Technology

An AI PC you’ll want to tinker with

Published

2 years ago

June 9, 2024

Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 41, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome, hope you like gaming gadgets and silly spy movies, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.)

This week, I’ve been reading about the tough times at Humane and how Suicide Squad flopped, watching the TikTok dancing cult documentary and Furiosa, swapping my crappy Roku for a slightly less crappy Apple TV, listening to a lot of WikiHole, mixing up new mocktail recipes, and testing the Phanpy app for all things fediverse.

I also have for you a new Raspberry Pi accessory, an incredibly well-liked movie to watch this weekend, a couple of fun tech books, some gaming gear, and lots more. Let’s do it.

(As always, the best part of Installer is your ideas and tips. What are you into right now? What should everyone else be as into as you are? Tell me everything: email installer@theverge.com, share with @imdavidpierce on Threads, or find me on Signal @davidpierce.11. And if you know someone else who might enjoy Installer, tell them to subscribe here.)

The Drop

The Raspberry Pi AI Kit. This is my kind of AI PC: a super simple $70 kit that works with a Raspberry Pi 5 and gives you a surprising amount of power with which to do simple processing tasks. I don’t even know what I’ll use this for! But I’m getting one anyway.
Hit Man. A bunch of very smart people have said this comedy-action-thriller Netflix flick is one of the best movies of the year. And why not? Richard Linklater directs, Glen Powell stars, it’s based on an all-timer of a magazine article. I cannot wait to watch.
Dark Wire. This is as good a premise for a book as I’ve ever seen: the story of the FBI’s secret tech startup, designed to track some of the world’s most sophisticated criminals. A few places have published excerpts, and I already can’t put this book down.
Building SimCity. Two books this week! You love to see it. This is a story all about SimCity, yes, but also about the history of computer simulation, with lots of photos and diagrams to go with it. One for the coffee table for sure.
The new Rivian R1. Same look, same funky headlight design, totally new car underneath. A lot of what Rivian’s doing here is clearly just to keep costs down, but this continues to be the EV I lust after the most.
The Acolyte. This is a very different kind of Star Wars story, set in a very different time and place, told from a very different point of view, all of which I definitely think is a good thing. The reviews seem pretty mixed so far, but I’m excited to give it a whirl.
Sequel 2.3. A very cool update to the Installerverse’s favorite media tracking app for Apple devices. The new feature is called Magic Lookup, and it lets you send a URL to the app and have it automatically parsed and dumped into your lists. Perfect for saving those “20 things coming to Netflix this month” things you see all over the place.
The ModRetro Chromatic. The retro gaming hardware boom we’re in right now is just the best thing. And this, a $199 Game Boy homage from a team led by Palmer Luckey, looks great. It’s not shipping until the end of the year, but it’s up for preorders now.
The Asus ROG Ally X. Speaking of portable consoles! This one’s a lot bigger, a lot more expensive, and a lot more ambitious than the Chromatic — but it also sounds pretty great. Maybe this is the first Windows handheld that can really stand up to the Steam Deck?
Comfort Zone. Fun new podcast from the MacStories crew, with a gimmick I really like: every week, the three hosts have to basically do “Tech Show and Tell” and then issue a tech-related challenge to complete before the next episode. (MacStories also has another new podcast, called NPC, all about portable gaming.
“How ‘Wall-E’ Reveals Our Changing Feelings Toward Tech.” I am outrageously jealous of this whole series of episodes from the Offline podcast, looking at how movies like Her and The Social Network influenced the way we think about and build tech. This is the final episode in the miniseries, and they’re all worth a listen.

Screen share

Well, friends, it took 41 issues, but it happened: I had someone lined up for Screen Share this week, and it just didn’t come together in time. So let’s do something slightly different. I’ve recently become obsessed with the Niagara Launcher for Android, which is, in theory, largely optimized for one-handed phone use but is also just a better, quieter way of organizing your homescreen. In the last 10 days, I’ve probably redone my setup eight times. It’s a lot.

Niagara is just so clever! It turns your apps into a customizable list, pops up widgets and notifications right in place, and lets you do a shocking amount of stuff without ever opening an app. This is totally how phones should work. (If you want to understand how it operates, here’s a good thorough video to watch.)

Niagara just got a big update, too, particularly if you pay the $10 a year or $30 lifetime Pro subscription. Its search is better now, it got some cool new icons, and there are a few other little improvements, too.

As I’ve been tinkering with my own homescreen, I’ve been collecting some Niagara setups I like, and I figured I’d share a few. You can do so many things with this launcher!

Cool, right? There are rumors and reports that we’re going to get a bunch of new customization possibilities for iOS, too, so here’s hoping this is a year filled with chaotic homescreen reorgs. If you use Niagara, by the way, or any other awesome Android launcher, I’d love to see your sick homescreen setups. Send them my way. And we’ll be back to regular Screen Share next week!

Crowdsourced

Here’s what the Installer community is into this week. I want to know what you’re into right now as well! Email installer@theverge.com or message me on Signal — @davidpierce.11 — with your recommendations for anything and everything, and we’ll feature some of our favorites here every week.

“New version of Vibescape just came out for Apple Vision Pro — new Oregon coast-inspired meditation environment! Completely new experience with this and the Forest Ledge environment — pushing the boundaries of what’s possible outside of Apple’s own environments.” – Gregory

“I’ve been using Beeper a ton on my Pixel 8 Pro and MacBook Pro. I actually installed it in early April when the acquisition announcement came out but have really hit my stride with it a month ago. It’s just so helpful to have all of your messaging in one app, both for work and personal.” – Josh

“Patrick Willems has a new video this week about what’s next after superhero movies so I’ve been diving back into his channel after a while.” – Mike

“A friend introduced me to Guild Wars 2 a few months back. As someone who likes the concept of an MMO but always felt let down by the execution, I can confidently say this is one of the most underrated games ever made. A fun, free-to-play MMORPG with a healthy community and no microtransactions sounded too good to be true, but it’s not. Plus, with the recent announcements around the next expansion, there are more reasons to play than ever.” – Dallin

“I heard about Microsoft’s Recall, which felt exhausting and tedious to me. So, last weekend, I paved over Windows and installed the Bazzite Linux distro on my gaming PC and have been playing all my Steam and Epic games that way. It’s surprisingly so much better than the last time I tried Linux on the desktop. I’m sure mileage varies, but everything worked with about the same amount of tweaking Windows required.” – Les

“The LOTR movies are finally coming back to theaters. The extended editions — the only versions I’ll watch. So excited to go watch these with my pals, like high school all over again.” – Colin

“Watching Who Killed WCW? from Vice. It’s a three-part miniseries interviewing Eric Bischoff and a bunch of wrestlers like Kevin Nash, Konnan, and Booker T about the inevitable downfall of WCW. Everyone has their own thoughts about who to point the finger at, from Turner executives hating wrestling to Bischoff not knowing what he’s doing to the wrestlers only looking out for themselves. Only one episode out so far, but it’s good.” – Brian

“The new shows Thousandaires from Dropout and Trolley Problems from 2nd Try premiered this week and are both hilarious and great examples of modern media companies and the trend of creating their own streaming platforms.” – Zach

“On the anime watch. I highly recommend Delicious in Dungeon. Very fun to watch, the characters’ comedic timing is excellent. This anime is hilarious while keeping the stakes of the story high.” – John

Signing off

I’ve been thinking a lot this week about a blog post Andrew Bosworth, Meta’s CTO, wrote recently. He talks about his system of “Inbox Ten,” which basically means not trying to end every day with nothing on your plate but instead just trying to find a more manageable flow of information in your life. Boz has a whole system for managing his inbox in particular, which I really like — I used to be an Inbox Zero zealot and get stressed out when there’s stuff in there, but I like his slightly less drastic approach. And this sentence has popped into my brain all week, every time I get an email: “Don’t let it linger in your inbox or get yourself talked into work you don’t think is a good use of your time.” Words to live by.

Technology

Two more xAI co-founders are among those leaving after the SpaceX merger

Published

2 hours ago

February 11, 2026

Press Room

Two more xAI co-founders are among those leaving after the SpaceX merger

Since the xAI-SpaceX merger announced last week, which combined the two companies (as well as social media platform X) for a reported $1.25 trillion valuation — the biggest merger of all time — a handful of xAI employees and two of its co-founders have abruptly exited the company, penning long departure announcements online. Some also announced that they were starting their own AI companies.

Co-founder Yuhai (Tony) Wu announced his departure on X, writing that it was “time for [his] next chapter.” Jimmy Ba, another co-founder, posted something similar later that day, saying it was “time to recalibrate [his] gradient on the big picture.” The departures mean that xAI is now left with only half of its original 12 co-founders on staff.

It all comes after changing plans for the future of the combined companies, which Elon Musk recently announced would involve “space-based AI” data centers and vertical integration involving “AI, rockets, space-based internet, direct-to-mobile device communications and the world’s foremost real-time information and free speech platform.” Musk reportedly also talked of plans to build an AI satellite factory and city on the moon in an internal xAI meeting.

Musk wrote on X Wednesday that “xAI was reorganized a few days ago to improve speed of execution” and claimed that the process “unfortunately required parting ways with some people,” then put out a call for more people to apply to the company. He also posted a recording of xAI’s 45-minute internal all-hands meeting that announced the changes.

“We’re organizing the company to be more effective at this scale,” Musk said during the meeting. He added that the company will now be organized in four main application areas: Grok Main and Voice, Coding, Imagine (image and video), and Macrohard (“which is intended to do full digital emulation of entire companies,” Musk said).

Technology

2026 Valentine’s romance scams and how to avoid them

Published

2 hours ago

February 11, 2026

Press Room

2026 Valentine’s romance scams and how to avoid them

NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!

Valentine’s Day should be about connection. However, every February also becomes the busiest season of the year for romance scammers. In 2026, that risk is higher than ever.

These scams are no longer simple “lonely hearts” schemes. Instead, modern romance fraud relies on artificial intelligence, data brokers and stolen personal profiles. Rather than sending random messages and hoping for a response, scammers carefully select victims using detailed personal data. From there, they use AI to impersonate real people, create convincing conversations and build trust at scale.

As a result, if you are divorced, widowed or returning to online dating after the holidays, this is often the exact moment scammers target you.

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WHEN DATING APPS GET HACKED, YOUR PRIVATE LIFE GOES PUBLIC

Romance scams surge around Valentine’s Day as criminals use artificial intelligence and stolen data to target widowed, divorced and older adults returning to online dating. (Omar Karim/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)

The new face of romance scams in 2026

Romance scams are no longer slow, one-on-one cons. They’re now high-tech operations designed to target hundreds of people at once. Here’s what’s changed:

1) AI-generated personas that look and sound real

In the past, fake profiles used stolen photos and broken English. Today, scammers use AI-generated faces, voices and videos that don’t belong to any real person, making them almost impossible to reverse search.

You may be interacting with a profile that:

Has years of realistic-looking social media posts
Shares daily photos that match the story they tell
Sends customized voice notes that sound natural
Appears on “video calls” using AI face-mapping software.

Some scam networks even create entire fake families and friend groups online, so the person appears to have a real life, real friends and real history. To the victim, it feels like a genuine connection because the “person” behaves like one in every way.

2) Automated relationship scripts that adapt to you

Behind the scenes, many scammers now use software platforms that manage dozens of conversations at once. This is known as “scamware” and is incredibly hard to flag.

These systems:

Track your replies
Flag emotional triggers (grief, loneliness, fear, trust)
Suggest responses based on your mood and history.

When you mention that you are widowed, the tone quickly becomes more comforting. Meanwhile, if you say you are financially stable, the story shifts toward so-called “business opportunities.” And if you hesitate, the system responds by introducing urgency or guilt. It feels personal, but in reality, you’re being guided through a pre-written emotional funnel designed to lead to one outcome: money.

3) Crypto and “investment romance” scams

One of the fastest-growing versions of romance fraud now blends love and money. A BBC World Service investigation recently revealed that many romance scams are now run by organized criminal networks across Southeast Asia, using what insiders call the “pig butchering” model, where victims are slowly “fattened up” with trust before being financially destroyed.

These operations use call center style setups, data broker profiles, scripted conversations and AI tools to target thousands of people at once. This is not accidental fraud. It’s an industry.

And the reason you were selected is simple. Your personal data made you easy to find, easy to profile and easy to target.

After weeks of trust-building, the scammer introduces:

A “private” crypto platform
A fake trading app
A business or investment opportunity, “they use themselves.”

They may show fake dashboards, fake profits and even let you “withdraw” small amounts at first to build trust. But once larger sums are sent, the site disappears and so does the person. There is no investment. There is no account. And there is no way to recover the funds.

AI DEEPFAKE ROMANCE SCAM STEALS WOMAN’S HOME AND LIFE SAVINGS

Data brokers selling personal details fuel a new wave of romance fraud by helping scammers select financially stable, older victims before contact is made. (Jens Büttner/picture alliance via Getty Images)

How scammers find you before you ever match

The biggest misconception is that romance scams begin on dating apps. They don’t. They begin long before that, inside massive databases run by data brokers. These companies collect and sell profiles that include:

Your age and marital status
Whether you’re widowed or divorced
Your home address history
Your phone number and email
Your family members and relatives
Your income range and retirement status.

Scammers buy this data to build shortlists of ideal victims.

The data brokers behind romance scams

They filter for:

Age 55-plus
Widowed or divorced
Living alone
Financially stable
Not active on social media.

That’s how they know who to target before the first message is ever sent.

Why are widowed and retired adults targeted first?

Scammers aren’t cruel by accident. They target people who are statistically more likely to respond. If you’ve lost a spouse, moved recently or reentered the dating world, your personal data often shows that. That makes you a priority target. And once your name lands on a scammer’s list, it can be sold again and again. That’s why many victims say, “I blocked them, but new ones keep showing up.” It’s not a coincidence. It’s data recycling.

How the scam usually unfolds

Most romance scams follow the same pattern:

Friendly introduction: A warm message. No pressure. Often references something personal about you.
Fast emotional bonding: They mirror your values, your experiences, even your grief.
Distance and excuses: They can’t meet. There’s always a reason: military deployment, overseas job, business travel.
A sudden “crisis”: Medical bills, business losses, frozen accounts, investment opportunities.
Money requests: Wire transfers, gift cards, crypto or “temporary help.”

By the time money is involved, the emotional connection is already strong. Many victims send thousands before realizing it’s a scam.

The Valentine’s Day cleanup that stops scams at the source

If you want fewer scam messages this year, you need to remove your personal information from the places scammers buy it. That’s where a data removal service comes in. While no service can guarantee the complete removal of your data from the internet, a data removal service is really a smart choice. They aren’t cheap, and neither is your privacy.

These services do all the work for you by actively monitoring and systematically erasing your personal information from hundreds of websites. It’s what gives me peace of mind and has proven to be the most effective way to erase your personal data from the internet. By limiting the information available, you reduce the risk of scammers cross-referencing data from breaches with information they might find on the dark web, making it harder for them to target you.

Check out my top picks for data removal services and get a free scan to find out if your personal information is already out on the web by visiting Cyberguy.com.

Get a free scan to find out if your personal information is already out on the web: Cyberguy.com.

Practical steps to protect yourself this February

Here’s what you can do right now:

Never send money to someone you haven’t met in person
Be skeptical of fast emotional bonding
Verify profiles with reverse image searches
Don’t share personal details early
Remove your data from broker sites.
Use strong antivirus software to block malicious links and fake login pages. Get my picks for the best 2026 antivirus protection winners for your Windows, Mac, Android and iOS devices at Cyberguy.com.

When you combine these steps, you remove the access, urgency and leverage scammers rely on.

SUPER BOWL SCAMS SURGE IN FEBRUARY AND TARGET YOUR DATA

Cybercriminals now deploy AI-generated faces, voices and scripted conversations to impersonate real people and build trust at scale in modern romance scams. (Martin Bertrand/Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images)

Kurt’s key takeaways

Romance scams are no longer random. They are targeted, data-driven and emotionally engineered. This Valentine’s Day, the best gift you can give yourself is privacy. By removing your personal data from broker databases, you make it harder for scammers to find you, profile you and exploit your trust. And that’s how you protect not just your heart, but your identity, your savings and your peace of mind.

Have you or someone you love been contacted by a Valentine’s Day romance scam that felt real or unsettling? Let us know your thoughts by writing to us at Cyberguy.com.

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Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson is an award-winning tech journalist who has a deep love of technology, gear and gadgets that make life better with his contributions for Fox News & FOX Business beginning mornings on “FOX & Friends.” Got a tech question? Get Kurt’s free CyberGuy Newsletter, share your voice, a story idea or comment at CyberGuy.com.

Technology

Uber Eats adds AI assistant to help with grocery shopping

Published

14 hours ago

February 11, 2026

Press Room

Uber Eats adds AI assistant to help with grocery shopping

Uber announced a new AI feature called “Cart Assistant” for grocery shopping in its Uber Eats app.

The new feature works a couple different ways. You can use text prompts, as you would with any other AI chatbot, to ask it to build a grocery list for you. Or you can upload a picture of your shopping list and ask it to populate your cart with all your favorite items, based on your order history. You can be as generic as you — “milk, eggs, cereal” — and the bot will make a list with all your preferred brands.

And that’s just to start out. Uber says in the coming months, Cart Assistant will add more features, including “full recipe inspiration, meal plans, and the ability to ask follow up questions, and expand to retail partners.”

But like all chatbots, Uber acknowledges that Cart Assistant may make mistakes, and urges users to double-check and confirm the results before placing any orders.

It will also only work at certain grocery stores, with Uber announcing interoperability at launch with Albertsons, Aldi, CVS, Kroger, Safeway, Sprouts, Safeway, Walgreen, and Wegmans. More stores will be added in the future, the company says.

Uber has a partnership with OpenAI to integrate Uber Eats into its own suite of apps. But Uber spokesperson Richard Foord declined to say whether the AI company’s technology was powering the new chatbot in Uber Eats. “Cart Assistant draws on publicly available LLM models as well as Uber’s own AI stack,” Foord said in an email.

Uber has been racing to add more AI-driven features to its apps, including robotaxis with Waymo and sidewalk delivery robots in several cities. The company also recently revived its AI Labs to collaborate with its partners on building better products using delivery and customer data.