Google expects to spend $75 billion this year on the AI race

Google parent company Alphabet expects to invest “approximately $75 billion” in capital expenditures in 2025, according to a statement from CEO Sundar Pichai in Alphabet’s Q4 2024 earnings release. Capital expenditures have become a hot topic as of late ... more - theverge

Steam Deck, ROG Ally, and more: all the news about the handheld PC gaming revolution

Valve’s Steam Deck and its carrying case. | Image: Valve In July 2021, Valve revealed the Steam Deck, a Switch-like handheld device packed with features including a huge variety of control options, a 7-inch touchscreen, the ability to connect to external ... more - theverge

The tech industry’s layoffs and hiring freezes: all of the news

Companies have been cutting costs. | Photo by Natt Garun / The Verge Over the last couple years, it feels like we’ve heard news of mass layoffs and hiring freezes from tech companies nearly every week, and since the beginning of 2024, there’s been a ... more - theverge

Apple reportedly gives up on its AR video glasses project

Apple’s N107 smart glasses would’ve connected to a Mac as a portable virtual screen. While Mark Zuckerberg and Meta press forward with augmented glasses projects buoyed by its million-selling set of smart Ray-Bans, Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman says ... more - theverge

From ChatGPT to Gemini: how AI is rewriting the internet

Big players, including Microsoft, with Copilot, Google, with Gemini, and OpenAI, with GPT-4o, are making AI chatbot technology previously restricted to test labs more accessible to the general public. How do these large language model (LLM) programs ... more - theverge

Samsung and Google are developing AR glasses together

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Samsung and Google are partnering up to build AR glasses, Samsung’s TM Roh told Bloomberg . But there aren’t many other specifics beyond the fact that they’re in development — there’s not even a specific release ... more - theverge

Here’s what Samsung’s first Android XR headset looks like in person

Samsung has its Project Moohan headset on display at Galaxy Unpacked, and we’ve just taken a bunch of pictures of it. This technically isn’t the first time we’ve seen Project Moohan, but it is the first time we’ve been allowed to photograph it. To me, ... more - theverge

What to expect at Samsung’s Galaxy S25 event

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Samsung is set to announce its Galaxy S25 phones at its Galaxy Unpacked event tomorrow, January 22nd at 1PM ET. The event typically focuses on its next smartphones and software features, which you can bet includes ... more - theverge

Trump says he’ll delay TikTok ban, but the platform must be sold

Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photo from Getty Images President-elect Donald Trump says he wants service providers like Apple and Google to put TikTok back online in the US, and proposed creating a joint venture where the US owns 50 percent of the app. ... more - theverge

The tech to build the holodeck

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images Gaussian splatting, a new way of capturing 3D content, is taking the AR / VR industry by storm — and could one day allow anyone to create photorealistic 3D worlds. Read the full story at The Verge. ... more - theverge

Meta Quest 3S with 256GB of storage is $50 off right now

The Quest 3S doesn’t look any less alien than the original Quest 3. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge The Meta Quest 3S VR headset is a great alternative to the Meta Quest 3. The base 128GB version of the Quest 3S starts at $299.99 at Amazon, which ... more - theverge

Meta Quest 3S review: probably the one we’ve been waiting for

The Quest 3S has its flaws, but it’s a great first VR headset. Read the full story at The Verge. ... more - theverge

Amazon Prime will shut down its clothing try-on program

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Amazon will be winding down its Prime Try Before You Buy program, which let Prime members try on clothes before paying for them, reports The Information . It will shutter on January 31st, according to a banner ... more - theverge

Zuckerberg trash talks Apple in interview with Joe Rogan

Laura Normand / The Verge Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg thinks Apple “[hasn’t] really invented anything great in a while” and that it has been coasting off of its past success. “Steve Jobs invented the iPhone and now they’re just kind of sitting on it 20 ... more - theverge

The smart glasses era is here — I got a first look

Smart glasses were everywhere on the show floor this year. | Photo by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge At CES, the next generation of eyewear was everywhere. It’s just no one seems to agree on why we want it or what’s the best approach. It’s the second ... more - theverge

Valve will officially let you install SteamOS on other handhelds as soon as this April

Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge SteamOS was always supposed to be bigger than Valve’s own Steam Deck, and 2025 is the year it finally expands. Not only will Lenovo ship the first third-party SteamOS handheld this May, Valve has now revealed it will ... more - theverge

BMW’s new iDrive turns the whole windshield into a heads-up display

Image: BMW iDrive uses 3D graphics and augmented reality to keep your eyes on the road. At CES this week, BMW announced a new iDrive operating system with an eye-catching centerpiece: a 3D heads-up display (HUD) that stretches from pillar to pillar along ... more - theverge

Nvidia is bringing a native GeForce Now app to Steam Deck

Photo by The Verge Nvidia plans to release a native GeForce Now app for Steam Deck “later this year,” according to a blog post. It’s already relatively straightforward to get Nvidia’s cloud gaming service set up on Steam Deck thanks to a special script ... more - theverge

Sony’s Xyn is a prototype VR headset for making 3D games and movies

Image: Sony Sony is launching the Xyn (pronounced zin ), an “extended reality” headset for creating 3D objects for films, animation, and games. The device, which Sony first teased at CES last year, will come with 4K OLED displays, video passthrough, ... more - theverge

Sony and Honda’s Afeela electric car will start at $89,900

Image: Chris Welch / The Verge Afeela is starting to become a little bit more than just a feeling. The electric vehicle that’s a joint venture between Sony and Honda is finally available for preorder. And it only took five years to get here. At its press ... more - theverge

Even Apple wasn’t able to make VR headsets mainstream in 2024

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images Glasses may be more promising as the head-worn computers of the future — and there’s a chance Apple might be looking in that direction. Apple’s Vision Pro headset is an incredible piece of technology, but ... more - theverge

Roku snaps up X Games streaming rights

Skateboarder Carlos Ribeiro during X Games Ventura 2024. | Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images Roku got the exclusive US streaming rights to next year’s X Games Aspen and a “soon-to-be-announced” X Games event in the summer, the company announced on ... more - theverge

Gemini, GTA, and the search for the next big thing

Google announced a bunch of new stuff last week, from Gemini 2.0 and Project Mariner to Android XR and Project Moohan. As ever with Google, it feels like a lot of stuff without necessarily a coherent plan behind it. But if you look closely enough, and ... more - theverge

Meta rolls out live language translations and Shazam to its smart glasses

More AI features are rolling out to the Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Meta just announced three new features are rolling out to its Ray-Ban smart glasses: live AI, live translations, and Shazam. Both live AI ... more - theverge

Searching for the first great AI app

Image: Alex Parkin / The Verge ChatGPT launched roughly two years and two weeks ago. Now, as we near the end of 2024, the AI race is... well, where is it, exactly? It’s more competitive than ever, there’s more money being poured into new models and products ... more - theverge

I saw Google’s plan to put Android on your face

Google didn’t let me take my own photos, but this is strikingly similar to the demo I saw with my own eyes. | Image: Google I demoed Google’s new Android XR platform, Samsung’s Project Moohan, and prototype smart glasses. I felt as close to Tony Stark ... more - theverge

Google announces Android XR, a new OS for headsets and smart glasses

XR stands for “extended reality,” which you should get used to explaining to lots of people. | Image: Google Google is taking another run at making headsets work. The company just announced Android XR, a new operating system designed specifically for ... more - theverge

Palmer Luckey’s defense tech company will make next-gen military aircraft with Archer

Image: Archer Electric aviation startup Archer Aviation signed an exclusive deal with Palmer Luckey’s defense contractor, Anduril Industries, to jointly develop next-generation aircraft for the military. Archer also announced a new funding round of $450 ... more - theverge

Trump’s DOJ broke policy to try to learn journalist’s sources, inspector general alleges

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge The Department of Justice during the Trump administration defied agency policy in an attempt to identify journalists’ sources, the agency’s inspector general alleges in a new report. The IG alleges the agency sought “non-content ... more - theverge

The Vision Pro’s ultrawide Mac display is very close to being a killer app

My favorite dynamic wallpaper floating in the desert. | Screenshot: Mac Virtual Display Since its release, I’ve mostly used Apple’s Vision Pro like a movie theater. The VR headset is an amazing way to watch Dune — but beyond that, it hasn’t really lived ... more - theverge