/Top Stories/ Last Updated: Mon, May 13th, 2024 @ 4:05pm EDT

The Verge

Ash Parrish

Square Enix plans to ‘aggressively pursue’ multiplatform game releases

Image: Square Enix

Everybody’s getting bitten by the multiplatform bug; now, it’s Square Enix. In its earnings report released earlier today, the publisher shared plans to increase profits, stating that it will “aggressively pursue a multiplatform strategy that includes Nintendo platforms, PlayStation, Xbox, and PCs.”

Right now, Square Enix’s biggest games, like Final Fantasy XVI and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, have been restricted to the PlayStation, with PC releases for...

The Verge

Jennifer Pattison Tuohy

Apple finally adds iPhone alerts for third-party Bluetooth trackers

Apple and Google collaborated on the new Detecting Unwanted Location Trackers industry standard. | Image: Apple

A new industry specification devised by Apple and Google to address the safety risks of Bluetooth tracking devices is now live. Apple announced this week it has implemented alerts for unknown third-party Bluetooth trackers in iOS 17.5, following Google starting to roll it out across Android devices running 6.0 and higher last December.

The Detecting Unwanted Location...

The Verge

Emilia David

Melinda French Gates to leave the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Photo by Noam Galai / Getty Images for Clinton Global Initiative

Melinda French Gates has stepped down from her position as co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

French Gates, who will officially leave on June 7th, will continue her philanthropy elsewhere, to the tune of $12.5 billion. The money stems from an agreement with her ex-husband, Bill Gates, and does not come from the foundation’s endowment. In her X post, she says she will focus on programs “on behalf of...

ESPN.com

Tim Bontemps and Tim MacMahon

Dallas' new deep threat and Boston's new defensive groove: Keys to pivotal Game 4s

The Celtics bounced back in Cleveland, while the Mavs got another win closer to an upset of the top-seeded Thunder. What lies ahead in Monday's Game 4s?

Fast Company

Reuters

What marijuana reclassification could mean for medical research

The U.S. pot sector could see an influx of medical research funding from healthcare investors amid renewed interest from pharmaceutical firms.

The U.S. pot sector could see an influx of medical research funding from healthcare investors amid renewed interest from pharmaceutical firms, should a proposal to reclassify cannabis as a lower-risk substance be approved, industry experts said.

Wired Top Stories

Will Knight

OpenAI's GPT-4o Model Gives ChatGPT a Snappy, Flirty Upgrade

Prepare for ChatGPT to get more emotional. OpenAI demonstrated upgrades that make the chatbot capable of snappier conversations and showed the AI helper picking up on and expressing emotional cues.

Wired Top Stories

Emily Mullin

The First Person to Receive a Pig Kidney Transplant Has Died

The hospital that carried out the procedure two months prior says there’s “no indication” that the transplant was related to his death.

SBNation.com

Mark Schofield

Sauber aiming for a ‘reset’ after a difficult Miami Grand Prix

Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images

Like many rivals, Sauber is bringing some upgrades to Imola where they are hoping for better results than they saw in Miami

Formula 1 returns this week, with the grid kicking off the European portion of the schedule with the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. This week is likely to be an emotional one for the sport, as the grid returns to Imola for the first time since 2022, with last year’s race canceled due to devastating flooding in the region. In...

SBNation.com

Jack Milko

PGA Championship: Top 25 players with best chance to win at Valhalla, ranked

Scottie Scheffler during the final round of the 2024 RBC Heritage. | Photo by Andrew Redington/Getty Images

The PGA Championship is now upon us, so here are the top 25 players with the best chance to win at Valhalla.

The PGA Championship has produced an impressive list of winners over the past decade.

Brooks Koepka has won three Wanamaker Trophies, while Justin Thomas has claimed two. Phil Mickelson became the oldest major champion three years ago at Kiawah Island, and Collin Morikawa...

The Verge

Sheena Vasani

Tile owner Life360 picks satellites over partnering with Apple or Google

Life360 owns Tile, which makes popular location trackers like the Tile Pro. | Photo by Victoria Song / The Verge

Tile is promising satellite connectivity for its Bluetooth trackers in a move that could boost the company as an independent alternative to its Big Tech rivals: Apple’s Find My network and Google’s newly revamped Find My Device network.

Life360, the family locator and safety service company that bought Tile in 2021 announced a partnership with the satellite company...

The Verge

Jennifer Pattison Tuohy

Denon adds Siri to its smart speakers

Denon Home smart speakers now support Apple’s Siri voice assistant. | Image: Denon

Way back in 2021, Ecobee’s thermostats became the first non-Apple device to integrate Siri voice control into its hardware, following Apple’s making the voice assistant available to third-party devices at WWDC that year. Fast-forward a few years, and there’s finally another device with Siri on board: Denon smart speakers.

While primarily known for its receivers, Denon’s line of wireless...

The Verge

Andrew J. Hawkins

Cruise is back driving autonomously for the first time since pedestrian-dragging incident

Photo: Getty Images

Cruise’s autonomous vehicles are officially back on the road and driving autonomously for the first time since one of its driverless vehicles dragged a pedestrian over 20 feet in San Francisco.

Cruise said last month that it would resume testing with manually driven vehicles focused on mapping and gathering road information — minor tasks for a company with as many autonomous miles as Cruise. But Cruise needs to show local officials that it is suitably...

The Verge

Richard Lawler

Apple News Plus is ready to work offline

Image: Apple

Even if subscribers are outside cellular or Wi-Fi range (or if there’s a massive outage), Apple News Plus on iOS 17.5 can still supply them content now that it’s added Offline Mode — this must’ve been farther down the list from Apple Maps, which added offline navigation last year in the iOS 17 update. Top Stories, Apple News Today audio briefings, magazines, narrated articles, and puzzles can automatically download to your iPhone or iPad, all optimized to maximize...

The Verge

Sean Hollister

Zelda: Majora’s Mask is now a native PC game, and every N64 title could follow its lead

I thought opening the impossible door in Mario 64 was the coolest thing that’d happened to the Nintendo 64 in years, but Mr. Wiseguy’s just-released N64 Recompiled blows me away. It’s a tool that theoretically lets you turn any N64 game into a native PC port, the better to play and preserve N64 games — and to showcase its abilities, you can already download Windows and Linux-native apps for The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask that seem to run incredibly well.

It almost seems...

The Verge

Kylie Robison

ChatGPT will be able to talk to you like Scarlett Johansson in Her

Photo: Warner Bros.

OpenAI is releasing a Her-inspired voice assistant feature that can read your facial expressions and translate spoken language in real time — and hopefully do it all without abandoning you like in the movie.

During a livestream demonstration on Monday, OpenAI engineers and CTO Mira Murati gathered around a phone to show the new capabilities. They encouraged the assistant to be more expressive while making up a bedtime story, then abruptly requested it to switch...

Mashable

The brand-new Apple iPad Air just got its first discount at Amazon

In two days, the all-new 2024 Apple iPad Air tablet will officially hit the market. While waiting for the big drop, shoppers can make sure they're among the first to get their hands on the new iPads by pre-ordering from the Apple Store, Amazon, and others. Today, they're already getting their first discounts.

Best Apple iPad Air 2024 deals: Best budget-friendly Apple iPad Air 2024 deal ...

Mashable

Jam out this summer with up to 38% off portable speakers

GET UP TO 38% OFF: As of May 13, Amazon is offering up to 38% off portable speakers. Choose from Bose, JBL, and other top brands.

Our top picks: Best deal overall JBL FLIP 5 $79.99 at Amazon ...

Mashable

OpenAI announces GPT-4o, a multimodal voice assistant

OpenAI has unveiled GPT-4o, a new AI model that combines text, vision, and audio.

At its highly anticipated livestream event, OpenAI CTO Mira Murati shared that GPT-4o can process text, audio, and vision in one model. GPT-4o will be available to all users, including free users, in ChatGPT and the API.

SEE ALSO: Apple and OpenAI 'finalizing terms' for bringing ChatGPT to iOS 18

The announcement confirmed previous rumors of a voice assistant....

Mashable

IHG's summer sale is here — members save 25%

Save 25%: IHG Hotels & Resorts' Summer Sale has started with IHG One Rewards members saving 25% and non-members scoring 20% off. Stays must be booked between May 24 through September 2. Book before May 21 to save. Rates are pre-paid and non-refundable.

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