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Image: Capcom

Capcom called and said Xbox can come along for the ride, too. The publisher has announced that it will release its two upcoming fighting game collections — Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics and Capcom Fighting Collection 2 — on Xbox in 2025.
Capcom announced the two games earlier this year for PlayStation, Switch, and Steam, with Xbox platforms conspicuously absent. Now, after Capcom had what it called “technical discussions” with Microsoft, Xbox will be able to get in on the fun as well, though a bit later than everyone else.

We’re happy to announce that after technical discussions with our partners at Microsoft, MARVEL vs. CAPCOM Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics and Capcom Fighting Collection 2 will release on Xbox One! Both Xbox versions arrive in 2025, so stay tuned for more information! pic.twitter.com/Omdfe6IgYH— Capcom USA (@CapcomUSA_) September 3, 2024

Recently, there’s been a noticeable delay for big third-party releases on Xbox. It took last year’s Game of the Year, Baldur’s Gate 3, several months after its console launch to hit Xbox because of the technical constraints of developing for the Series S. Black Myth: Wukong launched to big fanfare on PlayStation and PC, and while an Xbox release is planned, there’s been no word of when.
Similarly, the developers of Enotria: The Last Song — an action RPG based on Italian folklore — announced an “indefinite delay” of the Xbox version of its game. In a statement on social media, the developers at Jyamma Games said that they want to bring the game to Xbox as fast as possible but that “this task is nearly impossible with Microsoft taking months to reply to us when we have the game ready for submission.” The developers then implored fans to reach out to Xbox on their behalf, ostensibly to get the ball moving.
The two Capcom collections include 15 games, featuring arcade classics like Marvel vs. Capcom 2, X-Men: Children of the Atom, Capcom vs. SNK, Power Stone, and more. Both collections will release on Xbox sometime in 2025.

Image: Capcom

Capcom called and said Xbox can come along for the ride, too. The publisher has announced that it will release its two upcoming fighting game collections — Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics and Capcom Fighting Collection 2 — on Xbox in 2025.

Capcom announced the two games earlier this year for PlayStation, Switch, and Steam, with Xbox platforms conspicuously absent. Now, after Capcom had what it called “technical discussions” with Microsoft, Xbox will be able to get in on the fun as well, though a bit later than everyone else.

Recently, there’s been a noticeable delay for big third-party releases on Xbox. It took last year’s Game of the Year, Baldur’s Gate 3, several months after its console launch to hit Xbox because of the technical constraints of developing for the Series S. Black Myth: Wukong launched to big fanfare on PlayStation and PC, and while an Xbox release is planned, there’s been no word of when.

Similarly, the developers of Enotria: The Last Song — an action RPG based on Italian folklore — announced an “indefinite delay” of the Xbox version of its game. In a statement on social media, the developers at Jyamma Games said that they want to bring the game to Xbox as fast as possible but that “this task is nearly impossible with Microsoft taking months to reply to us when we have the game ready for submission.” The developers then implored fans to reach out to Xbox on their behalf, ostensibly to get the ball moving.

The two Capcom collections include 15 games, featuring arcade classics like Marvel vs. Capcom 2, X-Men: Children of the Atom, Capcom vs. SNK, Power Stone, and more. Both collections will release on Xbox sometime in 2025.

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Image: Sony

Sony is taking Concord, its latest PlayStation game, offline on September 6th, following poor sales of the game. The first-person hero shooter launched exclusively on PS5 and PC on August 23rd, but estimates have put sales at under 25,000. Concord also only managed to hit an all-time peak of 697 players on Steam, lower than the launch peak of The Lord of the Rings: Gollum — widely regarded as the worst game of 2023.
“We have decided to take the game offline beginning September 6, 2024, and explore options, including those that will better reach our players,” says Concord game director Ryan Ellis in a PlayStation blog post. “While we determine the best path ahead, Concord sales will cease immediately and we will begin to offer a full refund for all gamers who have purchased the game for PS5 or PC.”
If you purchased the game for PS5 from the PlayStation Store, a refund will be issued to your original payment method. If you purchased Concord on Steam, you’ll get a refund in the coming days, and the same will occur on the Epic Games Store.
Concord launched as a $40 game after eight years of development and went up against many free-to-play alternatives like Overwatch and even Valorant in the competitive hero shooter genre. It has ultimately failed to compete as a paid game, especially without a unique selling point.
Firewalk Studios’ mention of options “that will better reach our players” and the refunds make it seem like Concord, if it does return, will move to a free-to-play model. “We’ll keep you updated and thank you again to all the Freegunners who have joined us in the Concord galaxy,” says Ellis.

Image: Sony

Sony is taking Concord, its latest PlayStation game, offline on September 6th, following poor sales of the game. The first-person hero shooter launched exclusively on PS5 and PC on August 23rd, but estimates have put sales at under 25,000. Concord also only managed to hit an all-time peak of 697 players on Steam, lower than the launch peak of The Lord of the Rings: Gollum — widely regarded as the worst game of 2023.

“We have decided to take the game offline beginning September 6, 2024, and explore options, including those that will better reach our players,” says Concord game director Ryan Ellis in a PlayStation blog post. “While we determine the best path ahead, Concord sales will cease immediately and we will begin to offer a full refund for all gamers who have purchased the game for PS5 or PC.”

If you purchased the game for PS5 from the PlayStation Store, a refund will be issued to your original payment method. If you purchased Concord on Steam, you’ll get a refund in the coming days, and the same will occur on the Epic Games Store.

Concord launched as a $40 game after eight years of development and went up against many free-to-play alternatives like Overwatch and even Valorant in the competitive hero shooter genre. It has ultimately failed to compete as a paid game, especially without a unique selling point.

Firewalk Studios’ mention of options “that will better reach our players” and the refunds make it seem like Concord, if it does return, will move to a free-to-play model. “We’ll keep you updated and thank you again to all the Freegunners who have joined us in the Concord galaxy,” says Ellis.

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Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

The news that Tesla will likely reveal its long-awaited, much-debated autonomous robotaxi at the Warner Bros. movie studio in Los Angeles underscores how much ground the company needs to cover in order to catch up to its rivals in the self-driving space. It also inadvertently provides a ready-made metaphor for the types of Hollywood trickery Elon Musk and Co. will no doubt need to employ in order to convince their supporters that Tesla’s driverless technology is really ready this time.
Over the weekend, Bloomberg reported that Tesla was planning on using the film studio’s lot in Burbank, California, to reveal its next-generation robotaxi on October 10th. (The event was originally supposed to take place on August 8th but was pushed back after Musk ordered more work on the prototype.)
Tesla needs to catch up to its rivals in the self-driving space
It was an interesting decision considering Tesla mostly likes to hold these types of events on its own turf. But as Bloomberg noted, the 110-acre lot contains over two dozen sound stages, including fake suburban towns that could be an ideal location to test a not-quite-ready-for-primetime autonomous vehicle. These include row houses, brownstones, and a virtual small downtown — all ready-made for a robotaxi demonstration.
The report gained further credence after a Tesla software hacker known online as @greentheonly noted on X that the company had started gathering mapping data in and around the movie studio a few days prior to the report. Green, who has gained some notoriety in Tesla circles by going through the source code of Tesla’s software updates, said the company was also collecting data around other locations, including the still-under-construction Tesla Diner in Santa Monica and “various SF and Bay Area pieces.”

So I guess recent Bloomberg news piece explains why Tesla started extensive data collection in “WB Studio” area 4 or so days ago.This is in addition to other areas like Tesla Diner, various SF and Bay Area pieces and so on. pic.twitter.com/NO4Bprugak— green (@greentheonly) September 1, 2024

The revelation that Tesla is collecting data on these areas in advance of its robotaxi event suggests a couple of things. First, the company wants to ensure that its demonstration of driverless technology goes off flawlessly, so it’s mapping the areas in which it could operate. That seems like sound reasoning. Tesla has a lot riding on this event given recent comments by Musk that the company should be seen as primarily a robotics company.
“We are an AI, robotics company; if you value us otherwise, the right answer is impossible to the questions being asked,” Musk said earlier this year.
Rerouting the company from its core business of making and selling electric vehicles to robotics and autonomy is crucial for Musk, especially as Tesla’s sales continue to sag globally. Tesla’s market cap is equal to almost all the other global automaker’s value combined. Much of this value is based on Musk’s promises to not only drive the electrification of the auto industry but also “solve” autonomy by releasing a truly revolutionary vehicle that can drive itself. Whatever Tesla reveals on October 10th needs to prove this is possible.
Tesla has a lot riding on this event
Any Tesla fan would be quick to point out that all the other autonomous vehicle operators also gather geographic data before launching their robotaxis. Waymo, Cruise, and all the others focus on making their autonomous driving systems work in geofenced areas of cities. But as Electrek rightly points out, Tesla has always claimed that its system would be different by using data gathered from its fleet of regular vehicle owners, who send camera images back to the company for annotation and labeling.
With all that data, Musk has boasted that Tesla would be unrestrained by any geographic limitations. In other words, true “Level 5” autonomy — a driverless car that could drive anywhere, under any conditions.
Of course, that’s not what we’re getting on October 10th. Tesla is likely to show a pretty good demo of a driverless car tooling around on the Warner Bros. lot, or around downtown San Francisco, or at the Supercharger location in Santa Monica. But the idea that any Tesla owner would be able to push a button and send their driverless vehicle out into the world to start collecting passive income as a robotaxi anytime soon is ludicrous.
That’s because of all the glaring holes in Tesla’s approach to autonomy. For one, the company got rid of its radar and ultrasonic sensors and now only relies on cameras as part of its sensor suite. This approach lacks the redundancy that is a key component of higher-level autonomous systems that include radar, ultrasonic, and lidar to render a 3D environment around the vehicle. If some debris or mud hits one or more of the cameras, the vehicle would essentially be riding blind. That’s not going to work for a lot of people.
There are glaring holes in Tesla’s approach to autonomy
This also reinforces previous reporting that Tesla’s “data annotators” have been giving “special treatment” to Musk and several Tesla influencers when training the neural nets for its autonomous system, according to a Business Insider investigation. This suggests that the company’s efforts at developing a truly autonomous system are being misapplied and perhaps aren’t sufficient for what Tesla claims to be attempting.
Another glaring hole in Tesla’s approach to self-driving is legal liability. To date, the company has been unwilling to accept any liability for crashes involving the company’s driver-assistance features, Autopilot and Full Self-Driving. In fact, Musk even laughed off a question as to whether his company would accept legal liability for its self-driving vehicles in the future. “There’s a lot of people who assume we have legal liability,” Musk has said, “judging by the lawsuits.”
This strategy has worked so far. Last year, Tesla won a lawsuit that tried to blame Autopilot for a 2019 crash. But if the company attempts to deploy fully driverless vehicles, like Waymo or Cruise, it’s difficult to see how it can continue to avoid liability. There have been thousands of crashes involving the company’s vehicles with Autopilot and at least 44 deaths. Even one death in a Tesla autonomous vehicle would be a disaster.
We’ll know more when the company finally pulls the curtain back on October 10th. Maybe Musk could ask some of his friends in Hollywood for a little help smoothing out the rough edges of what gets revealed.

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

The news that Tesla will likely reveal its long-awaited, much-debated autonomous robotaxi at the Warner Bros. movie studio in Los Angeles underscores how much ground the company needs to cover in order to catch up to its rivals in the self-driving space. It also inadvertently provides a ready-made metaphor for the types of Hollywood trickery Elon Musk and Co. will no doubt need to employ in order to convince their supporters that Tesla’s driverless technology is really ready this time.

Over the weekend, Bloomberg reported that Tesla was planning on using the film studio’s lot in Burbank, California, to reveal its next-generation robotaxi on October 10th. (The event was originally supposed to take place on August 8th but was pushed back after Musk ordered more work on the prototype.)

It was an interesting decision considering Tesla mostly likes to hold these types of events on its own turf. But as Bloomberg noted, the 110-acre lot contains over two dozen sound stages, including fake suburban towns that could be an ideal location to test a not-quite-ready-for-primetime autonomous vehicle. These include row houses, brownstones, and a virtual small downtown — all ready-made for a robotaxi demonstration.

The report gained further credence after a Tesla software hacker known online as @greentheonly noted on X that the company had started gathering mapping data in and around the movie studio a few days prior to the report. Green, who has gained some notoriety in Tesla circles by going through the source code of Tesla’s software updates, said the company was also collecting data around other locations, including the still-under-construction Tesla Diner in Santa Monica and “various SF and Bay Area pieces.”

The revelation that Tesla is collecting data on these areas in advance of its robotaxi event suggests a couple of things. First, the company wants to ensure that its demonstration of driverless technology goes off flawlessly, so it’s mapping the areas in which it could operate. That seems like sound reasoning. Tesla has a lot riding on this event given recent comments by Musk that the company should be seen as primarily a robotics company.

“We are an AI, robotics company; if you value us otherwise, the right answer is impossible to the questions being asked,” Musk said earlier this year.

Rerouting the company from its core business of making and selling electric vehicles to robotics and autonomy is crucial for Musk, especially as Tesla’s sales continue to sag globally. Tesla’s market cap is equal to almost all the other global automaker’s value combined. Much of this value is based on Musk’s promises to not only drive the electrification of the auto industry but also “solve” autonomy by releasing a truly revolutionary vehicle that can drive itself. Whatever Tesla reveals on October 10th needs to prove this is possible.

Any Tesla fan would be quick to point out that all the other autonomous vehicle operators also gather geographic data before launching their robotaxis. Waymo, Cruise, and all the others focus on making their autonomous driving systems work in geofenced areas of cities. But as Electrek rightly points out, Tesla has always claimed that its system would be different by using data gathered from its fleet of regular vehicle owners, who send camera images back to the company for annotation and labeling.

With all that data, Musk has boasted that Tesla would be unrestrained by any geographic limitations. In other words, true “Level 5” autonomy — a driverless car that could drive anywhere, under any conditions.

Of course, that’s not what we’re getting on October 10th. Tesla is likely to show a pretty good demo of a driverless car tooling around on the Warner Bros. lot, or around downtown San Francisco, or at the Supercharger location in Santa Monica. But the idea that any Tesla owner would be able to push a button and send their driverless vehicle out into the world to start collecting passive income as a robotaxi anytime soon is ludicrous.

That’s because of all the glaring holes in Tesla’s approach to autonomy. For one, the company got rid of its radar and ultrasonic sensors and now only relies on cameras as part of its sensor suite. This approach lacks the redundancy that is a key component of higher-level autonomous systems that include radar, ultrasonic, and lidar to render a 3D environment around the vehicle. If some debris or mud hits one or more of the cameras, the vehicle would essentially be riding blind. That’s not going to work for a lot of people.

This also reinforces previous reporting that Tesla’s “data annotators” have been giving “special treatment” to Musk and several Tesla influencers when training the neural nets for its autonomous system, according to a Business Insider investigation. This suggests that the company’s efforts at developing a truly autonomous system are being misapplied and perhaps aren’t sufficient for what Tesla claims to be attempting.

Another glaring hole in Tesla’s approach to self-driving is legal liability. To date, the company has been unwilling to accept any liability for crashes involving the company’s driver-assistance features, Autopilot and Full Self-Driving. In fact, Musk even laughed off a question as to whether his company would accept legal liability for its self-driving vehicles in the future. “There’s a lot of people who assume we have legal liability,” Musk has said, “judging by the lawsuits.”

This strategy has worked so far. Last year, Tesla won a lawsuit that tried to blame Autopilot for a 2019 crash. But if the company attempts to deploy fully driverless vehicles, like Waymo or Cruise, it’s difficult to see how it can continue to avoid liability. There have been thousands of crashes involving the company’s vehicles with Autopilot and at least 44 deaths. Even one death in a Tesla autonomous vehicle would be a disaster.

We’ll know more when the company finally pulls the curtain back on October 10th. Maybe Musk could ask some of his friends in Hollywood for a little help smoothing out the rough edges of what gets revealed.

Read More 

Image: Microsoft

Intel says that Microsoft’s new Windows AI features will start arriving on some of its laptops in November. AMD has already launched laptops that are capable of meeting Microsoft’s Copilot Plus PC hardware requirements for Windows AI features, but the features have so far only been available on new Qualcomm-powered devices.
Intel is announcing new Intel Core Ultra 200V processors today, codenamed Lunar Lake, which will start getting Copilot Plus PC features later this year. “All designs featuring Intel Core Ultra 200V series processors and running the latest version of Windows are eligible to receive Copilot Plus PC features as a free update starting in November,” says Intel in a press release.
Microsoft previously told us that Intel Lunar Lake and AMD Strix Point PCs will get a free update to enable Copilot Plus PC features “when available,” with no clear date for the rollout. AMD was expecting Copilot Plus features by the end of 2024, though. We reached out to both Microsoft and AMD to clarify when Strix Point PCs will get the free update, but neither company replied in time for publication.
Copilot Plus PC features include Microsoft’s new Auto Super Resolution, a DLSS competitor that boosts frame rates in games by upscaling content. It uses the neutral processing unit (NPU) chips found on these new Copilot Plus PCs to offload the upscaling processing away from the CPU and GPU.
Copilot Plus PCs also include image Cocreate features, improved Windows Studio Effects, and the ability for apps like DaVinci Resolve Studio to tap into the NPU chip to accelerate tasks. Microsoft is also planning to bring its Recall AI features to Copilot Plus PCs, after the feature was delayed due to security concerns. The software maker is now targeting October for a release to Windows Insider testers, before rolling it out more broadly to Copilot Plus PCs.

Image: Microsoft

Intel says that Microsoft’s new Windows AI features will start arriving on some of its laptops in November. AMD has already launched laptops that are capable of meeting Microsoft’s Copilot Plus PC hardware requirements for Windows AI features, but the features have so far only been available on new Qualcomm-powered devices.

Intel is announcing new Intel Core Ultra 200V processors today, codenamed Lunar Lake, which will start getting Copilot Plus PC features later this year. “All designs featuring Intel Core Ultra 200V series processors and running the latest version of Windows are eligible to receive Copilot Plus PC features as a free update starting in November,” says Intel in a press release.

Microsoft previously told us that Intel Lunar Lake and AMD Strix Point PCs will get a free update to enable Copilot Plus PC features “when available,” with no clear date for the rollout. AMD was expecting Copilot Plus features by the end of 2024, though. We reached out to both Microsoft and AMD to clarify when Strix Point PCs will get the free update, but neither company replied in time for publication.

Copilot Plus PC features include Microsoft’s new Auto Super Resolution, a DLSS competitor that boosts frame rates in games by upscaling content. It uses the neutral processing unit (NPU) chips found on these new Copilot Plus PCs to offload the upscaling processing away from the CPU and GPU.

Copilot Plus PCs also include image Cocreate features, improved Windows Studio Effects, and the ability for apps like DaVinci Resolve Studio to tap into the NPU chip to accelerate tasks. Microsoft is also planning to bring its Recall AI features to Copilot Plus PCs, after the feature was delayed due to security concerns. The software maker is now targeting October for a release to Windows Insider testers, before rolling it out more broadly to Copilot Plus PCs.

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A graphical representation of Intel’s Lunar Lake chip. | Image: Intel

Do good things come to laptop buyers who wait? Today, Intel is revealing its first nine answers to Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite and AMD’s Strix Point laptop chips — and the company claims the new Core Ultra 200V lineup, formerly known as Lunar Lake, can meet or beat them in almost every way.

When the first wave of laptops ship on September 24th, they’ll have “the fastest CPU core,” “the world’s best built-in GPU,” and “the best AI performance,” according to Intel. Where Qualcomm versus AMD was a question of battery life versus graphical performance, Intel claims its new chips do it all.
For example, Dell is just now announcing a new version of its flagship $1,400 XPS 13 laptop with Lunar Lake that’s basically identical to the current model in every other way: same chassis, same dimensions, same screen, same 55 watt-hour battery pack. And yet, Dell says it now gets up to 26 hours of 1080p Netflix streaming at 150 nits of brightness, up from 18 hours previously.
That’s a 44 percent improvement, which is a giant leap for Intel, if true. (Never mind that the Qualcomm version of the XPS 13 quotes a slightly longer life of up to 27 hours.)
Another example: Intel says an Asus Zenbook S 14 with Intel can last multiple hours longer than an Asus Zenbook S 16 with AMD in office tasks, despite the AMD laptop’s slightly larger 78Wh battery pack:

Image: Intel
The Intel machine here has a 72Wh battery, while the AMD machine has a 78Wh one, according to Intel’s fine print. (The Qualcomm machine has a 70Wh pack.)

And on gaming, Intel claims it’s finally pulling ahead of AMD and absolutely clobbering Qualcomm, with its Core Ultra 9 288V boasting 68 percent better frame rates on average than the top-shelf Qualcomm X1E-84-100 in a Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge and 16 percent better frame rates than the AMD HX 370 chip in the Asus Zenbook S 16.
You’ll want to zoom in on these slides to see how Intel claims your fave games might run at 1080p medium:

Image: Intel

Tap here for larger image. AMD apparently pulls ahead in games like Minecraft, Dota 2, and Grand Theft Auto V, but there are a handful of games that could go from choppy to playable here.

Image: Intel

Tap here for larger image. We’ve previously said that Qualcomm isn’t ready for Windows gaming, and… yep.

Image: Intel

Tap here for larger image. That’s a very respectable lift from one Intel integrated GPU to the next.

And that’s without using Intel’s XeSS upscaling. With it, the company claims even ray-traced games are within reach of its integrated GPU, such as 45fps in Cyberpunk 2077, 57fps in Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered, and 66fps in Shadow of the Tomb Raider. (Intel didn’t provide resolution and graphical settings for the ray-traced claims, though.)
On AI, Intel claims its new machines offer far faster performance than Qualcomm when using Adobe Premiere and Lightroom features, among other apps:

Image: Intel

Tap for larger image.

Like we’ve discussed previously, these Lunar Lake laptops should have excellent baked-in connectivity: Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4, and a minimum of two Thunderbolt 4 ports to guarantee speedy USB-C connectivity, charging, and up to three 4K monitors.
But before you run out and preorder a Lunar Lake laptop, there are a couple other things you should know.

Lunar Lake is just for thin laptops with 32GB or less RAM
Intel’s marketing hides it well, but Lunar Lake isn’t the most powerful laptop processor out there. It’s not even Intel’s most powerful.
Every one of Intel’s nine Core Ultra 200V chips has just eight CPU cores, eight CPU threads, a maximum of eight GPU cores, and up to 32GB of RAM, with no way to add more in the future. One of Intel’s key efficiency improvements was getting rid of separate memory sticks or chips, baking it into the CPU package instead. Intel also did away with hyperthreading, the technique that let CPU cores run more than one thread.
And while Intel says its eight-thread Lunar Lake chips can beat a 14-thread or 22-thread Meteor Lake chip at lower wattage, last-gen Intel chips can actually pull ahead when given more power — as does AMD’s HX 370. Here’s the slide that shows that:

Image: Intel
Performance estimates here are SPECrate*2017_int_base (n-copy), in case you’re wondering.

Want more cores, more threads, and more RAM in an Intel laptop? That’s what Intel’s Arrow Lake is for, and it may be coming as soon as October 10th.
You may not need — or want — the most powerful Lunar Lake chip
Remember when Core i3, Core i5, and Core i7 meant different numbers of CPU cores and threads? Lunar Lake throws that out the window; it’s got fewer dividing lines than ever.
Here’s the easiest Intel decoder ring I’ve ever written, at least until Arrow Lake arrives:
As you can see below, your typical processor name will be something like “Core Ultra 7 258V.”

Image: Intel

Tap here for larger image.

Every chip has four performance cores, four low-power cores, and at least seven GPU cores and five neural compute (AI) engines. Most chips have a default 17W TDP.

Ultra 7 means it has eight GPU cores instead of seven, six neural compute engines instead of five, and 12MB of cache instead of 8MB.

Ultra 9 additionally has a minimum wattage of 17W and a default wattage of 30W, a lot more than every other chip in the lineup!

The first processor digit is always 2, and that just means these are Intel’s second-gen Core Ultra chips. If Arrow Lake also begins with 2, as rumored, this may not be particularly helpful.

The second digit goes up based on processor speed. “2” chips currently turbo up to a maximum of 4.5GHz on the CPU and 1.85GHz on the GPU, with larger numbers bumping those up in 200MHz or 100MHz or sometimes just 50MHz increments.

The third digit is RAM. “6” means 16GB of memory, while “8” means 32GB.

The V means Lunar Lake, Intel’s Robert Hallock tells PCWorld, with S, U, and H parts coming later on different architectures.

As you can see, only 300MHz of turbo clock and 100MHz of GPU max frequency separate Intel’s flagship Ultra 9 288V from its lesser Ultra 7 258V — but the wattage boost might matter a lot more than MHz for performance. Can’t yet say!
Wait for the reviews
Intel has made some big claims that need to be tested in the coming weeks, as laptops like the Dell XPS 13 and Asus Zenbook S 14 make their way into reviewers’ hands — and when we tested Qualcomm’s and AMD’s big claims earlier this year, not all was what it appeared.

The Asus Zenbook S 16 with AMD Strix Point was an excellent laptop but also an AI no-show, and one that didn’t meet AMD’s bold claims of beating Apple. And while Qualcomm wowed on battery, we quickly found it wasn’t ready for gaming. Speaking of, can Intel’s laptops game like it says while unplugged from the wall? I would hope so based on this earlier demo and their quoted power efficiency, but Intel hasn’t told me so.
You should expect to see a lot of Intel Lunar Lake laptops get announced real soon — Intel confirms that Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo, LG, MSI, and Samsung are all among the manufacturers building 80 different laptops around the Core Ultra 200V chips launching this week, and many will open preorders immediately.
But you don’t need to jump, and they may get better while you wait. Intel says they won’t even ship with Microsoft’s own Copilot Plus AI features like live captions and Windows Studio Effects; those will arrive as a free update starting in November, says Intel.
Update, September 3rd: Added what the “V” means in each processor’s name.

A graphical representation of Intel’s Lunar Lake chip. | Image: Intel

Do good things come to laptop buyers who wait? Today, Intel is revealing its first nine answers to Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite and AMD’s Strix Point laptop chips — and the company claims the new Core Ultra 200V lineup, formerly known as Lunar Lake, can meet or beat them in almost every way.

When the first wave of laptops ship on September 24th, they’ll have “the fastest CPU core,” “the world’s best built-in GPU,” and “the best AI performance,” according to Intel. Where Qualcomm versus AMD was a question of battery life versus graphical performance, Intel claims its new chips do it all.

For example, Dell is just now announcing a new version of its flagship $1,400 XPS 13 laptop with Lunar Lake that’s basically identical to the current model in every other way: same chassis, same dimensions, same screen, same 55 watt-hour battery pack. And yet, Dell says it now gets up to 26 hours of 1080p Netflix streaming at 150 nits of brightness, up from 18 hours previously.

That’s a 44 percent improvement, which is a giant leap for Intel, if true. (Never mind that the Qualcomm version of the XPS 13 quotes a slightly longer life of up to 27 hours.)

Another example: Intel says an Asus Zenbook S 14 with Intel can last multiple hours longer than an Asus Zenbook S 16 with AMD in office tasks, despite the AMD laptop’s slightly larger 78Wh battery pack:

Image: Intel
The Intel machine here has a 72Wh battery, while the AMD machine has a 78Wh one, according to Intel’s fine print. (The Qualcomm machine has a 70Wh pack.)

And on gaming, Intel claims it’s finally pulling ahead of AMD and absolutely clobbering Qualcomm, with its Core Ultra 9 288V boasting 68 percent better frame rates on average than the top-shelf Qualcomm X1E-84-100 in a Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge and 16 percent better frame rates than the AMD HX 370 chip in the Asus Zenbook S 16.

You’ll want to zoom in on these slides to see how Intel claims your fave games might run at 1080p medium:

And that’s without using Intel’s XeSS upscaling. With it, the company claims even ray-traced games are within reach of its integrated GPU, such as 45fps in Cyberpunk 2077, 57fps in Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered, and 66fps in Shadow of the Tomb Raider. (Intel didn’t provide resolution and graphical settings for the ray-traced claims, though.)

On AI, Intel claims its new machines offer far faster performance than Qualcomm when using Adobe Premiere and Lightroom features, among other apps:

Like we’ve discussed previously, these Lunar Lake laptops should have excellent baked-in connectivity: Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4, and a minimum of two Thunderbolt 4 ports to guarantee speedy USB-C connectivity, charging, and up to three 4K monitors.

But before you run out and preorder a Lunar Lake laptop, there are a couple other things you should know.

Lunar Lake is just for thin laptops with 32GB or less RAM

Intel’s marketing hides it well, but Lunar Lake isn’t the most powerful laptop processor out there. It’s not even Intel’s most powerful.

Every one of Intel’s nine Core Ultra 200V chips has just eight CPU cores, eight CPU threads, a maximum of eight GPU cores, and up to 32GB of RAM, with no way to add more in the future. One of Intel’s key efficiency improvements was getting rid of separate memory sticks or chips, baking it into the CPU package instead. Intel also did away with hyperthreading, the technique that let CPU cores run more than one thread.

And while Intel says its eight-thread Lunar Lake chips can beat a 14-thread or 22-thread Meteor Lake chip at lower wattage, last-gen Intel chips can actually pull ahead when given more power — as does AMD’s HX 370. Here’s the slide that shows that:

Want more cores, more threads, and more RAM in an Intel laptop? That’s what Intel’s Arrow Lake is for, and it may be coming as soon as October 10th.

You may not need — or want — the most powerful Lunar Lake chip

Remember when Core i3, Core i5, and Core i7 meant different numbers of CPU cores and threads? Lunar Lake throws that out the window; it’s got fewer dividing lines than ever.

Here’s the easiest Intel decoder ring I’ve ever written, at least until Arrow Lake arrives:

As you can see below, your typical processor name will be something like “Core Ultra 7 258V.”

Every chip has four performance cores, four low-power cores, and at least seven GPU cores and five neural compute (AI) engines. Most chips have a default 17W TDP.

Ultra 7 means it has eight GPU cores instead of seven, six neural compute engines instead of five, and 12MB of cache instead of 8MB.

Ultra 9 additionally has a minimum wattage of 17W and a default wattage of 30W, a lot more than every other chip in the lineup!

The first processor digit is always 2, and that just means these are Intel’s second-gen Core Ultra chips. If Arrow Lake also begins with 2, as rumored, this may not be particularly helpful.

The second digit goes up based on processor speed. “2” chips currently turbo up to a maximum of 4.5GHz on the CPU and 1.85GHz on the GPU, with larger numbers bumping those up in 200MHz or 100MHz or sometimes just 50MHz increments.

The third digit is RAM. “6” means 16GB of memory, while “8” means 32GB.

The V means Lunar Lake, Intel’s Robert Hallock tells PCWorld, with S, U, and H parts coming later on different architectures.

As you can see, only 300MHz of turbo clock and 100MHz of GPU max frequency separate Intel’s flagship Ultra 9 288V from its lesser Ultra 7 258V — but the wattage boost might matter a lot more than MHz for performance. Can’t yet say!

Wait for the reviews

Intel has made some big claims that need to be tested in the coming weeks, as laptops like the Dell XPS 13 and Asus Zenbook S 14 make their way into reviewers’ hands — and when we tested Qualcomm’s and AMD’s big claims earlier this year, not all was what it appeared.

The Asus Zenbook S 16 with AMD Strix Point was an excellent laptop but also an AI no-show, and one that didn’t meet AMD’s bold claims of beating Apple. And while Qualcomm wowed on battery, we quickly found it wasn’t ready for gaming. Speaking of, can Intel’s laptops game like it says while unplugged from the wall? I would hope so based on this earlier demo and their quoted power efficiency, but Intel hasn’t told me so.

You should expect to see a lot of Intel Lunar Lake laptops get announced real soon — Intel confirms that Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo, LG, MSI, and Samsung are all among the manufacturers building 80 different laptops around the Core Ultra 200V chips launching this week, and many will open preorders immediately.

But you don’t need to jump, and they may get better while you wait. Intel says they won’t even ship with Microsoft’s own Copilot Plus AI features like live captions and Windows Studio Effects; those will arrive as a free update starting in November, says Intel.

Update, September 3rd: Added what the “V” means in each processor’s name.

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Image: The Verge

Earlier this year Apple started opening up its App Store to game streaming services like Xbox Cloud Gaming and GeForce Now, freeing them from being restricted to web apps on the iPhone and iPad. Despite multiple changes to Apple’s App Store guidelines this year, Microsoft and Nvidia have still not published native cloud gaming apps for iOS, and Microsoft is now detailing exactly why.
Microsoft already said earlier this year that Apple’s cloud changes don’t go “far enough” for Xbox, but in submissions to the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), Microsoft now argues that Apple’s changes in January, March, and April to its App Store guidelines (section 4.9 and 4.7) aren’t enough for it to operate a native Xbox Cloud Gaming app on iOS at all.
“Microsoft identified a number of other provisions in Apple’s Guidelines that continue to limit its ability to distribute and operate a Cloud Gaming iOS native app (namely Guidelines 2.1, 2.5.2, 2.5.6, 3.1.1, 3.1.2(a), 3.1.3(b), 3.2.2(i), 3.2.2(ii), 4.2.2., 4.2.7(e)),” said Microsoft in a filing to the CMA in late July.
Microsoft claims that Apple’s guidelines “still represent an obstacle to Cloud Gaming native apps” because it apparently can’t comply with them, both technically and economically, if it incorporates third-party games into its Xbox Cloud Gaming service on iOS. Microsoft specifically calls out Apple’s requirement for multiplatform services, like Xbox Cloud Gaming, to make all content, subscriptions, and features available within an iOS app as an in-app purchase (IAP):

In fact, Apple’s IAP commission fee is set at a level that is neither economically sustainable nor justifiable. The 30 percent commission fee makes it impossible for Microsoft to effectively monetize its cloud gaming service offering, given that Guideline 3.1.3(b) prevents different content, subscriptions or features (including consumables in multiplatform games) being offered to iOS users (as compared to the content, subscriptions and features offered on other platforms).
As observed by the CMA in its Mobile Ecosystem market study, the 30 percent fee imposed by Apple on IAPs is the result of a lack of competition in the distribution of native iOS apps.

Microsoft also claims third-party game developers would need to recode their games to comply with the IAP requirement.
Microsoft also takes issue with Apple’s 3.1.1 guideline, which prevents iOS app developers from linking outside to enable the purchase of subscriptions. Apple provides an exception for “Reader” apps, but cloud gaming apps don’t qualify for this exception. Apple argues in its filing with the CMA that it has “never approved a gaming app to take advantage of the Reader Rule,” so it says app developers shouldn’t be calling into question its approach to in-app purchases in the context of cloud gaming.
The CMA is currently carrying out a market investigation into mobile browsers, browser engines, and the distribution of cloud gaming services through app stores in the UK. It has identified a number of possible remedies to address competition concerns around cloud gaming apps on mobile devices, including potentially requiring Apple to enable cloud gaming native apps to operate on a “read-only” basis with no in-game purchases or subscriptions so that games don’t need to be re-coded.
The CMA is also considering requiring Apple and Google to allow cloud gaming service providers to incorporate their own in-app payment systems, and potential requirements for Apple to amend its guidelines to remove elements that may contain technical restrictions on cloud gaming apps.
Apple argues that it supports cloud gaming via web apps, and even cites two Verge articles that cover Microsoft’s improvements to Xbox Cloud Gaming performance on iPhone and iPad and that more than 20 million people have used Xbox Cloud Gaming. “It is notable that while CMA cites Microsoft’s concerns in the Working Paper, Microsoft has chosen not to engage with Apple on cloud gaming apps since Apple’s changes to the Guideline,” says Apple. “This lack of engagement comes despite Apple’s affirmative outreach on new opportunities and tools for cloud gaming apps on iOS.”
Apple also argues that developers “…generally are not having difficulty with the IPA requirement” and then cites Antstream, a small app developer that launched the first iPhone game streaming service in the App Store earlier this year with more than 1,300 retro titles from Atari, Amiga, and Nintendo consoles. Apple helped Antstream with subscription optimizations, editorial frameworks, and even public relations review and guidance for its launch announcement.
The CMA has set a deadline for all parties to respond to its market investigation for this month before it plans to publish a provisional decision report in November. There will then be plenty of time for Microsoft and Apple to continue arguing between November and December, ahead of a final report in either February or March next year.

Image: The Verge

Earlier this year Apple started opening up its App Store to game streaming services like Xbox Cloud Gaming and GeForce Now, freeing them from being restricted to web apps on the iPhone and iPad. Despite multiple changes to Apple’s App Store guidelines this year, Microsoft and Nvidia have still not published native cloud gaming apps for iOS, and Microsoft is now detailing exactly why.

Microsoft already said earlier this year that Apple’s cloud changes don’t go “far enough” for Xbox, but in submissions to the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), Microsoft now argues that Apple’s changes in January, March, and April to its App Store guidelines (section 4.9 and 4.7) aren’t enough for it to operate a native Xbox Cloud Gaming app on iOS at all.

“Microsoft identified a number of other provisions in Apple’s Guidelines that continue to limit its ability to distribute and operate a Cloud Gaming iOS native app (namely Guidelines 2.1, 2.5.2, 2.5.6, 3.1.1, 3.1.2(a), 3.1.3(b), 3.2.2(i), 3.2.2(ii), 4.2.2., 4.2.7(e)),” said Microsoft in a filing to the CMA in late July.

Microsoft claims that Apple’s guidelines “still represent an obstacle to Cloud Gaming native apps” because it apparently can’t comply with them, both technically and economically, if it incorporates third-party games into its Xbox Cloud Gaming service on iOS. Microsoft specifically calls out Apple’s requirement for multiplatform services, like Xbox Cloud Gaming, to make all content, subscriptions, and features available within an iOS app as an in-app purchase (IAP):

In fact, Apple’s IAP commission fee is set at a level that is neither economically sustainable nor justifiable. The 30 percent commission fee makes it impossible for Microsoft to effectively monetize its cloud gaming service offering, given that Guideline 3.1.3(b) prevents different content, subscriptions or features (including consumables in multiplatform games) being offered to iOS users (as compared to the content, subscriptions and features offered on other platforms).

As observed by the CMA in its Mobile Ecosystem market study, the 30 percent fee imposed by Apple on IAPs is the result of a lack of competition in the distribution of native iOS apps.

Microsoft also claims third-party game developers would need to recode their games to comply with the IAP requirement.

Microsoft also takes issue with Apple’s 3.1.1 guideline, which prevents iOS app developers from linking outside to enable the purchase of subscriptions. Apple provides an exception for “Reader” apps, but cloud gaming apps don’t qualify for this exception. Apple argues in its filing with the CMA that it has “never approved a gaming app to take advantage of the Reader Rule,” so it says app developers shouldn’t be calling into question its approach to in-app purchases in the context of cloud gaming.

The CMA is currently carrying out a market investigation into mobile browsers, browser engines, and the distribution of cloud gaming services through app stores in the UK. It has identified a number of possible remedies to address competition concerns around cloud gaming apps on mobile devices, including potentially requiring Apple to enable cloud gaming native apps to operate on a “read-only” basis with no in-game purchases or subscriptions so that games don’t need to be re-coded.

The CMA is also considering requiring Apple and Google to allow cloud gaming service providers to incorporate their own in-app payment systems, and potential requirements for Apple to amend its guidelines to remove elements that may contain technical restrictions on cloud gaming apps.

Apple argues that it supports cloud gaming via web apps, and even cites two Verge articles that cover Microsoft’s improvements to Xbox Cloud Gaming performance on iPhone and iPad and that more than 20 million people have used Xbox Cloud Gaming. “It is notable that while CMA cites Microsoft’s concerns in the Working Paper, Microsoft has chosen not to engage with Apple on cloud gaming apps since Apple’s changes to the Guideline,” says Apple. “This lack of engagement comes despite Apple’s affirmative outreach on new opportunities and tools for cloud gaming apps on iOS.”

Apple also argues that developers “…generally are not having difficulty with the IPA requirement” and then cites Antstream, a small app developer that launched the first iPhone game streaming service in the App Store earlier this year with more than 1,300 retro titles from Atari, Amiga, and Nintendo consoles. Apple helped Antstream with subscription optimizations, editorial frameworks, and even public relations review and guidance for its launch announcement.

The CMA has set a deadline for all parties to respond to its market investigation for this month before it plans to publish a provisional decision report in November. There will then be plenty of time for Microsoft and Apple to continue arguing between November and December, ahead of a final report in either February or March next year.

Read More 

Image: The Verge

The organization behind National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) is being slammed online after it claimed that opposing the use of AI writing tools is “classist and ableist.” On Saturday, NaNoWriMo published its stance on the technology, announcing that it doesn’t explicitly support or condemn any approach to writing.
“We believe that to categorically condemn AI would be to ignore classist and ableist issues surrounding the use of the technology, and that questions around the use of AI tie to questions around privilege,” NaNoWriMo said, arguing that “not all brains” have the “same abilities” and that AI tools can reduce the financial burden of hiring human writing assistants.
NaNoWriMo’s annual creative writing event is the organization’s flagship program that challenges participants to create a 50,000-word manuscript every November. Last year, the organization said that it accepts novels written with the help of AI apps like ChatGPT but noted that doing so for the entire submission “would defeat the purpose of the challenge.”
This year’s post goes further. “We recognize that some members of our community stand staunchly against AI for themselves, and that’s perfectly fine,” said NaNoWriMo in its latest post advocating for AI tools. “As individuals, we have the freedom to make our own decisions.”
The post has since been lambasted by writers across platforms like X and Reddit, who, like many creatives, believe that generative AI tools are exploitive and devalue human art. Many disabled writers also criticized the statement for inferring that they need generative AI tools to write effectively. Meanwhile, Daniel José Older, a lead story architect for Star Wars: The High Republic, announced that he was resigning from the NaNoWriMo Writers Board due to the statement.

Hello @NaNoWriMo this is me DJO officially stepping down from your Writers Board and urging every writer I know to do the same. Never use my name in your promo again in fact never say my name at all and never email me again. Thanks! https://t.co/KDKZ0zVx3H— Daniel José Older (@djolder) September 2, 2024

“Generative AI empowers not the artist, not the writer, but the tech industry,” Star Wars: Aftermath author Chuck Wendig said in response to NaNoWriMo’s stance. “It steals content to remake content, graverobbing existing material to staple together its Frankensteinian idea of art and story.”
This situation is the latest controversy that NaNoWriMo has faced over the last few years. The organization was previously criticized over a lack of transparency following allegations of child endangerment and grooming and for platforming its sponsor’s AI writing assistance tools.
In response to the backlash, NaNoWriMo has since updated the post to acknowledge concerns about the impact of generative AI tools on the writing industry. “We are troubled by situational abuse of AI, and that certain situational abuses clearly conflict with our values,” the organization said in a new paragraph. “We also want to make clear that AI is a large umbrella technology and that the size and complexity of that category (which includes both non-generative and generative AI, among other uses) contributes to our belief that it is simply too big to categorically endorse or not endorse.”
It’s certainly a common occurrence for people to conflate generative AI (ChatGPT, Gemini, Midjourney, etc.) with non-generative AI tools (Grammarly, email spam filters, etc.), but the differences are distinct, and AI resentment among the creative community is almost exclusively targeting the former. That pushback has also grown as generative AI tools become increasingly better and more accessible.
NaNoWriMo has not responded to our request for comment at the time of publishing.

Image: The Verge

The organization behind National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) is being slammed online after it claimed that opposing the use of AI writing tools is “classist and ableist.” On Saturday, NaNoWriMo published its stance on the technology, announcing that it doesn’t explicitly support or condemn any approach to writing.

“We believe that to categorically condemn AI would be to ignore classist and ableist issues surrounding the use of the technology, and that questions around the use of AI tie to questions around privilege,” NaNoWriMo said, arguing that “not all brains” have the “same abilities” and that AI tools can reduce the financial burden of hiring human writing assistants.

NaNoWriMo’s annual creative writing event is the organization’s flagship program that challenges participants to create a 50,000-word manuscript every November. Last year, the organization said that it accepts novels written with the help of AI apps like ChatGPT but noted that doing so for the entire submission “would defeat the purpose of the challenge.”

This year’s post goes further. “We recognize that some members of our community stand staunchly against AI for themselves, and that’s perfectly fine,” said NaNoWriMo in its latest post advocating for AI tools. “As individuals, we have the freedom to make our own decisions.”

The post has since been lambasted by writers across platforms like X and Reddit, who, like many creatives, believe that generative AI tools are exploitive and devalue human art. Many disabled writers also criticized the statement for inferring that they need generative AI tools to write effectively. Meanwhile, Daniel José Older, a lead story architect for Star Wars: The High Republic, announced that he was resigning from the NaNoWriMo Writers Board due to the statement.

“Generative AI empowers not the artist, not the writer, but the tech industry,” Star Wars: Aftermath author Chuck Wendig said in response to NaNoWriMo’s stance. “It steals content to remake content, graverobbing existing material to staple together its Frankensteinian idea of art and story.”

This situation is the latest controversy that NaNoWriMo has faced over the last few years. The organization was previously criticized over a lack of transparency following allegations of child endangerment and grooming and for platforming its sponsor’s AI writing assistance tools.

In response to the backlash, NaNoWriMo has since updated the post to acknowledge concerns about the impact of generative AI tools on the writing industry. “We are troubled by situational abuse of AI, and that certain situational abuses clearly conflict with our values,” the organization said in a new paragraph. “We also want to make clear that AI is a large umbrella technology and that the size and complexity of that category (which includes both non-generative and generative AI, among other uses) contributes to our belief that it is simply too big to categorically endorse or not endorse.”

It’s certainly a common occurrence for people to conflate generative AI (ChatGPT, Gemini, Midjourney, etc.) with non-generative AI tools (Grammarly, email spam filters, etc.), but the differences are distinct, and AI resentment among the creative community is almost exclusively targeting the former. That pushback has also grown as generative AI tools become increasingly better and more accessible.

NaNoWriMo has not responded to our request for comment at the time of publishing.

Read More 

The IFA tech show in Berlin, Germany is one of the biggest home appliance shows in the world. It’s also a showcase for smartphones, computers, gaming, audio, home entertainment, and smart home. | Image: IFA

I’m a sucker for the smart kitchen. Build me a kitchen that can tell me what to cook, when to cook, how to cook it, and do the boring bits for me, then clean it all up afterward, and I’ll be a happy tech reviewer. For years, this has seemed totally out of reach. Appliance makers have stuck Wi-Fi chips in everything but have barely done anything to make those appliances smart. Unless all your appliances are from the same brand, nothing works together in the smart kitchen — the one place where interoperability really matters.
At the IFA tech show in Berlin, Germany, this week, the biggest names in home appliances will be showing off their latest gadgets and hopefully presenting solutions to some of these problems. I’ll be there to hear what companies like LG, Samsung, Bosch, Haier (GE Appliances), AEG (Electrolux), and SharkNinja have to say about the evolution of home appliances.

Some news has already emerged ahead of the show. Samsung announced it’s bringing more AI to its Samsung Food app, which aims to be the connection between its appliances and your pantry. LG revealed its first dedicated smart home hub. The ThinQ On enables voice control of LG appliances and will monitor them and alert you when your washer is done or your oven is preheated. The company plans to demonstrate voice-controlled cooking using LG’s ThinQ AI technology on the show floor.
I expect we’ll hear a lot more about how companies plan to use AI to make our kitchens do more work for us. Yes, gadgets are fun and cool, but so far, much of the smart kitchen has felt siloed in individual ecosystems or trapped in single-purpose appliances with terrible apps. Many companies seem to think generative AI could help provide the connective tissue the smart home needs, one that can interpret what we want to do and have our appliances do it for us.

Photography: Harry Pseftoudis
The IFA 2024 tech show is celebrating 100 years this year. It’s held at the Messe Berlin conference center in Berlin, Germany.

Of course, IFA, which is celebrating its centennial this year, is not just about smart appliances. IFA is a huge consumer electronics show; it’s essentially Europe’s version of CES but with smaller TVs and fewer cars and tractors.
Based on previous years, we can expect to see announcements of new European smartphones and new smartphone accessories — as companies like Honor, Anker, Belkin, Fairphone, and Motorola are all showing their stuff.
Laptop innovations are often part of the Berlin scene, and as it’s 2024, we can assume there’ll be a lot of news about AI. Acer is holding a press conference, and Lenovo is expected to show off several new Copilot Plus PCs.
In the realms of home audio and entertainment, TCL has announcements planned, and Bluetooth SIG will show off its Auracast technology. Once again, plenty of home robots will roam the show floor, with Roborock, Dreame, Narwhal, SharkNinja, and Ecovacs all expected to reveal their latest floor cleaning conveniences.
We’ll also see plenty of new gadgets from smart home companies, such as smart lights, locks, cameras, and sensors. Aqara, Meross, EcoFlow, Govee, Nanoleaf, Reolink, Shelly, and SwitchBot are all heading to Germany to show off their latest gadgets, and The Verge will be there to report back on the latest and greatest.
This year, Canadian rocker Bryan Adams is headlining a series of concerts on the lawn outside the Messe Berlin conference center. While I’m wading through the crowds searching for the latest foldable phone, yoga-rific laptop, and smartest kitchen accessory to report on, just remember, everything I do, I do it for you.

The IFA tech show in Berlin, Germany is one of the biggest home appliance shows in the world. It’s also a showcase for smartphones, computers, gaming, audio, home entertainment, and smart home. | Image: IFA

I’m a sucker for the smart kitchen. Build me a kitchen that can tell me what to cook, when to cook, how to cook it, and do the boring bits for me, then clean it all up afterward, and I’ll be a happy tech reviewer. For years, this has seemed totally out of reach. Appliance makers have stuck Wi-Fi chips in everything but have barely done anything to make those appliances smart. Unless all your appliances are from the same brand, nothing works together in the smart kitchen — the one place where interoperability really matters.

At the IFA tech show in Berlin, Germany, this week, the biggest names in home appliances will be showing off their latest gadgets and hopefully presenting solutions to some of these problems. I’ll be there to hear what companies like LG, Samsung, Bosch, Haier (GE Appliances), AEG (Electrolux), and SharkNinja have to say about the evolution of home appliances.

Some news has already emerged ahead of the show. Samsung announced it’s bringing more AI to its Samsung Food app, which aims to be the connection between its appliances and your pantry. LG revealed its first dedicated smart home hub. The ThinQ On enables voice control of LG appliances and will monitor them and alert you when your washer is done or your oven is preheated. The company plans to demonstrate voice-controlled cooking using LG’s ThinQ AI technology on the show floor.

I expect we’ll hear a lot more about how companies plan to use AI to make our kitchens do more work for us. Yes, gadgets are fun and cool, but so far, much of the smart kitchen has felt siloed in individual ecosystems or trapped in single-purpose appliances with terrible apps. Many companies seem to think generative AI could help provide the connective tissue the smart home needs, one that can interpret what we want to do and have our appliances do it for us.

Of course, IFA, which is celebrating its centennial this year, is not just about smart appliances. IFA is a huge consumer electronics show; it’s essentially Europe’s version of CES but with smaller TVs and fewer cars and tractors.

Based on previous years, we can expect to see announcements of new European smartphones and new smartphone accessories — as companies like Honor, Anker, Belkin, Fairphone, and Motorola are all showing their stuff.

Laptop innovations are often part of the Berlin scene, and as it’s 2024, we can assume there’ll be a lot of news about AI. Acer is holding a press conference, and Lenovo is expected to show off several new Copilot Plus PCs.

In the realms of home audio and entertainment, TCL has announcements planned, and Bluetooth SIG will show off its Auracast technology. Once again, plenty of home robots will roam the show floor, with Roborock, Dreame, Narwhal, SharkNinja, and Ecovacs all expected to reveal their latest floor cleaning conveniences.

We’ll also see plenty of new gadgets from smart home companies, such as smart lights, locks, cameras, and sensors. Aqara, Meross, EcoFlow, Govee, Nanoleaf, Reolink, Shelly, and SwitchBot are all heading to Germany to show off their latest gadgets, and The Verge will be there to report back on the latest and greatest.

This year, Canadian rocker Bryan Adams is headlining a series of concerts on the lawn outside the Messe Berlin conference center. While I’m wading through the crowds searching for the latest foldable phone, yoga-rific laptop, and smartest kitchen accessory to report on, just remember, everything I do, I do it for you.

Read More 

Volvo FH Electric commercial truck. | Image: Volvo

Volvo’s commercial trucking division is launching a next-generation long-range version of its flagship electric semitruck, due out in the second half of 2025, with twice the battery range of the previous one.
The new FH Electric truck can travel 600km, or about 373 miles, on a single charge. The current model goes 300km, or about 186 miles, in comparison, which Volvo representative Helena Lind tells The Verge will stay in the lineup.
The extra range is thanks to Volvo’s new e-axle driveline tech design “where the electric motors and transmission is integrated in the rear axle, [which gives] room for more batteries,” Lind says.
Volvo will announce the final battery capacity closer to launch, but the FH will have eight batteries compared to six in the current model. “For many customers it’s quite sufficient, but for interregional or long haul long, this new truck will be great,” Lind says.
Volvo has eight electric trucks in its lineup and has delivered “more than 3,800 trucks to customers in 47 countries” since 2019, Lind says. The automaker has a 2040 goal of reaching “net-zero emissions” in its lineup. In May, Volvo sold 50 electric trucks to Amazon.
In addition to Volvo, automakers like Tesla and Daimler (parent company of Mercedes-Benz) are testing their own long-haul electric semitrucks in the hopes of electrifying the segment. Tesla seemed like it would lead in the segment when it announced the Tesla Semi in 2017, but it has had few deployments and has recently dealt with a fiery crash of one of its trucks in California. Meanwhile, Daimler is focusing on building an autonomous semitruck for 2027.
While the new 370-mile EV truck does not match the company’s 600-mile fuel cell tests, we will probably see more electric trucks on the road before any measurable improvements to hydrogen infrastructure.

Volvo FH Electric commercial truck. | Image: Volvo

Volvo’s commercial trucking division is launching a next-generation long-range version of its flagship electric semitruck, due out in the second half of 2025, with twice the battery range of the previous one.

The new FH Electric truck can travel 600km, or about 373 miles, on a single charge. The current model goes 300km, or about 186 miles, in comparison, which Volvo representative Helena Lind tells The Verge will stay in the lineup.

The extra range is thanks to Volvo’s new e-axle driveline tech design “where the electric motors and transmission is integrated in the rear axle, [which gives] room for more batteries,” Lind says.

Volvo will announce the final battery capacity closer to launch, but the FH will have eight batteries compared to six in the current model. “For many customers it’s quite sufficient, but for interregional or long haul long, this new truck will be great,” Lind says.

Volvo has eight electric trucks in its lineup and has delivered “more than 3,800 trucks to customers in 47 countries” since 2019, Lind says. The automaker has a 2040 goal of reaching “net-zero emissions” in its lineup. In May, Volvo sold 50 electric trucks to Amazon.

In addition to Volvo, automakers like Tesla and Daimler (parent company of Mercedes-Benz) are testing their own long-haul electric semitrucks in the hopes of electrifying the segment. Tesla seemed like it would lead in the segment when it announced the Tesla Semi in 2017, but it has had few deployments and has recently dealt with a fiery crash of one of its trucks in California. Meanwhile, Daimler is focusing on building an autonomous semitruck for 2027.

While the new 370-mile EV truck does not match the company’s 600-mile fuel cell tests, we will probably see more electric trucks on the road before any measurable improvements to hydrogen infrastructure.

Read More 

Photo by Sebastian Gollnow / picture alliance via Getty Images

Here’s everything being announced from Europe’s biggest tech show. IFA, Europe’s huge consumer tech expo, attracts some of the biggest companies in the world. It’s like a counterpart to CES in the United States, which happens in January, whereas IFA caps off the summer with news on the latest smartphones, fridges, robot vacuums, laptops, and “AI-powered” products from A to Z.
In 2024, IFA opens in Berlin on September 6th and runs through September 10th, and The Verge is flying across the Atlantic to bring you the latest coverage. Like last year, IFA should continue its reputation as the showcase for new smart home tech, especially smart appliances. Many of these devices are adopting the Matter standard, which everyone seems to want but which is still somewhat struggling to gain full traction.
International tech companies from China, Korea, Japan, the US, and elsewhere are delivering fresh news leading up to the first day of IFA. Expect new phones from companies like Honor, new appliances from Samsung and LG, and much more.

Photo by Sebastian Gollnow / picture alliance via Getty Images

Here’s everything being announced from Europe’s biggest tech show.

IFA, Europe’s huge consumer tech expo, attracts some of the biggest companies in the world. It’s like a counterpart to CES in the United States, which happens in January, whereas IFA caps off the summer with news on the latest smartphones, fridges, robot vacuums, laptops, and “AI-powered” products from A to Z.

In 2024, IFA opens in Berlin on September 6th and runs through September 10th, and The Verge is flying across the Atlantic to bring you the latest coverage. Like last year, IFA should continue its reputation as the showcase for new smart home tech, especially smart appliances. Many of these devices are adopting the Matter standard, which everyone seems to want but which is still somewhat struggling to gain full traction.

International tech companies from China, Korea, Japan, the US, and elsewhere are delivering fresh news leading up to the first day of IFA. Expect new phones from companies like Honor, new appliances from Samsung and LG, and much more.

Read More