The Verge

The man whose Tesla struck and killed a woman inside her Texas home last month is now facing manslaughter charges, as reported earlier by The Wall Street Journal and local news outlet KHOU 11. 44-year-old Michael Butler was arrested on Wednesday and claimed to have been driving his Model 3 using Tesla's Full-Self Driving (FSD) [...]

Mozilla shut down the well-loved read-it-later Pocket app last year, and now Meta is launching an app called Pocket with an entirely different, AI-focused pitch: this new app lets you make and share little interactive "gizmos" built from an AI prompt, as reported by Business Insider. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is all in on AI [...]

July 4th sales are typically a precursor to what we'd see during a mid-July Prime Day, but obviously things are flipped around this year. Last week's big Prime Day sale is over, yet there are a number of familiar deals still poking around in the week leading up to the nation's birthday. Best Buy is [...]

If our recent Decoder interview with Weber Blackstone CEO Roger Dahle has you craving freshly grilled meats or veggies, Weber just so happens to have a variety of grills, smokers, griddles, and accessories selling at big discounts ahead of the July 4th holiday. It makes a bunch of models, but we've landed on a range [...]

For decades, to be a gamer was to accumulate a lot of stuff. Consoles, controllers, accessories, weird VR gloves that never worked properly, but mostly the games themselves. Over the years, games have come in every shape and size you can imagine. And now that era appears to be ending. On this episode of The [...]

For a few days, it seemed like Universal decided that there would be no advanced screenings of Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey for influencers. But on Monday, influencers sat alongside traditional critics and journalists at special showings of The Odyssey specifically for the associated press junket. Despite what it may have looked like, Universal was not [...]

If you don't want to spend $180 on the Elgato Key Light, the Godox ES45 Desktop LED Key Light is a more affordable option that offers nearly as much brightness and plenty of features, including adjustable brightness and color temperature. Right now, it's cheaper than usual for the first time this year, selling for $119 [...]

Tesla just released its second-quarter delivery and production report, showing that the automaker is starting to recover after a particularly brutal sales year in 2025. The company said that it produced a total of 451,758 vehicles between April and June of this year, including 442,936 Model 3 and Model Y vehicles, as well as 8,822 [...]

We've got a special Decoder today - I had the chance to talk with Amy Lanzi, the CEO of Digitas North America, in front of a live audience at the Uber Villa at the Cannes Lions advertising festival in the South of France. I know, it's a hard gig, but I do it for you. [...]

Silo is such a complicated show that even its showrunner gets confused sometimes. While filming the final seasons of the Apple TV sci-fi thriller, Graham Yost remembers two instances where he messed up details: once it was an actor who realized that a conversation they were about to shoot should've already taken place, the other [...]

Twenty-five years ago today, a young, little-known programmer by the name of Bram Cohen fired off a short message to a mailing list for peer-to-peer enthusiasts. "My new app, BitTorrent, is now in working order, check it out here," Cohen wrote, followed by a link to his personal website. "What's BitTorrent, Bram?" the founder of [...]

OpenAI has floated giving the US government a 5 percent ownership stake as a way of easing tensions with the Trump administration and blunting mounting public backlash against AI, according to the Financial Times. CEO Sam Altman argued that giving the public a financial interest in the company would be the best way to share [...]

Amazon says it now has enough satellites operating in low-Earth orbit to light up its Starlink internet competitor. With last night's launch, Amazon Leo has 396 satellites deployed, which is "enough to support continuous service across initial latitudes," according to Chris Weber, VP heading up business and product for Amazon Leo. That puts the company [...]

Apple is working on a "revamped" version of its entry-level MacBook Pro that it could launch as soon as the first half of 2027, Bloomberg reports. The company is also testing four new iPad Pros that are set to launch in the spring with a focus on "internal improvements." The updated MacBook Pro, which will [...]

Cody Spencer, the co-owner of the small games retail chain Pink Gorilla Games, put it well when I asked about the impact of Sony's recent announcement that it will stop making discs for new games starting January 2028. "It's sad to see. This decision is only a negative for gamers. We're losing the ability to [...]

Xbox is making some big changes - again. On June 10th, a few months after Asha Sharma took over as CEO, she and newly promoted chief content officer Matt Booty sent a memo to staff warning of an Xbox reset." The business, they said, is facing significant challenges, including a 3 percent accountability margin," massively [...]

Elon Musk says a report about a SpaceX AI phone prototype is "utterly false." The report, published on Wednesday by The Wall Street Journal, says SpaceX showed off a "handset-like prototype" to some investors before launching its record-breaking initial public offering in June. The device was "slimmer than an iPhone," and they were told it [...]

After a lengthy legal dispute, Krafton has settled with its subsidiary Unknown Worlds Entertainment, which is developing Subnautica 2, and will pay bonuses to the studio's staff, Bloomberg reports. The dispute began last year after Krafton pushed out Unknown Worlds' cofounders, Charlie Cleveland and Max McGuire, and its CEO, Ted Gill, ahead of a potential [...]

Microsoft will likely soon follow Sony and stop the production of physical discs for Xbox games. But instead of leaving physical discs behind entirely, sources familiar with Microsoft's plans tell me the company has quietly been working on a disc-to-digital feature that will allow Xbox owners to digitize their existing physical game collections. Xbox employees [...]

Kobo recently raised the price of its Libra Colour e-reader to $259.99, but today's deal effectively erases that hike. The company, Best Buy, and Target, are all selling it for its old $229.99 price as part of broader sales, making now one of the best times to grab my favorite alternative to Amazon's Kindle. If [...]

NBCUniversal executives are about to find out whether Peacock will sink or swim in the streaming industry. Now that Comcast is planning to split NBCUniversal, Peacock, and Sky from its broadband and wireless businesses, Peacock will be forced to stand on its own - without the backing of a combined company that pulled in more [...]

Dbrand apparently knows how to really whiff a product launch, as we recently saw with the Steam Machine Companion Cube shell. But it also makes the best case out there for the Nintendo Switch 2, which happens to be discounted right now. The Killswitch 2 is versatile, with better build quality than other similar models, [...]

The future of video game preservation just took a major hit. This morning, Sony announced that, starting in January 2028, the company will no longer produce physical PlayStation discs, which means that from that moment on you can only purchase new PS5 games digitally. At the same time, Sony also announced that it's going to [...]

It's the end of an era for the PlayStation store on PS3 and PS Vita, with Sony now planning to shut down its digital distribution service on both consoles. The PlayStation store on PS3 will close in select markets later this year, including Mexico, Honduras, and Nicaragua starting in August, with "additional Latin American and [...]

Sony has announced that from January 2028 it will entirely stop the production of physical discs for new PlayStation games. From that point onwards, new releases will only be available in digital versions from the PlayStation Store and other retailers. Games released before January 2028 will still be available on disc. "This is a natural [...]

Smart speakers have spent the past few years searching for a compelling second act. Beyond music, timers, and controlling your lights, they've struggled to justify taking up space on the kitchen counter. AI promised to change that. Amazon debuted its new hardware powered by a revamped Alexa last fall, and now it's finally Google's turn. [...]

Rhythm Heaven isn't Nintendo's best-known series, nor its most prolific. Prior to the launch of Rhythm Heaven Groove on the Switch this week - it's out on July 2nd - there were only four previous entries, one of which was exclusive to Japan. The most recent came out more than a decade ago. Even still, [...]

The storm developed quickly over west central Illinois on April 17th, first as a single high-intensity system called a supercell, and then later that evening transforming into a long squall line of thunderstorms. Tucked inside a wall of wind were several smaller, quick-forming tornadoes, one of which landed directly on Rivian's electric vehicle factory on [...]

Dbrand is the company that shipped a product that told Nintendo's legal team to "go fuck yourself," and the company that had a second set of lawyer-dodging PS5 plates ready when Sony threatened to sue over the originals. But on June 29th, the company finally ate some serious humble pie, canceling its Portal-themed Companion Cube [...]

Fujifilm is expanding its QuickSnap lineup with a new disposable camera focused on taking monochrome photos and another built to survive harsh outdoor environments. The $22.90 QuickSnap Black and White and the $24.75 QuickSnap Active are expected to launch sometime later this fall, to the delight of Gen Z snappers driving the current resurgence in [...]

Getty is planning to axe its $3.7 billion merger agreement with Shutterstock after a UK regulator imposed restrictions that would prevent part of Shutterstock's business from being included in the deal. The move comes despite the US Department of Justice granting the deal "unconditional antitrust clearance" in February. In an SEC filing published on Tuesday [...]

Would you pay $20 a month for access to AI hardware you already own? That appears to be one of Meta's next bets. This week, it quietly announced that your glasses' Conversation Focus feature will soon be limited to three hours of use per month, unless you pay for a $19.99 Meta One Premium subscription. [...]

After weeks of negotiating with the Trump administration, Anthropic is finally going to be able to bring Claude Fable 5 back online. In a post on X, Anthropic said it plans to begin restoring access Wednesday to users globally on Claude platforms, and that the company would re-enable access on AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft [...]

Dish, the company that operates Dish TV and Sling TV, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy," as reported earlier by Reuters. The plan will allow the EchoStar-owned company to continue to wind down its wireless operations after "unforeseen delays" held back its sale of $23 billion worth of 5G spectrum to AT&T. Dish TV, Sling [...]

The Federal Trade Commission fined Amazon $2.25 million to settle claims that the company failed to help customers who fell victim to identity theft, as reported earlier by Bloomberg. In its complaint, the FTC accuses Amazon of refusing to provide customers with information about purchases made with fraudulent accounts, in violation of the Fair Credit [...]

As high memory and storage prices have driven up the cost of everything from consoles to computers, finding a competent laptop for under $1,000 has become a challenge. Thankfully, the Acer Swift Go 16 AI is on sale for $899.99 at Best Buy, a steep discount from its usual list price of $1,549.99. The well-equipped [...]

Google's NotebookLM is adding a new way to catch up on your notes: TikTok-style AI videos. The new feature is rolling out to Google AI Ultra and Pro subscribers, allowing NotebookLM to generate 60-second vertical AI clips based on the sources you upload to the app. The example shared by Google details Australia's unsuccessful war [...]

The price of LG's UltraGear 27GX700A-B 1440p gaming monitor that came out last August has dropped to nearly its best price yet. You can grab it at Amazon for $484.99 or at LG for $499.99 (originally $599.99). That's a great deal considering this is one of LG's Primary RGB Tandem panels built with fourth-generation WOLED [...]

IO Interactive, the studio behind the Hitman series and 007 First Light, announced that it is laying off staff after a relationship with an "external partner" on its next big franchise, Project Fantasy, "has come to an end." IO has described Project Fantasy as an "online fantasy RPG", and Kotaku and Bloomberg report that Microsoft, [...]

Announced at CES 2026, the Moto Tag 2 has finally arrived in the US. The Bluetooth tracker with improved battery life over its predecessor, plus UWB sensing for more accurate tracking, is available through Motorola's site at a special $19.99 launch price (originally $29.99). There are plenty of trackers for Android owners to consider, but [...]

A new teaser trailer confirmed that Wonka's The Golden Ticket will premiere on Netflix on September 23rd, following its Squid Game reality show in the trend of creating real competitions based on fictional torture scenarios. While the sets seen in the trailer are real and not some Glasgow-style AI fakes, the voiceover is AI-generated. Deadline [...]

Workers at Grand Theft Auto VI developer Rockstar Games have submitted a request for their union, the IWGB Game Workers Union, to be voluntarily recognized, according to a press release. The request follows Rockstar firing more than 30 staffers last year in a move accused of being "union busting." According to the release, IWGB members [...]

The GIF-picking interfaces in some of your favorite online platforms might look different going forward, as Google prepares to shut down the Tenor API today. While the Tenor website, along with its searchable GIF library, will remain live, platforms like X, Discord, Bluesky, and WhatsApp that previously integrated the API are now having to migrate [...]

Microsoft is set to announce a wave of layoffs for its Xbox studios and employees next week. Sources familiar with Microsoft's plans tell The Verge that the layoffs will lead to studio closures or spinoffs, potential mergers of studios, and canceled games. I understand Microsoft is currently weighing closing at least five studios, including the [...]

The Bose Soundlink Max is usually $399, but has been on steep discount this week at Amazon, Best Buy, and directly from Bose for $279. This Bluetooth speaker has a big and bold sound, with a wide soundstage that impressed us in our review. It's great for the outdoors thanks to its IP67 rating, meaning [...]

To this day, we have yet to see a quantum computer conclusively perform a single useful task. Existing machines are simply too small and error-ridden to solve commercially relevant problems. That hasn't stopped Donald Trump's science adviser from promising a "quantum computer powerful enough for scientific discovery by 2028" and Trump from issuing a new [...]

The Supreme Court upheld birthright citizenship, ruling 6-3 against President Donald Trump's effort to end the longstanding constitutional right via executive order. Birthright citizenship dates back to Reconstruction. Under the 14th Amendment, which was ratified in 1868 to guarantee citizenship and equal protection to the children of formerly enslaved people, anyone born in the United [...]

Videos purporting to show the iPhone 18 Pro undergoing a drop test were removed from X shortly after they surfaced, as spotted earlier by MacRumors. An account imitating leaker EvLeaks was suspended from X after sharing the clips, while the post was removed as well, with X saying it "violated" the platform's rules. Another leaker, [...]

Watching Elon Musk fulminate at Bill Savitt during Musk v. Altman - the case in which Musk sued Sam Altman and OpenAI instead of seeing a therapist about his AI failures - was a bit like watching a toddler have a temper tantrum at his nursery school teacher. Savitt's questions were "designed to trick me," [...]