Tech

/ Plus, in this week’s Installer: a new WWII epic, the hottest game on the web, comfort TV shows, and much more. a]:text-gray-13″>If you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement.

/ The new 100-person team will focus on CSAM content. 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: The Verge X says it will hire 100 full-time employees for a new trust and safety office in Austin, Texas, according to a Saturday report by Bloomberg. The plan comes, as the article notes, just a few days before CEO Linda Yaccarino’s scheduled January 31st hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee regarding X’s handling of child sexual exploitation moderation. The team would reportedly focus mainly on CSE and would be the first proper trust and safety team since Elon Musk gutted it sho...

/ Searching for Taylor Swift on X returns nothing, unless you try literally anything else. 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 X appears to have blocked searches for Taylor Swift as a reaction to a recent trend of graphic AI fakes of the world-famous recording artist being posted to the site. Right now, if you search “Taylor Swift” or “Taylor Swift AI” on X, formerly Twitter, you may see a “Something went wrong” message. After Platformer’s Casey Newton posted about the apparent block, we tried some other searches. If X is intentionally blocking searches for ill...

/ A new Canary build brings Voice Clarity, a feature of Surface devices, to all Windows machines, even ARM. a]:text-gray-13″>If you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement.

/ Plus, we found deals on Samsung’s The Frame, the Lenovo Legion Go, and the Amazon Smart Thermostat. a]:text-gray-13″>If you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement. 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: Nomad Fancy phone chargers are nice, but they’re often too expensive to justify the cost. Nomad’s Base One Max 3-in-1 is one of those rare unicorns that delivers a lot of value for your money, however, thus making it worth the splurge. After all, the device can simultaneously charge a MagSafe-compatible phone, your Apple W...

/ Five-second clips generated with Lumiere show how the AI tools can create video from a prompt with realistic motion. 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″>Google Imagen clip from 2022

/ You can stay in control of who is able to see your location. a:hover]:shadow-highlight-franklin dark:[&>a:hover]:shadow-highlight-franklin [&>a]:shadow-underline-black dark:[&>a]:shadow-underline-white”>Location sharing via Google Maps The most obvious choice for location sharing on Android is Google Maps, as it comes preinstalled (and is available on iPhones, too). There are other options you can try as well, which I’ll get to. Location sharing can be a one-way or two-way arrangement, so you can see other people without them seeing you if you want (and if they permit it). If you do want to make your location visible, you need to enable location tracking on your phone: from Settings in Android, tap Location, then enable the Use location option. a:hover]:text-black [&...

Microsoft/ Tech / The status lights stayed green for hours, but the complaints didn’t stop. 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 Was it a joyous outage where you got to relax, or did something mission-critical go wrong? Either way, “a portion” of Microsoft Teams went down Friday for over eight hours — with outages in North America, South America, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, according to status updates from Microsoft’s official account. At 8:17PM ET Friday, Microsoft tweeted that the worst is over, but that the company’s still mopping up, with a handful ...

/ Beyond adding more Microsoft AI guardrails, though, it’s not clear he’s got any idea what to do. 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”>Laura Normand / The Verge Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has responded to a controversy over sexually explicit AI-made fake images of Taylor Swift. In an interview with NBC Nightly News that will air next Tuesday, Nadella calls the proliferation of nonconsensual simulated nudes “alarming and terrible,” telling interviewer Lester Holt that “I think it behooves us to move fast on this.” In a transcript distributed by NBC ahead of the January 30th show, Holt...

Tech/ Policy / The spread of fake photos is “alarming” and “obviously” shows that legislation is needed, the White House said on Friday.

Wear OS is much better than it used to be, so there’s never been a better time to consider a smartwatch. By Victoria Song, a senior reporter focusing on wearables, health tech, and more with 11 years of experience. Before coming to The Verge, she worked for Gizmodo and PC Magazine. Editor’s note: Fossil confirmed to us this week that it is leaving the smartwatch business. As a result, we’ve removed their Gen 6 smartwatch from this list as we evaluate other options. After a long stretch of slim pickings, the last couple of years have been huge for Android smartwatches. Now there are more good options than ever. But this is still a transitional era. While we’re encouraged by the stronger third-party app options, the market is still fragmented. Wear OS 4 is already here for Samsung’s Galaxy W...