Wednesday’s top tech news: Google showcases its own AI search experiences – The Verge

Most people can tweet again, but Twitter still has issues

2023-02-08T19:27:17-05:00

Twitter appears to be recovering from having technical issues that prevented people from tweeting, though problems with DMs, and accessing TweetDeck are still seemingly persisting. Downdetector reports that the problems started around 4:30PM ET, and the unfettered ability to tweet came back around an hour and a half later.

The company has said it's aware of the existing issues, and is working on fixing them.

Tweets were visible during the partial outage, but several Verge staff members got a message saying that they were "over the daily limit for sending Tweets" when trying to post or retweet someone else's post. Some Twitter users said we …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Sonos CEO says Amazon, Google aren’t ‘doing anything interesting’ in audio

2023-02-08T18:53:04-05:00

During Sonos' Q1 2023 earnings call, CEO Patrick Spence expressed the usual optimism about his company's financial performance, sales momentum, and upcoming product roadmap. This man really loves the word "flywheel," folks. But he also took clear jabs at Big Tech competitors, including Amazon, Google, and Apple, for barely putting up a fight in recent months.

With Amazon rumored to be taking a hard look at its ambitions surrounding Alexa and Echo products and Google largely focused on all things Pixel, Spence said that Sonos faced no serious competition during the crucial holiday quarter. "We've gone through fiscal Q1, which is the height o …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Now Twitter Blue subscribers can write 4,000-character tweets

2023-02-08T15:21:13-05:00

Twitter has launched a longer tweet feature, giving Blue subscribers in the US the ability to post up to 4,000 characters at once. If someone you follow uses the feature, the tweet in your timeline will have a "show more" button to keep it from taking up your entire screen.

Currently, there are a few limitations to the feature (besides the big one that it's behind a paywall). If your tweet is over the standard 280 characters, you can't save it as a draft or schedule it for later. However, most other normal features should work as usual - you can add hashtags or pictures, and non-Blue subscribers will still be able to interact with the posts …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Netflix’s password-sharing crackdown hits Canada, but not the US — yet

2023-02-08T14:31:34-05:00

Netflix is expanding its paid password sharing to subscribers in Canada, New Zealand, Portugal, and Spain starting Wednesday, the company announced in a blog post. The company had already started testing the change - in a few different forms - in some countries in Latin America. Now, Netflix is expanding its efforts ahead of a broader rollout in "the coming months."

Last week, Netflix faced pushback after notes about when and how it might block devices used beyond your household popped up on support pages for the US and other countries where the new "paid sharing" setup hasn't rolled out yet.

Netflix said that was inadvertent, and now none …

Read the full story at The Verge.

‘MetaBirkins’ NFT creator loses trademark fight with Hermès

2023-02-08T12:48:49-05:00

MetaBirkin" data-portal-copyright="Image: MetaBirkin" data-has-syndication-rights="1" src="https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/chorus/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24418312/Screen_Shot_2023_02_08_at_12.10.27_PM.png?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0,0,100,100" />

MetaBirkins NFT 43 | Image: MetaBirkin

A New York jury says that selling "MetaBirkins" non-fungible tokens violates the trademark of luxury brand Hermès. Bloomberg Law reported this morning on the outcome of the trial, a potentially landmark decision in the confusing world of NFT intellectual property. The jury awarded Hermès $133,000 and determined that the tokens aren't First Amendment-protected speech, contrary to the argument of their creator, Mason Rothschild.

Hermès sued Rothschild over MetaBirkins in early 2022 during a boom in crypto-related projects. Like numerous other NFT projects, MetaBirkins paired unique digital tokens with themed pictures - in Rothschild's case, 1 …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Chrome’s new update is the first version you can’t run on Windows 7

2023-02-08T11:09:09-05:00

Windows devices will need to run Windows 10 or later to continue receiving future Chrome releases. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

If you're currently using Google Chrome on an old or outdated PC, then you might want to consider upgrading your hardware. With the public release of Chrome 110 on February 7th, the browser will no longer support Windows 7 or Windows 8 / 8.1 and the lesser-used Windows Server 2012 or Windows Server 2012 R2. This follows Microsoft's decision to definitively end security updates for Windows 7 and Windows 8 / 8.1 on January 10th earlier this year.

Chrome 110 patches some known cybersecurity issues and includes a few new features, such as customizable network error pages and the option to use biometric authentication on supported computers to a …

Read the full story at The Verge.

The making of surprise hit Hi-Fi Rush

2023-02-08T11:00:00-05:00

Hi-Fi Rush. | Image: Tango Gameworks

Hi-Fi Rush is a slick and stylish action game - but it's also a game about what it feels like to play music live. The rhythm hack-and-slash title from developer Tango Gameworks is rooted in John Johanas' own history with music. The game's director was the guitarist in a band with friends in high school, playing Radiohead covers as a self-taught group. His experience onstage during the school's battle of the bands as well as a few one-off shows later is one he remembers fondly.

"A lot of this game is influenced by the feeling of nailing it with other people playing in a band," Johanas says. "Obviously, it's single-player, but there's this we …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Where are the good Android apps for Mastodon?

2023-02-08T10:30:00-05:00

Recently, I started looking for an alternative to Twitter (somehow, I suspect I'm not the only one) and landed on Mastodon. I like it there: most of the residents seem smart, friendly, and less likely to blow up than on Twitter. But after I started getting used to the interface, I realized that the mobile app, while usable, left something to be desired. So when I heard that there was a new one in beta called Ivory that, according to several accounts, provided a much better experience, I was eager to try it out.

And then I hit a familiar problem: Ivory is only available for iOS devices. I use Android.

Now, I've been using Android phones for …

Read the full story at The Verge.

MSI Titan GT77 HX review: Intel’s most powerful laptop chip, tested

2023-02-08T10:30:00-05:00

This is a powerful, expensive, and surprisingly long-lasting gaming laptop.

Okay, now this is just ridiculous.

For those of you just tuning in, Intel announced an absolutely monstrous mobile processor back in January - the Core i9-13980HX with 5.6Ghz of turbo frequency, 157 watts of maximum turbo power, and 24 cores (eight performance, 16 efficiency). It is, on paper, the most powerful laptop CPU in history. So, naturally, I had to get my hands on one.

I'm writing this to you live from the MSI Titan GT77 HX. This is an absurd device. It's got a 17.3 inch 144Hz Mini LED screen. Inside are a GeForce RTX 4090, 2TB of storage, and 64GB of memory. If anything can display Intel's flagship processor at its finest, it'll …

Read the full story at The Verge.

How to watch the February 2023 Nintendo Direct

2023-02-08T10:30:00-05:00

The first Nintendo Direct of the year is almost upon us - and it sounds like it might be a big one. While Nintendo hasn't provided any real details, the company did say to expect "roughly 40 minutes of information" about games coming out in the first half of 2023.

It's important to note that this year is shaping up to be a big one for Nintendo. The Super Mario Bros. Movie comes out in April, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is coming to the Switch in May, and next week will see Super Nintendo World open up at Universal Studios Hollywood. We could get updates on all of those, and there's also a possibility we'll hear about Pikmin 4 …

Read the full story at The Verge.