Tech

/ Plus, in this week’s Installer: A new app for exploring the fediverse, the next Sonic movie, and ChatGPT takes your phone calls. a]:text-gray-13″>If you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement. Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 65, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome, get ready to take up all your phone’s storage space, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.)  This is the last Installer of the year! I’m taking a couple of weeks off for the holidays, and I hope you’re getting some relaxation in too. Thank you so much to everyone who has subscribed to this newsletter, emailed me your recommendations, told me I’m a lunatic about to-do lists, and...

/ Google’s Files app is rolling out a Gemini screen awareness feature that offers to answer questions about open PDFs. a:hover]:text-gray-63 [&>a:hover]:shadow-underline-black dark:[&>a:hover]:text-gray-bd dark:[&>a:hover]:shadow-underline-gray [&>a]:shadow-underline-gray-63 dark:[&>a]:text-gray-bd dark:[&>a]:shadow-underline-gray”>Illustration: The Verge In the latest version of the Files by Google app, summoning Gemini while looking at a PDF gives you the option to ask about the file, writes Android Police. You’ll need to be a Gemini Advanced subscriber to use the feature though, according to Mishaal Rahman, who reported on Friday that it had started rolling out. If you have the feature, when you summon Gemini while looking at a PDF in the Files app, you’ll ...

/ Samsung and Texas Instruments will receive over $6 billion combined for US chip manufacturing. a:hover]:text-gray-63 [&>a:hover]:shadow-underline-black dark:[&>a:hover]:text-gray-bd dark:[&>a:hover]:shadow-underline-gray [&>a]:shadow-underline-gray-63 dark:[&>a]:text-gray-bd dark:[&>a]:shadow-underline-gray”>Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The US Commerce Department has awarded Samsung and Texas Instruments with a combined over $6 billion in “direct funding under the CHIPS Incentives Program’s Funding Opportunity for Commercial Fabrication,” according to a pair of announcements published on Friday. Samsung will get the larger of the two awards at $4.745 billion. The Commerce Department says the company will use this as part of its planned $37 billion...

/ Asus officially announces the NUC 14 Pro AI mini PC. a]:text-gray-13″>If you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement.

Stellar hardware from a controversial figure. By Sean Hollister, a senior editor and founding member of The Verge who covers gadgets, games, and toys. He spent 15 years editing the likes of CNET, Gizmodo, and Engadget. If Lockheed Martin made a Game Boy, would you buy one? In the 1990s, I was among the kids who thought military aircraft were devastatingly cool. By then, Tom Cruise and Top Gun had long established the F-14 Tomcat and a pair of aviator shades as a fantasy for young men; I personally preferred the Lockheed F-117A, the high-tech angular “Stealth Fighter” that could invisibly sneak past enemy radar, and was partial to the legendary Lockheed SR-71 that flew so fast it could outrun missiles. At the time, I probably would have snapped up a jet-black Lockheed Game Boy without a sec...

/ I watched all five of them so you don’t have to. a:hover]:text-black [&>a:hover]:shadow-underline-black dark:[&>a:hover]:text-gray-e9 dark:[&>a:hover]:shadow-underline-gray-63 [&>a]:shadow-underline-gray-13 dark:[&>a]:shadow-underline-gray-63″>A screenshot from TCL’s The Audition.a:hover]:shadow-highlight-franklin dark:[&>a:hover]:shadow-highlight-franklin [&>a]:shadow-underline-black dark:[&>a]:shadow-underline-white”>5. Sun Day This futuristic short film basically has the same concept as Ray Bradbury’s short story “All Summer in a Day.” It follows a young girl who lives on a planet where the sun only comes out every seven years, but just 10 people can see it at a time from the top of a building called the “Citadel.” Well, this girl wins a lot...

/ Here’s how Google would fix its monopoly on search. a:hover]:text-gray-63 [&>a:hover]:shadow-underline-black dark:[&>a:hover]:text-gray-bd dark:[&>a:hover]:shadow-underline-gray [&>a]:shadow-underline-gray-63 dark:[&>a]:text-gray-bd dark:[&>a]:shadow-underline-gray”>Illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge The Department of Justice’s list of solutions for fixing Google’s illegal antitrust behavior and restoring competition in the search engine market started with forcing the company to sell Chrome, and late Friday night, Google responded with a list of its own (included below). Instead of breaking off Chrome, Android, or Google Play as the DOJ’s filing considers, Google’s proposed fixes aim at the payments it makes to companies like Apple and Mozilla for ex...

/ Originally a teen’s 3D-printed prototype, it’ll soon go on sale. a:hover]:text-gray-63 [&>a:hover]:shadow-underline-black dark:[&>a:hover]:text-gray-bd dark:[&>a:hover]:shadow-underline-gray [&>a]:shadow-underline-gray-63 dark:[&>a]:text-gray-bd dark:[&>a]:shadow-underline-gray”>Image: Josh King / OhSnap When 19-year-old Josh King suggested he would single-handedly redefine mobile gaming with his 3D-printed gamepad, drawing a direct line from himself to Steve Jobs, I have to admit I thought it was a bit much! But it’s no longer just a 3D-printed controller. OhSnap, the company behind the excellent magnetic PopSocket alternatives I showed you in October, is now officially turning his design into the coolest looking gamepad attachment I’ve ever seen for a phon...

/ Pegasus has reportedly been used to hack targets including journalists, activists, and politicians. a:hover]:text-gray-63 [&>a:hover]:shadow-underline-black dark:[&>a:hover]:text-gray-bd dark:[&>a:hover]:shadow-underline-gray [&>a]:shadow-underline-gray-63 dark:[&>a]:text-gray-bd dark:[&>a]:shadow-underline-gray”>Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge NSO Group, the organization behind the Pegasus spyware, has been found liable in a lawsuit brought by Meta’s WhatsApp over attacks on about 1,400 devices, as reported by The Record. WhatsApp originally filed the suit in 2019, and investigations have found that Pegasus has been used to hack phones belonging to groups like activists, journalists, and government officials. NSO Group is liable for charges of v...

/ The jury sided with Qualcomm after Arm argued the chipmaker breached a licensing agreement through a $1.4 billion acquisition of Nuvia, but the case isn’t over yet. a:hover]:text-gray-63 [&>a:hover]:shadow-underline-black dark:[&>a:hover]:text-gray-bd dark:[&>a:hover]:shadow-underline-gray [&>a]:shadow-underline-gray-63 dark:[&>a]:text-gray-bd dark:[&>a]:shadow-underline-gray”>Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge A federal jury in Delaware determined on Friday that Qualcomm didn’t breach its agreement with Arm through its 2021 acquisition of Nuvia, a startup founded by three former Apple engineers. As reported earlier by Bloomberg and Reuters, the decision stems from a two-year-long legal battle that accused Qualcomm of misusing the chip designs Arm licen...

/ What Databricks’s monster funding round this week says about the state of play. Also: Google gets flatter, and another week of tech CEOs kissing the ring at Mar-a-Lago. a:hover]:text-black [&>a:hover]:shadow-underline-black dark:[&>a:hover]:text-gray-e9 dark:[&>a:hover]:shadow-underline-gray-63 [&>a]:shadow-underline-gray-13 dark:[&>a]:shadow-underline-gray-63″>Naveen Rao, VP of AI at Databricks.a:hover]:shadow-highlight-franklin dark:[&>a:hover]:shadow-highlight-franklin [&>a]:shadow-underline-black dark:[&>a]:shadow-underline-white”>“It’s like looking for LeBron James” This week, Databricks announced the largest known funding round for any private tech company in history. The AI enterprise firm is in the final stretch of raising $10 billion, ...

/ Sanwa Supply’s new USB-C cable has a connector that rotates 360 degrees and bends 180 degrees to reduce strain and damage. a:hover]:text-black [&>a:hover]:shadow-underline-black dark:[&>a:hover]:text-gray-e9 dark:[&>a:hover]:shadow-underline-gray-63 [&>a]:shadow-underline-gray-13 dark:[&>a]:shadow-underline-gray-63″>Sanwa Supply’s new USB-C cable’s design solves a common point of cable failure.a:hover]:text-black [&>a:hover]:shadow-underline-black dark:[&>a:hover]:text-gray-e9 dark:[&>a:hover]:shadow-underline-gray-63 [&>a]:shadow-underline-gray-13 dark:[&>a]:shadow-underline-gray-63″>The flexible cable can potentially be used in places where other USB-C cable won’t fit.