The Verge

Anker has announced a new version of its Soundcore Liberty Pro earbuds: the new Liberty 5 Pro. These are the company's first earbuds featuring the Thus AI audio chip Anker announced last month, here being used to bolster noise reduction capabilities and help ensure the user's voice can be clearly heard during calls, even in [...]

Soundcore, Anker's audio brand, has mostly lived in the budget-to-midrange world, but with its new Liberty 5 Pro earbuds, it's aiming at the big guys. The two new earbuds - the Liberty 5 Pro and Liberty 5 Pro Max - use Anker's new Thus chip, which has more processing power than previous Soundcore earbuds to [...]

A federal judge is officially being tasked with deciding whether to break up Live Nation-Ticketmaster. More than 30 states are asking Judge Arun Subramanian to order a sale of the ticketing giant, a "sufficient number" of large amphitheaters, and limit its ability to tie access to its remaining amps to the use of its promotions [...]

University graduates are booing and heckling corporate executives who praise AI during their commencement ceremonies, and the only people who seem to be genuinely surprised by this are the executives themselves. In a procession of viral videos, 2026 commencement speakers like former Google CEO Eric Schmidt face loud and sustained jeers from students after praising [...]

On Monday morning, a judge overseeing the New York state case on the killing of the UnitedHealthcare CEO ruled that some evidence collected by police could not be shown to a jury. It wasn't the only news coming out of the hearing. Outside the courthouse, Molly Crane-Newman, a New York Daily News reporter, captured on [...]

Its name might be dull and uninspired, but the Philips 24B2D5300 Business Monitor brings a novel feature I've never seen on a display before: screens on either side. The design will primarily benefit people who are constantly angling their computer screen so those on both sides of a desk can see it, like a car [...]

After back-to-back losses in trials grappling with its impact on teens' mental health, Meta just settled what was supposed to be its next legal battle with Kentucky's Breathitt County School District. Google's YouTube, Snap, and TikTok all recently settled similar claims brought by the school district, which was seeking payment from the companies to cover [...]

Bungie is moving on from Destiny 2. The studio announced Thursday that it's releasing the last major update for the game on June 9th as its focus "turns towards a new beginning for Bungie." After that final update, the game will remain playable, much like the first Destiny. "Many changes in this final update will [...]

If your summer plans involve spending any time outdoors, whether on the trail or at a pool party, a good portable Bluetooth speaker can go a long way. The latest Sonos Roam is built precisely for those moments, and right now, it's on sale at Amazon, Best Buy, and Walmart for $134 ($45 off) for [...]

I'm not sure anyone was really asking for an AI guitar pedal. But it was inevitable that someone would build one. One of the first to take the plunge is Polyend, a well-respected music gear maker with a reputation for building niche, idiosyncratic devices. The company has built grooveboxes around old-school trackers and a multi-effect [...]

Uber is putting its own autonomous vehicles back on the road as part of its new AV Lab project to collect data for its dozens of robotaxi partners. The cars will be fitted with all the sensors typical of self-driving cars, like cameras, lidar, and radar. But notably the vehicles will not be operating as [...]

The original Birdie debuted in 2022 with a morbid-but-fun design - an air-quality monitor with a literal canary in a coal mine. When the CO2 in your home hit a certain level, a mechanical bird mounted on your wall would appear to drop dead, then prompt you to open a window to air things out. [...]

Selling the smart home has been hard. Even Amazon has lost money in the space, despite putting hundreds of millions of Echo devices in people's homes. Google has also reportedly struggled to turn a profit from its substantial investment in Nest. But now Google is seeing dollar signs in the prospect of selling AI-driven subscriptions [...]

Hundreds of thousands of workplaces use software to monitor employees. Now, a new study has found that many of these tools share data not just with employers, but with digital advertising platforms and data brokers as well. The review was led by Stephanie Nguyen, senior fellow at Columbia Law School's Center for Law and the [...]

When Microsoft announced it was acquiring GitHub in a $7.5 billion deal in 2018, developers were nervous. Some were concerned about Microsoft controlling GitHub, and others were taking a wait-and-see approach. Nearly eight years later, GitHub is now fighting for its survival, amid a surge of outages, security issues, and pressure from competitors. In the [...]

Spotify and Universal Music Group (UMG) just announced a licensing deal that will allow users to prompt the creation of AI-generated remixes and covers for streaming songs. The tool will be a paid add-on for Premium subscribers. Artists will be able to opt out of the program, but those who do participate will collect royalties [...]

As part of a new "Reserved" program, Spotify is going to start offering concert tickets for "real fans" of participating bands that are going on tour. The idea with the Reserved program is to give people an option to buy tickets without the hassle and stress that often comes with securing a spot for a [...]

Studio by Spotify Labs is a new standalone AI app that generates a daily briefing, podcasts, and playlists on your PC using chatbot prompts. The AI-generated content draws from your Spotify listening history, as well as info from apps you connect to it, like your email inbox, calendar, and notes. Spotify says its AI can [...]

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. Hollywood is cooked - or so a growing number of people on social media would like you to believe. Their purported proof: AI-generated clips of Daniel Craig riding a Vespa [...]

Price is a big barrier for most people who'd like to try out smart glasses for gaming, watching movies, or using their computers. Many models are at $400 and up, but you can snag a refurbished pair of Viture's Luma Pro USB-C smart glasses for about $271 with the code LONGWEEKEND at eBay. Each set [...]

Today I'm talking with Liz Lopatto, who spent the last month covering the Musk v. Altman trial in all its chaos. You'll hear her describe the courthouse as a zoo" and explain that there were protests of one kind or another happening outside every day. Both Elon Musk and Sam Altman are big personalities, and [...]

You might find it kind of sad to put your hard-earned Switch 2 into a protective case. To me, it's freeing. Sure, it can take away from the slick design. But using a case relieves me of the worry that the console will accumulate tons of little scratches, or worse. I've tested several types of [...]

Earlier this month, SpaceX and Anthropic announced a new compute partnership that provides access to the rocket company's Colossus data centers in Memphis, TN. Now, with the release of SpaceX's IPO filing, we have more details about that deal, including how much Anthropic is paying to Elon Musk's company. In its S-1 filing, SpaceX said [...]

Four decades on, '80s-style science fiction adventures continue to exert their influence on modern film and TV. The idea of a group of kids teaming up to face an otherworldly threat has become a trope at this point, seen in everything from Super 8 to Stranger Things. So on one level, The Boroughs, a new [...]

It's been nearly six years since Flipper Devices introduced the Zero, its popular but controversial wireless hacking multi-tool. The company's latest creation (following a slight departure with a device that lets co-workers know when you're too busy to chat) is the new Flipper One. It's a similarly pocketable electronic multi-tool but also a tiny open [...]

Welcome! I'm The Verge's smart home reviewer, and I'm hosting an exclusive subscriber AMA today at 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET. I test a lot of connected gadgets for my job, but the dominant device in my home - by both number and square footage covered - is the robot vacuum. At any [...]

Yesterday, I built my first Android app. Then, I made two more - three in one afternoon. For one, I literally typed 148 words into my web browser and walked away. Ten minutes later, I had an entire new app on my actual Android phone. I did have to prep that phone by enabling a [...]

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is launching a streaming series on Twitch, in which he'll respond to questions the public have submitted via the chat, Polygon reports. The series is aptly titled "Talk with the People," and kicks off later today at 4PM ET. "With the launch of 'Talk with the People' we're bringing [...]

Bambu Lab makes the best, most accessible 3D printers yet, but that reputation is suddenly under siege. It all started when Pawe Jarczak received a private message from the company on Reddit asking him to delete his code. Now the 3D printing community is lining up behind Jarczak to fund a war against Bambu - [...]

Meta has reportedly notified thousands of employees that they've been laid off as the company attempts to compensate for its hefty AI investments. In an email from Meta management shared by Business Insider, impacted staffers were told that the planned headcount reduction was part of the company's "continued effort to run the company more efficiently [...]

The SpaceX IPO is here, and it's more than just an historic public offering that could make Elon Musk the world's first trillionaire. It also reveals more ways in which Elon Musk's companies interact and overlap with each other, shuffling money around in ways that are often difficult to keep track of. This is evident [...]

Elon Musk's final frontier is officially open for business now that SpaceX has formally filed its S-1 prospectus with the SEC. That kicks off what could be the largest initial public offering ever when it lists on the Nasdaq stock exchange with the ticker SPCX. SpaceX generated $18.67 billion in revenue in 2025, driven largely [...]

This is Optimizer, a weekly newsletter sent from Verge senior reviewer Victoria Song that dissects and discusses the latest gizmos and potions that swear they're going to change your life. This week's issue is a special early edition tied to The Verge's Google I/O coverage. You can expect our next issue at its usual time [...]

REI's annual Anniversary Sale - the retailer's biggest of the year - has arrived, bringing with it discounts on all kinds of outdoor essentials. If you've got a camping trip coming up, now is a good time to stock up on the basics, whether it be a tent, sleeping pad, or stove. If your summer [...]

If you choose to get an extra controller for your Nintendo Switch 2, you can spend a lot - and get a lot in return. Buying Nintendo's own $89 Switch 2 Pro Controller, for instance, will net you the console's only wireless controller with a 3.5mm headphone jack for private listening, not to mention great-feeling [...]

Hello and welcome to Regulator, a newsletter for Verge subscribers about the car crashes piling up on a daily basis at the Washington-based intersection of technology and politics. If you're not a subscriber, sign up for our fine editorial enterprise today, especially as we process the end of Musk v. Altman. And if you have [...]

"There's an app for that" was the promise of the App Store from the very beginning. The app that will get your phone to do the thing you want it to? It's just a few taps away. The tagline wasn't strictly true - I'm still waiting for that one perfect grocery list app. Still, apps [...]

Volvo once had ambitions to fully exit the gas car business. Now it's trying to keep its tenuous foothold in the EV market. It's not an understatement to say that Volvo's EV journey has been a bumpy one. The compact EX40 has been a consistent winner, but the Swedish brand's other EVs have been plagued [...]

Google announced a new YouTube Shorts Remix feature that lets users restyle clips or even insert themselves into other people's videos using Gemini Omni. Now, at the bottom of a YouTube Short, when you click the remix icon, you'll see an option to "reimagine" it. Here, you can prompt Gemini to turn a video into [...]

More than 47,000 Samsung Electronics workers were gearing up for an 18-day strike after bonus payment negotiations between the company and its union collapsed. The strike was set to start on Thursday at Samsung's domestic chipmaking plants, raising concerns around the already constrained production of memory chips amid the ongoing shortage. Later on Wednesday, both [...]

Microsoft has recruited game industry analyst Matthew Ball as Xbox chief strategy officer. Ball publishes an annual state of video gaming report, which is a popular read across the game industry, and he's "widely respected across gaming, media, and technology," according to Xbox CEO Asha Sharma. Sharma announced Ball is joining Microsoft in a memo [...]

Google's AI-powered Search era apparently also extends to its ads. Now, when you look for a product in Search, Google's Gemini AI model will surface relevant items and generate a "custom explainer" about why you should purchase a specific one. The update comes just one day after Google revealed a new Search box for larger, [...]

Whether you're heading out for a quick Memorial Day getaway or preparing for summer travel, a reliable power bank can come in handy when there's no outlet in sight. Fortunately, Anker's Laptop Power Bank can keep all your essential gadgets charged, and it's currently on sale atAmazon,Best Buy, andWalmart for $95.99 ($24 off), which is [...]

High school graduation is a time of change that might be felt more deeply by family members than by the grads themselves. While some grads may immediately embark on a career path, many continue their education and delve deeper into their studies at college. Either way, they'll be taking on more responsibility, meaning it's up [...]

Having personally recently tested a bunch of MagSafe power banks for an upcoming piece, let me tell you that it's tough to find a low-cost model that offers a bunch of features. Anker's 10,000mAh Zolo power bank is an exception to the rule, with its built-in, braided USB-C cable, MagSafe magnets to stay attached to [...]

We're about to find out if the systems designed to make deepfakes and AI-generated content easy to spot are actually up to snuff. SynthID and C2PA Content Credentials, two distinct technologies for invisibly tagging image, video, and audio files with information about their origins, are getting their biggest expansion to date, and with it, the [...]

Just as the T1 Phone is seemingly on the verge of release, Trump Mobile has been accused of insecurely storing customer data, leaving addresses and phone numbers vulnerable. The alleged leak has also revealed how many T1 Phone orders were apparently placed, and it's far fewer than viral figures have claimed. YouTuber Coffeezilla was the [...]

After initially revealing its unique design at NAB 2026 last month with few technical details, Insta360 has announced and launched its new wireless Mic Pro system featuring a couple of industry firsts. While the Mic Pro transmitters that can directly connect to devices over Bluetooth are available individually for $99.99, a more elaborate kit with [...]

When the member states of the United Nations reviewed their Global Compact on Migration earlier this month, one country was conspicuously absent from the discussions: the United States. In a post on X explaining its reasoning, the State Department said it objects to global "efforts to facilitate replacement migration to the United States and our [...]

For years, tech companies have promised AI will give everyone a capable personal assistant but delivered something more like a clueless intern. Over the past six months, that has started to change, thanks largely to the viral open-source AI agent platform OpenClaw. And among the top AI labs now chasing similar success, one seems particularly [...]