Boy Come First’s cover art, and a photo of Aaron Foley. | Belt Publishing / AFP Photo / Jeff Kowalsky Author Aaron Foley’s debut novel Boys Come First only released last May, but Amazon is already making moves to turn its queer, Black millennial-focused story into a series. Deadline reports that Amazon’s developing an adaptation of Boys Come First that will be executive produced by Ted Lasso’s Chuck Hayward, who will also write the pilot and is in talks to become the series’ showrunner. Set in Foley’s native Detroit, Boys Come First tells the story of Dominick Gibson, Troy Clements, and Remy Patton — three Black, gay thirty-somethings who are all trying to find themselves and hold onto their friendship at a time when the city they love is rapidly changing. Mozart in the Jungle executive producer Will Graham and Hailey Wierengo’s... Continue reading…

Image: Hugo Herrera / The Verge The Biden administration released a long-awaited update to the rules governing which electric vehicles are eligible for a tax credit, and while we still don’t know which vehicles will meet the new standards, one thing is for sure: fewer EVs are going to qualify. The new rules, which were published by the Treasury Department on Friday, address outstanding issues related to the source of the critical minerals contained within an EV battery. Under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), only electric vehicles with battery materials sourced from the US and its approved trading partners will qualify for the $7,500 credit. That represents a serious challenge to most automakers — and now for customers interested in buying an EV. Under the current... Continue reading…

Photo illustration: Alex Parkin / The Verge Activist investors, unhappy Magic fans, and a D&D licensing battle all at once — oh, and there are Transformers, too. Continue reading…

Google’s Pixel 6 Pro is on sale right now for just $469.99, a whopping $429 off the phone’s initial list price. | Image: Google Sure, if you want a good smartphone that won’t cost a fortune, you could preorder Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy A54, the successor to one of our favorite midrange phones. However, if you’re looking for additional RAM or a bigger display, you may want to check out the current deal on Google’s Pixel 6 Pro. Right now, the last-gen Android phone is on sale at Woot in an unlocked black configuration with 128GB of storage for $469.99. That’s a $429 discount and just $20 more than the starting price of Samsung’s forthcoming A54. Both phones boast an OLED display with a fast 120Hz refresh rate for smooth scrolling. The Pixel 6 Pro, however, offers a larger 6.7-inch screen as well as 12GB of RAM, which is double that of the base A54. The Pixel 6 Pro... Continue reading…

Illustration: Samar Haddad / The Verge Last year’s iOS 16 and iPadOS 16 releases came with a host of great new features — including sweet lock screen customization options, which Verge reporter Jay Peters called one of the biggest successes of 2022. But Apple is still not done with iOS 16; iterative releases have been handed out for testing through the company’s public beta program. Now, Apple has pushed its latest public betas — iOS 16.5 and iPadOS 16.5 — which introduce even more new features, like being able to ask Siri to start a screen recording. You can download the latest public beta releases today — at your own risk, naturally. Here’s how to install the beta software on your iPhone or iPad once it’s available for your device. Before we get started, a word of warning:... Continue reading…

Tetris Effect. | Image: Enhance Experience The new Tetris movie on Apple TV Plus plays fast and loose with facts, but there’s one thing it gets right: the game absolutely rules. Watching the movie is very likely to give you the urge to get back to moving falling blocks around until your eyes bleed. And there are a lot of ways to do that. The best way remains grabbing the original cartridge and slotting it into a Game Boy (or an Analogue Pocket, if you’re fancy). But many of the other options are terrible, like the main mobile app, which is riddled with lengthy ads and a Candy Crush-like structure that sucks the joy out of the game. Luckily for you, I have multiple versions of Tetris installed on basically every device I own, so I’ve pulled together a few options of the best ways... Continue reading…

Haein Jeong / The Verge I. What a difference four months can make. If you had asked in November how I thought AI systems were progressing, I might have shrugged. Sure, by then OpenAI had released DALL-E, and I found myself enthralled with the creative possibilities it presented. On the whole, though, after years watching the big platforms hype up artificial intelligence, few products on the market seemed to live up to the more grandiose visions that have been described for us over the years. Then OpenAI released ChatGPT, the chatbot that captivated the world with its generative possibilities. Microsoft’s GPT-powered Bing browser, Anthropic’s Claude, and Google’s Bard followed in quick succession. AI-powered tools are quickly working their way into other... Continue reading…

Image: Nintendo / The Verge Kirby developers Shinya Kumazaki and Tatsuya Kamiyama talk about the various shapes of Kirby and what we can learn from them. Continue reading…

The Fitbit Charge 3 was the first to introduce the inductive button. Confusion ensued. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge It’s easy to see why gadget makers are so fixated on touchscreens. Swiping is intuitive. It enables sleek lines for a futuristic aesthetic. It’s the easiest way to banish bezels and maximize screen real estate. So I understood why Fitbit was chuffed when it introduced the inductive button on the Fitbit Charge 3. Begone side button protrusion, and behold the slim profile of a modern fitness tracker! This is what an unforced error looks like. With the Charge 3, Fitbit replaced the Charge 2’s physical button with a smooth groove that you could easily mistake as part of the overall design. Put your finger on the groove, and it activates an invisible touch sensor on the inside of the device. When I initially reviewed the Charge 3, it seemed... Continue reading…

OpenAI is accused of “unlawful collection of personal data.” | Illustration: The Verge Italy’s national privacy regulator has ordered an effective ban of AI chatbot ChatGPT, accusing creators OpenAI of “unlawful collection of personal data.” It’s ordered OpenAI to stop collecting Italian users’ data immediately until it amends its data collection practices. The country’s Data Protection Authority, the GPDP, issued a press release this morning saying that the company lacks lawful justification for the collection of users’ personal information. The GPDP says that OpenAI also has no mechanism in place to stop underage users accessing the service, which “exposes minors to absolutely unsuitable answers compared to their degree of development and self-awareness” (translation via Google). This isn’t the first time that Italy’s... Continue reading…