Nielsen is leaning more on wearables to hear what people are watching
In order to beef up its ability to accurately measure viewership data in the streaming era, Nielsen is moving forward with a plan to use more information gathered from its partners' wearable devices.
Today, Nielsen announced "a number of key enhancements" that are being added to its data capturing process ahead of the upcoming fall TV season. As of August 31st, Nielsen's co-viewing data will now include information obtained from smart-watch like gadgets that Neilsen's research panelists wear in their homes. The Portable People Meter (PPM) Wearables - which Nielsen first began deploying nationally in 2016 to bolster its audio, local TV, and …
Google Gemini is getting a dedicated student hub
As we're gearing up for back-to-school season, Google is rolling out a new dedicated student hub in Gemini. It's a one-stop repository for collecting research in a study notebook, creating flashcards, taking practice quizzes, and more. Google is also enhancing its study notebooks with support for graphs and images. It can even add test dates and deadlines to your Google Calendar based on your syllabus.
Google is also adding Deep Research to Gemini Live. You can ask Gemini to generate complicated research reports and talk through the results. If it's taking a while, you can close the chat and lock your phone screen, and Gemini will let you k …
Watch Valve set up the Steam Frame in its own leaked videos
Valve just leaked several new videos showing the Steam Frame's unboxing, setup process, and various accessories. The videos apparently appeared on the ARM Steam client following an update, but they were "quickly pulled after that," according to the Steam Hardware Updates account on X.
The Steam Frame is Valve's virtual-reality headset that can stream games from a PC or play them locally. Valve first took the wraps off the headset last year, and it offers LCD screens with 2160 x 2160 resolution per eye, a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip, and an up to 110-degree field of view. But these leaked videos offer a closer look at what it might be like to un …
The wearable future is stuck in weird, experimental, existential limbo
This is Optimizer, a weekly newsletter sent from Verge senior reviewer Victoria Song that dissects and discusses the latest gizmos and potions that swear they're going to change your life. Opt in for Optimizer here.
For the past week, I've been testing the Google Pixel Watch 5. In many ways, it's a typical, modern smartwatch. In others, it feels like one part of a wearable future that's increasingly in flux. Everyone I've spoken to in wearable tech has roughly the same goal - soon, your tracker of choice will feature a helpful AI coach, "check engine" alerts that preventively flag hard-to-detect health conditions, and personalized health re …
Grab an iPad Air M4 for its lowest price since the June increase
Almost everything with high-end memory or storage is more expensive these days, and tablets are no exception, so we’re glad to see that Amazon and Best Buy have the most recent 11-inch iPad Air with the M4 chip on sale for $649. That’s $100 lower than the new retail price that went into effect (alongside plenty of other Apple price hikes) in June. You can also grab the 256GB model for $749 (usually $849), and the version with a cellular antenna for $799 (usually $899).
Apple iPad Air M4
Where to Buy:
We reviewed the M4 iPad Air when it released in March, and found a very similar experience to the previous generation, for better or worse. The upgraded internals give the system a performance boost and better connectivity, like Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6, but otherwise this update is short on notable or exciting features if you’ve used an iPad Air the past few years.
Read our Apple iPad M4 Air review.
Other deals to consider
- The Garmin InReach Mini 2 is discounted to $249.99 at a variety of retailers, including Amazon, REI, and directly from Garmin. This compact device uses a satellite connection, which requires a Garmin InReach subscription, to provide emergency services, location sharing, and even text messaging when paired with smart device.
- Best Buy has the Anker 140W 4-Port Laptop Charger on sale for $55.99, a $24 discount off the usual price. With three USB-C ports and a USB-A port mounted on its bottom to prevent sagging in your outlet with multiple devices plugged in, you can easily charge a weekend worth of devices. The built-in display lets you check your total power usage at a glance, or make sure you’re charging at the right power level.
- Amazon is selling the Marshall Stanmore III Bluetooth speaker for $199.99, half off the usual retail price and matching the lowest price to date. While it doesn’t have a phono pre-amp, it does have RCA inputs for use with a properly-equipped record player, and vintage amplifier styling that helps set it apart from the crowd of other speakers.
OpenAI hit the brakes. Now what?
With a looming IPO, intense competition from Anthropic, and Chinese and open-weight rivals nipping at its heels, OpenAI has plenty of reasons to move fast. Instead, it hit the brakes.
On Tuesday, the company said it had slowed the pace of some AI development while it tightened security and safeguards. That included a two-week pause in reinforcement learning training on its "latest models intended for deployment," and an ongoing delay to its "largest planned frontier RL run."
The decision is a very public test of an idea AI safety advocates have pushed for for years: that companies should be willing to bow out of the AI race and slow things …
GTA VI keeps leaking ahead of its gameplay premiere
Clips of what appears to be Grand Theft Auto VI have hit the internet, possibly spoiling aspects of the game ahead of Rockstar Games' deep dive debuting on Netflix next week and its long-awaited launch in November.
I've seen three clips seemingly showing off the game, though two have been pulled from the site I saw them on "due to a copyright claim." The first clip (now removed) was a quiet scene that mostly focused on Jason Duval, one the game's two protagonists, shooting a basketball into a hoop. Another clip (also removed) featured more of the crime-focused gameplay you'd expect from GTA, including Duval hitting a person with a wrench, a …
Meta AI is getting a Mac app
Meta is launching a new Mac app dedicated to its AI chatbot. In an announcement on Wednesday, Meta says you can share your window with its AI chatbot, which can provide suggestions, answer questions, or create content based on what's on your screen. Meta AI on the Mac also supports dictation across all apps.
The launch comes as Meta makes its AI chatbot more like a productivity-focused assistant to better compete with its AI rivals - many of which already have desktop apps. You can share your window with Google's Gemini AI app, while OpenAI's ChatGPT and Anthropic's Claude apps take things a step further by allowing the chatbots to take con …
We reviewed the new Pixel lineup, ask us anything
The embargo has lifted on Google's Pixel 11 series, as well as for its Pixel Watch 5. Now we get to talk smack - just kidding, the new hardware is good. We have four reviews live on the site that you can peruse at your leisure. We're giving subscribers a chance to engage with us directly in an AMA later today. I'll be there (I reviewed the standard Pixel 11) to answer your questions, and so will David "11 Pro" Imel, Dominic "11 Pro Fold" Preston, and Victoria "Pixel Watch 5" Song.
Subscribers, drop in your questions and we'll begin answering them at 3PM ET. We can't stop you from asking irrelevant questions, but we'll be prioritizing ones t …
The Pixel 11 Pro is a great phone, no thanks to its flashiest new features
Google is trying to get you off your phone. The Pixel 11 Pro is "A Phone Designed to Help You Use It Less," the company promises. It can proactively help you book restaurant reservations, take the best frames from a video, and help you voice-text significantly faster. The pitch is that the new features bundled with the Pixel 11 series of phones can help fix your relationship with technology - one that Google knows has badly degraded in recent years.
But the hardware of the Pixel 11 Pro and 11 Pro XL is very similar to last year's models - and in at least one case, a downgrade - so those software features are pretty much the entire pitch.
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