technology

/ The second season of the Halo live-action series premieres on February 8th. a]:text-gray-13″>If you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement. Halo season 2 is less than a month away, and Paramount Plus has just revealed the season’s latest trailer. Master Chief and the Spartans (excellent name for a Halo cover band, by the way) will return to face off against the Covenant on one of the most important locations in the Halo universe: the planet Reach. The trailer lets you know immediately what the stakes are for Halo season 2, with a voiceover addressing the people of Reach. The voice — possibly belonging to Makee (Charlie Murphy), Master Chief’s girlfriend — continues, saying she will be the instrument of their extinction. We’re trea...

/ The chunky classic is getting a modern rerelease this March. 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: Plaion / Retro Games Ltd. The mini-console trend that started with the tiny NES Classic has largely slowed down, but there are still some cute game-filled gadgets coming. Case in point: the 400 Mini from Plaion and Retro Games Ltd. It’s exactly what it sounds like — a shrunken-down version of the Atari 400 — and like its contemporaries, it comes with a bunch of games preinstalled. The device itself is about half the size of the 1979 original, and it comes bundled with an updated v...

Google/ Tech / Or more than a thousand? Depends on the definition of “few”. 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 Turns out Google’s postpandemic reckoning didn’t just hit the Google Hardware team this evening — it’s taken similarly sized bites out of Google Assistant and Google’s core engineering teams too. Google just confirmed to The Verge that it’s eliminated “a few hundred” roles in each of these divisions, meaning Google has confirmed layoffs of around a thousand employees on Wednesday alone, if we use a reasonable definition of “few”. And those are only th...

/ Google confirmed “a few hundred” hardware employees are getting axed. 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 Google’s hardware division just took a body blow. The company has confirmed it’s laying off hundreds of hardware workers, especially in its augmented reality division — and 9to5Google is reporting that Fitbit co-founders James Park, Eric Friedman, and other Fitbit leaders are leaving the company entirely. Update, 1:42AM ET: It’s not just Fitbit and AR. Around a thousand Google layoffs were just confirmed, and there may be more. Here’s ...

/ Kia says the lineup of futuristic vans and trucks will redefine commercial fleets. Uber needs to get more drivers into EVs to fulfill its 2040 climate pledge. 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: Kia Kia and Uber have signed a memorandum of understanding to use the automaker’s newly announced PBV modular electric vehicles for ridehailing. PBV, which stands for Platform Beyond Vehicle, was introduced during CES in Las Vegas as a family of EVs built on a flexible vehicle architecture, with different swappable body types. The vehicle can be transformed from a minivan to a full-si...

/ Now there’s a Wall Street approach to cryptocurrency. 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″>Take that, Satoshi!

/ The streaming platform’s latest round of job cuts is affecting more than 500 employees, which is reportedly about 35 percent of its headcount.

/ The Vietnamese company has big plans, but it’s been plagued by quality issues and bad reviews. 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: VinFast Vietnam’s VinFast must really want a slice of the EV market in the US based on the vehicles it brought to CES in Las Vegas this year: a midsize pickup truck that looks to be about the same size as the Toyota Tacoma, and a small utility EV called the VF3 that was first introduced last year. Theoretically, both of these vehicles could sell really well in the US. Trucks are some of the most popular vehicles in the country, and a midsize elect...

/ The refreshed ‘Highland’ Model 3 has a sleek new front end for improved aerodynamics but lists a lower top speed. 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″>Tesla Model 3 (2024)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″>Tesla’s new and old Model 3 designs (not shown to scale), 2023 on the left in red, and the “Highland” 2024 Model 3 in grey on the right.

/ The official SEC account posted a statement from Gary Gensler saying the long-awaited approval arrived, but then Gensler’s X account said it was a hoax. 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: Nick Barclay / The Verge The Securities and Exchange Commission’s official social media account on X (formerly Twitter) posted a notice on Tuesday evening falsely claiming it had approved listings for Bitcoin exchange-traded funds, or ETFs, which has since been deleted. Moments later, SEC Chair Gary Gensler said in a post on his own account that the agency’s account was “compromised, and an...

/ It’s the year of the AI PC, after all. 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 Becca Farsace / The Verge Microsoft said 2024 was going to be “the year of the AI PC,” and it looks like that’s ringing true already. Microsoft appears to be readying a new generative AI feature for its Notepad application that’s built into Windows. While the software giant hasn’t officially announced it, eagle-eyed Windows watchers have discovered code in Microsoft’s latest test builds of Windows 11 that indicate a new “Cowriter” feature could be on the way soon. It looks like it has the same credit...

/ The future of grocery shopping is no grocery shopping at all. It’s your fridge just being full, always, automatically. 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″>If AI can fix grocery shopping, count me in.