The latest tech news about the world’s best (and sometimes worst) hardware, apps, and much more. From top companies like Google and Apple to tiny startups vying for your attention, Verge Tech has the latest in what matters in technology daily.
We’re seeing Verge headlines rewritten by Google AI.
The company is working on merging ChatGPT, Codex, and the Atlas browser into one app.
Chessington World of Adventures is getting a new rollercoaster, “interactive adventures,” and, of course, a bunch of block-built attractions. There’s no exact opening date yet, but in the meantime, fans in Buenos Aires will be able to craft gear and explore “iconic Minecraft biomes” at Minecraft Experience: Moonlight Trail when it opens this May.
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And we re-tested the M1 Pro and M1 Max models to see how far the M5 Max has come.
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Quickly untether from an unhinged world.
The Copilot buttons in Windows 11 have been getting out of control, and Microsoft is now starting to walk some of them back. It’s all part of the sweeping changes coming to Windows 11 to improve performance, reliability, and user experience. Microsoft says it’s “reducing unnecessary Copilot entry points, starting with apps like Snipping Tool, Photos, Widgets and Notepad.”
Jason Kottke led me to this video about the Delta Airlines seatback chess game kicking everyone’s butt — even on easy mode. It just so happens I am posting this from a Delta flight and can confirm this in-flight chess opponent is still serious business, only falling short when I pitted it against Chess.com’s most advanced bot.
WordPress.com now allows AI agents like Claude and ChatGPT to draft and publish blog posts via MCP, as reported by TechCrunch. Any AI agent-written posts will start as drafts, so users will be able to check them before publishing.
[WordPress.com News]
A Nevada judge has issued a temporary restraining order, saying the company can’t operate without first getting a gaming license. This is an escalation of a turf war between the states and the CFTC over who regulates prediction markets.
Choi Won-joon, COO of Samsung’s Mobile eXperience Business, made the announcement at a press conference in Japan, according to Korean publication EBN.
Android support for AirDrop has so far been limited to Pixel 10 devices, but Google said in February that it would come to more Android phones “very soon.”
And the headline of the essay in which this happens asks if he should be burned at the stake. Father Paolo Benanti, the Papal AI advisor, doesn’t seem too pleased about Thiel’s Antichrist lectures, which Thiel has brazenly brought to Rome. “La Silicon Valley s’était lancée dans un coup d’État permanent.” I don’t think you need to know French to get the gist of that. one, but linked below is a summary of the essay. Make auto-da-fe great again??
[Universal Life Church Monastery]
Currently, up to six family members or friends can share access to Apple services, apps, and subscriptions, but all purchases go through the family organizer’s payment method. When iOS 26.4 is released, Apple will let adult members of a Family Sharing group make purchases using their own payment methods, as spotted by MacRumors.
There are some complex pros and cons to Google’s new “advanced flow” for sideloading unverified Android apps, which may well protect some users from scammers. But it would sure be nice if I could just install the apps I want on the computer I own.
orion_resident:
Remember when you didn’t need special permission to install software on your own computer? Those were the days.
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Just open a conversation, tap Attachment, and then Real-time location. You can let friends and family know where you are for specific durations or until you disable the feature. It comes almost a decade after WhatsApp, iMessage, and Facebook Messenger introduced live location sharing, but better late than never, right?
Blue Origin is seeking permission from the FCC to deploy nearly 52,000 solar-powered satellites into space that will handle artificial-intelligence computing, following similar applications from Elon Musk’s SpaceX and start-up Starcloud. The aim is to bolster terrestrial data centers, but experts are skeptical.
A VideoCardz leak has the Arc Pro B70, with 32 Xe2 graphics cores, 32GB of RAM and a 230W TDP, launching next week alongside a B65 with 20 Xe2 cores. It’s not clear if we’ll ever get the B770 gaming variant; Intel deleted a tweet about it in December.
Last year, content moderators who’ve risked consequences like PTSD working for Big Tech companies have started to organize for better treatment in the last several years. Now, Meta has announced a wide rollout of its AI support assistant for Facebook and Instagram, and that it will “reduce our reliance on third-party vendors” employing humans for content enforcement.
While we’ll still have people who review content, these systems will be able to take on work that’s better-suited to technology, like repetitive reviews of graphic content or areas where adversarial actors are constantly changing their tactics, such as with illicit drugs sales or scams.
In a post on the website for his encrypted AI chatbot, Confer, Moxie Marlinspike says he’s working to “integrate Confer’s privacy technology so that it underpins Meta AI.”
[Confer Blog]
According to Microsoft, MAI-Image-2 offers improvements like “enhanced photorealism” and more reliable text generation in images. It’s rolling out now in Copilot and the Bing Image Creator.
