This is Optimizer, a weekly newsletter sent every Friday from Verge senior reviewer Victoria Song that dissects and discusses the latest gizmos and potions that swear they’re going to change your life. Opt in for Optimizer here. A fitness band is for bettering yourself, but casually. It’s lightweight, easy to wear, and not something you […]
Boox has announced its own alternative to the Kobo Remote that offers more functionality than just turning the page while reading on its tablets and e-readers. The Tappy can also be used to scroll vertical content in browsers or social media apps and skip to the next or previous track when listening to music or […]
Sometimes, companies pick CEOs based on carefully laid succession plans designed to maximize investor confidence and future performance. Other times, apparently, companies pick CEOs based on a bunch of video calls while the current CEO is texting the former CEO about who the new CEO even is. Such was the story of The Blip, the […]
Smart lighting company Nanoleaf has been unusually quiet recently. While competitors such as Govee and Philips Hue have been pumping out new products and innovative features at an impressive pace, Nanoleaf has launched just a handful of smart lighting products in the last two years. There’s a reason for this lull – the company has […]
Apple now requires proof of eligibility from US customers who purchase products online at discounted education rates, which also apply to the Apple Watch for the first time. According to a new pop-up message displayed on Apple’s education webstore, Apple is directing students, parents, and teachers to verify their status via Unidays’ third-party verification service […]
Sony sold just 1.5 million PS5 consoles in its most recent fourth fiscal quarter, down 46 percent year over year. The slump in PS5 sales comes after Sony raised the price of its PS5 consoles twice over the past year, pushing the price of the regular PS5 from $499.99 all the way up to $649.99. […]
The Instructure-owned learning management platform, Canvas, is now online again after it went down following a massive data breach that impacted student names, email addresses, ID numbers, and messages. Before systems were restored, students who attempted to access the system on Thursday saw a message from the hacking group ShinyHunters, which claimed responsibility for the […]
The week leading up to Thanksgiving 2023 was the AI industry’s biggest soap opera moment. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was abruptly ousted from his role at the ChatGPT maker. The explanation? That Altman was “not consistently candid in his communications with the board.” Now, via witness testimony and trial exhibits in Musk v. Altman, the […]
Apple’s rumored AirPods with cameras are nearing a stage where the company will test early mass production, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports. Currently, Apple testers are “actively using” prototypes that are in the design validation test stage, which is one step before the production validation test stage. The AirPods’ cameras “aren’t designed” to snap photos or […]
Elon Musk’s plans to get into the AI chip manufacturing business are going to be costly. As the The New York Times and CNBC report, SpaceX is planning to invest at least $55 billion into its “Terafab” chip plant in Austin, Texas. That’s according to the details of a public hearing notice filed in Grimes […]