Judge orders Google to calculate the costs of Epic’s biggest Play Store demand - Technology news - NewsLocker (2024)

Photo illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photos by Philip Pacheco, Bloomberg, Getty Images Despite Epic Games’ surprise win at trial, I was skeptical that Judge James Donato would seriously consider forcing Google to let the Epic Games Store live inside its own Google Play Store and give it access to every app inside Google Play. Those were two of the biggest demands that Epic revealed in April.
But Judge Donato is indeed considering them. He’s ordered Google to calculate th

Apple’s WWDC may include AI-generated emoji and an OpenAI partnership

Illustration: The Verge Apple will finally tell its own AI story at WWDC 2024, but it may not mean the sorts of showy features demoed by the likes of Google, Microsoft, or OpenAI. Instead, the event may see Apple rolling out basic AI features like transcribing voice memos or auto-generated emoji — and announcing a rumored partnership with OpenAI, according to Mark Gurman’s Power On newsletter for Bloomberg today.Recent rumors have held that Apple will be allowing chatbots to integrat

Seeing the real world inside a virtual one

Image: Samar Haddad / The Verge From the earliest pixelated games to the outrageously realistic experiences of today, flight simulators have always been pushing the boundaries of what can be visually recreated in a video game. It’s one thing to make space look good; it’s another thing entirely to faithfully recreate the co*ckpit of a 747 and the whole world around which it might fly.
On this episode of The Vergecast, the fourth and final installment of our series on the five senses of

Spotify Tips for People Who Like to Listen to Whole Albums

Spotify favors serving up algorithmically curated playlists instead of complete albums. If you love a long-player, here are some tips to regain control of your listening sessions.

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7 Best Google Assistant Speakers (2024): Smart Displays, Portable, and Soundbars

From smart displays to soundbars, Google’s voice assistant comes in all shapes and sizes. Here are our favorites.

A big list of the best tiny games on the internet

Image: David Pierce / The Verge Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 39, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome, get ready for gadgets this week, and also, you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.)This week, I’ve been writing about Surfaces and other tablets, chatting with some internet friends about the fall of Red Lobster, reading about Magic: The Gathering and the history of emoji, watching MoviePass, MovieCrash,

Shockbuster Season: Why the Death of the Summer Movie Is a Good Thing

It’s been nearly 50 years since Jaws and Star Wars turned summer moviegoing into an endless parade of family-friendly fandom flicks. This year promises something blessedly more bleak.

Does String Theory Actually Describe the World? AI May Be Able to Tell

Using machine learning, string theorists are finally showing how microscopic configurations of extra dimensions translate into sets of elementary particles—though not yet those of our universe.

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US Offshore Wind Farms Are Being Strangled With Red Tape

This year has seen wind farm costs rise and many projects canceled as developers struggle with opaque regulations and determined opposition—but the industry is far from dead.

There’s no easy 3D printer, but Bambu has won me over

Bambu P1P vs. Creality K1C: an ‘easy’ 3D printer showdown.Continue reading…

The Sea Is Swallowing This Mexican Town

Las Barrancas, in the state of Veracruz, has struggled for 10 years against the rising Gulf of Mexico waters. Its best hope may lie in mangrove trees.

Ventje turns VW’s ID Buzz into a very charming e-camper

Ventje’s eVentje. The eVentje custom buildout is a worthy all-electric successor to the iconic VW Camper.Continue reading…

Ventje turns VW’s ID Buzz into a very charming camper

Ventje’s eVentje. The eVentje custom buildout is a worthy all-electric successor to the iconic VW Camper in Europe.Continue reading…

YouTube Music will let you search by humming into your Android phone

Tap the waveform icon, circled above, to search with sound. | Screenshots: YouTube Music The Android YouTube Music app is rolling out a feature that’s part Shazam and part your friend when you say, “hey what’s that song that goes...” right before you hum out a bar. The feature lets you hum, whistle, sing, or play a recording of a song to figure out what it is.
If you have the new feature, you’ll see a new waveform icon next to the microphone icon that appears when y

A jury hands Bungie a victory in a landmark anti-cheating decision

Image: Bungie A jury found on Friday that Phoenix Digital, which owns the cheat mod site AimJunkies, is guilty of violating Bungie copyrights when it created cheats for Destiny 2, reported Stephen Totilo, who has written about Bungie’s cheating lawsuits for Axios. The landmark decision may be the first time a jury has agreed that a cheat creator violated a gaming company’s copyrights.
Yesterday’s jury decision awarded Bungie (PDF) a tidy sum of $63,210. Bungie counsel James Bar

The Verge’s 2024 Father’s Day gift guide

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images We’ve curated a collection of great gifts that should appease any dad, from tabletop games and tools to some of our favorite tech.Continue reading…

9 Best Smart Speakers (2024): Alexa, Google Assistant, Siri

Chatty assistants from Amazon, Apple, and Google are popular. But which one is right for you?

ICQ is shutting down after almost 28 years

Your ICQ number is finally shuffling off to the great beyond. Russian company VK, which has been the service’s steward since 2010, published a message Friday that simply reads, “ICQ will stop working from June 26th,” and implores users to switch to its other chat solutions.
ICQ was among the crop of early instant messenger services, like AOL Instant Messenger or MSN Messenger, that allowed for real-time chats. It differed from others by assigning users a number they would use

Insta360 X4 Review: 8K 360 Footage in a Tiny Package

The Insta360 X4 360’s hybrid action camera offers 8K 360 footage in a tiny, consumer-friendly package.

How to Keep an Old Computer Running

You have options that don’t involve saying goodbye to your hardware.

17 Best Android Phones (2024): Unlocked, Cheap, Foldable

Shopping for a new phone can be an ordeal. Let us take some of the pain out of it with these WIRED-tested picks and tips.

Your Bike Tires Are Too Skinny. Riding on Fat, Supple Tires Is Just Better

I used to ride thin, high-pressure tires everywhere. But adhering to “the supple life” and cycling on wider, lower-pressure tires boosted my comfort and stability without slowing me down.

I hated Animal Well until I beat the game

Image: Big Mode / Shared Memory About midway through Animal Well, I felt I had been lied to. I read all the glowing reviews of the game and heard the breathless praise heaped upon it on social media. But my expectations did not match my reality... until I beat the game. Now, I’m well on my way to 100 percent completion for a game I was seriously considering abandoning.
Spoilers for Animal Well are below.
Though I loved Animal Well’s novel take on traditional movement abilities &mdash

What Is Lyocell Fabric, and Is It Eco-Friendly?

The man-made fiber isn’t as harmful to the environment as similar fabrics, but it’s still not the perfect solution.

Spotify Will Brick Every ‘Car Thing’ It Ever Sold

No refunds or trade-ins for customers. No plans to open source it. The weird little car gadget is going to die on December 9, and there’s nothing you can do about it.

Only the Hardiest Trees Can Survive Today’s Urban Inferno

In a rapidly warming world, cities need more tree cover to stay cool—but only certain species can handle soaring temperatures, and often they aren’t native species.

Microsoft’s New Recall AI Tool May Be a ‘Privacy Nightmare’

Plus: US surveillance reportedly targets pro-Palestinian protesters, the FBI arrests a man for AI-generated CSAM, and stalkerware targets hotel computers.

Mexico Is So Hot, Monkeys Are Falling to Their Death From Trees

Authorities and conservation groups are investigating the deaths of dozens of howler monkeys in Tabasco, where extreme heat and land-use change appear to be threatening the vulnerable species.

EcoFlow’s $200 PowerStream is so clever, you might buy a $4,000 solar generator

A mini power plant that turns a standard power outlet into a solar power inlet.Continue reading…

Google scrambles to manually remove weird AI answers in search

Image: Álvaro Bernis / The Verge Social media is abuzz with examples of Google’s new AI Overview product saying weird stuff, from telling users to put glue on their pizza to suggesting they eat rocks. The messy rollout means Google is racing to manually disable AI Overviews for specific searches as various memes get posted, which is why users are seeing so many of them disappear shortly after being posted to social networks.
It’s an odd situation, since Google has been testing