Technology

One of the core appeals of mechanical keyboards is their customizability. With the right keyboard, there’s an almost infinite amount of parts to upgrade, swap out, or customize to get a keyboard that precisely suits your needs. There’s obviously nothing wrong with using a keyboard exactly as it comes out of the box, but sometimes it’s just plain fun to tinker. Hot-swappable keyboard switches take this customizability a step further. Rather than having each key’s switch soldered to the board (meaning you have to whip out a soldering iron to change it), hot-swappable switches can be removed with a simple pulling tool. It makes replacing them as easy as changing a keycap. The feature has become more and more common on enthusiast boards, but it’s still relatively rare on keyboards from mainstr...

Welcome to the weekend. This week was a deal drought relative to last week’s Prime Day-filled coverage, but there are still some cool, limited-time offers that are worth highlighting. For one, Google flipped on preorders for the Pixel 6A phone and the Pixel Buds Pro after a long wait since their announcement at Google I/O 2022. And for people who want the Pixel 6A, placing a preorder at Amazon or Best Buy will get you a complementary set of Pixel Buds A-Series wireless earbuds that normally cost $100 alone. Allison Johnson published a review of the Pixel 6A on Thursday, and it seems like it was worth the wait. While it has a 6.1-inch OLED screen that’s both smaller (some may prefer this) and slower in terms of refresh rate (60Hz vs. 90Hz) than the Pixel 6, it has the same Tensor processor....

MultiVersus, Warner Bros. Games’ Super Smash Bros.-like fighting video game, is adding real-life NBA player LeBron James and Rick and Morty from the cartoon Rick and Morty to its already crossover-laden roster. (This actually isn’t the first time LeBron and Rick and Morty have shown up in a big crossover game — they’ve also appeared in Fortnite.) LeBron James will be playable in MultiVersus beginning July 26th, the same day the game will be available in open beta, and you can see him in action in his debut trailer. If you listen closely, you might be able to tell that LeBron isn’t actually voiced by LeBron — instead, he’s played by John Bentley, who also voices Barrett Wallace in Final Fantasy VII Remake. Rick and Morty will be added sometime during the game’s first season. The rest of the...

Blake Lemoine, the Google engineer who publicly claimed that the company’s LaMDA conversational artificial intelligence is sentient, has been fired, according to the Big Technology newsletter, which spoke to Lemoine. In June, Google placed Lemoine on paid administrative leave for breaching its confidentiality agreement after he contacted members of the government about his concerns and hired a lawyer to represent LaMDA. A statement emailed to The Verge on Friday by Google spokesperson Brian Gabriel appeared to confirm the firing, saying, “we wish Blake well.” The company also says: “LaMDA has been through 11 distinct reviews, and we published a research paper earlier this year detailing the work that goes into its responsible development.” Google maintains that it “extensively” reviewed Le...

Though Marvel’s live-action projects are a big part of what’s got people hyped for this year’s San Diego Comic-Con, the studio’s Hall H showcase today made clear that animation’s going to be a big part of the MCU’s future. In addition to announcing its I Am Groot series, Marvel Studios head of streaming, TV, and animation Brad Winderbaum and head of visual development Ryan Meinerding took the stage in Hall H to discuss new details about Spider-Man: Freshman Year, X-Men ’97, Marvel Zombies, and upcoming seasons of What If…? Like its first season, What If…?’s second and newly announced third seasons will once again focus on the Watcher (Geoffrey Wright) as he gazes across the multiverse upon the many different realities that now make up the MCU. Given how the Watcher became activ...

Meta is expanding what type of content is allowed in the virtual worlds that people make for Horizon Worlds, its platform that lets people create VR spaces for shared experiences. The company has added an 18 and up tag for user-created worlds and updated its policy to allow creators to include “mature” content that was previously banned altogether. According to UploadVR, creators who have published worlds received an email saying they have to manually mark whether their world is mature or safe for all audiences — if they don’t, it will be restricted to 18 and up by default. Based on a Wayback Machine archive of Meta’s Horizon Mature Worlds Policy page from April, this means Meta is now allowing content that was previously banned. The page used to say that sexually suggestive content, depic...

T-Mobile has agreed to pay $500 million to settle a class-action lawsuit stemming from the 2021 hack that it says exposed around 76.6 million US residents’ data. According to the proposed agreement filled on Friday, which you can read in full below, T-Mobile will put $350 million into a settlement fund to go to lawyers, fees, and, of course, to people who file claims. It’ll also be obligated to spend $150 million on “data security and related technology” during 2022 and 2023, in addition to what it had already budgeted for. In August, the company announced that its systems had been breached, following reports that Social Security numbers, names, addresses, and driver’s license information for over 100 million of its customers was for sale. While the number proved to be slightly inflated, T...

There’s been a bit of back and forth since the change was originally announced, but this week Microsoft started rolling out an update to Microsoft Office that blocks the use of Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) macros on downloaded documents. Last month, Microsft was testing the new default setting when it suddenly rolled back the update, “temporarily while we make some additional changes to enhance usability.” Despite saying it was temporary, many experts worried that Microsoft might not go through with changing the default setting, leaving systems vulnerable to attacks. Google Threat Analysis Group leader Shane Huntley tweeted, “Blocking Office macros would do infinitely more to actually defend against real threats than all the threat intel blog posts.” Now the new default setting is r...

Ford is eyeing major cuts to its workforce in the midst of a shift to electric vehicles. According to a recent report in Bloomberg, the Blue Oval is gearing up to lay off 8,000 salaried workers — about a quarter of its workforce in the US — as it aims to reduce $3 billion in operational costs by 2026. The cuts will be coming from Ford Blue, the company’s legacy internal combustion engine business. Earlier this year, Ford split itself into two entities, with Ford Blue covering ICE vehicles and Ford Model E focused on electric vehicles and software projects. At the time, Ford said that Ford Blue would generate the revenue that would help power Ford Model E to develop new and innovative products. Ford Blue will have to generate those revenues with far fewer employees But now, it seems like Fo...

I AM GROOT I AM GROOT I AM GROOT I AM GROOT I AM GROOT I AM GROOT I AM GROOT I AM GROOT I AM GROOT I AM GROOT I AM GROOT I AM GROOT I AM GROOT I AM GROOT I AM GROOT I AM GROOT I AM GROOT I AM GROOT I AM GROOT I AM GROOT I AM GROOT I AM GROOT I AM GROOT I AM GROOT I AM GROOT I AM GROOT I AM GROOT I AM GROOT I AM GROOT I AM GROOT I AM GROOT I AM GROOT I AM GROOT I AM GROOT I AM GROOT I AM GROOT I AM GROOT I AM GROOT I AM GROOT I AM GROOT I AM GROOT I AM GROOT I AM GROOT I AM GROOT I AM GROOT I AM GROOT I AM GROOT I AM GROOT.* *I Am Groot is a series of five animated shorts coming to Disney Plus on August 10th.

New details about The Acolyte, an upcoming Disney Plus Star Wars series set during the last days of the High Republic Era, were few and far between during this year’s Star Wars Celebration event. The surprises, it seems, were being kept for the week of San Diego Comic-Con. In an Instagram post tagged to San Diego Comic-Con, The Hate U Give actor Amandla Stenberg announced that they’ve joined the cast of The Acolyte in a mysterious role that may have something to do with the Dark Side judging from their Darth Maul jersey. While Lucasfilm has been careful not to reveal all that much about The Acolyte — a thriller focused on the rise of those strong in the dark side of the Force — showrunner Leslye Headland has said that The Phantom Menace played a significant role in first sparking her inter...

Buttons are a touchy subject among smartwatch owners, but new leaked Fitbit Sense 2 and Versa 4 photos from 9to5Google indicate the company is ditching capacitive buttons for both of its next-gen smartwatches. We got a hint that Fitbit may be bringing back physical buttons on the Versa 4 a few months ago, but it wasn’t clear at the time if that would extend to the Sense 2. The decision isn’t surprising. Fitbit introduced the capacitive button as a way to create a slimmer profile and prevent accidental presses, but in reality, it made for a finicky user experience. Many Versa and Sense users found the button to be unresponsive or just plain unreliable. (Ironically, when I reviewed the original Sense, it was way too easy to accidentally trigger the capacitive button.) The raised border is a ...