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Image: Bluesky

Bluesky is working on a premium subscription that will add features like higher-quality video uploads and some profile customization options. Unlike the premium subscription offered by X, however, Bluesky’s paid tier won’t boost the visibility of your posts, nor will it give your account a “verified” status. Bluesky, in a post on its blog, also notes that Bluesky “will always be free to use.”
“Subscription revenue helps us improve the app, grow the developer ecosystem, and gives us time to explore business models beyond traditional ads,” Bluesky chief operating officer Rose Wang wrote in a post. “Paid subscribers won’t get special treatment elsewhere in the app, like upranking premium accounts or blue checks next to their names.”

To grow sustainably, we’re working on a subscription model for premium features like higher-quality video uploads and profile customizations (think colors and avatar frames), but Bluesky will always be free to use. We believe information and conversation should stay accessible to everyone.— Rose (@rose.bsky.team) 2024-10-24T16:44:30.183Z

Bluesky also announced that it has 13 million users and raised a new round of $15 million in funding. The platform has seen steady growth over the past year, as it crossed just 2 million users last November. Bluesky added many more users in the weeks following Brazil’s ban on X (which is now lifted) and in the wake of the changes X is making to its block feature. As Bluesky attempts to draw in more users looking for an X alternative, it has also been targeting frustrated Threads users.

Image: Bluesky

Bluesky is working on a premium subscription that will add features like higher-quality video uploads and some profile customization options. Unlike the premium subscription offered by X, however, Bluesky’s paid tier won’t boost the visibility of your posts, nor will it give your account a “verified” status. Bluesky, in a post on its blog, also notes that Bluesky “will always be free to use.”

“Subscription revenue helps us improve the app, grow the developer ecosystem, and gives us time to explore business models beyond traditional ads,” Bluesky chief operating officer Rose Wang wrote in a post. “Paid subscribers won’t get special treatment elsewhere in the app, like upranking premium accounts or blue checks next to their names.”

Bluesky also announced that it has 13 million users and raised a new round of $15 million in funding. The platform has seen steady growth over the past year, as it crossed just 2 million users last November. Bluesky added many more users in the weeks following Brazil’s ban on X (which is now lifted) and in the wake of the changes X is making to its block feature. As Bluesky attempts to draw in more users looking for an X alternative, it has also been targeting frustrated Threads users.

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Google’s Magic Editor added several questionable items to this scene. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

There’s no putting the genie back in the bottle when it comes to generative AI forever shaking our trust in photos, but the tech industry has a responsibility to at least be as transparent as possible when these tools are used. To that end, Google has announced that starting next week, Google Photos will note when an image was edited with the help of AI.
“Photos edited with tools like Magic Editor, Magic Eraser and Zoom Enhance already include metadata based on technical standards from The International Press Telecommunications Council (IPTC) to indicate that they’ve been edited using generative AI,” John Fisher, engineering director of Google Photos, wrote in a blog post. “Now we’re taking it a step further, making this information visible alongside information like the file name, location and backup status in the Photos app.”

GIF: Google
That’s certainly better than having no indication of AI at all.

The “AI info” section will be found in the image details view of Google Photos both on the web and in the app.
These labels won’t be limited strictly to generative AI, either. Google says it’ll also specify when a “photo” contains elements from several different images — such as when people use the Pixel’s Best Take and Add Me features. That’s encouraging to see. This metadata can easily be circumvented by those intentionally trying to do so, however.
“This work is not done, and we’ll continue gathering feedback and evaluating additional solutions to add more transparency around AI edits,” Fisher wrote.
Until now, the metadata attached to Google’s AI tools has been pretty much invisible to end users. The lack of any obvious this was made with AI label in Google Photos was a concern of mine back when I sowed a bunch of chaos with Magic Editor’s Reimagine tool, which lets you add AI-generated objects to an image that were never present in the original scene. Google and Samsung both let you do so with their respective AI tools. But Apple, which will roll out its first image generation features with iOS 18.2, has said it is very purposefully steering clear of photo realistic content. Apple’s Craig Federighi said the company has grown “concerned” about AI casting doubt on photos being “indicative of reality.”
As we’ve covered repeatedly at this point, retouching photos is nothing new. But today’s wave of generative AI tools make it possible to create convincing fakery with very little effort or skill.

Google’s Magic Editor added several questionable items to this scene. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

There’s no putting the genie back in the bottle when it comes to generative AI forever shaking our trust in photos, but the tech industry has a responsibility to at least be as transparent as possible when these tools are used. To that end, Google has announced that starting next week, Google Photos will note when an image was edited with the help of AI.

“Photos edited with tools like Magic Editor, Magic Eraser and Zoom Enhance already include metadata based on technical standards from The International Press Telecommunications Council (IPTC) to indicate that they’ve been edited using generative AI,” John Fisher, engineering director of Google Photos, wrote in a blog post. “Now we’re taking it a step further, making this information visible alongside information like the file name, location and backup status in the Photos app.”

GIF: Google
That’s certainly better than having no indication of AI at all.

The “AI info” section will be found in the image details view of Google Photos both on the web and in the app.

These labels won’t be limited strictly to generative AI, either. Google says it’ll also specify when a “photo” contains elements from several different images — such as when people use the Pixel’s Best Take and Add Me features. That’s encouraging to see. This metadata can easily be circumvented by those intentionally trying to do so, however.

“This work is not done, and we’ll continue gathering feedback and evaluating additional solutions to add more transparency around AI edits,” Fisher wrote.

Until now, the metadata attached to Google’s AI tools has been pretty much invisible to end users. The lack of any obvious this was made with AI label in Google Photos was a concern of mine back when I sowed a bunch of chaos with Magic Editor’s Reimagine tool, which lets you add AI-generated objects to an image that were never present in the original scene. Google and Samsung both let you do so with their respective AI tools. But Apple, which will roll out its first image generation features with iOS 18.2, has said it is very purposefully steering clear of photo realistic content. Apple’s Craig Federighi said the company has grown “concerned” about AI casting doubt on photos being “indicative of reality.”

As we’ve covered repeatedly at this point, retouching photos is nothing new. But today’s wave of generative AI tools make it possible to create convincing fakery with very little effort or skill.

Read More 

Image: Sony

Sony’s third Venom feature feels like another throwback to when comic book movies kept things short and silly. Though neither of Sony’s previous standalone Venom movies were cinematic gems, their strange blend of Odd Couple humor and bloodless body horror were enough to put them squarely in so-bad-they’re-kinda-fun territory. It was hard to imagine a Venom feature — let alone a franchise — really working without a Spider-Man in the mix. But the box-office success of the films made it clear that something about Tom Hardy’s take on the lethal protector was working for audiences and all but ensured that Sony would go for a third installment.
Venom: The Last Dance from writer / director Kelly Marcel is neither better nor worse than its predecessors. It feels like a film that’s trying to stick to the beats it knows it can pull off well. Instead of diving into the multiverse to wow you with crossovers, the movie plays to the franchise’s strengths with a story that’s mostly about the ups and downs of being in a long-term relationship. And while The Last Dance doesn’t exactly deliver on the iffy but intriguing comic madness Sony has been teasing, it does bring this gooey, gory bit of ridiculous adaptation to a fitting end.
As chaotic as the first two Venom films were, they were also a fairly straightforward account of how disgraced journalist Eddie Brock’s (Hardy) life was repeatedly upended by the arrival of Venom (also Hardy), one of many parasitic aliens that crash-landed on Earth. Unlike other symbiote / host bonds that proved to be fatal, Eddie and Venom grew stronger because of their connection and found purpose in one another as they grew accustomed to sharing a body. The two had their fights and hit a big emotional rough patch, but they were always able to work things out when faced with a new deadly threat. The Last Dance picks up soon after Let There Be Carnage, which ended on a cliffhanger in another dimension.
At first, it seems like the movie is using its multiversal connection to the MCU to pivot from its narrative past and start things over in a world filled with Marvel-branded superheroes. But The Last Dance instead decides to keep things focused on just how much has happened to Eddie and Venom in their universe during the surprisingly short amount of time they’ve been together.

Especially after Deadpool & Wolverine, the way The Last Dance basically gives the multiverse the middle finger is kind of refreshing and makes it feel like Sony and Marcel — who also wrote the first two Venom films — are trying to stay in a very specific lane, similar to Madame Web’s.
As much as fans might want to see Venom in New York beefing with Spider-Man, that’s just not what this franchise has been building to (yet). These are films about a haggard failson trying to hold his life together with the help of a wise-cracking goo monster who longs for the taste of human brains. And The Last Dance brings Eddie and Venom’s story to a close by confronting them with the consequences of their past adventures.
With the government finally realizing how many strange deaths and symbiote incidents he’s connected to, Eddie is on the run somewhere in Mexico as The Last Dance first opens. It seems like there’s nowhere Venom and Eddie can hide without special-ops soldier Rex Strickland (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and his team finding them. But the duo figure — sort of unreasonably — that they might have a chance of disappearing into the shadows if they can just make it to New York City.
Because it’s the culmination of a trilogy, there’s an understandable logic to the fugitive aspects of The Last Dance’s story (which Hardy contributed to). After blowing up a rocket in Venom and creating a new serial killer symbiote in Let There Be Carnage, it makes sense that Eddie and Venom would become high-profile targets forced to go off the grid. But it’s harder to follow the narrative thread being unspooled in The Last Dance’s larger plot about a symbiote invasion.
Much in the same way Let There Be Carnage introduced its Cletus Kasady with a lore-dense info dump, The Last Dance tries its best to explain the whole deal with the symbiote god Knull (Andy Serkis) through a CGI-heavy chunk of exposition pulled from the comics. Knull created the symbiotes, who then betrayed him by trapping him in the center of their homeworld. And after eons of being imprisoned and thinking of ways to punish his parasitic children, Knull suddenly realizes that Eddie and Venom’s unique symbiosis has created the MacGuffin necessary to set him free.

Image: Sony

There’s an irony to the way The Last Dance cracks a Thanos joke in its opening act and then awkwardly attempts to establish Knull as its own throne-bound big bad. The movie constantly reminds you how scared Venom is of Knull as a way of making its alien villain seem like a threat that has always been lurking out in space. But Knull’s plan — he can send other kinds of monsters through very Doctor Strange-like portals to find things for him — is so contrived that his presence in The Last Dance feels like the result of there not being all that many Venom-related characters Sony holds the cinematic rights to.
That “scraping of the bottom of the barrel” quality grows stronger as The Last Dance drops in even more symbiotes whose names are never mentioned but comic fans may recognize because of their color schemes. And while Knull’s alien goons are very cool / terrifying visually, the danger they’re meant to represent feels hollow because the film knows that it can’t exactly afford to kill off its emotional center.
As was the case with the previous films, Hardy’s performances as Eddie and Venom are, depending on how you feel about goofy slapstick comedy, The Last Dance’s biggest strength. While his accent is still shaky as hell, Hardy brings a believable weariness to Eddie this time around that feels right for a man who’s been living with an alien infection for about a year. And Venom is even more subtly emotive in ways that emphasize how much more deeply connected he and Eddie have become during their time together.
Even though its plot is weak, its supporting characters are woefully underdeveloped, and its visual effects leave much to be desired, Venom: The Last Dance almost works when it’s just Eddie and Venom getting into shenanigans or reflecting on their life together. That isn’t nearly enough to make for a solid film, but again, solid films have never been the Venom franchise’s forte, and Sony isn’t switching up the formula this late in the game. If you were down to clown with Venom and got a kick out of Let There Be Carnage, The Last Dance will probably keep you mildly entertained. But for folks who could never understand why Sony has been churning these things out, the only real appeal here is that the studio seems to be finished — at least for now.
Venom: The Last Dance also stars Juno Temple, Rhys Ifans, Peggy Lu, Clark Backo, Cristo Fernández, and Stephen Graham. The film hits theaters on October 25th.

Image: Sony

Sony’s third Venom feature feels like another throwback to when comic book movies kept things short and silly.

Though neither of Sony’s previous standalone Venom movies were cinematic gems, their strange blend of Odd Couple humor and bloodless body horror were enough to put them squarely in so-bad-they’re-kinda-fun territory. It was hard to imagine a Venom feature — let alone a franchise — really working without a Spider-Man in the mix. But the box-office success of the films made it clear that something about Tom Hardy’s take on the lethal protector was working for audiences and all but ensured that Sony would go for a third installment.

Venom: The Last Dance from writer / director Kelly Marcel is neither better nor worse than its predecessors. It feels like a film that’s trying to stick to the beats it knows it can pull off well. Instead of diving into the multiverse to wow you with crossovers, the movie plays to the franchise’s strengths with a story that’s mostly about the ups and downs of being in a long-term relationship. And while The Last Dance doesn’t exactly deliver on the iffy but intriguing comic madness Sony has been teasing, it does bring this gooey, gory bit of ridiculous adaptation to a fitting end.

As chaotic as the first two Venom films were, they were also a fairly straightforward account of how disgraced journalist Eddie Brock’s (Hardy) life was repeatedly upended by the arrival of Venom (also Hardy), one of many parasitic aliens that crash-landed on Earth. Unlike other symbiote / host bonds that proved to be fatal, Eddie and Venom grew stronger because of their connection and found purpose in one another as they grew accustomed to sharing a body. The two had their fights and hit a big emotional rough patch, but they were always able to work things out when faced with a new deadly threat. The Last Dance picks up soon after Let There Be Carnage, which ended on a cliffhanger in another dimension.

At first, it seems like the movie is using its multiversal connection to the MCU to pivot from its narrative past and start things over in a world filled with Marvel-branded superheroes. But The Last Dance instead decides to keep things focused on just how much has happened to Eddie and Venom in their universe during the surprisingly short amount of time they’ve been together.

Especially after Deadpool & Wolverine, the way The Last Dance basically gives the multiverse the middle finger is kind of refreshing and makes it feel like Sony and Marcel — who also wrote the first two Venom films — are trying to stay in a very specific lane, similar to Madame Web’s.

As much as fans might want to see Venom in New York beefing with Spider-Man, that’s just not what this franchise has been building to (yet). These are films about a haggard failson trying to hold his life together with the help of a wise-cracking goo monster who longs for the taste of human brains. And The Last Dance brings Eddie and Venom’s story to a close by confronting them with the consequences of their past adventures.

With the government finally realizing how many strange deaths and symbiote incidents he’s connected to, Eddie is on the run somewhere in Mexico as The Last Dance first opens. It seems like there’s nowhere Venom and Eddie can hide without special-ops soldier Rex Strickland (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and his team finding them. But the duo figure — sort of unreasonably — that they might have a chance of disappearing into the shadows if they can just make it to New York City.

Because it’s the culmination of a trilogy, there’s an understandable logic to the fugitive aspects of The Last Dance’s story (which Hardy contributed to). After blowing up a rocket in Venom and creating a new serial killer symbiote in Let There Be Carnage, it makes sense that Eddie and Venom would become high-profile targets forced to go off the grid. But it’s harder to follow the narrative thread being unspooled in The Last Dance’s larger plot about a symbiote invasion.

Much in the same way Let There Be Carnage introduced its Cletus Kasady with a lore-dense info dump, The Last Dance tries its best to explain the whole deal with the symbiote god Knull (Andy Serkis) through a CGI-heavy chunk of exposition pulled from the comics. Knull created the symbiotes, who then betrayed him by trapping him in the center of their homeworld. And after eons of being imprisoned and thinking of ways to punish his parasitic children, Knull suddenly realizes that Eddie and Venom’s unique symbiosis has created the MacGuffin necessary to set him free.

There’s an irony to the way The Last Dance cracks a Thanos joke in its opening act and then awkwardly attempts to establish Knull as its own throne-bound big bad. The movie constantly reminds you how scared Venom is of Knull as a way of making its alien villain seem like a threat that has always been lurking out in space. But Knull’s plan — he can send other kinds of monsters through very Doctor Strange-like portals to find things for him — is so contrived that his presence in The Last Dance feels like the result of there not being all that many Venom-related characters Sony holds the cinematic rights to.

That “scraping of the bottom of the barrel” quality grows stronger as The Last Dance drops in even more symbiotes whose names are never mentioned but comic fans may recognize because of their color schemes. And while Knull’s alien goons are very cool / terrifying visually, the danger they’re meant to represent feels hollow because the film knows that it can’t exactly afford to kill off its emotional center.

As was the case with the previous films, Hardy’s performances as Eddie and Venom are, depending on how you feel about goofy slapstick comedy, The Last Dance’s biggest strength. While his accent is still shaky as hell, Hardy brings a believable weariness to Eddie this time around that feels right for a man who’s been living with an alien infection for about a year. And Venom is even more subtly emotive in ways that emphasize how much more deeply connected he and Eddie have become during their time together.

Even though its plot is weak, its supporting characters are woefully underdeveloped, and its visual effects leave much to be desired, Venom: The Last Dance almost works when it’s just Eddie and Venom getting into shenanigans or reflecting on their life together. That isn’t nearly enough to make for a solid film, but again, solid films have never been the Venom franchise’s forte, and Sony isn’t switching up the formula this late in the game. If you were down to clown with Venom and got a kick out of Let There Be Carnage, The Last Dance will probably keep you mildly entertained. But for folks who could never understand why Sony has been churning these things out, the only real appeal here is that the studio seems to be finished — at least for now.

Venom: The Last Dance also stars Juno Temple, Rhys Ifans, Peggy Lu, Clark Backo, Cristo Fernández, and Stephen Graham. The film hits theaters on October 25th.

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Illustration: The Verge

Apple is adding a new child safety feature that lets kids send a report to Apple when they are sent photos or videos with nudity, according to The Guardian. After reviewing anything received, the company can report messages to law enforcement.
The new feature expands on Apple’s Communication Safety feature, which uses on-device scanning to detect nudity in photos or videos received via Messages, AirDrop, or Contact Poster and blur them out. In addition to blurring the photo or video, Apple also shows a pop-up with options to message an adult, get resources for help, or block the contact.
As part of this new feature, which is in testing now in Australia with iOS 18.2, users will also be able to send a report to Apple about any images or videos with nudity.
“The device will prepare a report containing the images or videos, as well as messages sent immediately before and after the image or video,” The Guardian says. “It will include the contact information from both accounts, and users can fill out a form describing what happened.” From there, Apple will look at the report, and it can choose to take actions such as stopping a user from sending iMessages or reporting to law enforcement.
Earlier this week, Google announced an expansion of on-device scanning of text messages in its Android app that will include an optional Sensitive Content Warning that blurs images with nudity as well as offering “help-finding resources and options.” Once it rolls out, the feature will be enabled by default for users under 18.
The Guardian says that Apple plans to make the new feature available globally but didn’t specify when that might happen. Apple didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment.
In 2021, Apple announced a set of child safety features that included scanning a user’s iCloud Photos library for child sexual abuse material and would alert parents when their kids sent or received sexually explicit photos. After privacy advocates spoke out against the plan, Apple delayed the launch of those features to go back to the drawing board, and it dropped its plans to scan for child sexual abuse imagery in December 2022.

Illustration: The Verge

Apple is adding a new child safety feature that lets kids send a report to Apple when they are sent photos or videos with nudity, according to The Guardian. After reviewing anything received, the company can report messages to law enforcement.

The new feature expands on Apple’s Communication Safety feature, which uses on-device scanning to detect nudity in photos or videos received via Messages, AirDrop, or Contact Poster and blur them out. In addition to blurring the photo or video, Apple also shows a pop-up with options to message an adult, get resources for help, or block the contact.

As part of this new feature, which is in testing now in Australia with iOS 18.2, users will also be able to send a report to Apple about any images or videos with nudity.

“The device will prepare a report containing the images or videos, as well as messages sent immediately before and after the image or video,” The Guardian says. “It will include the contact information from both accounts, and users can fill out a form describing what happened.” From there, Apple will look at the report, and it can choose to take actions such as stopping a user from sending iMessages or reporting to law enforcement.

Earlier this week, Google announced an expansion of on-device scanning of text messages in its Android app that will include an optional Sensitive Content Warning that blurs images with nudity as well as offering “help-finding resources and options.” Once it rolls out, the feature will be enabled by default for users under 18.

The Guardian says that Apple plans to make the new feature available globally but didn’t specify when that might happen. Apple didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment.

In 2021, Apple announced a set of child safety features that included scanning a user’s iCloud Photos library for child sexual abuse material and would alert parents when their kids sent or received sexually explicit photos. After privacy advocates spoke out against the plan, Apple delayed the launch of those features to go back to the drawing board, and it dropped its plans to scan for child sexual abuse imagery in December 2022.

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There’s a banner printed on the top of the card that tells you there’s a gift card inside. | Image: Hallmark

Hallmark announced new physical greeting cards that include digital gift cards inside. The “Gift Card Greetings” line means you can hand someone a real card, paired with the convenience of not needing to tape on an extra piece of plastic. It’s a little bit more personal than buying someone an e-gift card and having a code land somewhere in their email inbox.
The gift card comes in the form of a QR code printed on the inside flap of Hallmark’s card that is used for both loading and redeeming its value. The new cards are an expansion of Hallmark’s other digital-gift-in-a-physical-card idea that lets you include cash via Venmo, so you don’t have to go to the ATM.
For the new cards, the buyer peels off a sticker to reveal the QR code, and the recipient will then scratch off a line that reveals a code to enter on their smartphone for redemption. And just in case your gift recipient secretly tosses their greeting cards in the trash the same day, there’s a “digital gift card inside” banner at the top to remind them there’s more than just your heartfelt thoughts inside that envelope.
The digital gifts are provided by The Gift Card Shop, which gives options for over 100 retailers, including Best Buy, DoorDash, Home Depot, Nordstrom, Sephora, Ulta, and Xbox. The cards are available to purchase now for $4.99 on Hallmark’s website, its Gold Crown physical stores, and select retailers.

There’s a banner printed on the top of the card that tells you there’s a gift card inside. | Image: Hallmark

Hallmark announced new physical greeting cards that include digital gift cards inside. The “Gift Card Greetings” line means you can hand someone a real card, paired with the convenience of not needing to tape on an extra piece of plastic. It’s a little bit more personal than buying someone an e-gift card and having a code land somewhere in their email inbox.

The gift card comes in the form of a QR code printed on the inside flap of Hallmark’s card that is used for both loading and redeeming its value. The new cards are an expansion of Hallmark’s other digital-gift-in-a-physical-card idea that lets you include cash via Venmo, so you don’t have to go to the ATM.

For the new cards, the buyer peels off a sticker to reveal the QR code, and the recipient will then scratch off a line that reveals a code to enter on their smartphone for redemption. And just in case your gift recipient secretly tosses their greeting cards in the trash the same day, there’s a “digital gift card inside” banner at the top to remind them there’s more than just your heartfelt thoughts inside that envelope.

The digital gifts are provided by The Gift Card Shop, which gives options for over 100 retailers, including Best Buy, DoorDash, Home Depot, Nordstrom, Sephora, Ulta, and Xbox. The cards are available to purchase now for $4.99 on Hallmark’s website, its Gold Crown physical stores, and select retailers.

Read More 

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Verizon has relaunched its family-tracking app with a Safe Walk SOS feature, allowing users to share their real-time location with emergency contacts and send notifications when they arrive safely. Users can also access a silent SOS button that will alert contacts if they need help.
The new Verizon Family app replaces the Smart Family service that the carrier launched in 2019. It comes with many of the same features, including ways to track the locations of family members, view how much time a child is spending on their phone, and set limits on screen time.
The Verizon Family app also lets parents view their child’s call and text activity (without actually viewing their messages), monitor their teen’s driving activity, and set location alerts. iPhones and Android devices already come with some of these features built-in, including a way to send SOS messages to emergency contacts and various parental controls.

While the Family app is available at no additional cost with a standard postpaid monthly account, you’ll have to pay $14.99 / account per month if you want access to additional features. That includes the ability to set multiple location alerts, parental controls to manage screen time, and roadside assistance.
Customers who have the older Verizon Smart Family service, which started at $4.99 per month, can continue using it (Verizon just won’t let any new users sign up). The reworked Verizon Family service ties in with the company’s other family-tracking products, such as the Gizmo Watch 3 Adventure.

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Verizon has relaunched its family-tracking app with a Safe Walk SOS feature, allowing users to share their real-time location with emergency contacts and send notifications when they arrive safely. Users can also access a silent SOS button that will alert contacts if they need help.

The new Verizon Family app replaces the Smart Family service that the carrier launched in 2019. It comes with many of the same features, including ways to track the locations of family members, view how much time a child is spending on their phone, and set limits on screen time.

The Verizon Family app also lets parents view their child’s call and text activity (without actually viewing their messages), monitor their teen’s driving activity, and set location alerts. iPhones and Android devices already come with some of these features built-in, including a way to send SOS messages to emergency contacts and various parental controls.

While the Family app is available at no additional cost with a standard postpaid monthly account, you’ll have to pay $14.99 / account per month if you want access to additional features. That includes the ability to set multiple location alerts, parental controls to manage screen time, and roadside assistance.

Customers who have the older Verizon Smart Family service, which started at $4.99 per month, can continue using it (Verizon just won’t let any new users sign up). The reworked Verizon Family service ties in with the company’s other family-tracking products, such as the Gizmo Watch 3 Adventure.

Read More 

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Apple may not be doing a formal product event this October, but Apple SVP Greg Joswiak is teasing a “week” of Mac announcements starting on Monday morning.
Rumors have been swirling about announcements of updated Macs. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman has been all over them, saying in an early October Power On newsletter that Apple was planning to announce a suite of Macs powered by M4 chips as well as a refreshed iPad Mini — though that has since been announced.

Mac ( ) your calendars! We have an exciting week of announcements ahead, starting on Monday morning. Stay tuned… pic.twitter.com/YnoCYkZq6c— Greg Joswiak (@gregjoz) October 24, 2024

M4 Macs would make sense; Apple first announced the M4 chip alongside new iPad Pros in May, so we’ve been expecting the chip to show up soon in Apple’s computers. The lineup of M4-equipped computers coming soon could include a low-end 14-inch MacBook Pro, high-end 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pros, a new iMac, and a new Mac Mini. That new Mac Mini might also get a redesign that could make it close in size to an Apple TV.
Russian YouTubers have also posted videos with what look to be MacBook Pros with M4 chips, which could be further evidence that Apple is set to release them soon.
Last year, Apple hosted a “Scary Fast” Mac launch event on Halloween, where it revealed its M3 chips and computers that would use them.

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Apple may not be doing a formal product event this October, but Apple SVP Greg Joswiak is teasing a “week” of Mac announcements starting on Monday morning.

Rumors have been swirling about announcements of updated Macs. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman has been all over them, saying in an early October Power On newsletter that Apple was planning to announce a suite of Macs powered by M4 chips as well as a refreshed iPad Mini — though that has since been announced.

M4 Macs would make sense; Apple first announced the M4 chip alongside new iPad Pros in May, so we’ve been expecting the chip to show up soon in Apple’s computers. The lineup of M4-equipped computers coming soon could include a low-end 14-inch MacBook Pro, high-end 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pros, a new iMac, and a new Mac Mini. That new Mac Mini might also get a redesign that could make it close in size to an Apple TV.

Russian YouTubers have also posted videos with what look to be MacBook Pros with M4 chips, which could be further evidence that Apple is set to release them soon.

Last year, Apple hosted a “Scary Fast” Mac launch event on Halloween, where it revealed its M3 chips and computers that would use them.

Read More 

Illustrations by Alex Castro / The Verge

Governments face a deadline in early 2025 to update their national climate plans, 10 years after the adoption of the landmark Paris accord. Before that can happen, Americans will face a crucial decision on Election Day that will have consequences for the whole world.
If the US misses that deadline under a president who thinks this is no big deal, it could be a serious blow to global efforts to stop climate change. This isn’t about the US being the world’s savior. It’s about cleaning up after itself considering the planetary mess it’s made and continues to make.
What’s at stake? Only “debilitating impacts to people, planet and economies,” the latest United Nations report on greenhouse gas emissions released today tells us.
We are a fossil fuel behemoth, a wolf in sheep’s clothing
The US — like nearly every other country on Earth except for Iran, Libya, and Yemen — has ratified the Paris climate agreement, agreeing to work together to stop global warming from getting much worse. Action the US takes has an outsize impact on the world because the US has pumped out far more greenhouse gas emissions historically than any other country and remains the world’s second-biggest climate polluter today. And despite the historic investments the nation has made in clean energy under the Biden administration, the US is still the world’s leading oil and gas producer. We are a fossil fuel behemoth, a wolf in sheep’s clothing even when we agree to participate in international climate talks.

Animation: The countries with the largest cumulative CO2 emissions since 1750Ranking as of the start of 2019:1) US – 397GtCO22) CN – 214Gt3) fmr USSR – 1804) DE – 905) UK – 776) JP – 587) IN – 518) FR – 379) CA – 3210) PL – 27 pic.twitter.com/cKRNKO4O0b— Carbon Brief (@CarbonBrief) April 23, 2019

Global average temperatures are about 1.2 degrees Celsius higher today than they were before the Industrial Revolution. It might not sound like much, but wildfires, heatwaves, droughts, and storms have all grown much worse as a result.
Preventing more severe climate change isn’t altruism — it’s in our own self-interest. Hurricane Helene, which killed more than 220 people and reduced entire communities to ruins as it tore through the Southeast US this month, was fueled by soaring sea surface temperatures made 200 to 500 times more likely by greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels.
The Paris accord sets a goal of stopping global warming at around 1.5C, and the UN report published today shows what it’s going to take to keep from blowing past that. It’s hard to read it without wincing. It’s actually titled, “No more hot air … please!”
“If only current [national action plans] are implemented and no further ambition is shown in the new pledges, the best we could expect to achieve is catastrophic global warming,” the United Nations Environment Programme says. Specifically, it expects up to 2.6C of warming over the course of a century with business as usual.
“No more hot air … please!”
Even so, the report says it’s still technically feasible to keep that 1.5-degree goal alive if countries take swift action. Global emissions would have to fall 42 percent by 2030 compared to 2019 levels. That’s no easy task considering the world is still moving in the opposite direction, with greenhouse gas emissions growing 1.3 percent year on year, according to the report.
Yet there are relatively simple ways to turn things around — solar and onshore wind energy are already cheaper power sources than fossil fuels in most of the world. The report also calls for increasing energy efficiency and electrifying homes and buildings.
The tougher question is whether policymakers and voters are on board with these solutions. The Republican platform says, “We will DRILL, BABY, DRILL.” Donald Trump says he would attempt to take the US out of the Paris agreement again, which he did during his previous presidency, before Joe Biden recommitted.

The last time Trump was elected president, I was at a UN climate conference in Marrakech, Morocco. “Today, many Africans have woken up horrified that we have a man in the White House who does not even accept that climate change is real – a president who has promised to back more fossil fuels and has promised to pull out of the Paris Agreement,” said Geoffrey Kamese, then a senior program officer of Friends of the Earth Africa, at a press briefing during the summit. “The people in this continent will pay with their lives for the results of the US elections.”
Members of the G20 encompassing many of the world’s largest economies, minus the African Union, pumped out 77 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in 2023, the new UN report says. Adding the African Union doubles the number of countries but only increases the share of emissions to 82 percent. That only goes to show that many of the nations most vulnerable to climate change are paying the price for a problem the world’s wealthiest countries are largely responsible for perpetuating.

Illustrations by Alex Castro / The Verge

Governments face a deadline in early 2025 to update their national climate plans, 10 years after the adoption of the landmark Paris accord. Before that can happen, Americans will face a crucial decision on Election Day that will have consequences for the whole world.

If the US misses that deadline under a president who thinks this is no big deal, it could be a serious blow to global efforts to stop climate change. This isn’t about the US being the world’s savior. It’s about cleaning up after itself considering the planetary mess it’s made and continues to make.

What’s at stake? Only “debilitating impacts to people, planet and economies,” the latest United Nations report on greenhouse gas emissions released today tells us.

The US — like nearly every other country on Earth except for Iran, Libya, and Yemen — has ratified the Paris climate agreement, agreeing to work together to stop global warming from getting much worse. Action the US takes has an outsize impact on the world because the US has pumped out far more greenhouse gas emissions historically than any other country and remains the world’s second-biggest climate polluter today. And despite the historic investments the nation has made in clean energy under the Biden administration, the US is still the world’s leading oil and gas producer. We are a fossil fuel behemoth, a wolf in sheep’s clothing even when we agree to participate in international climate talks.

Global average temperatures are about 1.2 degrees Celsius higher today than they were before the Industrial Revolution. It might not sound like much, but wildfires, heatwaves, droughts, and storms have all grown much worse as a result.

Preventing more severe climate change isn’t altruism — it’s in our own self-interest. Hurricane Helene, which killed more than 220 people and reduced entire communities to ruins as it tore through the Southeast US this month, was fueled by soaring sea surface temperatures made 200 to 500 times more likely by greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels.

The Paris accord sets a goal of stopping global warming at around 1.5C, and the UN report published today shows what it’s going to take to keep from blowing past that. It’s hard to read it without wincing. It’s actually titled, “No more hot air … please!”

“If only current [national action plans] are implemented and no further ambition is shown in the new pledges, the best we could expect to achieve is catastrophic global warming,” the United Nations Environment Programme says. Specifically, it expects up to 2.6C of warming over the course of a century with business as usual.

Even so, the report says it’s still technically feasible to keep that 1.5-degree goal alive if countries take swift action. Global emissions would have to fall 42 percent by 2030 compared to 2019 levels. That’s no easy task considering the world is still moving in the opposite direction, with greenhouse gas emissions growing 1.3 percent year on year, according to the report.

Yet there are relatively simple ways to turn things around — solar and onshore wind energy are already cheaper power sources than fossil fuels in most of the world. The report also calls for increasing energy efficiency and electrifying homes and buildings.

The tougher question is whether policymakers and voters are on board with these solutions. The Republican platform says, “We will DRILL, BABY, DRILL.” Donald Trump says he would attempt to take the US out of the Paris agreement again, which he did during his previous presidency, before Joe Biden recommitted.

The last time Trump was elected president, I was at a UN climate conference in Marrakech, Morocco. “Today, many Africans have woken up horrified that we have a man in the White House who does not even accept that climate change is real – a president who has promised to back more fossil fuels and has promised to pull out of the Paris Agreement,” said Geoffrey Kamese, then a senior program officer of Friends of the Earth Africa, at a press briefing during the summit. “The people in this continent will pay with their lives for the results of the US elections.”

Members of the G20 encompassing many of the world’s largest economies, minus the African Union, pumped out 77 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in 2023, the new UN report says. Adding the African Union doubles the number of countries but only increases the share of emissions to 82 percent. That only goes to show that many of the nations most vulnerable to climate change are paying the price for a problem the world’s wealthiest countries are largely responsible for perpetuating.

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Image: Intel

Intel’s flagship Core Ultra 200S-series processor runs more efficiently, but PC gaming performance is disappointing. There’s one word to describe both Intel’s and AMD’s latest CPUs: disappointing. AMD’s Zen 5 desktop CPUs arrived in August and failed to impress in both productivity and gaming workloads. The Ryzen 9 9950X was supposed to be a “monster,” but in reality, it was very underwhelming for PC gaming. Now, it’s Intel’s turn to disappoint.
I’ve been testing Intel’s $589 next-generation flagship Core Ultra 9 285K processor over the past week. It runs cooler and a little faster than Intel’s Core i9-14900K in non-gaming tasks, but it falls flat in PC gaming: in many titles, it provides worse performance than the 14th Gen chips it was designed to replace.
Intel’s Core Ultra 9 285K is the first enthusiast desktop CPU with a built-in NPU, or a neural processing unit, for accelerating AI tasks. It’s also the first CPU that’s built for Intel’s new LGA 1851 socket, meaning you’ll need a new motherboard to be able to use it. Intel is using its latest 3D packaging technology and Arrow Lake architecture to increase the power efficiency of the Ultra 9 285K, a big departure from the hot and power-hungry 13th and 14th Gen desktop CPUs.

I’ve been impressed by the power draw improvements, particularly during gaming with the Ultra 9 285K. During a Cinebench 2024 benchmark, the Ultra 9 285K drew 254 watts of CPU package power, while Intel’s Core i9-14900K drew 267 watts for the same task. That’s a small difference, but the Ultra 9 285K managed to provide 15 percent better performance in the multithreaded test and nearly 7 percent better performance in the single-thread test.
It’s the same story for Geekbench 6, where the Ultra 9 285K delivers 8 percent better performance over the 14900K in the multithreaded test and 2 percent more for the single-thread test while drawing less power. Both the PugetBench tests for Adobe Premiere Pro and Photoshop are within margins of error, so performance seems to be similar for both of those workloads between the Ultra 9 285K and 14900K.
The gaming side largely went in the opposite direction during 1080p testing coupled with an RTX 4090. In Shadow of the Tomb Raider, an older game that always scales well with CPU generations, I saw the Ultra 9 285K deliver frame rates that were 8 percent lower than the 14900K. In Cyberpunk 2077, the Ultra 9 285K fell nearly 9 percent behind the 14900K, and in 2023’s Forza Motorsport, it was nearly 20 percent behind. These are the types of figures I’d expect to see as gains over previous-generation CPUs, not regressions.
To its credit, the Ultra 9 285K puts out a lot less heat than the 14900K, which is never a bad thing in a gaming rig. Even during CPU benchmarks, the CPU package never exceeded 85 degrees Celsius, while the 14900K reached 99C during the same tests. I also noticed that idle power draw is lower, power usage during most games is lower, and even the coolant temperature on the all-in-one cooler I was using was a few degrees lower on the Ultra 9 285K than the 14900K. But most high-end rigs have high-end coolers, and performance nearly always trumps all.

I asked Intel why its gaming performance was all over the place, and the company essentially admitted its focus for these chips has been on performance per watt and that it has been upfront about what to expect for gaming.
“The nature of the process technology and the design of the SoC made it so that our focus for this generation was to catch up and get into a leadership position in performance per watt,” says Intel spokesperson Mark Anthony Ramirez. “While the difference in gaming performance compared to the previous two generations depends on the game, performance uplifts compared to 12th Gen and older platforms are significant.”
Intel did show benchmarks for Cyberpunk 2077 and Far Cry 6, both underperforming the 7950X3D by big margins during its Core Ultra 200S-series announcement earlier this month. The chip maker also admitted that it would be around 5 percent behind AMD’s $449 7800X3D gaming CPU. I just wasn’t expecting it to be quite so far behind its 14th Gen chips, too.
I suspect some of the performance issues on the gaming side come down to Windows 11’s virtualization-based security (VBS) features. These are enabled by default in a fresh install of Windows 11, so I’ve been testing with them enabled on the Ultra 9 285K and 14900K. If I disable the Memory Integrity feature on both the Ultra 9 285K and 14900K, the performance gaps shrink significantly in Shadow of the Tomb Raider and Cyberpunk 2077, to the point where Cyberpunk 2077 even runs 2 percent better on the Ultra 9 285K. Metro Exodus also runs nearly 4 percent better compared to just a single percent with Memory Integrity enabled.
The performance gaps of virtualization-based security are largely the same for creative and productivity tasks, and Intel says that when tested across enough workloads, VBS should have a lower performance impact on Core Ultra 200S series than previous generations.
With a new CPU generation comes a new motherboard chipset, and this time, there’s also a new socket. The new Z890 boards are built on Intel’s 800-series chipset, which supports up to 24 PCIe 4.0 lanes, up to 8x SATA 3.0, and up to 32 USB 3.2 ports. Most existing coolers that support Intel’s LGA 1700 socket will support the new LGA 1851 socket, so while you’ll need a new motherboard, at least there are plenty of coolers to choose from.
With the motherboard and CPU combined, there are a total of 48 PCIe lanes, with up to 20 of those being Gen 5 from the CPU. There’s also integrated Wi-Fi 6E and 1GbE ethernet, Bluetooth 5.3, and 2x Thunderbolt 4 on the CPU, with motherboard makers able to add discrete options for Wi-Fi 7, up to 4 more Thunderbolt 5 ports, 2.5GbE, and Bluetooth 5.4.
While I used DDR5-6600 memory for the Ultra 9 285K and 14900K benchmarking, Intel says DDR5-8000 is the sweet spot for the Z890 motherboards. And with announcements of DDR5-9600 and beyond, we could see a lot more performance squeezed out of the Ultra 9 285K in the future.
With rumors of an Arrow Lake S refresh being canceled in favor of a leap to Nova Lake, it’s possible the LGA 1851 socket won’t be around for long, though. That means that if you upgrade to the Ultra 9 285K right now, you might have to swap out your motherboard again if you want to upgrade your CPU. Intel refuses to commit to LGA 1851 future support, and its recent track record isn’t reassuring: it launched its LGA 1200 socket in 2020 and then replaced it with LGA 1700 a year later.
AMD’s 7800X3D CPU comfortably beats the Ultra 9 285K in gaming, and the company will launch its highly anticipated 9000-series X3D desktop CPUs on November 7th. If you’re thinking about building a gaming PC right now, the obvious choice is AMD, particularly because the chip maker has committed to supporting its AM5 platform and motherboards until 2027 or beyond.
While it’s a step in the right direction for Intel’s latest CPUs to be more efficient, enthusiasts are more concerned about getting the best performance no matter the energy costs. Intel has done well to make its Ultra 9 285K run a lot cooler, but with a step back in gaming performance, I’m still left wondering exactly who this chip is for.

Image: Intel

Intel’s flagship Core Ultra 200S-series processor runs more efficiently, but PC gaming performance is disappointing.

There’s one word to describe both Intel’s and AMD’s latest CPUs: disappointing. AMD’s Zen 5 desktop CPUs arrived in August and failed to impress in both productivity and gaming workloads. The Ryzen 9 9950X was supposed to be a “monster,” but in reality, it was very underwhelming for PC gaming. Now, it’s Intel’s turn to disappoint.

I’ve been testing Intel’s $589 next-generation flagship Core Ultra 9 285K processor over the past week. It runs cooler and a little faster than Intel’s Core i9-14900K in non-gaming tasks, but it falls flat in PC gaming: in many titles, it provides worse performance than the 14th Gen chips it was designed to replace.

Intel’s Core Ultra 9 285K is the first enthusiast desktop CPU with a built-in NPU, or a neural processing unit, for accelerating AI tasks. It’s also the first CPU that’s built for Intel’s new LGA 1851 socket, meaning you’ll need a new motherboard to be able to use it. Intel is using its latest 3D packaging technology and Arrow Lake architecture to increase the power efficiency of the Ultra 9 285K, a big departure from the hot and power-hungry 13th and 14th Gen desktop CPUs.

I’ve been impressed by the power draw improvements, particularly during gaming with the Ultra 9 285K. During a Cinebench 2024 benchmark, the Ultra 9 285K drew 254 watts of CPU package power, while Intel’s Core i9-14900K drew 267 watts for the same task. That’s a small difference, but the Ultra 9 285K managed to provide 15 percent better performance in the multithreaded test and nearly 7 percent better performance in the single-thread test.

It’s the same story for Geekbench 6, where the Ultra 9 285K delivers 8 percent better performance over the 14900K in the multithreaded test and 2 percent more for the single-thread test while drawing less power. Both the PugetBench tests for Adobe Premiere Pro and Photoshop are within margins of error, so performance seems to be similar for both of those workloads between the Ultra 9 285K and 14900K.

The gaming side largely went in the opposite direction during 1080p testing coupled with an RTX 4090. In Shadow of the Tomb Raider, an older game that always scales well with CPU generations, I saw the Ultra 9 285K deliver frame rates that were 8 percent lower than the 14900K. In Cyberpunk 2077, the Ultra 9 285K fell nearly 9 percent behind the 14900K, and in 2023’s Forza Motorsport, it was nearly 20 percent behind. These are the types of figures I’d expect to see as gains over previous-generation CPUs, not regressions.

To its credit, the Ultra 9 285K puts out a lot less heat than the 14900K, which is never a bad thing in a gaming rig. Even during CPU benchmarks, the CPU package never exceeded 85 degrees Celsius, while the 14900K reached 99C during the same tests. I also noticed that idle power draw is lower, power usage during most games is lower, and even the coolant temperature on the all-in-one cooler I was using was a few degrees lower on the Ultra 9 285K than the 14900K. But most high-end rigs have high-end coolers, and performance nearly always trumps all.

I asked Intel why its gaming performance was all over the place, and the company essentially admitted its focus for these chips has been on performance per watt and that it has been upfront about what to expect for gaming.

“The nature of the process technology and the design of the SoC made it so that our focus for this generation was to catch up and get into a leadership position in performance per watt,” says Intel spokesperson Mark Anthony Ramirez. “While the difference in gaming performance compared to the previous two generations depends on the game, performance uplifts compared to 12th Gen and older platforms are significant.”

Intel did show benchmarks for Cyberpunk 2077 and Far Cry 6, both underperforming the 7950X3D by big margins during its Core Ultra 200S-series announcement earlier this month. The chip maker also admitted that it would be around 5 percent behind AMD’s $449 7800X3D gaming CPU. I just wasn’t expecting it to be quite so far behind its 14th Gen chips, too.

I suspect some of the performance issues on the gaming side come down to Windows 11’s virtualization-based security (VBS) features. These are enabled by default in a fresh install of Windows 11, so I’ve been testing with them enabled on the Ultra 9 285K and 14900K. If I disable the Memory Integrity feature on both the Ultra 9 285K and 14900K, the performance gaps shrink significantly in Shadow of the Tomb Raider and Cyberpunk 2077, to the point where Cyberpunk 2077 even runs 2 percent better on the Ultra 9 285K. Metro Exodus also runs nearly 4 percent better compared to just a single percent with Memory Integrity enabled.

The performance gaps of virtualization-based security are largely the same for creative and productivity tasks, and Intel says that when tested across enough workloads, VBS should have a lower performance impact on Core Ultra 200S series than previous generations.

With a new CPU generation comes a new motherboard chipset, and this time, there’s also a new socket. The new Z890 boards are built on Intel’s 800-series chipset, which supports up to 24 PCIe 4.0 lanes, up to 8x SATA 3.0, and up to 32 USB 3.2 ports. Most existing coolers that support Intel’s LGA 1700 socket will support the new LGA 1851 socket, so while you’ll need a new motherboard, at least there are plenty of coolers to choose from.

With the motherboard and CPU combined, there are a total of 48 PCIe lanes, with up to 20 of those being Gen 5 from the CPU. There’s also integrated Wi-Fi 6E and 1GbE ethernet, Bluetooth 5.3, and 2x Thunderbolt 4 on the CPU, with motherboard makers able to add discrete options for Wi-Fi 7, up to 4 more Thunderbolt 5 ports, 2.5GbE, and Bluetooth 5.4.

While I used DDR5-6600 memory for the Ultra 9 285K and 14900K benchmarking, Intel says DDR5-8000 is the sweet spot for the Z890 motherboards. And with announcements of DDR5-9600 and beyond, we could see a lot more performance squeezed out of the Ultra 9 285K in the future.

With rumors of an Arrow Lake S refresh being canceled in favor of a leap to Nova Lake, it’s possible the LGA 1851 socket won’t be around for long, though. That means that if you upgrade to the Ultra 9 285K right now, you might have to swap out your motherboard again if you want to upgrade your CPU. Intel refuses to commit to LGA 1851 future support, and its recent track record isn’t reassuring: it launched its LGA 1200 socket in 2020 and then replaced it with LGA 1700 a year later.

AMD’s 7800X3D CPU comfortably beats the Ultra 9 285K in gaming, and the company will launch its highly anticipated 9000-series X3D desktop CPUs on November 7th. If you’re thinking about building a gaming PC right now, the obvious choice is AMD, particularly because the chip maker has committed to supporting its AM5 platform and motherboards until 2027 or beyond.

While it’s a step in the right direction for Intel’s latest CPUs to be more efficient, enthusiasts are more concerned about getting the best performance no matter the energy costs. Intel has done well to make its Ultra 9 285K run a lot cooler, but with a step back in gaming performance, I’m still left wondering exactly who this chip is for.

Read More 

The Razer Barracuda X Chroma headphones feature size zones of customizable RGB lighting. | Image: Razer

Razer has announced a new version of its Barracuda X wireless gaming headset that adds a glowing Razer logo and a ring of color-changing LEDs outlining each earcup. The new Barracuda X Chroma headphones are now available for preorder in a black or white colorway for $129.99 and are expected to ship in late October or early November.
As with other Razer headphones featuring RGB LEDs, the Barracuda X Chroma’s accent lighting can be customized through the Razer Chroma Studio desktop app or the Razer Audio mobile app. The headphones feature six zones that can be set to one of 16.8 million colors to match the motif of a gaming room or other hardware, or you can choose from preset effects, including lighting that corresponds to “over 300 games.”

Image: Razer
The Barracuda X Chroma’s microphone is removable.

The Barracuda X Chroma can wirelessly connect to devices over Bluetooth or using Razer’s 2.4GHz HyperSpeed connection for reduced lag. The company says the headphone’s battery life has been boosted to up to 70 hours with a 2.4GHz connection and the lighting turned off, but that’s halved to just 35 hours with the RGB LEDs running. A 15-minute charge will provide around six hours of playtime, but when using Bluetooth, battery life will potentially be even longer.

Image: Razer
The Barracuda X Chroma are available in either a white or black colorway.

Other features include memory foam cushions on swiveling earcups, 40mm drivers, a detachable HyperClear cardioid microphone on an adjustable arm, and a mute button with a volume dial integrated into the left earcup. At 285 grams, the headphones are also slightly heavier than the original Barracuda X which weighed in at 250 grams.
The Barracuda X Chroma are compatible with PCs, Macs, Nintendo Switch, Sony Playstation, Steam Deck, and Android and iOS mobile devices. But like their predecessor, they still don’t support the Xbox’s wireless protocol.

The Razer Barracuda X Chroma headphones feature size zones of customizable RGB lighting. | Image: Razer

Razer has announced a new version of its Barracuda X wireless gaming headset that adds a glowing Razer logo and a ring of color-changing LEDs outlining each earcup. The new Barracuda X Chroma headphones are now available for preorder in a black or white colorway for $129.99 and are expected to ship in late October or early November.

As with other Razer headphones featuring RGB LEDs, the Barracuda X Chroma’s accent lighting can be customized through the Razer Chroma Studio desktop app or the Razer Audio mobile app. The headphones feature six zones that can be set to one of 16.8 million colors to match the motif of a gaming room or other hardware, or you can choose from preset effects, including lighting that corresponds to “over 300 games.”

Image: Razer
The Barracuda X Chroma’s microphone is removable.

The Barracuda X Chroma can wirelessly connect to devices over Bluetooth or using Razer’s 2.4GHz HyperSpeed connection for reduced lag. The company says the headphone’s battery life has been boosted to up to 70 hours with a 2.4GHz connection and the lighting turned off, but that’s halved to just 35 hours with the RGB LEDs running. A 15-minute charge will provide around six hours of playtime, but when using Bluetooth, battery life will potentially be even longer.

Image: Razer
The Barracuda X Chroma are available in either a white or black colorway.

Other features include memory foam cushions on swiveling earcups, 40mm drivers, a detachable HyperClear cardioid microphone on an adjustable arm, and a mute button with a volume dial integrated into the left earcup. At 285 grams, the headphones are also slightly heavier than the original Barracuda X which weighed in at 250 grams.

The Barracuda X Chroma are compatible with PCs, Macs, Nintendo Switch, Sony Playstation, Steam Deck, and Android and iOS mobile devices. But like their predecessor, they still don’t support the Xbox’s wireless protocol.

Read More