Thursday’s top tech news: an Apple ecosystem for all – The Verge

Mercedes-Benz may drop its ‘EQ’ brand for electric cars after just a few years

2023-01-12T15:06:28-05:00

Well, that was quick.

After just a few years on the market, Mercedes-Benz's "EQ" brand for electric vehicles - which currently includes the EQS, EQE, and a host of others coming soon - may be on the way out. The news was first reported by Germany's Handelsblatt daily newspaper and has since been confirmed by Reuters and other outlets.

While it may seem abrupt, this doesn't mean Mercedes is giving up on electric cars - very much the opposite. The outlets report that since Mercedes' goal is to go fully electric by 2030 with no new internal combustion engines or platforms released after 2025, the different branding has become unnecessary.

W …

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Congress says the Army can’t spend $400 million buying Microsoft HoloLens headsets

2023-01-12T14:42:46-05:00

A soldier wearing an IVAS headset. | Image: US Army

Congress has denied the Army's request to buy up to 6,900 headsets based on Microsoft's HoloLens technology, according to a report from Bloomberg. The military was apparently asking for around $400 million - instead, it's getting around a tenth of that to go toward improving the system, as previous versions reportedly caused "mission-affecting physical impairments," such as headaches and nausea during tests.

It was those results that reportedly led to the budget for new headsets, called Integrated Visual Augmentation Systems or IVAS by the Army, not being included in the government's $1.75 trillion spending bill. The Army says it plans to f …

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ExxonMobil accurately predicted climate change while publicly dismissing it

2023-01-12T14:00:00-05:00

The American multinational oil and gas ExxonMobil Corporation headquartered is seen on December 29th, 2022, in Diegem, Belgium. | Photo by Thierry Monasse / Getty Images

ExxonMobil predicted rising global temperatures with remarkable accuracy even as it attempted to downplay the existence of climate change, new research shows. It comes with damning data visualizations that put hard numbers on just how much ExxonMobil knew about the climate crisis it was creating.

There's been a litany of evidence about how ExxonMobil rejected mainstream climate science, even though the company's own research and internal communications acknowledged that burning fossil fuels would cause global warming. Now, a paper published today in the journal Science gives us the first comprehensive review of decades of ExxonMobil climate …

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EA’s latest Madden NFL 23 fumble locked players out of the game

2023-01-12T13:46:43-05:00

Joe Burrow in Madden NFL 23. | Image: EA

Madden NFL 23's newest title update briefly locked players out of the game on Thursday, EA confirmed on Twitter. It's the latest in a string of issues to plague the popular football title over the past few weeks.

At 11:43AM ET Thursday, EA's Madden NFL Direct Twitter account shared that "we are aware of players being unable to access the game after downloading the latest Title Update." Many players reported problems on Downdetector, while fans on the Madden Reddit posted threads expressing their frustrations with the issues. At 12:12PM ET, the Madden NFL Direct account said the issue had been resolved.

Update:

Our teams have resolved the is …

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HBO Max’s first price hike raises the monthly rate by $1

2023-01-12T11:36:18-05:00

But you’re paying a little more for a lot less than you used to. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

HBO Max is the next streaming service to get a price increase, its first one since launching in 2020. Starting Thursday, the cost of a new subscription to HBO Max will increase from $14.99 to $15.99 per month. Existing subscribers will pay the new price with their next billing cycle "on or after" February 11th.

"This price increase of one dollar will allow us to continue to invest in providing even more culture-defining programming and improving our customer experience for all users," HBO Max wrote in a press email.

While Netflix's creeping price hikes have accumulated over several years, in recent months, many streaming services raised pr …

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Six smart home finds from CES 2023 you may have missed

2023-01-12T10:41:01-05:00

The LG Artcool Gallery AC unit adds some style to your smart home. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge

The smart home at CES wasn't all Matter, Matter, Matter. At The Verge, we covered the launch of literally dozens of new products at the big consumer tech show. From innovations in smart lighting and exciting products in smart home energy management to flying cameras and wirelessly charging smart locks, there was a lot of great new tech to see.

But there were a few that we didn't highlight during the show, as well as a couple of genuine surprises we discovered roaming the show floor. Here's a round-up of some of the other innovations, gadgets, and new products that caught our eye in Las Vegas. And in case you missed it, catch up on all our s …

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Ex-FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried is out on $250 million bail and keeping busy by… blogging?

2023-01-12T10:11:29-05:00

Almost until the moment of his arrest in the Bahamas a month ago, Sam Bankman-Fried's (SBF) post-FTX collapse media tour included days of back-to-back Twitter Spaces and Zoom calls. Now, top executives of companies in his crypto empire have pleaded guilty to criminal fraud charges of fraud and money laundering and are cooperating with the prosecution, while Bankman-Fried - free on a $250 million bond and still giving interviews - pleaded not guilty to eight similar charges and has followed up by launching a newsletter while he awaits trial.

Published this morning on Substack, the "FTX Pre-mortem Overview" message from the former CEO says, a …

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Airbus is testing out autonomous flying tech in some of its planes

2023-01-12T10:00:00-05:00

Airbus is testing out a suite of new automated technology that it says has the potential to improve the safety and efficiency of flying.

The automated technology, which has been branded as the company's DragonFly project, includes "automated emergency diversion in cruise, automatic landing, and taxi assistance," Airbus says.

The company is testing out the new features using an A350-1000 aircraft at the Toulouse-Blagnac Airport, which is a test site for Airbus. The experimentation is being conducted by Airbus UpNext, a subsidiary of the aerospace giant that validates new technology before rolling it out to the wider fleet.

Airbus says the t …

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Intel breaks the 6GHz barrier with $699 Core i9-13900KS processor

2023-01-12T09:36:58-05:00

Intel’s latest 13th Gen CPU breaks the 6GHz barrier. | Image: Intel

Intel is launching its fastest desktop processor to date, breaking the 6GHz barrier at stock speeds for the first time. The new Core i9-13900KS is based on the 13th Gen Core i9-13900K that came close to the 6GHz barrier with its 5.8GHz turbo frequency last year. The new i9-13900KS will be available in stores today, priced at $699.

The 13900KS is the first CPU to reach 6GHz without overclocking, using Intel's Thermal Velocity Boost technology to reach that 6GHz barrier and improve PC gaming performance. It does it by using more electricity, though. The base power of the 13900K was 125 watts, and Intel has bumped this up to 150 watts on the 1 …

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With PC sales down, laptop makers turn to services

2023-01-12T09:00:00-05:00

AMD CEO Lisa Su announces the new Ryzen 7040 chip at CES 2023. | Image: David Becker/Getty Images

The PC market is in rough waters, and it was for much of last year. Worldwide PC shipments fell by 16 percent in 2022, according to recent analysis by Canalys, while Gartner reported a 28.5 percent year-over-year drop in Q4 - the largest quarterly shipment decline since Gartner began tracking the PC market. Every PC maker except Apple saw year-over-year decline. Laptop sales are said to have suffered the most.

This all made for a somewhat uncertain backdrop heading into CES 2023, the annual conference where tech companies show off the products they'll be releasing in 2023. Throughout the show, executives and representatives from various PC …

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