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The AI apps are coming for your PC

In this week’s Installer: action cameras, Android weather apps, and Beef.

David Pierce

Today’s Storystream

Feed refreshed Apr 18

Look deep into my orbs.

The RAM shortage could last yearsThe RAM shortage could last years
Terrence O'Brien
Terrence O'Brien
Terrence O'Brien
Pro-Trump AI influencers are flooding social media.

The New York Times has found hundreds of fake accounts on Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook that appear to be a pre-midterm push to get conservative voters to the polls in support of Trump’s agenda. The accounts often use the same captions and awkward phrasing.

It’s not clear who created the A.I. accounts, and determining whether they are the product of a hired content farm, a foreign influence operation, an experiment or something else is difficult, experts said. They all agree, however, that creating such avatars is becoming easier, especially for contractors and marketing companies that now specialize in developing and dispatching A.I. avatars in bulk for increasingly low prices.

Terrence O'Brien
Terrence O'Brien
Tonight’s Coachella schedule kicks off with Kacey Musgraves.

Last week we got special guest, Jack White. This week it’s Musgraves who gets that honor, after releasing the title track from her upcoming album Middle of Nowhere, the second single after “Dry Spell.” This weekend’s livestream replaces the stage with Yuma. That means no Model / Actriz or Drain, but you do get Armin van Buuren and a solo Boys Noize set. Watch here.

Coachella livestream schedule for April 18, 2026.
Image: Coachella / Goldenvoice
Age verification is a mess but we’re doing it anyway

The push for online child safety is forcing platforms to adopt a narrow set of privacy-encroaching age verification options.

Emma Roth
Terrence O'Brien
Terrence O'Brien
Did YouTube killing music videos make Hollywood boring?

YouTuber Patrick Willems has argued that movies look objectively worse than they did 25 years ago. Digital cameras and an overreliance on CGI are factors. But he also argues that YouTube killed off the music video-to-Hollywood pipeline, starving the industry of inventive visual stylists.

Jay Peters
Jay Peters
Slay the Spire II’s roadmap teases a new character.

And a whole lot more, including alternate versions of Acts 2 and 3, Steam Workshop support, and “experimental game modes.” The game got its first major update for all players on Thursday.

The game is a big hit, selling three million copies a week after its March launch, and I can tell you from personal experience that it’s a blast with a friend.

If you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement.

Stevie Bonifield
Stevie Bonifield
Artemis II commander says a lunar landing is “absolutely doable, and it’s doable soon.”

During a press conference on Thursday, astronaut Reid Wiseman said if Artemis II had a lander, “at least three of my crewmates would have been in it trying to land on the Moon.”

“If you had given us the keys to the lander, we would’ve taken it down and landed on that moon.”

Emma Roth
Emma Roth
Meta is reportedly planning to lay off thousands of workers in May.

The job cuts could affect around 10 percent of Meta’s workforce, or around 8,000 employees, according to Reuters. This is reportedly the first of two waves of layoffs planned for this year, and follows an earlier report from Reuters that suggests Meta could cut as much as 20 percent of its workforce.

Andrew Webster
Andrew Webster
Get lost in the Labyrinth.

Some of the best explorations of virtual worlds come from anime, and up next is Labyrinth from director Shoji Kawamori. It centers on a high school student who gets trapped in her phone, only for a virtual doppelgänger to take over her life. It’s hitting theaters soon, but only for two days: May 10th and 11th.

Sean Hollister
Sean Hollister
Steam running natively on a Nintendo Switch.

In December, we explained how Valve architected a push for Windows games on Arm — the Steam Frame is just the tip of the iceberg. Now, Valve’s released a public beta of Steam for Arm+Linux (download link) — and one person’s already got it running on a rooted Switch! Can’t play games yet, though.

Jay Peters
Jay Peters
Folded.

After announcing that the Galaxy Z TriFold phone would be discontinued and offering one final restock, Samsung now says that the “limited-run” phone is “completely sold out,” as reported by 9to5Google. If you want to know what it was like to actually use, check out Allison Johnson’s writeup.

If you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement.

Image
Sean Hollister
Sean Hollister
“We all have days like this.”

Just press play. Trust me. Also see this! And maybe this. I would absolutely pay for tickets to watch this live.

Emma Roth
Emma Roth
The developer of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4 is laying off more workers.

Iron Galaxy Studios, which has also helped support and port dozens of games, including BioShock Infinite, Diablo III, and The Last of Us Part I, is cutting around 90 employees, according to Kotaku.

The layoffs follow last year’s job cuts at Iron Galaxy Studios, and come as the developer works to “adapt to the climate of the video game industry,” according to a post on LinkedIn.

Did Neuralink make the wrong bet?

The field of brain-computer interfaces is moving away from mind-controlled computer cursors to restoring speech.

Elissa Welle
Antonio G. Di Benedetto
Antonio G. Di Benedetto
🎥 Here’s our video pitting the MacBook Neo against laptops from Asus, Lenovo, and Acer.

Last week I told you how much better the MacBook Neo is compared to similarly priced Windows laptops. Now, let me show you.

Mia Sato
Mia Sato
Madison Square Garden surveillance state.

A new Wired investigation details the lengths Jim Dolan, owner of the New York Knicks and venues like MSG and the Las Vegas Sphere, goes to to spy on perceived enemies, fans, and critics. The vast surveillance apparatus includes dossiers, social media posts, and facial recognition tech.

Last year I wrote about one fan who believes a t-shirt design he had made resulted in a lifetime ban from Dolan’s venues — and that facial recognition picked him out of the crowd.

Jay Peters
Jay Peters
AYN’s dual-screen gaming handheld is getting a price increase due to the memory crisis.

With the next batch of pre-orders, the Thor Max model with 1TB of storage is getting a $100 price hike to $549, according to a Discord announcement.

AYN is also switching from UFS 4.0 storage to the slower UFS 3.1 storage starting with the next pre-orders of the Thor and the AYN Odin 3 because “UFS 4.0 is no longer available at a sustainable level.”

If you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement.

A screenshot of an announcement from the AYN Discord. It reads: Hi everyone, We’d like to share a quick update regarding our current production and upcoming plans. Thor is currently in the process of fulfilling shipments from previous batches, and we will soon be opening the next round of pre-orders - Thor Batch 6 and Odin 3 Batch 7. Following the recent surge in DRAM pricing, we are now facing a difficult situation with UFS storage. Due to supply shortages and significant cost increases, UFS 4.0 is no longer available at a sustainable level. As a result, Thor and Odin 3 will transition to UFS 3.1 moving forward (From new preorder Thor Batch 6 and Odin 3 Batch 7). We will be doing our best to maintain the existing pricing for Thor Base and Pro models despite these challenges. However, the cost increase for 1TB UFS has been substantial, and we unfortunately have to adjust the price of the Thor Max (16GB + 1TB) to $549. On a more positive note, we are introducing a new configuration: a 16GB RAM model paired with 512GB storage, priced at $469. We truly appreciate your understanding and continued support as we navigate these supply chain changes. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out. AYN Team (edited)
Here’s the full text of the announcement.
Image: AYN
Jay Peters
Jay Peters
Playdate Catalog games can’t use generative AI for “art, audio, music, text, or dialog.”

Panic detailed the changes in a policy that went into effect this month. For now, however, Panic will allow Catalog titles that “have used AI assistance in the coding process,” but those games will be flagged to note that.

For its own games, Panic cofounder Cabel Sasser recently told The Verge that it does not “have any interest in generative AI-created products.”

Our new favorite budget phonesOur new favorite budget phones
Dominic Preston
Lauren Feiner
Lauren Feiner
The FAA is mad pilots are getting catty.

Pilots have apparently been meowing and barking at each other over air traffic control radio, but the Federal Aviation Administration isn’t amused by the bit. Some in the industry fear pilots will tune out the jokes and miss timely safety information, according to CNN.

Hayden Field
Hayden Field
Anthropic launched a new design product.

Claude Design — powered by the company’s newest model, Opus 4.7 — allows users to create designs, prototypes, pitch decks, marketing materials, and more. It’s available in research preview for paying subscribers.

Jay Peters
Jay Peters
Roblox will pay $10 million to Nevada as part of a settlement.

The company, which is the subject of multiple state lawsuits over alleged child safety issues, will also be required to implement a “default content mode” for users who haven’t had their age verified — which is basically what Roblox announced on Monday.

The settlement was reached after Nevada approached the company ahead of a lawsuit, Reuters reports.

Jennifer Pattison Tuohy
Jennifer Pattison Tuohy
Did Home Assistant take down this robot lawnmower’s cloud?

European Mammotion owners took to Reddit to complain that their expensive machines have been offline for three days. Mammotion says a fix is in the works, but hasn’t said what happened. One Redditor claims the outage stems from a bug in the Mammotion Home Assistant integration he had built. We’ve reached out to the company for the full story.

Andrew Liszewski
Andrew Liszewski
Our best look yet at the pro version of DJI’s Osmo Pocket 4.

The same day DJI announced the new Osmo Pocket 4, leaker Igor Bogdanov shared two new videos of the rumored pro version on X. The first video appears to be an official leaked teaser from DJI briefly showing the Osmo Pocket 4P’s dual cameras in motion, while in the second the camera is controlled using a wireless touchscreen remote.

A screenshot showing the DJI Osmo Pocket 4P’s screen and dual cameras.
The dual camera pro version of the Osmo Pocket 4 may be called the Osmo Pocket 4P.
Screenshot: X
Terrence O'Brien
Terrence O'Brien
Coachella week two kicks off tonight.

The YouTube livestream starts at 4pm PT / 7pm ET. This is your chance to catch anything you missed last weekend (Tomora wasn’t on my radar), and for artists who had some issues to iron them out (sound for Slayyyter’s set was rough). Here’s the schedule for tonight:

Coachella livestream schedule for Friday, April 17th.
Image: Coachella / Goldenvoice
Stevie Bonifield
Stevie Bonifield
EVs are more affordable than gas cars in the UK now.

According to Autotrader data spotted by The Guardian, new EVs now cost on average £785 (about $1,065) less than gas cars. The UK’s EV grant, its zero-emission vehicle mandate, and more competition from brands like BYD have helped drive down prices, reducing a major barrier to EV adoption.

Thomas Ricker
Thomas Ricker
White Lotus, but cheaper.

Google now lets you track price drops of your favorite hotel and receive email alerts if rates drop during your chosen dates:

To get started on desktop, head to Search and look up a specific hotel by name, then tap the new price tracking toggle. On mobile, you’ll find the price tracking option under the Prices tab after you search.

Image
Emma Roth
Emma Roth
This startup sells dead company data for AI training.

SimpleClosure, a startup that helps struggling companies shut down, launched a new tool for businesses that want to sell off old code, Slack messages, emails, and workspace information to data-hungry AI companies, as reported by Forbes:

The demand for this real-world enterprise data has spurred on a new industry of ‘reinforcement learning gyms,’ which specialize in using defunct company data to build simulated environments where AI agents can practice navigating real workplaces.

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