The best movie trailers for the week of April 21st
I’ve been making more of an effort to keep up with movies lately and even managed the rare feat of seeing one in an actual movie theater. I saw Guy Ritchie’s The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, which stars Henry Cavill, Alan Ritchson, Alex Pettyfer, Elza González, Babs Olusanmokun, and others in what I interpreted as a goofy spaghetti western / spy / heist film.
I suppose it’s also a war movie, being based (very loosely) on a true story about a collection of unstoppable guys set on an unsanctioned secret mission to destroy a German U-boat resupply ship during World War II. It doesn’t try to ruminate on the weight of the mission, which was to clear the way for American ships to cross the Atlantic and join the war effort. Ministry is...
Meta’s ‘set it and forget it’ AI ad tools are misfiring and blowing through cash
It was Valentine’s Day when Meta’s ad platform started going off the rails. RC Williams, the co-founder of the Philadelphia-based marketing agency 1-800-D2C, had set one of Meta’s automated ad tools to run campaigns for two separate clients. But when he checked the platform that day, he found that Meta had blown through roughly 75 percent of the daily ad budgets for both clients in under a couple of hours.
Williams told The Verge that the ads’ CPMs, or cost per impressions, were roughly 10 times higher than normal. A usual CPM of under $28 had inflated to roughly $250, way above the industry average. That would have been bad enough if the revenue earned from those ads wasn’t nearly zero. If you’re not a marketer, this might feel like...
The Delta emulator will soon turn your iPad into a giant Nintendo DS
The Delta emulator made a huge splash when it hit the Apple App Store earlier this month, quickly rocketing to the top spot in Apple’s free apps, where it remains today. Now, developer Riley Testut says an iPad-specific version is “near completion,” and will be released with Delta version 1.6. Testut says the app is already available for his Patreon supporters through “the regular AltStore,” which I take to mean the non-EU-specific one, rather than the Apple-approved AltStore PAL.
Of course, the iOS version already works on the iPad (and the Vision Pro, where I’ve been playing Metroid Prime Hunters). But a native version would let it take advantage of the full iPad screen real estate for better skins, including one that turns your tablet...
Where to get started with Fallout
A sampling of the four modern games in the series for those jumping in after the Amazon show.
The OLED iPad Pro could launch with an M4 chip
Apple is preparing for its big AI coming out party in this year’s Worldwide Developer Conference; that much you can count on. But apparently, the company is going to start that party a little early with the OLED iPad Pro that it’s expected to unveil on May 7th. According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, there’s “a strong possibility” the tablet will launch with an M4 chip and its accompanying neural engine, making it Apple’s “first truly AI-powered device.”
Writing in his Power On newsletter today, Gurman said the company could use its May event to explain “its AI chip strategy without distraction,” freeing it to focus on exactly how the iPad Pro and its other M4 devices will use the company’s AI offerings in iPadOS 18. Those could include...
Battle of the best robovacs (that iRobot doesn’t make)
We put the Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra head-to-head against the DreameBot X30 Ultra to find out which of these Roomba competitors’ flagship robot vacuums is the best.
In the first Autonomous Racing League race, the struggle was real
The first race of the Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League (A2RL) took place on the Yas Marina Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Formula 1 track today, and I’m pleased to report that a race both began and ended. But the event was not without strife — far from it. During qualifying time trials, the driverless Dallara Super Formula racers outfitted with cameras and software seemed to struggle mightily to complete a full lap.
During the trials, cars randomly juked:
Or spun:
Or turned into walls:
Or just pulled off the track to take a little break:
You get well-acquainted with the interstitial music during these highlights....
The Apple Vision Pro’s eBay prices are making me sad
I paid a lot of money for the privilege of getting an Apple Vision Pro brand-new in February. All-in, with optical inserts and taxes, I financed a little over $3,900 for the 256GB version of the headset. A day or so ago, I made a mistake that I’m sure many early adopters are familiar with: I looked up how much it’s been selling for on eBay.
On Wednesday, a 1TB Vision Pro, complete with all the included gear, Apple’s fluffy $200 travel case, $500 AppleCare Plus, and claimed to have been “worn maybe about an hour” sold for $3,200 after 21 bids. The listed shipping estimate was $20.30. Brand new, that combination is $5,007.03 on Apple’s site for me. Another eBay listing, this one with my headset’s configuration (but sans optical inserts) w...
Have a look at this Terminator 2 fan restoration project
Terminator 2: Judgment Day was — and is, for some — the standard-bearer for bombastic tentpole action films after it was released in 1991, but many of its fans have been less than enthusiastic about its Blu-ray releases. In recent years, though, people who love the movie have been restoring it using 35mm prints, and one of those efforts has been making the rounds over on X.
Jon W., who frequently posts about movies and projects like these, compiled a few screenshots in a thread comparing the new version with other transfers. They didn’t credit the person working on this directly, but did post a screenshot of text from “the person who restored Terminator” — Googling some of it verbatim led me to Rob’s Nostalgia Projects.
The Verge’s 2024 Mother’s Day gift guide
We found a collection of unique gift ideas that go beyond the flowers and chocolates that typically rule the day.