Alex Parkin / The Verge Cassette tape sales are at a 20-year high, the vinyl market is on a 17-year growth streak, and CDs have caught the attention of Gen Z. After a resurgence of retro physical media, tech companies have now jumped in to provide new hardware to play these formats. Companies like We Are Rewind, Fiio, and others offer updated designs for new cassette and CD players, with some additional functionality like USB-C charging and Bluetooth. But after a quick glance at these updated music gadgets in person, we found that they are seemingly not as advanced as some of their vintage counterparts. The dimensions of We Are Rewind’s Bluetooth cassette player are roughly the same as Sony’s first-ever Walkman from 1979 — but by the time the cassette Walkman... Continue reading…

Alex Jones in 2022. | Photo by Joe Buglewicz/Getty Images The satirical news outlet The Onion has acquired Infowars, the conspiracy theory-riddled site run by Alex Jones, in a bankruptcy auction. In a press release posted to X Thursday, The Onion announced that it plans to “end Infowars’ relentless barrage of disinformation for the sake of selling supplements and replace it with The Onion’s relentless barrage of humor for good” when it relaunches in January 2025. The Onion purchased Infowars’ assets with the support of the families in Sandy Hook, Connecticut, who sued Jones for spreading lies about the victims of the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Jones was ordered to pay more than $1 billion in 2022 and filed for bankruptcy later that year. In September, a judge approved... Continue reading…

Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge Almost two years after EU regulators first accused Meta of “abusive practices” that gave the tech giant unfair market advantages, the European Commission has fined Meta €797.7 million (around $840 million). The combination of forcing Facebook users to be exposed to Marketplace and imposing restrictions against third-party classified ads providers on the platform are the two main reasons cited for the fine. In a statement, the EU’s competition head Margrethe Vestager accused Meta of abusing its dominant position in the social media market “to benefit its own service Facebook Marketplace, thereby giving it advantages that other online classified ads service providers could not match. This is illegal under EU antitrust rules.” The European... Continue reading…

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images How fake music targets real artists. Continue reading…

Image: The Verge Microsoft has been trying to expand Xbox to multiple devices for more than five years now, and now it’s launching a marketing campaign to make it very clear that it thinks every screen is an Xbox now. A new “This is an Xbox” campaign is launching today to position the Xbox brand as a way to play games across multiple devices, instead of just an Xbox console. “This Is an Xbox invites people to play with Xbox across multiple devices and screens,” explains Craig McNary, senior director of Xbox marketing. “It showcases the evolution of Xbox as a platform that extends across devices, with bold, iconic, fun visuals and a light-hearted tone.” Image: Microsoft Microsoft’s new Xbox marketing campaign. Microsoft has... Continue reading…

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge; Getty Images In the weeks leading up to the US presidential election, Kacey Smith was feeling hopeful. Smith, who supported Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign, says she knew it would be a close race between the Democratic nominee and Republican Donald Trump. But as she scrolled TikTok, she believed Harris would be victorious. But Election Day approached, and she started to sense red flags in that positivity. She recalls TikTok serving her enthusiasm for reproductive choice with videos encouraging “women’s rights over gas prices” — implying, falsely, she thought, the choice was “either/or.” The rhetoric fit well inside her feed filled with strangers, but as a campaign strategy, it felt limiting and risky. “When I started seeing that messaging play... Continue reading…

As we near ChatGPT's second anniversary, we're expecting some sort of new feature announcement from OpenAI. It can't be Advanced Voice Mode, which already launched several weeks ago after being unveiled in mid-May. It also can't be ChatGPT Search, which became available a few days ago. GPT-5 was always a possibility, considering all the rumored work OpenAI has done on the next-gen ChatGPT model. While some reports said the next-gen version of ChatGPT might be available to select enterprise users in December, that might no longer be the case. GPT-5, if it's even called that, might see delays. More recent reports said that all AI labs are facing issues training more sophisticated models. The list includes OpenAI, so GPT-5 could be postponed to next year. At no point did OpenAI commit to a late 2024 release for the GPT-4 successor, however. The same reports said that AI companies might look at offering other features to consumers rather than next-gen models. They pointed to AI agents being the next big thing in genAI products. This applies to OpenAI, of course, since CEO Sam Altman hinted at AI agents recently. A new story says that the first ChatGPT AI agent might drop early next year. Codenamed Operator, the AI might be able to control your computer on your behalf, similar to what Anthropic and Google want to do with their AI agents. Continue reading... The post ChatGPT’s Operator AI agent is the game-changer I’m waiting for, and it’s coming in 2025 appeared first on BGR. Today's Top Deals Today’s deals: 10% off PlayStation, Xbox, & Roblox gift cards, $4.75 Kasa mini smart plugs, more Best deals: Tech, laptops, TVs, and more sales Today’s deals: $369 Apple Watch Series 10, $449 Google Pixel 8, $200 off Narwal Freo Z Ultra, more Exclusive deal: Buture VAC01 cordless vacuum has a massive 67% discount

Former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley is insisting that she had "no interest" in being part of President-elect Donald Trump's Cabinet, and she knows he was playing a "game" with his social media post excluding her and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo from his administration.

Those ever-present TV drug ads showing patients hiking, biking or enjoying a day at the beach could soon have a different look: New rules require drugmakers to be clearer and more direct when explaining their medications' risks and side effects.

The U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has taken steps to put Alphabet's Google under formal federal supervision, The Washington Post reported, potentially mounting yet another regulatory challenge for the Big Tech giant.