Technology

Ikea, which has never been scared to dive into new product categories, has announced plans to release a record player as part of its new Obegränsad collection this fall. The record player was designed in collaboration with house music supergroup Swedish House Mafia, and has a chunky design in line with a lot of the other consumer electronics Ikea has produced. Alongside it, the Swedish retailer has also announced an armchair and desk as part of the collection. This technically isn’t the first record playing device that Ikea has announced. Way back in 2018 it announced a turntable made in collaboration with Teenage Engineering that it hoped to release the following year. But according to a Teenage Engineering support page, the player never made it into the final collection. Its design and c...

If you own a Brompton folding electric bicycle sold between May 2019 and March 2022 you should stop riding it immediately. According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) agency in the US, ten owners of Brompton e-bikes have reported objects getting trapped between the mudguard and front tire causing the wheel to lockup and crash. So far, this has resulted in two hospitalizations and nine injuries including “head and facial impact, broken bones, shoulder dislocation, bruising, and chipped teeth.” Owners of the recalled models — which include the Brompton Electric M2L, H2L, M6L, and H6L — are urged to contact an authorized Brompton dealer to request a free repair. The fix involves replacing the front mudguard stay and flap to create more clearance between the mudguard and tire. T...

Rapper Jay-Z and Twitter founder Jack Dorsey have teamed up to launch a bitcoin-focused financial literacy project named The Bitcoin Academy. The project consists of free bi-weekly classes, offered in-person and online, for residents of the musician’s childhood home: the Marcy Houses public housing complex in Brooklyn, New York City. The team-up is not surprising considering the pair’s long, shared history in business and bitcoin. Dorsey’s digital-payments company Block (née Square) bought a majority share in Jay-Z’s Tidal streaming service in 2021, and the two have used their personal bitcoin holdings to fund a trust designed to promote the use of cryptocurrency in Africa and India. Attendees will be learn “about Bitcoin specifically and finance in general” The Bitcoin Academy itself seem...

According to Bloomberg, Apple is already working on additional plans for its MacBook Air. The tech giant is rumored to be releasing a larger 15-inch version of the laptop as early as spring 2023. While it appears that the company is focusing on bigger screens, Apple is also reportedly working on other smaller version including a 12-inch MacBook set to debut late next year or early 2024. In line with its progress, Apple is also planning on revealing updated versions of its 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pros by the end of the year. These laptops are expected to carry M2 Pro and M2 Max chips, but sources are saying that they might launch in early 2023 instead. With the new Max chip, these computers will be receiving an update that offers up to 12 processing cores and 38 graphics cores. Previous rum...

It has only been a few days since Apple introduced a new generation of its custom chip family with the M2 and a round of updated laptops, including the new MacBook Air and 13-inch MacBook Pro. But even though the WWDC 2022 keynote is over, the rumor mill never stops. Now, there are more reports about what’s next in Apple’s pipeline, and several of the items will feel very familiar. Over at Bloomberg, Mark Gurman’s latest report based on his sources claims that updated 14- and 16-inch M2-based MacBook Pros could ship at the end of this year or in early 2023. These will come with M2 Max chips that expand on the 10 CPU cores and 32 GPU cores of their highest-end predecessor with 12 CPU cores and up to 38 GPU cores. Make room for more laptops Where it gets interesting is a note saying we shoul...

Meta plans to stop making consumer versions of its Portal video calling hardware and instead pivot the product line to focus on use cases for businesses, like conference calling. The change in strategy, first reported by The Information and confirmed to The Verge by a source familiar with the matter, comes as Meta is reassessing its ambitious hardware plans against investor concerns about the billions of dollars it’s spending on projects that have yet to pay off financially. A spokesperson for Meta declined to comment. The Portal line debuted in 2018 with two displays meant as dedicated video calling stations. They also supported apps for activities like listening to music on Spotify and streaming videos on the Food Network. But the displays had limited functionality, and their connection ...

It’s been about four years since Microsoft tested and then abandoned an attempt at adding tabbed browsing to the File Explorer in Windows 10, and now a new Windows 11 preview build released today is giving it another shot. EarTrumpet developer Rafael Rivera spotted hints of the test in March before Microsoft confirmed that the feature, as well as the new Home screen for File Explorer you can see above, is coming to Windows 11. A post on the Windows Insider Blog explains that Build 25136 is testing a File Explorer browser with tabs so you can jump back and forth across folders without popping open a new window. However, even if you’re a Windows Insider and your PC is set to receive Dev Channel builds (for people who are willing to receive the most active updates, even if there’s a chance th...

Meta has decided to not sell the first version of its full-fledged AR glasses, codenamed Orion, and will instead distribute them to developers so they can build software experiences for the device and future versions, a person familiar with the matter told The Verge. The company is also shelving plans to release a smartwatch with a detachable display and two cameras in favor of a design better suited to control a later version of the glasses. The first version of the AR glasses, which have been in development for three years, was always going to be geared toward developers and early adopters, but executives hadn’t decided whether to sell them broadly until now, the person said. Employees working in Meta’s Reality Labs division building VR and AR hardware were informed of the decision this ...

This story is part of a group of stories called Only the best deals on Verge-approved gadgets get the Verge Deals stamp of approval, so if you’re looking for a deal on your next gadget or gift from major retailers like Amazon, Walmart, Best Buy, Target, and more, this is the place to be. If you’re an iPhone owner planning on traveling this summer, today’s deal on Apple AirTag location trackers has arrived at the perfect time. Right now, you can buy Apple’s ultra wideband-capable Bluetooth tracker to keep track of your luggage and other items for just $24 instead of $29 from Amazon and Best Buy (until 10PM PT today or June 10th at 1AM ET). That might be a small discount, but it’s also a rare one and the best price we’ve seen. This is an excellent tracker that works best with Apple dev...

Summer Game Fest host Geoff Keighley warned fans to temper their expectations for today’s livestreamed event, which kicks off several days of demos and events. And indeed, the show didn’t have a lot of huge reveals — especially because one of its biggest announcements, a PlayStation 5 remake of The Last of Us, leaked just before the show. But Summer Game Fest did manage to introduce a couple of surprises and new gameplay for the coming year’s big titles. Also, for some reason, a lot of it involved outer space. If you didn’t catch the show, you can see the biggest announcements below. [embedded content] A new Aliens game is coming next year Alien and Aliens games, to put it mildly, vary in quality. And we don’t know much about Aliens: Dark Descent, a newly announced installment in the franc...

Following the report yesterday that smart home company Insteon’s servers had mysteriously fired up overnight, there is good news: Insteon is back, and it was resurrected by its customers. This message appeared on the Insteon blog today, posted by the company’s new CEO Ken Fairbanks: We are a small group of passionate Insteon users that have successfully acquired Insteon. Like many of you, our homes are powered by Insteon’s amazing dual-mesh technology and highly configurable products. Insteon’s servers went offline last April when SmartLabs, the company that owned the smart lighting system, ran into “financial difficulties.” A financial services firm had been appointed to sell its assets, but this “group of passionate users” stepped in and has taken over. The group says it plans on “...

Renowned camera maker Leica has unveiled its new M-A “Titan” set. Following in the footsteps of Leica’s first titanium exterior camera, the M6 TTL “Titanium”, the new offering marks the sixth iteration of the brand’s titanium cameras. The new set features Leica’s classic analog M-A technology with the APO-Summicron-M 50 f/2 ASPH design. Additionally, the fully mechanical camera includes solid titanium components for enhanced durability. Finishing off the set are special-edition serial number engravings on the camera body and lens. Priced at $19,995 USD, the camera is limited to 250 units and is available now through select retailers. In related news, Marshall updates its trio of home speakers with a wider soundstage.  Read Full Article