verge-rss

Image: Fisker

Fisker has another braking issue on its hands, prompting US safety regulators to open a fourth probe on the automaker’s electric Ocean SUV.
This time, the National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is looking into customer claims that the Ocean would unexpectedly activate its automatic emergency braking (AEB) without any forward obstruction. Reuters reports three of the claims involved someone getting injured.
This is the second probe opened for the 2023 Ocean that has to do with the vehicle’s braking system. The first, which was announced last January, was based on complaints that the vehicle would lose braking power. Now the regulator’s Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) is opening a preliminary evaluation based on eight customer complaints that allege inadvertent AEB activations.
The issues echo Tesla’s struggles with phantom braking, although those appeared related to the company’s advanced driver-assistant features like Autopilot and Full Self-Driving.
Another investigation opened last month alleges failures on the Ocean’s latch and handle systems that stop users from opening doors inside and outside. And in February, four complaints were filed about the Ocean not shifting into park or the intended gear, resulting in unintended vehicle movement or rollaway.
Fisker’s image has suffered from mounting safety and reliability issues. The company is also struggling to keep afloat financially, forcing it to slash prices by almost 40 percent in an attempt to stay afloat.
Meanwhile, Fisker hasn’t paid its engineering and carpeting partners, and its contract manufacturer Magna International recently stated it will no longer build any more Ocean SUVs.

Image: Fisker

Fisker has another braking issue on its hands, prompting US safety regulators to open a fourth probe on the automaker’s electric Ocean SUV.

This time, the National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is looking into customer claims that the Ocean would unexpectedly activate its automatic emergency braking (AEB) without any forward obstruction. Reuters reports three of the claims involved someone getting injured.

This is the second probe opened for the 2023 Ocean that has to do with the vehicle’s braking system. The first, which was announced last January, was based on complaints that the vehicle would lose braking power. Now the regulator’s Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) is opening a preliminary evaluation based on eight customer complaints that allege inadvertent AEB activations.

The issues echo Tesla’s struggles with phantom braking, although those appeared related to the company’s advanced driver-assistant features like Autopilot and Full Self-Driving.

Another investigation opened last month alleges failures on the Ocean’s latch and handle systems that stop users from opening doors inside and outside. And in February, four complaints were filed about the Ocean not shifting into park or the intended gear, resulting in unintended vehicle movement or rollaway.

Fisker’s image has suffered from mounting safety and reliability issues. The company is also struggling to keep afloat financially, forcing it to slash prices by almost 40 percent in an attempt to stay afloat.

Meanwhile, Fisker hasn’t paid its engineering and carpeting partners, and its contract manufacturer Magna International recently stated it will no longer build any more Ocean SUVs.

Read More 

Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge

You may not spend much time thinking about the default apps you’ve got set up on macOS until they suddenly get configured the wrong way — and you find that, say, the app that pops up when you click on an image file is not the one you want to use.
Out of the box, your Mac will use Apple’s own tools for most tasks: click on a web link in Mail and you’ll see Safari, for example, or double-click on an image you’ve downloaded to your system and up pops Photos. However, you might want to use different apps, or maybe a freshly installed app has decided to make itself the default and you want to undo the change (web browsers often do this, asking to become the default when they launch for the first time).
So it’s useful to know how to set the default apps yourself. We’ll go over setting the default apps for specific file types and setting your default browser and email app (which is a slightly different process).
Set default apps for specific file types

The Open With dialog lets you set default apps.

To set the default app for a particular file type on macOS, first use Finder to find a file in that format:

Right-click on the file and choose Open With > Other. You can also select the file, open the File menu, and pick Open With > Other.
On the next dialog, you should see a selection of apps and, below that, an Enable drop-down menu. If you don’t see the menu, click Show Options in the lower left.
From the Enable menu, select Recommended Applications to only see apps normally associated with the file type you’ve chosen (the others will be grayed out). Select All Applications to see everything.
Select the app you want to use for the file type.
Check the box marked Always Open With (it’s below the Enable drop-down) to always open files of this type with that app. If you only want to use the app this one time, leave the box unchecked.
Click Open to launch the chosen app and see the file.

There’s another way to do this that you can use if you prefer.

Right-click on a file and choose Get Info

Expand the Open with: section.
Pick an app from the drop-down menu, and use the Change All button to make the same adjustment for every file saved in the same format.

Set the default email app and web browser
Email apps and web browsers handle links rather than files, so they’re configured differently. One scenario where your default email app kicks in is when you follow an “email me” or “get in contact” link on a website.
To set a default app for your email

Launch Mail from the Applications folder in Finder.
Open the Mail menu, then choose Settings.
On the General tab, open the Default email reader drop-down menu to see your other choices.
Any change you make is applied right away.

To set a default app for your browser

Set your default web browser from System Settings.

Open the Apple menu, and choose System Settings.
Switch to the Desktop & Dock tab.
From the Default web browser drop-down menu, choose a browser.

The change is instantly applied, and the next time you follow a web link (or double-click on an HTML file stored on your system), your chosen browser will appear.
Remember that browsers can also handle a range of file types, including PDF documents and popular image formats, so you can deploy them as basic file viewers, too, if you want.

Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge

You may not spend much time thinking about the default apps you’ve got set up on macOS until they suddenly get configured the wrong way — and you find that, say, the app that pops up when you click on an image file is not the one you want to use.

Out of the box, your Mac will use Apple’s own tools for most tasks: click on a web link in Mail and you’ll see Safari, for example, or double-click on an image you’ve downloaded to your system and up pops Photos. However, you might want to use different apps, or maybe a freshly installed app has decided to make itself the default and you want to undo the change (web browsers often do this, asking to become the default when they launch for the first time).

So it’s useful to know how to set the default apps yourself. We’ll go over setting the default apps for specific file types and setting your default browser and email app (which is a slightly different process).

Set default apps for specific file types

The Open With dialog lets you set default apps.

To set the default app for a particular file type on macOS, first use Finder to find a file in that format:

Right-click on the file and choose Open With > Other. You can also select the file, open the File menu, and pick Open With > Other.
On the next dialog, you should see a selection of apps and, below that, an Enable drop-down menu. If you don’t see the menu, click Show Options in the lower left.
From the Enable menu, select Recommended Applications to only see apps normally associated with the file type you’ve chosen (the others will be grayed out). Select All Applications to see everything.
Select the app you want to use for the file type.
Check the box marked Always Open With (it’s below the Enable drop-down) to always open files of this type with that app. If you only want to use the app this one time, leave the box unchecked.
Click Open to launch the chosen app and see the file.

There’s another way to do this that you can use if you prefer.

Right-click on a file and choose Get Info

Expand the Open with: section.
Pick an app from the drop-down menu, and use the Change All button to make the same adjustment for every file saved in the same format.

Set the default email app and web browser

Email apps and web browsers handle links rather than files, so they’re configured differently. One scenario where your default email app kicks in is when you follow an “email me” or “get in contact” link on a website.

To set a default app for your email

Launch Mail from the Applications folder in Finder.
Open the Mail menu, then choose Settings.
On the General tab, open the Default email reader drop-down menu to see your other choices.
Any change you make is applied right away.

To set a default app for your browser

Set your default web browser from System Settings.

Open the Apple menu, and choose System Settings.
Switch to the Desktop & Dock tab.
From the Default web browser drop-down menu, choose a browser.

The change is instantly applied, and the next time you follow a web link (or double-click on an HTML file stored on your system), your chosen browser will appear.

Remember that browsers can also handle a range of file types, including PDF documents and popular image formats, so you can deploy them as basic file viewers, too, if you want.

Read More 

Cardiovascular age is a proxy for how “stiff” your arteries are. | Image: Oura

Oura’s been busy this past year launching several new features — and folks with the Gen 3 version of the smart ring are about to get two more. At the end of May, the company will roll out cardiovascular age and cardiovascular capacity metrics for gauging long-term heart health. Emphasis on long-term.
“The thing about cardiovascular age and cardiovascular capacity is that these are both metrics that you can actually impact,” explains Shyamal Patel, Oura’s head of science. Right now, Patel says, Oura’s current feature set has been much more focused on your near-term metrics. “With these features, we’re sort of introducing this idea of longer-term health. What are the things that you’re doing today? How are they contributing to your health in the longer term, your health span, your longevity.”
Oura defines cardiovascular age as how old your vascular system is compared to your chronological age. The smart ring has photoplethysmography (PPG) sensors — the green LEDs that many wearables use to measure heart rate — and from that sensor, it can measure pulse wave velocity to determine arterial stiffness.
The gist is the stiffer your blood vessels, the less efficient your vascular system. Your heart has to work harder, and your organs receive more wear and tear, as stiffer blood vessels can’t adapt as well to changes in blood pressure as more flexible ones can. After about 14 days of tracking, Oura Ring users will get a readout that says whether you’re trending above, below, or in alignment (plus or minus five years) of your chronological age.

Image: Oura
The app will also give recommendations on how to improve cardiovascular age or VO2 max.

Oura’s cardio capacity feature may be a bit more familiar to wearable users. Oura Ring owners will be able to take a six-minute test in which they’re prompted to walk as fast as they can. From that test, the ring will give you a VO2 Max estimate.
VO2 Max is a metric that measures your cardiorespiratory health. A higher VO2 Max generally means better performance in endurance sports. As it stands, you’ll usually find this metric highlighted in devices that cater to athletes — like the Whoop 4.0, Garmins, and Polars. Oura’s philosophy for VO2 Max, however, intentionally shifts away from a sports-centric focus.
“Anything that you can do to improve your sort of cardiorespiratory capacity is going to also have long-term health benefits. So for us, the approach is more about giving you a window into what it might mean,” says Patel. For example, the app will tell you what climbing five flights of stairs may feel like in 10 years on your current trajectory, versus one where you improve your VO2 Max.

The timing of these features also can’t be ignored. After years of being the dominant player in the space, the smart ring space is starting to heat up. Most notably, Samsung announced it’ll be launching its first smart ring later this year. Given that, it makes sense that Oura is eager to flex its expertise and reputation for investing heavily in scientific research. (Cardiovascular age, for example, was a passion project of one of its biomedical engineers that took several years of testing and development.) The company also recently launched a labs feature, which allows its users to partake in beta features like early illness detection. Patel says the company has further plans in the pipeline, with more updates planned for 2025.

Cardiovascular age is a proxy for how “stiff” your arteries are. | Image: Oura

Oura’s been busy this past year launching several new features — and folks with the Gen 3 version of the smart ring are about to get two more. At the end of May, the company will roll out cardiovascular age and cardiovascular capacity metrics for gauging long-term heart health. Emphasis on long-term.

“The thing about cardiovascular age and cardiovascular capacity is that these are both metrics that you can actually impact,” explains Shyamal Patel, Oura’s head of science. Right now, Patel says, Oura’s current feature set has been much more focused on your near-term metrics. “With these features, we’re sort of introducing this idea of longer-term health. What are the things that you’re doing today? How are they contributing to your health in the longer term, your health span, your longevity.”

Oura defines cardiovascular age as how old your vascular system is compared to your chronological age. The smart ring has photoplethysmography (PPG) sensors — the green LEDs that many wearables use to measure heart rate — and from that sensor, it can measure pulse wave velocity to determine arterial stiffness.

The gist is the stiffer your blood vessels, the less efficient your vascular system. Your heart has to work harder, and your organs receive more wear and tear, as stiffer blood vessels can’t adapt as well to changes in blood pressure as more flexible ones can. After about 14 days of tracking, Oura Ring users will get a readout that says whether you’re trending above, below, or in alignment (plus or minus five years) of your chronological age.

Oura’s cardio capacity feature may be a bit more familiar to wearable users. Oura Ring owners will be able to take a six-minute test in which they’re prompted to walk as fast as they can. From that test, the ring will give you a VO2 Max estimate.

VO2 Max is a metric that measures your cardiorespiratory health. A higher VO2 Max generally means better performance in endurance sports. As it stands, you’ll usually find this metric highlighted in devices that cater to athletes — like the Whoop 4.0, Garmins, and Polars. Oura’s philosophy for VO2 Max, however, intentionally shifts away from a sports-centric focus.

“Anything that you can do to improve your sort of cardiorespiratory capacity is going to also have long-term health benefits. So for us, the approach is more about giving you a window into what it might mean,” says Patel. For example, the app will tell you what climbing five flights of stairs may feel like in 10 years on your current trajectory, versus one where you improve your VO2 Max.

The timing of these features also can’t be ignored. After years of being the dominant player in the space, the smart ring space is starting to heat up. Most notably, Samsung announced it’ll be launching its first smart ring later this year. Given that, it makes sense that Oura is eager to flex its expertise and reputation for investing heavily in scientific research. (Cardiovascular age, for example, was a passion project of one of its biomedical engineers that took several years of testing and development.) The company also recently launched a labs feature, which allows its users to partake in beta features like early illness detection. Patel says the company has further plans in the pipeline, with more updates planned for 2025.

Read More 

Image: Alex Parkin / The Verge

People seem to like Apple’s new iPad Pro, with its better screen and impressive design. People also seem to really hate Apple’s new ad in which the company crushes centuries of creative tools because, in the future, there is only iPad. And after all the iPad stuff this week, people are still asking the same question: what is the point of the iPad?
On this episode of The Vergecast, we talk about the week in Apple news: the iPad Pro, the iPad Air, the Pencil Pro, the Magic Keyboard, the new apps, and much more. We also wonder if any of this changes anything about what the iPad is, how it works, and where it’s headed — or if the answers will only come at WWDC next month. Then we talk about that ad everyone’s mad about and why it seems like Apple has lost the benefit of the doubt with customers. (Apple issued an apology right after we finished recording — but that doesn’t change much.)

After that, we talk streaming. Because it’s earnings season, and we’re learning a lot about how things are going at Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, and the rest of the services. Turns out, streaming is expensive? We talk about why the services are bundling, why it seems nobody can keep up with Netflix, and more.
Finally, we do a lightning round, which mostly turns into the Nilay Patel Victory Tour. We talk about the turmoil at Microsoft, the arguments about buttons and links that are taking over in Epic v. Apple, and the latest on what’s happening with that Foxconn site in Wisconsin.
If you want to know more about everything we discuss in this episode, here are some links to get you started, beginning with Apple:

Apple iPad event: all the news from Apple’s ‘Let Loose’ reveal
The 7 biggest announcements from Apple’s iPad event

Here’s how the latest iPad Pro compares to the new iPad Air (and prior models)
Apple adds a 13-inch iPad Air to the mix
The iPad Air is now heavier than the iPad Pro
Apple announces new iPad Pros with OLED displays and thinnest design ever
Apple announces its M4 chip
Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro M4: bigger trackpad and a function row

Hands-on with the new iPad Pro: yeah, it’s really thin
You can upgrade the iPad Pro’s processor now, too
The new Apple Pencil Pro is harder to lose and better to draw with
Apple puts more ‘Pro’ in Final Cut and Logic Pro for the iPad
People sure are pressed about Apple’s crushing iPad commercial

On the state of the streaming wars:

A Disney, Hulu, and Max streaming bundle is on the way
The streaming business will look ‘very different’ in the next couple of years
Max nears 100 million subscribers globally
Max price hike incoming
Disney’s streaming business gets closer to becoming profitable
ESPN is coming to the Disney Plus app
Sony is now in play to buy Paramount
The Office is getting a Peacock spinoff about local newspapers

And in the lightning round:

Alex Cranz’s pick: Inside Microsoft’s Xbox turmoil

Nilay Patel’s pick: Epic v. Apple judge seems displeased over style restrictions on iOS buttons

Nilay’s other pick: President Joe Biden to announce AI data center at failed Foxconn site in Wisconsin

Josh Dzieza’s Foxconn story from 2020: The 8th wonder of the world

Image: Alex Parkin / The Verge

People seem to like Apple’s new iPad Pro, with its better screen and impressive design. People also seem to really hate Apple’s new ad in which the company crushes centuries of creative tools because, in the future, there is only iPad. And after all the iPad stuff this week, people are still asking the same question: what is the point of the iPad?

On this episode of The Vergecast, we talk about the week in Apple news: the iPad Pro, the iPad Air, the Pencil Pro, the Magic Keyboard, the new apps, and much more. We also wonder if any of this changes anything about what the iPad is, how it works, and where it’s headed — or if the answers will only come at WWDC next month. Then we talk about that ad everyone’s mad about and why it seems like Apple has lost the benefit of the doubt with customers. (Apple issued an apology right after we finished recording — but that doesn’t change much.)

After that, we talk streaming. Because it’s earnings season, and we’re learning a lot about how things are going at Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, and the rest of the services. Turns out, streaming is expensive? We talk about why the services are bundling, why it seems nobody can keep up with Netflix, and more.

Finally, we do a lightning round, which mostly turns into the Nilay Patel Victory Tour. We talk about the turmoil at Microsoft, the arguments about buttons and links that are taking over in Epic v. Apple, and the latest on what’s happening with that Foxconn site in Wisconsin.

If you want to know more about everything we discuss in this episode, here are some links to get you started, beginning with Apple:

Apple iPad event: all the news from Apple’s ‘Let Loose’ reveal
The 7 biggest announcements from Apple’s iPad event

Here’s how the latest iPad Pro compares to the new iPad Air (and prior models)
Apple adds a 13-inch iPad Air to the mix
The iPad Air is now heavier than the iPad Pro
Apple announces new iPad Pros with OLED displays and thinnest design ever
Apple announces its M4 chip
Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro M4: bigger trackpad and a function row

Hands-on with the new iPad Pro: yeah, it’s really thin
You can upgrade the iPad Pro’s processor now, too
The new Apple Pencil Pro is harder to lose and better to draw with
Apple puts more ‘Pro’ in Final Cut and Logic Pro for the iPad
People sure are pressed about Apple’s crushing iPad commercial

On the state of the streaming wars:

A Disney, Hulu, and Max streaming bundle is on the way
The streaming business will look ‘very different’ in the next couple of years
Max nears 100 million subscribers globally
Max price hike incoming
Disney’s streaming business gets closer to becoming profitable
ESPN is coming to the Disney Plus app
Sony is now in play to buy Paramount
The Office is getting a Peacock spinoff about local newspapers

And in the lightning round:

Alex Cranz’s pick: Inside Microsoft’s Xbox turmoil

Nilay Patel’s pick: Epic v. Apple judge seems displeased over style restrictions on iOS buttons

Nilay’s other pick: President Joe Biden to announce AI data center at failed Foxconn site in Wisconsin

Josh Dzieza’s Foxconn story from 2020: The 8th wonder of the world

Read More 

Image: Supergiant Games

Now that the Hades II early access period has started, opening up a more complete but still early build of the game, I’ve been fighting against the urge to gorge myself on it — and losing. To be fair, I have a weak spirit since I loved the first Hades, which introduced me to the concept of roguelikes, a genre I avoided out of disdain for repetition. Also, and this is the biggest factor in my spiritual war against the game: I have a Steam Deck, which makes not playing the game all but impossible.
Slight spoilers for Hades II follow.
Hades II is Steam Deck-verified with a comfortable control scheme that reminds me of playing on the Switch. I did fiddle with the button mapping a little bit, swapping the buttons for dash and attack. (It’s hard to adjust when control schemes change from console to console.) But eventually, I returned to the default control scheme, because why mess with what the gods design?
One thing I’ve noticed is that Hades II doesn’t seem to tax my Steam Deck in ways other games have. While playing Tales of Kenzera: Zau, the system frequently ran hot, causing the fan to kick on. (I didn’t experience any frame rate issues or extreme overheating; it was just a phenomenon that happened enough for me to take note.) Not so with Hades II, even though it feels like the more graphically intensive game.
The one problem I do have with playing Hades II on the Steam Deck has nothing to do with the game at all. One is a condition I call “claw hand.” With Hades II, I have a tendency to play until the Deck’s battery runs low. Then, when I finally put the Deck down, my hands resist returning to a resting position, stiff and curled as though they’re still holding the Deck. This doesn’t happen with my Switch, Xbox, PlayStation, or when I spend too much time on mouse and keyboard on PC. Only my Steam Deck.
Another, perhaps too inside baseball problem, is that I can never remember how to take screenshots. I’ve been spoiled by the dedicated screenshot buttons on the other consoles and cannot remember the combo of buttons needed to capture a picture on the Deck — which is something I want to do a lot because, in case you haven’t heard, the gods are hot.

I still haven’t progressed too far in Hades II, and I’m pretty sure it’s because my heart’s not in it. I make dumb, reckless choices in the game, while also not really choosing my godly boons or weapons smartly. The big ax weapon I just unlocked is atrocious. It does pack a significant punch, but it’s just too heavy to wield effectively, and I knew that even before starting a run with it. But I ventured forth anyway and didn’t get very far despite being able to reliably make it to the first boss.
Despite this, even a bad run in Hades II is still enjoyable and productive. There are always reagents to collect and cultivate in your little garden. Also, gifting the nectar you find to gods and allies rewards you with equipment that grant permanent bonuses. So although I’m not really progressing, I am building a solid foundation of strength so when it is time to deliver death to Chronos, I’ll be ready.
Hades II feels tailor-made for the Steam Deck, and thank the gods for that because I’d hate playing if it weren’t. I played the first Hades exclusively on Switch, so maybe I’m just spoiled, expecting my Hades experience to always be portable. It is just so much more comfortable playing on the Deck, where I can chill outside or on the couch without being tethered to a mouse and keyboard. Hades II on Steam Deck lets me take advantage of the PC-only early access limitation without giving up the quality of gaming life I’ve become accustomed to.

Image: Supergiant Games

Now that the Hades II early access period has started, opening up a more complete but still early build of the game, I’ve been fighting against the urge to gorge myself on it — and losing. To be fair, I have a weak spirit since I loved the first Hades, which introduced me to the concept of roguelikes, a genre I avoided out of disdain for repetition. Also, and this is the biggest factor in my spiritual war against the game: I have a Steam Deck, which makes not playing the game all but impossible.

Slight spoilers for Hades II follow.

Hades II is Steam Deck-verified with a comfortable control scheme that reminds me of playing on the Switch. I did fiddle with the button mapping a little bit, swapping the buttons for dash and attack. (It’s hard to adjust when control schemes change from console to console.) But eventually, I returned to the default control scheme, because why mess with what the gods design?

One thing I’ve noticed is that Hades II doesn’t seem to tax my Steam Deck in ways other games have. While playing Tales of Kenzera: Zau, the system frequently ran hot, causing the fan to kick on. (I didn’t experience any frame rate issues or extreme overheating; it was just a phenomenon that happened enough for me to take note.) Not so with Hades II, even though it feels like the more graphically intensive game.

The one problem I do have with playing Hades II on the Steam Deck has nothing to do with the game at all. One is a condition I call “claw hand.” With Hades II, I have a tendency to play until the Deck’s battery runs low. Then, when I finally put the Deck down, my hands resist returning to a resting position, stiff and curled as though they’re still holding the Deck. This doesn’t happen with my Switch, Xbox, PlayStation, or when I spend too much time on mouse and keyboard on PC. Only my Steam Deck.

Another, perhaps too inside baseball problem, is that I can never remember how to take screenshots. I’ve been spoiled by the dedicated screenshot buttons on the other consoles and cannot remember the combo of buttons needed to capture a picture on the Deck — which is something I want to do a lot because, in case you haven’t heard, the gods are hot.

I still haven’t progressed too far in Hades II, and I’m pretty sure it’s because my heart’s not in it. I make dumb, reckless choices in the game, while also not really choosing my godly boons or weapons smartly. The big ax weapon I just unlocked is atrocious. It does pack a significant punch, but it’s just too heavy to wield effectively, and I knew that even before starting a run with it. But I ventured forth anyway and didn’t get very far despite being able to reliably make it to the first boss.

Despite this, even a bad run in Hades II is still enjoyable and productive. There are always reagents to collect and cultivate in your little garden. Also, gifting the nectar you find to gods and allies rewards you with equipment that grant permanent bonuses. So although I’m not really progressing, I am building a solid foundation of strength so when it is time to deliver death to Chronos, I’ll be ready.

Hades II feels tailor-made for the Steam Deck, and thank the gods for that because I’d hate playing if it weren’t. I played the first Hades exclusively on Switch, so maybe I’m just spoiled, expecting my Hades experience to always be portable. It is just so much more comfortable playing on the Deck, where I can chill outside or on the couch without being tethered to a mouse and keyboard. Hades II on Steam Deck lets me take advantage of the PC-only early access limitation without giving up the quality of gaming life I’ve become accustomed to.

Read More 

Apple’s noise-canceling AirPods Max are $100 off for the first time since December. | Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge

Not too long ago, it seemed like every retailer was offering a steep discount on Apple’s AirPods Max. Then, suddenly, they all stopped. For the past few months, we’ve rarely seen the AirPods Max drop below $500 — that is, until this week. Now, for the second time this year, you can grab Apple’s on-ear headphones at Amazon for $449.99 ($100 off), which matches one of their best prices to date.

Even if they are still stuck with Apple’s aging Lightning port, there’s no better pair of headphones on the market for iPhone owners than the AirPods Max. They pair exceptionally well with other Apple devices, and their sound quality easily rivals other pairs of premium headphones. Yes, their noise cancellation isn’t quite as impressive as that of Sony’s WH-1000XM5 or Bose’s QuietComfort Ultra Headphones — they haven’t been updated since 2020, after all — but they still manage to tune out noise remarkably well. Plus, they’re a pair of headphones that actually feel high-end thanks to their plush design, which relies on a steel / aluminum build as opposed to the rigid plastic we see on many high-end headphones.

Admittedly, there have been rumors of an AirPods Max refresh for some time now, perhaps with USB-C charging. It would also make sense for Apple to outfit them with its newer H2 chip, which would allow them to take advantage of Adaptive Audio, Personalized Volume, and some of the new software tricks Apple rolled out to the AirPods Pro last year. Nonetheless, if you’re looking to pick a pair of the AirPods Max up now, the current promo is the best one we’ve seen in months.

Apple’s noise-canceling AirPods Max are $100 off for the first time since December. | Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge

Not too long ago, it seemed like every retailer was offering a steep discount on Apple’s AirPods Max. Then, suddenly, they all stopped. For the past few months, we’ve rarely seen the AirPods Max drop below $500 — that is, until this week. Now, for the second time this year, you can grab Apple’s on-ear headphones at Amazon for $449.99 ($100 off), which matches one of their best prices to date.

Even if they are still stuck with Apple’s aging Lightning port, there’s no better pair of headphones on the market for iPhone owners than the AirPods Max. They pair exceptionally well with other Apple devices, and their sound quality easily rivals other pairs of premium headphones. Yes, their noise cancellation isn’t quite as impressive as that of Sony’s WH-1000XM5 or Bose’s QuietComfort Ultra Headphones — they haven’t been updated since 2020, after all — but they still manage to tune out noise remarkably well. Plus, they’re a pair of headphones that actually feel high-end thanks to their plush design, which relies on a steel / aluminum build as opposed to the rigid plastic we see on many high-end headphones.

Admittedly, there have been rumors of an AirPods Max refresh for some time now, perhaps with USB-C charging. It would also make sense for Apple to outfit them with its newer H2 chip, which would allow them to take advantage of Adaptive Audio, Personalized Volume, and some of the new software tricks Apple rolled out to the AirPods Pro last year. Nonetheless, if you’re looking to pick a pair of the AirPods Max up now, the current promo is the best one we’ve seen in months.

Read More 

The Riffgat offshore wind farm, around 15 kilometers north of the island of Borkum. | Photo: Getty Images

Data centers and offshore wind farms could prove to be a perfect pair as AI grows increasingly energy-hungry.
Many of the companies racing to roll out new generative AI tools have also made big commitments to rein in their greenhouse gas emissions. A rush of new AI data centers could throw those climate goals off — unless they find a clean source of energy.
Conveniently, some of the quirks with AI data centers make them a good match for wind farms at sea. And the offshore wind industry, which has already cozied up with Big Tech, could certainly use a boost as it looks ahead to more uncertain economic waters.
“Data centers and AI … We are excited about that opportunity,” Mads Nipper, CEO of leading offshore wind developer Ørsted, said in an earnings call last week. “We are excited about this both because it’s very high growth, in demand, but also because it [comes from] companies that generally are very committed to the transformation of their [carbon] footprint.”
By 2026, AI could gobble up 10 times as much electricity as it did in 2023
Giants like Microsoft and Google are throwing everything they’ve got into developing the best AI tools and inserting them into every conceivable platform, from gaming to social media, work apps, and search. That all comes with steep energy costs.
By 2026, AI could gobble up 10 times as much electricity as it did in 2023, according to the International Energy Agency. Data centers used to train AI are even more energy-intensive than traditional data centers used to shepherd the world’s emails and cat videos. And AI data centers are taking up more real estate than ever. Data centers under construction in North America combined would need as much energy as all the households in the San Francisco metro area annually, according to a February report from real estate services company JLL.
“If we could do these data centers close to [offshore wind farms], this is something that can offer high loads of attractive power. So [it’s] something we will certainly dive into both in Europe and US to look at that opportunity,” Nipper said on the earnings call.
Flexibility is what might make data centers for AI particularly attractive for offshore wind developers. Unlike other data centers, those used for training AI models don’t have to worry as much about being near population centers to reduce latency. They can also theoretically ramp up and wind down operations more easily to match fluctuations with the weather, which can be a challenge with relying on wind energy. That means AI data centers could tap into surplus energy that might otherwise go to waste.
“That is actually very unique because if you look at the bigger picture, it’s not that many sectors that are flexible [with their energy use],” says Odin Foldvik Eikeland, an analyst at research firm Rystad Energy. “This can also open up some very cool collaborations … I don’t see any reason why not.”
“This can also open up some very cool collaborations … I don’t see any reason why not.”
For tech companies, offshore wind farms aren’t only attractive as an abundant source of carbon pollution-free energy. There are other potential benefits. Microsoft launched research project exploring the feasibility of subsea data centers powered by offshore wind farms called Project Natick. On land, data centers have provoked concerns about how much electricity and water they use for cooling systems. Storing servers on the seafloor could be a more sustainable way to keep them cool. Keeping servers underwater might also prevent corrosion from oxygen and humidity. After two years, Microsoft’s servers in Project Natick showed just one-eighth the failure rate of servers on land.
Tech companies have made a wave of climate pledges in recent years, becoming the biggest corporate buyers of renewable energy. Microsoft, which has invested more than $13 billion in OpenAI, last week made the largest corporate agreement to purchase renewable energy to date. Google, in its “Gemini era,” announced its biggest offshore wind deal yet in February to power data centers in Europe. Both companies have pledged to match 100 percent of their electricity use with carbon-free energy purchases around the clock by 2030.

That’s been a boost to offshore wind developers like Ørsted at a time when they face harsh economic headwinds. The offshore wind industry is still trying to take off, accounting for less than 1 percent of the world’s electricity mix. And supply chain disruptions and soaring inflation rates have bogged the industry down since the covid-19 pandemic, leading Ørsted to cancel two big projects in the US late last year.
Even so, utilities are running out of time to figure out how to meet skyrocketing electricity demand. Electrifying homes, buildings, and vehicles puts more pressure on power grids. The boom in new data centers used for crypto mining and AI is another huge challenge. And it’s all happening at once.
“Data center computing is super power hungry to begin with, and then AI is just a level of magnitude higher than that,” says Stephen Maldonado, research analyst for North America wind at Wood Mackenzie. “I think it’s a real possibility that we could see that sort of demand drive the utilities to pursue offshore wind as a way of achieving those decarbonization goals.” Offshore wind farms are especially attractive in densely populated coastal regions, he says, where there isn’t much space on land to erect skyscraper-sized turbines.
Whatever happens next is going to have to be a balancing act
Whatever happens next is going to have to be a balancing act. The US, for example, hasn’t yet installed nearly enough renewable energy to meet its climate goals. And the surge of new AI data centers risks siphoning clean energy away from arguably more important things like keeping the lights on in peoples’ homes. But if data centers don’t run on clean energy, fossil fuels are the alternative. Gas pipeline operator TC Energy Corp said in an earnings call last week that it expects new data centers to lead to more demand for gas-fired electricity.
“It’s important for these data centers to ensure that the power they buy is coming from clean renewables such as solar and wind,” Eikeland says. “If we’re starting up fossil fuels again to accommodate them, we would be going in the wrong direction.”

The Riffgat offshore wind farm, around 15 kilometers north of the island of Borkum. | Photo: Getty Images

Data centers and offshore wind farms could prove to be a perfect pair as AI grows increasingly energy-hungry.

Many of the companies racing to roll out new generative AI tools have also made big commitments to rein in their greenhouse gas emissions. A rush of new AI data centers could throw those climate goals off — unless they find a clean source of energy.

Conveniently, some of the quirks with AI data centers make them a good match for wind farms at sea. And the offshore wind industry, which has already cozied up with Big Tech, could certainly use a boost as it looks ahead to more uncertain economic waters.

“Data centers and AI … We are excited about that opportunity,” Mads Nipper, CEO of leading offshore wind developer Ørsted, said in an earnings call last week. “We are excited about this both because it’s very high growth, in demand, but also because it [comes from] companies that generally are very committed to the transformation of their [carbon] footprint.”

Giants like Microsoft and Google are throwing everything they’ve got into developing the best AI tools and inserting them into every conceivable platform, from gaming to social media, work apps, and search. That all comes with steep energy costs.

By 2026, AI could gobble up 10 times as much electricity as it did in 2023, according to the International Energy Agency. Data centers used to train AI are even more energy-intensive than traditional data centers used to shepherd the world’s emails and cat videos. And AI data centers are taking up more real estate than ever. Data centers under construction in North America combined would need as much energy as all the households in the San Francisco metro area annually, according to a February report from real estate services company JLL.

“If we could do these data centers close to [offshore wind farms], this is something that can offer high loads of attractive power. So [it’s] something we will certainly dive into both in Europe and US to look at that opportunity,” Nipper said on the earnings call.

Flexibility is what might make data centers for AI particularly attractive for offshore wind developers. Unlike other data centers, those used for training AI models don’t have to worry as much about being near population centers to reduce latency. They can also theoretically ramp up and wind down operations more easily to match fluctuations with the weather, which can be a challenge with relying on wind energy. That means AI data centers could tap into surplus energy that might otherwise go to waste.

“That is actually very unique because if you look at the bigger picture, it’s not that many sectors that are flexible [with their energy use],” says Odin Foldvik Eikeland, an analyst at research firm Rystad Energy. “This can also open up some very cool collaborations … I don’t see any reason why not.”

For tech companies, offshore wind farms aren’t only attractive as an abundant source of carbon pollution-free energy. There are other potential benefits. Microsoft launched research project exploring the feasibility of subsea data centers powered by offshore wind farms called Project Natick. On land, data centers have provoked concerns about how much electricity and water they use for cooling systems. Storing servers on the seafloor could be a more sustainable way to keep them cool. Keeping servers underwater might also prevent corrosion from oxygen and humidity. After two years, Microsoft’s servers in Project Natick showed just one-eighth the failure rate of servers on land.

Tech companies have made a wave of climate pledges in recent years, becoming the biggest corporate buyers of renewable energy. Microsoft, which has invested more than $13 billion in OpenAI, last week made the largest corporate agreement to purchase renewable energy to date. Google, in its “Gemini era,” announced its biggest offshore wind deal yet in February to power data centers in Europe. Both companies have pledged to match 100 percent of their electricity use with carbon-free energy purchases around the clock by 2030.

That’s been a boost to offshore wind developers like Ørsted at a time when they face harsh economic headwinds. The offshore wind industry is still trying to take off, accounting for less than 1 percent of the world’s electricity mix. And supply chain disruptions and soaring inflation rates have bogged the industry down since the covid-19 pandemic, leading Ørsted to cancel two big projects in the US late last year.

Even so, utilities are running out of time to figure out how to meet skyrocketing electricity demand. Electrifying homes, buildings, and vehicles puts more pressure on power grids. The boom in new data centers used for crypto mining and AI is another huge challenge. And it’s all happening at once.

“Data center computing is super power hungry to begin with, and then AI is just a level of magnitude higher than that,” says Stephen Maldonado, research analyst for North America wind at Wood Mackenzie. “I think it’s a real possibility that we could see that sort of demand drive the utilities to pursue offshore wind as a way of achieving those decarbonization goals.” Offshore wind farms are especially attractive in densely populated coastal regions, he says, where there isn’t much space on land to erect skyscraper-sized turbines.

Whatever happens next is going to have to be a balancing act. The US, for example, hasn’t yet installed nearly enough renewable energy to meet its climate goals. And the surge of new AI data centers risks siphoning clean energy away from arguably more important things like keeping the lights on in peoples’ homes. But if data centers don’t run on clean energy, fossil fuels are the alternative. Gas pipeline operator TC Energy Corp said in an earnings call last week that it expects new data centers to lead to more demand for gas-fired electricity.

“It’s important for these data centers to ensure that the power they buy is coming from clean renewables such as solar and wind,” Eikeland says. “If we’re starting up fossil fuels again to accommodate them, we would be going in the wrong direction.”

Read More 

OpenAI has allegedly been trying to poach Google employees to work on its own search product offering. | Illustration: The Verge

OpenAI is reportedly gearing up to announce a search product powered by artificial intelligence on Monday that could threaten Google’s dominance. That target date, provided to Reuters by “two sources familiar with the matter,” would time the announcement a day before Google kicks off its annual I/O conference, which is expected to focus on the search giant’s own AI model offerings like Gemini and Gemma.
This new rumor tracks with earlier reports from both Bloomberg and The Information that also suggest OpenAI is developing an AI-based product capable of searching the internet. According to Bloomberg, OpenAI’s search feature will be built into its ChatGPT chatbot and include citations, while The Information reports OpenAI’s search service could be “partly powered by Bing.”
OpenAI previously attempted to give ChatGPT access to live web data via ChatGPT plugins, which have since been retired in favor of GPTs. People rapidly adopted ChatGPT for information-gathering tasks after it was introduced in November 2022, but the chatbot — like all bots built upon LLMs — has a poor reputation for providing accurate or up-to-date information.

Whether or not these new OpenAI rumors bear fruit next week, Google knows its reign over the search industry is under threat. “It’s not like life is going to be hunky-dory, forever. If there’s a clear and present market reality, we need to twitch faster, like the athletes twitch faster,” Google search boss Prabhakar Raghavan warned employees in a meeting reported by CNBC last month.
“People come to us because we are trusted,” said Raghavan. “They may have a new gizmo out there that people like to play with but they still come to Google to verify what they see there because it is the trusted source and it becomes more critical in this era of generative AI.”
OpenAI is seemingly attempting to build off that trust, with sources telling The Verge this week that the company is aggressively trying to poach Google employees to work on its own search offering. And OpenAI isn’t the only AI-focused threat bearing down on Google — Perplexity, a $1 billion start-up founded by a former OpenAI researcher, said that its own AI-based search product had attracted 10 million monthly active users back in January.
Google is facing these challenges alongside fighting the DOJ’s ongoing antitrust case regarding its dominance in search. If OpenAI is planning to enter the search game on the eve of Google’s I/O event then it’s likely doing so to send a message — one that Google would do well to take seriously, given ChatGPT is one of (if not the) fastest-growing services the world has ever seen.

OpenAI has allegedly been trying to poach Google employees to work on its own search product offering. | Illustration: The Verge

OpenAI is reportedly gearing up to announce a search product powered by artificial intelligence on Monday that could threaten Google’s dominance. That target date, provided to Reuters by “two sources familiar with the matter,” would time the announcement a day before Google kicks off its annual I/O conference, which is expected to focus on the search giant’s own AI model offerings like Gemini and Gemma.

This new rumor tracks with earlier reports from both Bloomberg and The Information that also suggest OpenAI is developing an AI-based product capable of searching the internet. According to Bloomberg, OpenAI’s search feature will be built into its ChatGPT chatbot and include citations, while The Information reports OpenAI’s search service could be “partly powered by Bing.”

OpenAI previously attempted to give ChatGPT access to live web data via ChatGPT plugins, which have since been retired in favor of GPTs. People rapidly adopted ChatGPT for information-gathering tasks after it was introduced in November 2022, but the chatbot — like all bots built upon LLMs — has a poor reputation for providing accurate or up-to-date information.

Whether or not these new OpenAI rumors bear fruit next week, Google knows its reign over the search industry is under threat. “It’s not like life is going to be hunky-dory, forever. If there’s a clear and present market reality, we need to twitch faster, like the athletes twitch faster,” Google search boss Prabhakar Raghavan warned employees in a meeting reported by CNBC last month.

“People come to us because we are trusted,” said Raghavan. “They may have a new gizmo out there that people like to play with but they still come to Google to verify what they see there because it is the trusted source and it becomes more critical in this era of generative AI.”

OpenAI is seemingly attempting to build off that trust, with sources telling The Verge this week that the company is aggressively trying to poach Google employees to work on its own search offering. And OpenAI isn’t the only AI-focused threat bearing down on Google — Perplexity, a $1 billion start-up founded by a former OpenAI researcher, said that its own AI-based search product had attracted 10 million monthly active users back in January.

Google is facing these challenges alongside fighting the DOJ’s ongoing antitrust case regarding its dominance in search. If OpenAI is planning to enter the search game on the eve of Google’s I/O event then it’s likely doing so to send a message — one that Google would do well to take seriously, given ChatGPT is one of (if not the) fastest-growing services the world has ever seen.

Read More 

Stanford’s holographic AR glasses prototype. | Image: Andrew Brodhead / Stanford

A research team at Stanford is developing a new AI-assisted holographic imaging technology it claims is thinner, lighter, and higher quality than anything its researchers have seen. Could it take augmented reality (AR) headsets to the next level?
For now, the lab version has an anemic field of view — just 11.7 degrees in the lab, far smaller than a Magic Leap 2 or even a Microsoft HoloLens.
But Stanford’s Computational Imaging Lab has an entire page with visual aid after visual aid that suggests it could be onto something special: a thinner stack of holographic components that could nearly fit into standard glasses frames, and be trained to project realistic, full-color, moving 3D images that appear at varying depths.

Image: Stanford Computational Imaging Lab
A comparison of the optics between existing AR glasses (a) and the prototype one (b) with the 3D-printed prototype (c).

Like other AR eyeglasses, they use waveguides, which are a component that guides light through glasses and into the wearer’s eyes. But researchers say they’ve developed a unique “nanophotonic metasurface waveguide” that can “eliminate the need for bulky collimation optics,” and a “learned physical waveguide model” that uses AI algorithms to drastically improve image quality. The study says the models “are automatically calibrated using camera feedback”.

GIF: Stanford Computational Imaging Lab
Objects, both real and augmented, can have varying depths.

Although the Stanford tech is currently just a prototype, with working models that appear to be attached to a bench and 3D-printed frames, the researchers are looking to disrupt the current spatial computing market that also includes bulky passthrough mixed reality headsets like Apple’s Vision Pro, Meta’s Quest 3, and others.
Postdoctoral researcher Gun-Yeal Lee, who helped write the paper published in Nature, says there’s no other AR system that compares both in capability and compactness.
Companies like Meta have spent billions buying and building AR glasses technology, in the hopes of eventually producing a “holy grail” product the size and shape of normal glasses. Currently, Meta’s Ray-Bans have no on-board display, but the leaked Meta hardware roadmap we obtained last year showed a 2027 target date for Meta’s first true AR glasses.

Stanford’s holographic AR glasses prototype. | Image: Andrew Brodhead / Stanford

A research team at Stanford is developing a new AI-assisted holographic imaging technology it claims is thinner, lighter, and higher quality than anything its researchers have seen. Could it take augmented reality (AR) headsets to the next level?

For now, the lab version has an anemic field of view — just 11.7 degrees in the lab, far smaller than a Magic Leap 2 or even a Microsoft HoloLens.

But Stanford’s Computational Imaging Lab has an entire page with visual aid after visual aid that suggests it could be onto something special: a thinner stack of holographic components that could nearly fit into standard glasses frames, and be trained to project realistic, full-color, moving 3D images that appear at varying depths.

Image: Stanford Computational Imaging Lab
A comparison of the optics between existing AR glasses (a) and the prototype one (b) with the 3D-printed prototype (c).

Like other AR eyeglasses, they use waveguides, which are a component that guides light through glasses and into the wearer’s eyes. But researchers say they’ve developed a unique “nanophotonic metasurface waveguide” that can “eliminate the need for bulky collimation optics,” and a “learned physical waveguide model” that uses AI algorithms to drastically improve image quality. The study says the models “are automatically calibrated using camera feedback”.

GIF: Stanford Computational Imaging Lab
Objects, both real and augmented, can have varying depths.

Although the Stanford tech is currently just a prototype, with working models that appear to be attached to a bench and 3D-printed frames, the researchers are looking to disrupt the current spatial computing market that also includes bulky passthrough mixed reality headsets like Apple’s Vision Pro, Meta’s Quest 3, and others.

Postdoctoral researcher Gun-Yeal Lee, who helped write the paper published in Nature, says there’s no other AR system that compares both in capability and compactness.

Companies like Meta have spent billions buying and building AR glasses technology, in the hopes of eventually producing a “holy grail” product the size and shape of normal glasses. Currently, Meta’s Ray-Bans have no on-board display, but the leaked Meta hardware roadmap we obtained last year showed a 2027 target date for Meta’s first true AR glasses.

Read More 

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Microsoft has been talking about plans for an Xbox mobile gaming store for a couple of years now, and the company now plans to launch it in July. Speaking at the Bloomberg Technology Summit earlier today, Xbox president Sarah Bond revealed the launch date and how Microsoft is going to avoid Apple’s strict App Store rules.
“We’re going to start by bringing our own first-party portfolio to [the Xbox mobile store], so you’re going to see games like Candy Crush show up in that experience, games like Minecraft,” says Bond. “We’re going to start on the web, and we’re doing that because that really allows us to have it be an experience that’s accessible across all devices, all countries, no matter what and independent of the policies of closed ecosystem stores.”

Sarah Bond, @Microsoft’s Xbox president, announced at #BloombergTech that the company will launch its own mobile game store in July, creating an alternative to Apple and Google’s app stores pic.twitter.com/hj6eLtsGfl— Bloomberg Live (@BloombergLive) May 9, 2024

The store will be focused on first-party mobile games from Microsoft’s various studios, which include huge hits like Call of Duty: Mobile and Candy Crush Saga. Bond says the company will extend this to partners at some point in the future, too.
While games will naturally be part of the store, it sounds like the key parts of the Xbox experience will also be available. Bond argues there isn’t a gaming platform and store experience that “goes truly across devices — where who you are, your library, your identity, your rewards travel with you versus being locked to a single ecosystem.” So Microsoft is trying to build that with its Xbox mobile store.
Microsoft had also been building this store in anticipation of companies like Apple and Google being forced to open up their mobile app stores, but it’s clear the software giant isn’t willing to wait on the Digital Markets Act to shake out in Europe or any potential action in the US.
A web-only mobile store will be challenging to pull off, and it’s not immediately clear how Microsoft will position this as an alternative to these mobile games already existing on rival app stores. Bond says Microsoft will “extend” beyond the web, hinting that it could eventually launch a true rival to Google and Apple’s mobile app stores at some point soon.
Microsoft first hinted at a “next-generation store” in early 2022, just a month after the company announced its Activision Blizzard acquisition. “We want to be in a position to offer Xbox and content from both us and our third-party partners across any screen where somebody would want to play,” said Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer in an interview with the Financial Times last year. “Today, we can’t do that on mobile devices but we want to build towards a world that we think will be coming where those devices are opened up.”

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Microsoft has been talking about plans for an Xbox mobile gaming store for a couple of years now, and the company now plans to launch it in July. Speaking at the Bloomberg Technology Summit earlier today, Xbox president Sarah Bond revealed the launch date and how Microsoft is going to avoid Apple’s strict App Store rules.

“We’re going to start by bringing our own first-party portfolio to [the Xbox mobile store], so you’re going to see games like Candy Crush show up in that experience, games like Minecraft,” says Bond. “We’re going to start on the web, and we’re doing that because that really allows us to have it be an experience that’s accessible across all devices, all countries, no matter what and independent of the policies of closed ecosystem stores.”

The store will be focused on first-party mobile games from Microsoft’s various studios, which include huge hits like Call of Duty: Mobile and Candy Crush Saga. Bond says the company will extend this to partners at some point in the future, too.

While games will naturally be part of the store, it sounds like the key parts of the Xbox experience will also be available. Bond argues there isn’t a gaming platform and store experience that “goes truly across devices — where who you are, your library, your identity, your rewards travel with you versus being locked to a single ecosystem.” So Microsoft is trying to build that with its Xbox mobile store.

Microsoft had also been building this store in anticipation of companies like Apple and Google being forced to open up their mobile app stores, but it’s clear the software giant isn’t willing to wait on the Digital Markets Act to shake out in Europe or any potential action in the US.

A web-only mobile store will be challenging to pull off, and it’s not immediately clear how Microsoft will position this as an alternative to these mobile games already existing on rival app stores. Bond says Microsoft will “extend” beyond the web, hinting that it could eventually launch a true rival to Google and Apple’s mobile app stores at some point soon.

Microsoft first hinted at a “next-generation store” in early 2022, just a month after the company announced its Activision Blizzard acquisition. “We want to be in a position to offer Xbox and content from both us and our third-party partners across any screen where somebody would want to play,” said Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer in an interview with the Financial Times last year. “Today, we can’t do that on mobile devices but we want to build towards a world that we think will be coming where those devices are opened up.”

Read More