Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Sony is getting ready to release a more powerful PS5 console, possibly by the end of this year. After reports of leaked PS5 Pro specifications surfaced recently, The Verge has obtained a full list of specs for the upcoming console. Sources familiar with Sony’s plans tell me that developers are already being asked to ensure their games are compatible with this upcoming console, with a focus on improving ray tracing. Codenamed Trinity, the PlayStation 5 Pro model will include a more powerful GPU and a slightly faster CPU mode. All of Sony’s changes point to a PS ..read more

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Microsoft is getting ready to fully unveil its vision for “AI PCs” next month at an event in Seattle. Sources familiar with Microsoft’s plans tell The Verge that Microsoft is confident that a round of new Arm-powered Windows laptops will beat Apple’s M3-powered MacBook Air both in CPU performance and AI-accelerated tasks. After years of failed promises from Qualcomm, Microsoft believes the upcoming Snapdragon X Elite processors will finally offer the performance it has been looking for to push Windows on Arm much more aggressively. Microsoft is now b ..read more

A mockup of what Microsoft’s Xbox chatbot looks like. | Cath Virginia / The Verge Microsoft is currently testing a new AI-powered Xbox chatbot that can be used to automate support tasks. Sources familiar with Microsoft’s plans tell The Verge that the software giant has been testing an “embodied AI character” that animates when responding to Xbox support queries. I understand this Xbox AI chatbot is part of a larger effort inside Microsoft to apply AI to its Xbox platform and services. The Xbox AI chatbot is connected to Microsoft’s support documents for the Xbox network and ecosystem, and can ..read more

Illustration: The Verge Microsoft is naming Pavan Davuluri as its new Windows and Surface chief today. After Panos Panay’s surprise departure to Amazon last year, Microsoft split up the Windows and Surface groups under two different leaders. Davuluri took over the Surface silicon and devices work, with Mikhail Parakhin leading a new team focused on Windows and web experiences. Now both Windows and Surface will be Davuluri’s responsibility, as Parakhin has “decided to explore new roles.” The Verge has obtained an internal memo from Rajesh Jha, Microsoft’s head of experiences and devices, outlin ..read more

Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photos from Getty Images Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas tells The Verge that many people are using chatbots like regular search engines. It makes sense to offer information on things they look for, like restaurants, directly from the source. So it’s integrating Yelp’s maps, reviews, and other details in responses when people ask for restaurant recommendations. “Our underlying motivation is that we started off as this tool that appealed to people doing fact checks and research. But research can be on anything, like what if you’re a coffee addict, you’d want to know ..read more

Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge Spotify isn’t going to launch the in-app purchases it previously planned for the European Union, at least right now. Instead, if Apple approves a newly submitted update, it’s going to try to do the next best thing: provide pricing information within the app and link users to its subscription options. Spotify tells The Verge that it’s planning to make this change in response to the European Commission’s ruling on Monday, which fined Apple €1.84 billion (about $2 billion) for “abusing its dominant position” in the music streaming app distribution business ..read more

The Verge Microsoft announced yesterday that four Xbox-exclusive games are coming to PS5 and Nintendo Switch soon, opening up a new strategy for Xbox to be on more screens. Just two hours before Microsoft’s big announcement, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer explained the company’s new Xbox vision in an internal memo to employees. The Verge has obtained a copy of the memo. It’s the first time Spencer has fully outlined a new strategy “where every screen is an Xbox” to employees, after an internal town hall meeting earlier this month didn’t address multi-platform games directly. Microsoft didn ..read more

Image: Microsoft With rumors of some Xbox games coming to PS5 and Switch, Microsoft gets ready to lay out its vision for the future of Xbox. Microsoft’s Xbox business needs to get bigger. The company’s Xbox Series S and X sales still lag behind Sony’s PlayStation 5, and Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer has previously admitted its Xbox Game Pass subscriptions were slowing down, too. He admitted that in 2022, a dry year for Xbox games after Microsoft’s big exclusive Bethesda game Starfield was delayed. An Xbox Game Pass slowdown might be why I’m hearing that a number of Xbox exclusives are comi ..read more

Image: Bethesda Bethesda’s upcoming Indiana Jones game is also tentatively set to launch on Sony’s PlayStation 5 console. We got our first glimpse of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle during Microsoft’s Xbox Developer Direct event last month, where it was announced for Xbox and PC. A source familiar with Microsoft’s plans tells The Verge that Bethesda is also considering bringing Indiana Jones and the Great Circle to PS5. A new multi-platform approach for certain Xbox games is emerging inside Microsoft, we’re told, with the company weighing up which titles will remain exclusive and others tha ..read more

Image: Microsoft Microsoft has started internally testing a new custom emoji feature for its Microsoft Teams communications platform. Multiple sources tell The Verge that Microsoft employees learned about the surprise new capability after animated emoji of Pepe the Frog — a meme with a troubled past — started appearing in reactions and messages on early internal versions of Microsoft Teams. The Pepe the Frog emotes, which are now widely used in Discord servers and on Amazon’s Twitch streaming platform as lighthearted responses, appeared alongside other custom emoji that don’t ship in Microsoft ..read more