playing to multiple speakers just by adjusting the volume as normal — the same goes for Google Assistant-compatible smart speakers. The company says there will be other ways to access its “Group Volume Control” feature later, including from an Android smartphone lock screen or smart displays like the Google Nest Hub.

Google was forced to remove some multiroom audio features after Sonos won its patent lawsuit against the company in 2022. But last year, a US district judge threw out the previous ruling and essentially accused Sonos of being a patent troll. Not wasting any time, Google quickly set about bringing features back into its ecosystem by letting users incorporate speakers into multiple speaker groups at once.

Screenshots: Wes Davis / The Verge
Controlling group volume in the Google Home app on Android (left) and iOS (right).

Google typically rolls out features over time, though the company doesn’t mention anything about that in the Nest Community post about the change, so it may have just flipped a server-side switch to turn this on for everyone. And although it specifically mentions the Android version of the Google Home app, adjusting volume for a speaker group in the iOS app works, too — albeit without the fancy Now Playing UI or the ability to control that volume using your phone’s volume buttons (unless you’re specifically doing it from, for instance, the YouTube Music app with the output selector open).

I should note we couldn’t get Google Assistant on a smartphone to change the volume for a speaker group. Google didn’t immediately respond to a request for more information.

Read More 

You shouldn’t miss this rare opportunity to grab the GOTY contender. | Image: Square Enix

As legendary as Final Fantasy VII is, even its staunchest supporters have a hard time recommending newcomers to play the original PlayStation’s classic JRPG. The sharp polygonal graphics of the era don’t do the memorable story and characters justice today for many audiences, but Final Fantasy VII Remake was a refreshing first attempt at modernizing it.

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth — the second game in the planned trilogy — has been out on PlayStation 5 for a few months now, and it’s worth continuing the journey, especially with a $15 discount that brings it down to $54.99 at Amazon, Best Buy, and GameStop.

Rebirth picks up right where the original left off, with Cloud Strife leading his comrades on a search for Sephiroth across an expansive open world. The latter proposes a selfish, humanity-threatening method of stopping the malevolent and careless Shinra corporation from stripping the planet of its natural energy, which obviously won’t fly for a band of wholesome protagonists.
Compared to the PS1 original, Square Enix expanded the cities surrounding Midgar (the megalopolis that’s the de facto lifeblood of the region) so broadly that many iconic locations are now represented with a richness and depth that wasn’t possible decades ago.
There’s a ton to do in the world, too, thanks to a healthy helping of side content and minigames including card battling, Chocobo racing, and your occasional puzzle. Some may find it a little too much, as Andrew Webster did in his run-through for The Verge’s review, but much of it is largely skippable if you’re only interested in running through the main plot. I have yet to sink my teeth into it since I’m still savoring the 2020 remake, but I’ve heard from quite a few enthusiasts whose taste I trust, and they swear Rebirth has a strong chance to contend for game of the year.

You shouldn’t miss this rare opportunity to grab the GOTY contender. | Image: Square Enix

As legendary as Final Fantasy VII is, even its staunchest supporters have a hard time recommending newcomers to play the original PlayStation’s classic JRPG. The sharp polygonal graphics of the era don’t do the memorable story and characters justice today for many audiences, but Final Fantasy VII Remake was a refreshing first attempt at modernizing it.

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth — the second game in the planned trilogy — has been out on PlayStation 5 for a few months now, and it’s worth continuing the journey, especially with a $15 discount that brings it down to $54.99 at Amazon, Best Buy, and GameStop.

Rebirth picks up right where the original left off, with Cloud Strife leading his comrades on a search for Sephiroth across an expansive open world. The latter proposes a selfish, humanity-threatening method of stopping the malevolent and careless Shinra corporation from stripping the planet of its natural energy, which obviously won’t fly for a band of wholesome protagonists.

Compared to the PS1 original, Square Enix expanded the cities surrounding Midgar (the megalopolis that’s the de facto lifeblood of the region) so broadly that many iconic locations are now represented with a richness and depth that wasn’t possible decades ago.

There’s a ton to do in the world, too, thanks to a healthy helping of side content and minigames including card battling, Chocobo racing, and your occasional puzzle. Some may find it a little too much, as Andrew Webster did in his run-through for The Verge’s review, but much of it is largely skippable if you’re only interested in running through the main plot. I have yet to sink my teeth into it since I’m still savoring the 2020 remake, but I’ve heard from quite a few enthusiasts whose taste I trust, and they swear Rebirth has a strong chance to contend for game of the year.

Read More 

Image: Hugo Herrera / The Verge

New AI tools could give utilities real-time data to make the power grid and EV charging more reliable, a very small study by the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI) and startup Utilidata suggests.
The researchers are using AI to analyze EV charging behavior, hoping those insights might improve the experience for drivers and help utilities prepare for the spike in electricity demand. So far, they’ve found that EV charging can draw power inconsistently and lower power quality, which can wear out charging equipment.
Those underlying problems waste energy and could lead to busted EV chargers that have become a bane for drivers. So the ability to immediately spot and even predict those issues with AI could be a game changer. AI models could give utilities a heads up on how charging might impact the power grid, the authors write. And they can also advise drivers on where and when to charge and help EV charging companies better maintain their equipment.
Those underlying problems waste energy and could lead to busted EV chargers
UMTRI initially reached out to Utilidata for this pilot study, which is meant to inform the design of a larger research project investigating the same issues. UMTRI says it’s already working with the North American Electric Reliability Council to address their initial findings.
For this study, the researchers installed electric meter adapters outfitted with Utilidata’s AI platform Karman at six EV charging stations at the University of Michigan. Karman analyzed voltage, current, power, and other dynamics between March and June of last year. The study authors also installed devices on the vehicles of 10 drivers who frequent the college campus to monitor their charging habits.
While this project is still in an early stage, researchers are hopeful it can help people prepare for the challenges that come with electrifying vehicle fleets. In the US, aging power grids are already straining to accommodate rising electricity demand from AI data centers, crypto mining, and clean energy technologies. But compared to a data center, utilities have a harder time anticipating when and where EVs will plug in to the grid.
Utilities have to cope with that unpredictability without real-time data to help them adjust. Those blind spots are becoming a bigger issue at the “grid edge,” where customers are increasingly connecting their own devices to the grid like batteries for EVs and solar panels.
“There’s a big role for AI to play at the grid edge,” says Siobhan Powell, a postdoctoral researcher at ETH Zürich who was not involved in the study. “It didn’t used to be the case, right? There wasn’t a lot interesting going on and now that we have a chance to do control, there’s more opportunity and more value in knowing what’s going on.”
“There’s a big role for AI to play at the grid edge”
One issue the researchers spotted with this study was short-cycling, inconsistent power draw from vehicles that would stop and start charging even after the battery was juiced up fully. Not only does that burn through energy inefficiently, but it can also overheat wires and transformers. They also found that EV charging lowers power quality, when electricity deviates from ideal voltage and frequency ranges. Flickering is a telltale sign of low power quality, which can also cause more wear and tear on equipment.
“The biggest takeaway, I think, is that we confirmed that there’s a lot of behaviors from electric vehicles that are not known to anyone — not known to car owners, not known to grid operators, not known to charger OEMs,” Utilidata’s vice president of product solutions, Yingchen Zhang, says. “So there’s a great need to really open up all this data.”
The study authors cautiously make the case that places with a lot of unmanaged EV charging could see larger impacts on the power grid. In a worst-case scenario, they say that could impact power supply to other customers. But Zhang is quick to say that the chance of a power outage as a result is very low.
“It’s good to know exactly how these new charges affect voltage, power quality issues locally, but I wouldn’t jump to outages,” Powell says, because there are a lot of steps utilities can take to prevent outages. And again, this is a very small study about unpredictable charging behavior, so it’s still too early to make sweeping statements about broader grid impacts from these early findings.

Both Powell and Zhang want to avoid causing undue alarm over the impact EV charging can have on the grid — particularly as EV adoption faces partisan attacks. “A lot of the fears are because people don’t know the actual EV behavior,” Zhang says. “So actually revealing this information will diminish a lot of those fears.”
The rise of AI has also raised concerns about increasingly energy-hungry data centers stressing the grid. Zhang says his company is thinking about that, too, using custom-designed chips from Nvidia to consume less energy than more generic AI chips. And using machine learning in this way to analyze data is generally much less energy-intensive than generative AI models that spit out text and images.
It comes down to preparation as the key to shoring up the power grid against new technologies that change the way we live, work, and get around. Fleets of EV batteries could even help bolster the grid by acting as virtual power plants that feed power into the grid when it’s needed. Automakers are already testing this out, in part to make EVs more affordable for customers. “We need EVs. We need this transition to happen. And there are things that we have to do to prepare the grid, but we can do them,” Powell says.

Image: Hugo Herrera / The Verge

New AI tools could give utilities real-time data to make the power grid and EV charging more reliable, a very small study by the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI) and startup Utilidata suggests.

The researchers are using AI to analyze EV charging behavior, hoping those insights might improve the experience for drivers and help utilities prepare for the spike in electricity demand. So far, they’ve found that EV charging can draw power inconsistently and lower power quality, which can wear out charging equipment.

Those underlying problems waste energy and could lead to busted EV chargers that have become a bane for drivers. So the ability to immediately spot and even predict those issues with AI could be a game changer. AI models could give utilities a heads up on how charging might impact the power grid, the authors write. And they can also advise drivers on where and when to charge and help EV charging companies better maintain their equipment.

UMTRI initially reached out to Utilidata for this pilot study, which is meant to inform the design of a larger research project investigating the same issues. UMTRI says it’s already working with the North American Electric Reliability Council to address their initial findings.

For this study, the researchers installed electric meter adapters outfitted with Utilidata’s AI platform Karman at six EV charging stations at the University of Michigan. Karman analyzed voltage, current, power, and other dynamics between March and June of last year. The study authors also installed devices on the vehicles of 10 drivers who frequent the college campus to monitor their charging habits.

While this project is still in an early stage, researchers are hopeful it can help people prepare for the challenges that come with electrifying vehicle fleets. In the US, aging power grids are already straining to accommodate rising electricity demand from AI data centers, crypto mining, and clean energy technologies. But compared to a data center, utilities have a harder time anticipating when and where EVs will plug in to the grid.

Utilities have to cope with that unpredictability without real-time data to help them adjust. Those blind spots are becoming a bigger issue at the “grid edge,” where customers are increasingly connecting their own devices to the grid like batteries for EVs and solar panels.

“There’s a big role for AI to play at the grid edge,” says Siobhan Powell, a postdoctoral researcher at ETH Zürich who was not involved in the study. “It didn’t used to be the case, right? There wasn’t a lot interesting going on and now that we have a chance to do control, there’s more opportunity and more value in knowing what’s going on.”

One issue the researchers spotted with this study was short-cycling, inconsistent power draw from vehicles that would stop and start charging even after the battery was juiced up fully. Not only does that burn through energy inefficiently, but it can also overheat wires and transformers. They also found that EV charging lowers power quality, when electricity deviates from ideal voltage and frequency ranges. Flickering is a telltale sign of low power quality, which can also cause more wear and tear on equipment.

“The biggest takeaway, I think, is that we confirmed that there’s a lot of behaviors from electric vehicles that are not known to anyone — not known to car owners, not known to grid operators, not known to charger OEMs,” Utilidata’s vice president of product solutions, Yingchen Zhang, says. “So there’s a great need to really open up all this data.”

The study authors cautiously make the case that places with a lot of unmanaged EV charging could see larger impacts on the power grid. In a worst-case scenario, they say that could impact power supply to other customers. But Zhang is quick to say that the chance of a power outage as a result is very low.

“It’s good to know exactly how these new charges affect voltage, power quality issues locally, but I wouldn’t jump to outages,” Powell says, because there are a lot of steps utilities can take to prevent outages. And again, this is a very small study about unpredictable charging behavior, so it’s still too early to make sweeping statements about broader grid impacts from these early findings.

Both Powell and Zhang want to avoid causing undue alarm over the impact EV charging can have on the grid — particularly as EV adoption faces partisan attacks. “A lot of the fears are because people don’t know the actual EV behavior,” Zhang says. “So actually revealing this information will diminish a lot of those fears.”

The rise of AI has also raised concerns about increasingly energy-hungry data centers stressing the grid. Zhang says his company is thinking about that, too, using custom-designed chips from Nvidia to consume less energy than more generic AI chips. And using machine learning in this way to analyze data is generally much less energy-intensive than generative AI models that spit out text and images.

It comes down to preparation as the key to shoring up the power grid against new technologies that change the way we live, work, and get around. Fleets of EV batteries could even help bolster the grid by acting as virtual power plants that feed power into the grid when it’s needed. Automakers are already testing this out, in part to make EVs more affordable for customers. “We need EVs. We need this transition to happen. And there are things that we have to do to prepare the grid, but we can do them,” Powell says.

Read More 

Image: Framework

I know, I absolutely stuffed this story’s headline — but I’m just so excited to see the future of modular computing unfolding before my eyes. Framework, the company that actually delivered on the promise of an upgradable laptop, has apparently done it yet again.

Not only is it now taking preorders for yet another generation of swappable mainboards to give you Intel Core Ultra chips, but the company has also developed a $39 webcam to improve the originals’ middling image quality and a $269 drop-in display that replaces your 60Hz, 2256 x 1504 screen with a brighter, higher-res, variable refresh rate 120Hz 2880 x 1920 panel at 256ppi that should make everything smoother and crisper.
To be clear, you don’t need to buy a new laptop to get these upgrades. They can fit in existing laptops, because modularity!

Image: Framework

Zoom in to see one weird quirk of the new display: it has rounded corners, so doesn’t quite fill out the bezel. “This is because we repurposed and customized a panel that was originally designed for another company,” says Framework.

The new screen maintains the 1500:1 contrast and anti-glare matte surface of the original, while the webcam now uses pixel binning like a phone, producing low-light-friendlier 1080p video from a 9.2-megapixel OmniVision sensor by combining each four pixels into one. (Mind you, Framework talked big about its original webcam, too, but we’ve genuinely seen low-light improvements with pixel binning on phones.)
And that’s not all: Framework says it’s finally opening up preorders for its first full-size SD card reader expansion module (though only with purchase of laptop for now), releasing its USB-C module in four new colors, letting you configure an English keyboard with a “Super” key instead of the Windows logo for those of us on Linux, and permanently reducing the prices of its AMD Ryzen 7040 series laptops — both AMD and Core Ultra start at $934 for a bring-your-own storage, RAM, charger, and OS model.
But with AMD, you’ll probably want to pay a tad more — because an AMD DIY kit with that new webcam, screen, and larger 61Wh battery is just a $150 upgrade at checkout.

With the Core Ultra, you get the larger battery and new camera by default, with the screen as an optional $130 upgrade.
The new parts (and laptops) are shipping in August, and Framework’s already taking preorders. Do note, though, that the new Intel Core Ultra chips here won’t meet Microsoft’s Copilot Plus PC spec for AI apps — Microsoft’s looking for an AI coprocessor with over 40 TOPS of performance, and the first-gen Core Ultra chips have more like 16 TOPS. Intel’s next-gen chips that meet the spec are coming this fall.

Image: Framework

I know, I absolutely stuffed this story’s headline — but I’m just so excited to see the future of modular computing unfolding before my eyes. Framework, the company that actually delivered on the promise of an upgradable laptop, has apparently done it yet again.

Not only is it now taking preorders for yet another generation of swappable mainboards to give you Intel Core Ultra chips, but the company has also developed a $39 webcam to improve the originals’ middling image quality and a $269 drop-in display that replaces your 60Hz, 2256 x 1504 screen with a brighter, higher-res, variable refresh rate 120Hz 2880 x 1920 panel at 256ppi that should make everything smoother and crisper.

To be clear, you don’t need to buy a new laptop to get these upgrades. They can fit in existing laptops, because modularity!

Image: Framework

Zoom in to see one weird quirk of the new display: it has rounded corners, so doesn’t quite fill out the bezel. “This is because we repurposed and customized a panel that was originally designed for another company,” says Framework.

The new screen maintains the 1500:1 contrast and anti-glare matte surface of the original, while the webcam now uses pixel binning like a phone, producing low-light-friendlier 1080p video from a 9.2-megapixel OmniVision sensor by combining each four pixels into one. (Mind you, Framework talked big about its original webcam, too, but we’ve genuinely seen low-light improvements with pixel binning on phones.)

And that’s not all: Framework says it’s finally opening up preorders for its first full-size SD card reader expansion module (though only with purchase of laptop for now), releasing its USB-C module in four new colors, letting you configure an English keyboard with a “Super” key instead of the Windows logo for those of us on Linux, and permanently reducing the prices of its AMD Ryzen 7040 series laptops — both AMD and Core Ultra start at $934 for a bring-your-own storage, RAM, charger, and OS model.

But with AMD, you’ll probably want to pay a tad more — because an AMD DIY kit with that new webcam, screen, and larger 61Wh battery is just a $150 upgrade at checkout.

With the Core Ultra, you get the larger battery and new camera by default, with the screen as an optional $130 upgrade.

The new parts (and laptops) are shipping in August, and Framework’s already taking preorders. Do note, though, that the new Intel Core Ultra chips here won’t meet Microsoft’s Copilot Plus PC spec for AI apps — Microsoft’s looking for an AI coprocessor with over 40 TOPS of performance, and the first-gen Core Ultra chips have more like 16 TOPS. Intel’s next-gen chips that meet the spec are coming this fall.

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The latest iPad ad is much more human-centric. | Image: Apple / YouTube

Apple is back with a new iPad ad, seemingly crafted as a chaser after the last spot left a bitter taste in some people’s mouths.
Titled “Worlds Made on iPad,” the minute-and-change video features actor Sofia Wylie on a green screen set. Then, the screen splits into three views, each with a different animated backdrop that evolves as she crawls, leaps, and floats through the stylized spaces. It’s a distinctly different vibe from the last one, which, uh, didn’t go down well.

That ad — titled “Crush!” — featured an array of instruments, paints, sound mixing equipment, and other artistic tools being crushed in a hydraulic press, all smashed together to create a shiny new iPad Pro. Unsurprisingly, many creators didn’t take kindly to seeing the symbols of their livelihood explode like party favors and be reduced to a single consumer product. Weird! Apple later issued an apology, and maybe this new ad is another kind of apology, too.
The latest video is much more human-centric — the iPad Pro isn’t actually pictured in the main video, though it does appear in a vertical version of the ad. The caption for both versions reads, “One piece of green screen footage interpreted by different animators using iPad Pro powered by the M4 chip, and the new Apple Pencil Pro.”
The animators are listed farther down in the caption; they are Natalie Labarre, Jin & Jay, and Eric Lane. All real people! Personally, I think their work leaves a more lasting impression than the previous one.

The latest iPad ad is much more human-centric. | Image: Apple / YouTube

Apple is back with a new iPad ad, seemingly crafted as a chaser after the last spot left a bitter taste in some people’s mouths.

Titled “Worlds Made on iPad,” the minute-and-change video features actor Sofia Wylie on a green screen set. Then, the screen splits into three views, each with a different animated backdrop that evolves as she crawls, leaps, and floats through the stylized spaces. It’s a distinctly different vibe from the last one, which, uh, didn’t go down well.

That ad — titled “Crush!” — featured an array of instruments, paints, sound mixing equipment, and other artistic tools being crushed in a hydraulic press, all smashed together to create a shiny new iPad Pro. Unsurprisingly, many creators didn’t take kindly to seeing the symbols of their livelihood explode like party favors and be reduced to a single consumer product. Weird! Apple later issued an apology, and maybe this new ad is another kind of apology, too.

The latest video is much more human-centric — the iPad Pro isn’t actually pictured in the main video, though it does appear in a vertical version of the ad. The caption for both versions reads, “One piece of green screen footage interpreted by different animators using iPad Pro powered by the M4 chip, and the new Apple Pencil Pro.”

The animators are listed farther down in the caption; they are Natalie Labarre, Jin & Jay, and Eric Lane. All real people! Personally, I think their work leaves a more lasting impression than the previous one.

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Image: The Verge

Opening a webpage inside an app is about to get a little more pleasant — in some Android apps, at least. The Chrome M124 update adds the ability to open in-app webpages in picture-in-picture mode, letting you swap between the webpage and the app without closing your browsing session.
The feature is coming to the Android apps that use Chrome Custom Tabs, which let developers provide customized browsing experiences within their apps. If it’s available in an app you use, you’ll see a new down arrow in the top-left corner of an in-app webpage. Tap the arrow, and the webpage will minimize into a floating window in the bottom-right corner of the screen. You can tap the window to open the tab back up.

GIF: Google

This feature actually seems pretty handy. I can’t count the number of times I’ve had to close an in-app webpage to refer to something inside the app, only to lose whatever I was looking at. The feature is only available in apps that use Chrome-based mobile browsers for now, but hopefully others will follow suit.

Image: The Verge

Opening a webpage inside an app is about to get a little more pleasant — in some Android apps, at least. The Chrome M124 update adds the ability to open in-app webpages in picture-in-picture mode, letting you swap between the webpage and the app without closing your browsing session.

The feature is coming to the Android apps that use Chrome Custom Tabs, which let developers provide customized browsing experiences within their apps. If it’s available in an app you use, you’ll see a new down arrow in the top-left corner of an in-app webpage. Tap the arrow, and the webpage will minimize into a floating window in the bottom-right corner of the screen. You can tap the window to open the tab back up.

GIF: Google

This feature actually seems pretty handy. I can’t count the number of times I’ve had to close an in-app webpage to refer to something inside the app, only to lose whatever I was looking at. The feature is only available in apps that use Chrome-based mobile browsers for now, but hopefully others will follow suit.

Read More