Technology

The Samsung M8 Smart Monitor is one of those products that dazzle you with its abundance of features to overshadow the fact that most of them are gimmicks. But gimmicks aside, it’s a stylish 32-inch 4K monitor-slash-smart-TV for people who don’t have the space, money, or desire for two large, expensive displays. Plenty of people already use their monitors as TVs, and if you’re buying one big 4K HDR screen anyway, why not have it pull double duty? The $699.99 M8 has a USB-C port with DisplayPort and 65W charging, so you can connect a laptop with a single cable and use that enormous screen to get work done. You can stream TV shows and movies from Apple TV Plus, HBO Max, Amazon Prime, Netflix, and many others on the built-in Tizen Smart TV interface. It has a rechargeable remote. It has Bluet...

Spotify has a brand new original topping its podcast chart, but it would probably prefer if you didn’t know about it. Last week, Spotify launched a new pop culture show, Breaking Bread, on Spotify Live. Breaking Bread’s recordings now rank at number 11 on Spotify’s top podcast chart after holding the number two spot for most of the week, putting it just behind Joe Rogan. The show’s popularity — and the reason the company might be staying quiet about its new hit — is due to its two hosts: Jackie Oshry Weinreb and Claudia Oshry (aka Instagram’s girlwithnojob), who come with a huge built-in audience. While the sisters have delivered their massive fanbase to the app, they have a controversial history that could be problematic for Spotify at a time when the company is being extra cautious. The ...

Back in November 2009, I was getting ready to attend the Montreal International Games Summit, and I panicked — it was my first major event as a member of the press, and I had no way to record an interview. This was a problem because I was scheduled to talk with Yoichi Wada, then president of Square Enix, along with several other notable industry people. So I rushed to Radio Shack and picked the cheapest voice recorder I could find, a little grey rectangle made by RCA that was locked up in a glass display case. I have no idea what model it is, but it went on to follow me through my entire professional career to date — now, nearly 13 years later, it’s finally being retired. I hung on to that gadget for one main reason: I trusted it. The RCA recorder didn’t have any especially notable feature...

Apple’s mixed reality headset has been shrouded in rumors for months now, and a new report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman indicates that it could come with Apple’s flagship M2 processor. According to Gurman, Apple’s most recent version of the device, which is reportedly capable of delivering augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) experiences, includes a base M2 chip and 16GB of RAM. This deviates from supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo’s previous prediction that Apple’s headset will have one processor with the capabilities of an M1 chip and an additional lower-end processor dedicated to handling data from the device’s sensors. While Gurman doesn’t mention the purported secondary chip in this report, a multiple chip setup has also been rumored in an earlier report from The Information...

Hong Kong and Los Angeles-based lifestyle brand CASETiFY has unveiled its latest tech collaboration. This time around, the brand has reunited with Kakao Friends for a range of fun character-filled pieces. Marking the entities’ second collaboration, the new limited-edition offering is inspired by vintage grocery store trips. The new pieces showcase Kakao Friends characters Apeach, Con, Choonsik, Muzi, Neo, Ryan, Tube and Jay-G with grocery store items like bubble gum, potato chips, cereal and soup. These multicolored designs are seen on CASETiFY’s Ultra Impact, Impact Crush and Mirror Cases which are outfitted for iPhone, Samsung’s Galaxy S22 and Samsung’s Z Flip3 series. Alongside the cases is a bead strap with Kakao Friends character charms. Also included in the collection are accessories...

My review of the M2 MacBook Pro went up last Wednesday. But as soon as I got my hands on the device on the prior Thursday, it was clear that running down the battery — one of the most important things a laptop reviewer needs to do — was going to be a Whole Thing. Reader, I tried. I would use the device all evening and leave it running all night, but it would still have plenty of charge left in the morning, and I’d have to plug it in for testing, abandon it to film, or give it to our video and photo teams for shooting before I could fully drain it down. I did not have a long enough interrupted span of time to continuously use the device. That’s how absurdly long this laptop lasts. But, with the written review and the video review both live, and a solid evening and subsequent morning with no...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge A sophisticated spyware campaign is getting the help of internet service providers (ISPs) to trick users into downloading malicious apps, according to research published by Google’s Threat Analysis Group (TAG) (via TechCrunch). This corroborates earlier findings from security research group Lookout, which has linked the spyware, dubbed Hermit, to Italian spyware vendor RCS Labs. Lookout says RCS Labs is in the same line of work as NSO Group — the infamous surveillance-for-hire company behind the Pegasus spyware — and peddles commercial spyware to various government agencies. Researchers at Lookout believe Hermit has already been deployed by the government of Kazakhstan and Italian authorities. In line with these findings, Google has… Continue r...

Intel is postponing the groundbreaking ceremony for its planned chip-making facilities in Ohio because the US government hasn’t yet provided it with funding, the company confirmed to The Verge (via The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal). The ceremony, which was originally set to take place on July 22nd, has been delayed indefinitely in a likely bid to push the US government towards passing the CHIPS Act. Intel announced its $20 billion plan to build two semiconductor plants in New Albany, Ohio earlier this year, noting that its expansion to potentially include up to eight plants will “depend heavily on funding from the CHIPS Act.” The CHIPS Act reserves $52 billion in funding for semiconductor companies, including Intel, to promote chip manufacturing in the US. While the Senate a...

Apple Music has raised the subscription price of its student plan in the US, UK, and Canada, as first reported by 9to5Mac (via TechCrunch). While it’s increasing the price from $4.99 to $5.99 / month in the US and Canada, student users in the UK can expect a similar jump from £4.99 to £5.99 / month. Apple hasn’t acknowledged the changes yet, but the new pricing information is currently available on Apple Music’s webpage. Students subscribed to Apple Music have also started seeing the price increase on their iPhones and iPads’ subscription pages. It’s unclear when exactly Apple implemented these changes, but, as 9to5Mac points out, it was likely rolled out sometime between June 21st and the 23rd — an archived Apple Music webpage shows the old £4.99 student price on the 21st. Apple quietly u...

Bang & Olufsen has announced a new version of its wireless gaming headset Beoplay Portal. The headset is fully compatible with PC, PlayStation, mobile device gaming and features beam-forming technology that allows the microphone array to help separate and amplify the user’s voice while eliminating background noise, not only for gaming but everyday listening. The new version of Beoplay Portal has a longer battery life, good for up to 42 hours of playback with Bluetooth and Active Noise Cancellation turned on, and 19 hours of playback with wireless connection turned on. Available in anthracite, matte grey and navy, the new earphones feature responsive aluminium discs on the earcups made with Bang & Olufsen’s proprietary anodised technology for a natural gradient effect. The Beoplay P...