Thursday’s top tech news: breaking Bing’s AI brain – The Verge

Good for Nothing: Phone 1’s stable Android 13 release is starting to arrive

2023-02-16T20:10:13-05:00

Nothing’s moody OS is getting its first major update. | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge

As spotted by XDA-Developers, Nothing is starting to release its first major OS upgrade for its very first mobile device: Phone 1. Remember the phone that goes blink blink blink? That one. Its Android 13 skin, Nothing OS 1.5, has been in beta testing since late 2022. Now, beta testers are reporting on Reddit and Discord that the stable version has arrived in the form of Nothing OS 1.5.2.

There's a long list of improvements in Nothing's release notes for the beta, like a Nothing-ified weather app with the company's signature dot-matrix UI styling. There are other expected Android 13 updates included, including a QR code scanner in the quick …

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Apple’s new iOS 16.4 developer beta includes new emoji, web app notifications, and more

2023-02-16T16:05:43-05:00

Apple has pushed its latest iOS developer beta version 16.4, and it contains some interesting updates, including expanded emoji support, keyboard updates for certain languages, and support for web app notifications.

The new emoji come from Unicode version 15.0, introduced in September. Some notable icons include a shaking face emoji, a pushing hand that could totally be used as an "imma stop you right there," and a Khanda emblem representing Sikhism.

International keyboards are getting updates, too, including autocorrect being enabled by default for the Korean keyboard and predictive text support for Ukrainian.

New emoji in Unicode 15.0. | Image: Emojipedia.org" data-portal-copyright="Image: Emojipedia.org">

In addition, some South Asi …

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Tesla recalls 362,758 vehicles equipped with Full Self-Driving beta for ‘crash risk’

2023-02-16T13:32:11-05:00

Tesla will recall nearly 363,000 vehicles equipped with the company's controversial Full Self-Driving (FSD) software after the top federal safety agency identified the driver-assist program as a "crash risk."

Tesla issued a recall notice for the following vehicles equipped with FSD beta based on a directive by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA): 2016-2023 Model S and Model X, 2017-2023 Model 3, and 2020-2023 Model Y. The recall means that Tesla will push out an over-the-air (OTA) software update, free of charge, to address the issues identified by NHTSA.

The recall means that Tesla will push out an over-the-air softw …

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YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki steps down after nine years at the helm

2023-02-16T12:14:18-05:00

YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki is stepping down from her post, she announced in an email sent to employees that YouTube posted publicly on Thursday. Wojcicki has been at Google for nearly 25 years but will be stepping back to "start a new chapter focused on my family, health, and personal projects I'm passionate about."

Neal Mohan, currently YouTube's chief product officer, will be taking over as head of the video streaming service. After serving as Google's senior vice president of display and video ads for many years, Mohan joined YouTube in 2015 and has been one of Wojcicki's primary lieutenants ever since. According to Wojcicki, Mohan playe …

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Apple’s Tetris movie lines up real history with a retro thriller

2023-02-16T11:53:19-05:00

The Tetris movie that's been in the works for almost a decade is actually happening, and Apple has finally unveiled an official trailer ahead of its SXSW premiere. This upcoming Apple Original Films "blockbuster" (sorry) is based on a true story, starring Taron Egerton as Henk Rogers, a Dutch entrepreneur who becomes so enamored with the titular game that he travels to the Soviet Union during the end of the Cold War in order secure its distribution rights.

There, he encounters the game's inventor, Alexey Pajitnov (portrayed by A Good Man's Nikita Efremov), and villainous KGB agents, all while navigating the increasing tensions between the S …

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TikTok is launching a $500,000 live trivia contest

2023-02-16T11:33:54-05:00

TikTok is taking a page out of HQ's playbook and launching a series of live trivia games, the company announced today. Like the doomed trivia startup, TikTok's trivia rounds will happen via livestream each day, and users can log in to play between February 22nd and February 26th.

To entice players, TikTok is offering a $500,000 cash prize pool that's split between winners. Users must be 18 years old and in the US to participate in the multiple-choice trivia rounds, which will be livestreamed on the official @TikTok account. Categories include lifestyle, beauty, sports, and music, according to TikTok, along with John Wick questions (the even …

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John Wick: Chapter 4’s final trailer is a warning not to play in traffic

2023-02-16T11:31:10-05:00

By the end of John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum, most every assassin affiliated with the High Table had every reason to believe that John Wick was quite dead and no longer a problem they needed to be concerned about. The biggest takeaway from the new John Wick: Chapter 4 trailer: the High Table was very, very wrong.

After three movies of mowing down droves of other hired killers in hopes of putting that life behind him, John Wick's fourth chapter finds Wick (Keanu Reeves) suiting up with the Bowery King (Laurence Fishburne), and seemingly Winston Scott (Ian McShane) as the group plan to take down the High Table once and for all.

The traile …

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AI search engines are not your friends

2023-02-16T10:21:17-05:00

Bing, before you make it mad. | Image: Microsoft

A while back, there was a little debate over whether to say "please" and "thank you" to smart speakers. Amazon Alexa added a mode that rewarded children who were polite to their devices, attempting to avoid, as the BBC put it, a generation of children who "grew up accustomed to barking orders" at machines. This whole phenomenon bothered me - I felt like it needlessly blurred the lines between real people who you can actually hurt with rudeness and machines that are incapable of caring. At the time, though, I felt like kind of a jerk about it. Was I really going to object to some basic common courtesy?

Years later, I think I have a good reas …

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Paramount Plus will go up in price when it combines with Showtime

2023-02-16T09:34:12-05:00

The price of Paramount Plus is about to go up. In an earnings call on Thursday, Paramount chief financial officer Naveen Chopra announced that the price of Paramount Plus' essential plan would increase from $4.99 to $5.99 per month, while the premium plan will go from $9.99 to $11.99 per month.

This news comes as Paramount Plus is combining the Paramount Plus and Showtime offerings to form the predictably named "Paramount Plus with Showtime." While the readjusted essential plan will not include content from Showtime, the premium plan will. The price increase will go into effect "upon launch of the integrated service," which is set to occur …

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Strava’s trying to make route planning easier by crowdsourcing photos from users

2023-02-16T09:00:00-05:00

The Recommended Routes photos are meant to help you when planning future activities. | Photo by Victoria Song / The Verge

Route planning can be easy if it's in your neighborhood but a pain when you're planning for a weekend hike or a run when traveling overseas. But if you're a Strava user, the fitness platform is rolling out a new route-planning feature that might help. Starting from 8AM PT / 11AM ET today, you'll be able to view recent photos of a route or trail's views, highlights, and conditions in the mobile app.

The company is using machine learning to exclude photos that include identifiable faces or gear, and it only includes photos posted publicly in the app. Users who don't want photos from their public activities shared as part of the feature will h …

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