The gaming platform Steam has been in the spotlight recently for a few reasons: Firstly, it was reported co-op games are massively outshining single-player experiences on the PC service, and the platform also wrapped Steam Next Fest - a week-long celebration gifting gamers the chance to play hundreds of free demos - last month.

Image: Jackson Gibbs for The Verge Leave the computer, take the hard drive. Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Etsy has long sold items that fall into one of two categories: handmade or vintage. Now, that fairly narrow categorization is changing. A policy update announced today creates four new classifications for items for sale on Etsy: “made by,” “designed by,” “handpicked by,” and “sourced by.” All products need to fall into one of the four to be eligible for the platform. Vintage items — a backbone of Etsy’s offerings — will fall under “handpicked by.” Craft supplies like beads or clay are considered “sourced by.” A vase handmade by a ceramics artist would be in the “made by” category, whereas a digital illustration would be considered “designed by” the seller. These categories will be visible on Etsy product listings. The company says that... Continue reading…

Image: Nick Barclay / The Verge Spotify is launching the ability to leave comments on podcasts. The company already lets Spotify podcasters offer polls and Q&As, so this new feature could give creators new ways to interact with their audiences. Comments will be private by default (similar to Q&A responses), so creators will have to approve each comment they want to appear. Creators can choose to have comments available for their whole show or just for specific episodes, and, if they don’t want to allow comments at all, they can opt out of the feature. Image: Spotify Creators can manage comments on the Spotify for Podcasters web app starting Tuesday and as part of a revamped Spotify for Podcasters mobile app that is being introduced in a phased... Continue reading…

The bigger, better cover screen is a delight to use — but familiar problems persist. Continue reading…

tvOS 18 is full of great features. After a few years of neglecting the Apple TV operating system, it seems Apple is more focused than ever on its home hardware and software because tvOS 17 was packed with innovation, and we can't stop hearing rumors about new home products. With tvOS 18, one of the greatest features coming later this year is inSight, which has just been added to iOS 18 and Apple TV's software with beta 3. Apple says inSight "displays timely information about actors, characters, and music from Apple TV+ movies and shows onscreen in real-time." With that, whenever you're watching Apple TV+ content, you can swipe up to discover this new inSight section. Users can select an actor to view their background and filmography page or quickly view the song playing in a scene and add it to an Apple Music playlist. Image source: José Adorno for BGR Since this is an Apple TV+ feature, it's deeply integrated with iOS 18 and tvOS 18. So, if you're watching something on your Apple TV, you can also access your iPhone's Remote app to discover an inSight section and not interrupt your show with this additional information. While this tvOS 18 feature is very similar to what Amazon Prime Video has offered for a few years now, Apple was able to take it a step further with a deep system integration. For me, it means I'll never miss a song that I enjoy, as I can quickly add it to Apple Music. In addition, I'm terrible with actors' names, so having an easier way to see who that artist is and which other roles they might have played is very handy. Besides that, tvOS 18 is expected to add even more features to Apple TV users, such as improved Enhance Dialogue, automatic subtitles when the show changes to another language (or you don't understand what they're saying), and so much more. Discover more functions coming to Apple TV in our guide below. Don't Miss: tvOS 18: Release date, features, download, Apple TV compatibility, more The post tvOS 18’s Apple TV+ upgrade makes the best streaming app even better appeared first on BGR. Today's Top Deals Today’s deals: $53 HP Chromebook, $850 M3 MacBook Air, 20% off LG C4 OLED TV, $28 Echo Dot, more Today’s deals: Rare Meta Quest 3 discount, $8 mosquito bite relief, $300 off Narwal Freo X Ultra, more Best Apple deals for July 2024 Today’s deals: $249 iPad 9th-Gen, $20 Anker Soundcore earbuds, $110 Ninja AF161 Max XL Air Fryer, more

House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson combined praise for NATO with a call for members to meet their targeted annual spending of at least 2% of GDP on defense in his first major foreign policy speech as the chamber's Republican leader.

In the third year of the war in Ukraine, NATO is set to deepen relations with its four Indo-Pacific partners, which, although not part of the military alliance, are gaining prominence as Russia and China forge closer ties to counter the United States and the two Koreas.

Donald Trump faces long odds in his bid to reverse his conviction on criminal charges stemming from a legal payment to attorney Michael Cohen despite a landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling recognizing broad presidential immunity from prosecution.

The Ukrainian State Security Service (SBU) presented new evidence Tuesday it said proved that Kyiv's main children's hospital had been directly hit by a Russian Kh-101 cruise missile.