Weekly Issue: 2024-47

Image: Laura Normand / The Verge The Department of Justice says that Google must divest the Chrome web browser to restore competition to the online search market, and it left the door open to requiring the company to spin out Android, too.

Technology is seeing a seismic shift, driven in part by artificial intelligence, with AI compute solutions emerging as the backbone of this growth. As the demand for accessible, energy-efficient and flexible infrastructure skyrockets, industry leaders are embracing decentralization, sustainability and multi-vendor ecosystems.

In a revealing analysis of current e-commerce trends, recent research from commercetools GmbH indicates that businesses are rapidly shifting toward more flexible and scalable platforms to meet evolving consumer demands.

NFL fans, if you are like me, your team’s performance this year has only served to confirm you made the right choice in holding off on NFL Sunday Ticket this year.

With the rumor of Chromebooks possibly making the move to Android (versus ChromeOS as it is now), I have to admit that my emotions have been all over the place.

Creating a seamless user experience for a global audience just got easier with Intl.Segmenter. Learn how this API can improve your web applications by accurately segmenting text in different languages. Resources: Baseline → https://goo.gle/baseline-webdev https://web.dev/blog/intl-segmenter?hl=en Watch more This is Baseline → https://goo.gle/TiB Subscribe to Chrome for Developers → https://goo.

I’ve been waiting for this feature for a long time, and it looks like a whole new system for backing up and restoring your stuff in Google Messages is finally on the way!

The Lenovo Chromebook Duet 11″ is finally here and with it comes a new MediaTek Kompanio 838 processor that makes this Chromebook tablet super portable and versatile, ready for whatever you throw at it.

It seems Google is wasting no time in getting Android 16 up and running quite a bit ahead of the normal schedule. With a planned launch in Q2 of 2025, we’re already seeing the first Developer Preview land on Pixel devices a whole three months earlier than usual.

Image: The Verge The latest version of Chrome (Version 131.0.6778.86) has addressed an issue in the browser that broke the ability to highlight text on some websites over the weekend, Google’s Scott Westover confirmed to The Verge in an email.

StarTree Inc., the developer of a managed service based on the Apache Pinot real-time data analytics platform, today rolled out a set of enhancements aimed at helping organizations more efficiently accommodate evolving data structures, enhance query performance and streamline user access management.

StarTree Inc., the developer of a managed service based on the Apache Pinot real-time data analytics platform, today rolled out a set of enhancements aimed at helping organizations more efficiently accommodate evolving data structures, enhance query performance and streamline user access management.

Microsoft’s Copilot AI assistant appears to be transforming into a chatty AI sidekick, and I’ve seen quite a few Copilot users who aren’t happy about it. Thankfully, there’s now another option for anyone interested in using AI purely for productivity — a full-featured ChatGPT app for Windows PCs.

Stop me if you’ve heard this one: Google’s got two primary user-facing platforms, Android and ChromeOS — and, if the latest rumors are to be believed, the company may be on the brink of bringing ’em together and combining ’em into a single, streamlined entity.

Database company MongoDB Inc. today announced an expanded partnership with Microsoft Corp. that includes new integrations aimed at enhancing artificial intelligence application development, real-time data analytics and deployment flexibility.

Silicon diversity is redefining the future of artificial intelligence by addressing critical challenges in performance, cost and scalability. As AI workloads grow increasingly complex, spanning inference, training and multimodal applications, the need for adaptable, open hardware solutions is at an all-time high.

Apple’s main manufacturing partner, Foxconn, has announced it is working with Nvidia to build digital twins that it says will reshape the future of manufacturing and supply chain management.

CSS highlight inheritance is changing for the ::selection and ::target-text pseudo-classes. This creates a more intuitive model for style inheritance and aligns with the recently added ::highlight, ::spelling-error and ::grammar-error pseudo-classes. For more updates, check out New in Chrome 131. Watch more New in Chrome → https://goo.

As a result of new joint efforts across NetApp, Red Hat and Google Cloud, we are announcing support for Google Cloud NetApp Volumes in OpenShift on Google Cloud through NetApp Trident Version 24.10.

Right before the absolute largest bombshell that could have dropped in the Chromebook world hit me smack-dab in the face yesterday, I was sitting here at my desk, answering questions in our Chrome Unboxed Plus community about a feature that was supposed to ship in ChromeOS 127, never showed, and was re-introduced for ChromeOS 130:…

It’s been a wild 24 hours, ladies and gentlemen; and I don’t think this particular train is going to slow down anytime soon.

Illustration: The Verge Right now, text highlighting is broken for anyone using recent Chromium-based browsers on some websites. The cause appears to be a change to selection styling that doesn’t play nicely with Tailwind CSS.

Protecting sensitive company data is no longer just a best practice—it’s business critical. In today’s world, data breaches can have serious consequences, from financial losses and reputational damage to legal repercussions and operational disruptions.

Google is now beginning the roll-out of a few nifty additions that make checking the weather a bit more immersive and informative on Pixel devices. If you’re rocking a Pixel 8 or newer, you’ll soon get introduced to “Immersive weather vibrations” to accompany those fun, new AI-generated city backgrounds.

Microsoft will start selling a thin client device that lets workers boot directly to Windows 365 “in seconds,” the company announced on Tuesday.  Windows 365 Link will cost $349 when it launches next April, but businesses can contact their Microsoft account team and request a private preview.

Unemployment in IT fields has been dropping in recent months. Generative AI (genAI) is opening up new career opportunities. Inflation is deflating, and the US economy appears strong. So, why is it so many people are still finding it hard to land a job in technology?

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) is intensifying its antitrust actions against Google, proposing a historic move that could reshape the tech landscape.

Google LLC is pursuing a multiyear effort to develop a version of ChromeOS that has Android at foundation, Android Authority reported today. The initiative is believed to have two goals. One is to make ChromeOS tablets more competitive with the iPad, which has a significant market share lead.

We’ve been here before, but things are a bit different this time around. Instead of “one OS to rule them all,” rumors are swirling that Google is planning a major shakeup that would see ChromeOS uniformly replaced by (or merged into) Android down the road.

Back in June, Google announced ChromeOS would adopt “portions of the Android stack.” A report today says Google is “working on fully migrating Chrome OS over to Android.”

Google has been quietly rolling out a new feature to its Digital Wellbeing suite on Pixel and other Android phones called Screen Time Reminders.

While Chromebooks run on ChromeOS, known for its simplicity and efficiency, you may want the flexibility and features of Windows 10. The good news is that it’s possible to install Windows 10 on a Chromebook without a USB or any other external device.

Google Fi has introduced a Pixel Watch 3 LTE (both sizes) deal that’s almost too good to be true. If you’re a Fi subscriber, you can snag the 41mm or 45mm Pixel Watch 3 LTE essentially for free.

Join host Thomas Steiner and Steve Manuel from Dylibso as they dive deep into the world of "squishy" Wasm applications. Steve discusses Dylibso’s mission to make all software squishy, using Wasm to unlock flexibility and extensibility in software development.

Cassandra, a key-value NoSQL database, is prized for its speed and scalability, and used broadly for  applications that require rapid data retrieval and storage such as caching, session management, and real-time analytics. Its simple key-value pair structure helps ensure high performance and easy management, especially for large datasets.