The Verge

After a bidding war that reportedly also involved Paramount, Comcast, Amazon, and Apple, on December 5th, Netflix struck a deal to buy Warner Bros. for $82.7 billion, buying the studio, HBO / HBO Max, Warner Games, and more. There are already questions and comments coming from politicians and regulators about the proposed acquisition, and you [...]

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman declared a "code red" situation earlier this week, pushing staff to respond quickly to increased competition from Google and Anthropic. Sources familiar with OpenAI's plans tell me that the company is planning its first response to Gemini 3 with its upcoming GPT-5.2 update. I understand GPT-5.2 is ready to be released, [...]

Everyone is doing it, so why not Wikipedia? Everyone's favorite free online encyclopedia has decided to launch its own customized Year in Review feature on its mobile app. Of course, you'll need the app installed and have been using it for the feature to be of much use. But clearly, the Wikimedia Foundation hopes this [...]

One of the easiest things to do during the holidays is spend too much money. It happens to many of us, even when we swear that things are going to be different this year. We want to help you stay true to your intentions to save money when possible, and we're doing that with a [...]

The Apple AirPods 4 with active noise cancellation are now at their lowest price of $99 ($80 off) at Amazon and Walmart. The AirPods 4 offer upgraded sound quality, wireless charging, and a built-in speaker in the case that rings if you can't find it. The ANC, while not the best on the market, is [...]

Your mom deserves the best, and we're going to help you get them something special. The right gift can make family or friend time more valuable, after all, or it can greatly enrich time spent alone. If your mom says that she has all that she needs, don't take her word for it and show [...]

The New York Times has escalated its legal battle against the AI startup Perplexity, as it's now suing the AI answer engine" for allegedly producing and profiting from responses that are verbatim or substantially similar copies" of the publication's work. The lawsuit, filed in a New York federal court on Friday, claims Perplexity unlawfully crawls, [...]

I can't believe I have to say this, but Tesla drivers should not start texting while driving, despite what Elon Musk says. Do not listen to the billionaire CEO of the company that makes your car. He will not be liable if there's a crash - you will. Musk took a break from posting racist [...]

It might not look much different on the outside, but the newest version of the PS5's DualSense controller could feature a major improvement in battery life. Polish modder Modyfikator89 shared in a post on X that the new DualSense V2 variant, model number CFI-ZCT2W, lasted for more than 15 hours of continuous play in a [...]

A smidge over three years ago, OpenAI threw the rest of the tech industry into chaos. When ChatGPT launched, even billed as a "low-key research preview," it became immediately clear that OpenAI was showing the world a new way of computing. Lots of other companies, most notably Google, had to immediately scramble to catch up [...]

A Chinese company named Xteink has announced the X4, a compact e-reader with a 4.3-inch E Ink screen that's more pocketable than the smallest Kindle or Kobo. Like a wireless power bank, the e-reader can magnetically attach to the back of an iPhone, Pixel 10, or any device that supports Qi2 or Apple's MagSafe. If [...]

This is Optimizer, a weekly newsletter sent every Friday from Verge senior reviewer Victoria Song that dissects and discusses the latest phones, smartwatches, apps, and other gizmos that swear they're going to change your life. Optimizer arrives in our subscribers' inboxes at 10AM ET. Opt in for Optimizer here. The other day I was staring [...]

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has opened an investigation into Waymo following reports that the company's robotaxis illegally drove past stopped school buses in Austin, Texas. In a letter sent to Waymo on Wednesday, the federal regulator's Office of Defects Investigation asked for detailed information on Waymo's fifth-generation self-driving system and expressed concern that [...]

Every week since Pluribus' premiere, I've presented a handful of burning questions I have about what's coming next. And most of the time I really want to know the answer. This is a show where mysteries are baked into the premise, with a slow-burn structure that can make it very satisfying when the answers start [...]

Netflix has announced that it's struck a deal to acquire Warner Bros. for $82.7 billion. The purchase will go through after Warner Bros.' planned split from Discovery, now expected to take place in Q3 2026. It will see the streamer acquire the Warner studio, both HBO and HBO Max, and access to IP including Harry [...]

Washington lawmakers had barely finished processing the news that Congress would not put a state AI law ban into the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) when a new rumor began trickling out of the White House on Wednesday: President Donald Trump would, indeed, sign an executive order that would ostensibly assign the federal government the [...]

The European Union has served Elon Musk's X with a 120 million (about $140 million) penalty for violating the bloc's digital service rulebook, in part for the deceptive design" of its blue checkmark. Today's announcement marks the first time that a company has been fined under the landmark Digital Services Act (DSA) law for curbing [...]

Meta on Thursday announced it is launching a new, centralized support hub for Facebook and Instagram, acknowledging that getting help hasn't always been as easy as it should be. The space will bring together all the support features users of both networks need to report account issues or recover one they've lost access to. Getting [...]

Microsoft is finally updating the design of the Run dialog prompt in Windows after more than 30 years. After committing to adding a dark mode to Run, Microsoft is now testing a refreshed design that makes it fit with the aesthetics in Windows 11. X user Phantomofearth discovered the modern Run dialog in the latest [...]

Whether you're wearing them for the morning commute, while traveling, or if you're simply trying to find some peace and quiet while working at home, noise-canceling headphones are a more essential piece of kit nowadays than ever before. And you've got a slew of great options to pick from; it's hard to make a bad [...]

Following the recent retirement of former COO Jeff Williams, AI chief John Giannandrea stepping down, and the departure of head of design Alan Dye for Meta, Apple announced Thursday that environmental and policy lead Lisa Jackson is retiring and that Jennifer Newstead will replace Kate Adams as the company's general counsel after Adams retires late [...]

One of the biggest surprises of Cyber Monday was the terrific discount we saw on the Nintendo Switch 2 Mario Kart World bundle, which dropped in price by $50. We expected the price to return to normal once the shopping holiday ended, but to our surprise, it's still going strong two days later. Several major [...]

It has been months since a group of Trump administration officials put together a Signal group chat to discuss classified military intelligence ahead of a military strike in Yemen while inadvertently adding a journalist, and now the Pentagon's inspector general has released its report on the mess. The results of Steven Stebbins' eight-month-long investigation found [...]

Tiny kei trucks from Japan have a new fan: President Donald Trump. Trump expressed admiration for the pint-sized autos during a briefing with reporters to announce his plan to gut fuel economy standards. They're very small.They're really cute," Trump said. And I said, how would that do in this country?And everyone seems to think, good, [...]

Metroid Prime 4: Beyond is finally out after a long and difficult development - and despite some bright spots, the game really shows its age. Nintendo has a long and celebrated history of doing things its own way. During the original Switch era, going back to Super Mario Odyssey in 2017, Nintendo has focused on [...]

School districts are paying extra for basic supplies thanks to unpredictable dynamic pricing on Amazon, which is costing them on average 17 percent more, according to a report by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR). As reported earlier by The Guardian, unlike the contracts schools and local governments would traditionally make with local suppliers, who [...]

The Trump administration has ordered US consulates to consider rejecting H-1B visa applicants involved in content moderation or censorship," according to a report from Reuters. A State Department cable viewed by the outlet says officials should check an applicant's resume or LinkedIn profile for a job history involving moderation, fact-checking, online safety, compliance, and misinformation. [...]

Microsoft has been publishing data about the gender, race, and ethnic breakdown of its employees for more than a decade. Since 2019 it's been publishing a full diversity and inclusion report annually, and at the same time made reporting on diversity a requirement for employee performance reviews. Now it's scrapping its diversity report and dropping [...]

I'm starting to understand where Google's visual AI model gets its name, because after playing around with it for a couple of days, that's how I'd sum it up: bananas. The images it generates are so realistic it's bananas. I feel like I'm going bananas after staring at them for too long. And if I [...]

It sounds weird to say it's a good thing if you missed the Ray-Ban Meta deal on Black Friday, but... it's kind of true. Theoriginal Ray-Ban Meta smart glassesjust fell to an even better all-time low of $224.25 ($75) atAmazonandBest Buy, which beats the Black Friday price by $15. That's a great deal because, even [...]

After over 30 years, Amazon may be cutting ties with the United States Postal Service as it looks to expand its own delivery network, as reported by The Washington Post. The outlet, owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, cites anonymous sources who said negotiations between Amazon and Trump-appointed USPS Postmaster General David Steiner have reportedly [...]

Amazon has finally given a release date for its new Kindle Scribe Colorsoft and Kindle Scribe: They'll be available to purchase starting on December 10th, Amazon spokesperson Rachel Erickson tells The Verge. They'll cost the same as what Amazon announced back in September: $629.99 for the Colorsoft and $499.99 for the Scribe, which includes a [...]

This is Lowpass by Janko Roettgers, a newsletter on the ever-evolving intersection of tech and entertainment, syndicated just for The Verge subscribers once a week. Get ready for a lot more video content on Spotify. Sometime later this month, the service will start incorporating music videos into its app, and give US-based subscribers the ability [...]

It turns out my parents were wrong. Saying "please" doesn't get you what you want-poetry does. At least, it does if you're talking to an AI chatbot. That's according to a new study from Italy's Icaro Lab, an AI evaluation and safety initiative from researchers at Rome's Sapienza University and AI company DexAI. The findings [...]

OnePlus has launched its delayed US preorders for the flagship OnePlus 15, almost a month after the phone was revealed. The company has been able to start taking orders after receiving FCC clearance for the device -initially held back because of the government shutdown. The OnePlus 15 starts from $899.99 for 12GB of RAM and [...]

Elevation Lab has announced a smaller version of its TimeCapsule battery-boosting case for the Apple AirTag. It's about half the size of the original and uses a pair of smaller AAA batteries instead of AAs so the AirTag's battery life is extended to five years instead of 10. It's available now through the company's website [...]

The Apple Watch SE 3 was one of the best smartwatches we tested in 2025, and you can still pick up the 40mm GPS model for its Cyber Monday price of $199 ($50 off) at Amazon and Walmart. The 44mm GPS model is also matching its all-time low of $229.99 ($50 off) at Amazon and [...]

Meta may slash its budget for metaverse projects by up to 30 percent next year, according to a report from Bloomberg. Sources tell the outlet the potential cuts haven't been finalized, but they would impact the unit that works on Meta's Quest virtual reality headsets, along with its social platform Horizon Worlds. Meta, which changed [...]

Robot vacuums are impressive devices that will clean your floors well and - thanks to bigger batteries and better robot brains - rarely get tired of doing their job. Over the last few years, these floor-sweeping bots have gone from utilitarian devices to full-fledged home robots that vacuum and mop your home, clean themselves, and [...]

Proton has added a new privacy-focused spreadsheet app to its productivity suite to tempt users over from Google and Microsoft's platforms. The new Proton Sheets tool provides real-time collaboration features and end-to-end encryption, according to Proton's announcement, ensuring that no one else, not even Proton, can access your spreadsheet and the information it contains." A [...]

I'm convinced that whoever said it's about the journey, not the destination, has never traveled. Try sitting on a plane for 16 hours - plus delays, airport security, and a snoring seat neighbor - and then get back to me. While getting from point A to point B can feel like a test of endurance, [...]

Today, I'm talking with Verge senior AI reporter Hayden Field about some of the people responsible for studying AI and deciding in what ways it might... well, ruin the world. Those folks work at Anthropic as part of a group called the societal impacts team, which Hayden just spent time with for a profile she [...]

Russia is restricting access to Roblox after the country's communications regulator Roskomnadzor accused it of promoting extremism and LGBT propaganda," according to reports from Reuters and Meduza. As reported by Meduza, Russian lawmakers began raising concerns about Roblox days after The Guardian published a report about the platform last month, detailing how the author was [...]

Nvidia launched its first RTX 50-series graphics cards earlier this year without support for PhysX, the GPU-accelerated technology that let games realistically simulate shattering glass, moving liquids, smoke, fog, and more. Now, Nvidia is bringing back PhysX support for the RTX 50-series GPUs for top-played games like Borderlands 2, Mirror's Edge, and Batman: Arkham City. [...]

It's about to be week 14 of the NFL season, and stakes and storylines abound across the league. In a new section of the Yahoo Sports app, Yahoo is hoping it can use AI to capture them all automatically. The company is launching a new feature called Game Breakdowns, which attempt to generate a snapshot [...]

The European Union has launched a formal investigation into Meta over antitrust concerns with AI restrictions in WhatsApp. The probe aims to prevent any possible irreparable harm to competition in the AI space" according to the EU, and follows Meta announcing changes to WhatsApp's terms for businesses in October that will prohibit companies from using [...]

When songwriter Patrick Irwin moved to Nashville last year, he was entering a lottery. Each day hundreds of sessions take place where writers create a song demo to pitch to a publisher. Publishers then share those songs with labels and managers, who may share those songs with the artists. Even if a major country star [...]

iPhone 17 Pro users have fewer ways to take photographs in low-light conditions compared to those using older iPhone models. Specifically, the option to select Night mode when taking snaps in Portrait mode - which gives the camera app an artsy depth-of-field effect - isn't supported on iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max devices, per [...]

With DJI facing an imminent import ban in the US and its flagship drones disappearing from shelves, the new Antigravity A1 didn't need to be a groundbreaking gadget to make headlines. It just needed to be a competent alternative that you can actually buy in the United States. In August, the Chinese brand couldn't promise [...]

BMW has been peppering us with teasers and bits and pieces about its next-gen EV platform, Neue Klasse, for so long - fully two years now - that I confess I've become a bit numb to the hype. I'd seen the dashboard-filling displays, talked to engineers endlessly about the completely retooled active safety suite, and [...]