The Verge

If you're planning to travel this summer, both a Bluetooth tracker and a personal safety device can come in handy, especially if you'll be exploring on your own. The Pebblebee Halo combines those two gadgets into one, and it's currently on sale for $49.99 ($10 off) at Amazon, which is the best price we've seen. [...]

Nvidia's announcement that it's getting into the consumer laptop chip space with RTX Spark is huge. Apple has proved for years that Arm-based chips can perform incredibly well while also delivering great battery life - at least on the Mac. In the Windows world, performance hasn't fully matched up under Qualcomm chips, mostly in the [...]

Google's new "24/7" AI agent, Gemini Spark, can be shockingly good at doing things on your behalf. But I'm not sure it's worth the financial cost and potential privacy tradeoffs. The company gave me access to Spark last week. Google advertises Spark as an AI agent that can take on tasks and work on them [...]

Meta's AI support chatbot helped hackers hijack Instagram accounts, as reported earlier by 404 Media. In a video shared on Telegram, a hacker shows how they could take over an account by asking Meta's chatbot to switch the email associated with someone else's profile and then reset the password. The issue, which Meta says has [...]

Some news: The Vergecast is now a daily podcast! Starting today, we'll be posting every weekday, with even more gadgets and rankings and conversations and feelings and podcasts-within-podcasts. We're excited for all the ways this new schedule lets us tell new kinds of stories, experiment with new tech and new formats, and involve you even [...]

After months of speculation about whether OpenAI or Anthropic would be first in their race to IPO, Anthropic on Monday reached a key milestone: filing to kick off the process with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The filing sets the stage for what's sure to be a massive IPO. As of its fundraise last [...]

Sony is sharing new details about some of its upcoming gaming-focused hardware, including pricing and August launch dates for its FlexStrike fight stick and its 27-inch monitor. The FlexStrike fight stick will be available starting August 6th - the same day as the new PlayStation-published fighting game Marvel Tkon: Fighting Souls - and will cost [...]

Get ready for some gaming news. It's officially June, which means splashy new events from PlayStation, Xbox, and gaming hype man Geoff Keighley. But this season doesn't just feature the big tentpole shows; there will be a bunch of smaller events, too, and they might feature some promising games as well. But this year's events [...]

There are many solid Bluetooth trackers for iPhones that tap into Apple's expansive Find My network. Some are thin, some are a bit chunkier. And, evidently, some look like tiny soccer balls. Ugreen's FineTrack 2 glows in the dark, and it has a loud 110-decibel alarm when you need to find it. It's just $14.99 [...]

Though Gen Z has developed a reputation for being so disinterested in sex that they don't even want to see it on TV, the popularity of series like Heated Rivalry and The Summer I Turned Pretty has made it very clear that more than a few young people do, in fact, like their entertainment a [...]

It's early June, which means it's video game event season once again. Now that E3 has been gone for a few years, a bunch of showcases and presentations have started to fill the void, including big productions like Summer Game Fest Live and smaller affairs like Wholesome Games Direct. If you love following gaming news, [...]

Microsoft is heading to San Francisco this week in a bid to win back developers at its Build conference. I've been attending Build since the days when Microsoft called it the Professional Developers Conference, and I can't remember a more pivotal moment. As Microsoft continues to reshuffle its entire business around AI, it's moving Build [...]

Computex 2026 is kicking off in Taipei, Taiwan this week, where Nvidia, AMD, Qualcomm, Intel, and other tech brands are announcing new laptops, handhelds, chips, and more. Nvidia unveiled RTX Spark, its first family of consumer PC chips, arriving in laptops and mini PCs starting this fall. Intel is launching two new custom chips made [...]

Nvidia has officially entered the world of consumer laptop chips with the RTX Spark, and several device makers already have hardware lined up for it. Microsoft, Asus, HP, MSI, Lenovo, and Dell are expected to launch RTX Spark laptops sometime this fall, and some of those partner companies have shared details about what we can [...]

If you asked me what I'd change about the Xbox Ally X handheld - aside from fixing Windows, I mean - I'd tell you two key things. First, give me a bigger, better screen. Even a little bit bigger, so games feel less claustrophobic and with less ugly bezel. Second, get rid of the "Library" [...]

Once upon a time, Microsoft had to write off $900 million betting an Arm-based Nvidia chip could power its first flagship Windows portable, the original Microsoft Surface. But today, it's trying again. Microsoft and Nvidia have just announced the Surface Laptop Ultra, a computer with a new Arm-based Nvidia chip at its core. There's a [...]

This fall, Nvidia will officially become a consumer PC chipmaker like Intel, AMD, Apple, and Qualcomm, putting a complete computing chip - not just graphics - into the very heart of laptops and mini-PCs. After many months of leaks, it's finally announcing the RTX Spark, the first in a family of chips that will meet [...]

Computex 2026 is underway in Taiwan, and we're expecting all manner of flashy computers with jaw-dropping prices (or no prices at all) as the entire industry navigates RAMageddon. But for desktop PC gamers, AMD has a different pitch. It's relaunching three old components alongside a big new promise: You won't need to buy a new [...]

Alienware is taking to this year's Computex 2026 in Taipei to announce some cool gaming monitors, most notably two exciting OLED options that are coming at different points this year. First off, the company is debuting the successor to its very first QD-OLED gaming monitor from 2022 with a refreshed design and high-end specs that's [...]

Dell is making good on its tease from CES and finally announcing a new XPS 13. The XPS 13 returns as a budget-friendly option, launching in July at a promotional student price of $599 - though that introductory deal only runs until September for back-to-school shopping; it'll start at $699 for everyone else. The $599 [...]

Apple isn't just looking to take on Meta in the smart glasses market; it's looking to upend eyewear as a whole, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. When the Apple Watch launched, it wasn't simply competing against the Pebbles and the Motorolas of the world. The company also had Swatch, Fossil, and Seiko in its crosshairs. [...]

NVIDIA's CEO Jensen Huang is set to take the stage for his GTC Taipei keynote at 8PM PT / 11PM ET. You can watch all the announcements here and embedded below. Rumors have been flying about what to expect from today's presentation, but the big one is the possibility of a partnership with Microsoft and [...]

The A Minecraft Movie sequel officially has a title: A Minecraft Movie Squared. What's more, we now know that Kirsten Dunst will star as Alex, the game's female character option, and that Matt Berry is set to play an even bigger role in this film. He voiced Nitwit in the first movie, but in this [...]

From the opening moments of bitknot, it's obvious that Feeble Little Horse has found an entirely new gear. Where on Girl with Fish the blown-out textures were more '90s indie rock and shoegaze, on their latest LP, there's a more modern edge to the distortion and the riffs cut cleaner. Similarly, where the digital glitchiness [...]

United flight 236 from Newark to Palma de Mallorca on Saturday night was forced to turn around just an hour after takeoff due to security concerns around a Bluetooth signal. Multiple Redditors claimed to be on the flight and reported that the crew repeatedly requested passengers to turn off their Bluetooth. According to one poster, [...]

My eyes have seen the PC gaming promised land, and it's a beautifully bright world without a shred of blurriness. It's warm, it looks lovely, and it's impeccably sharp. Also, it's expensive as hell. I've dipped my toe in this world by testing a pre-production version of the upcoming Asus ROG Strix Scar 18, which [...]

IO Interactive's 007 First Light is here, and it's just as stunning a James Bond mov - err, video game - as we hoped it would be. Pardon the confusion, the title's engaging tutorial really feels like you're watching a great Bond movie at times. Whether you're a longtime Hitman fan who's been eagerly waiting [...]

Earlier this month, I finally achieved the elusive goal I had set for myself in Bungie's Marathon. I collected six of the game's rarest items, allowing me to attempt and then successfully clear the raid-style Compiler boss. I felt a massive weight lift off my shoulders - nearly 185 hours of playtime and I had [...]

On Saturday, at around 2:06 pm ET, a meteor streaked over the northeastern US and exploded north of Cape Cod Bay. The fireball was caught on camera by several people, shook houses, and can even be seen clearly in satellite imagery, lighting up the sky. Some residents initially thought that the shaking and boom may [...]

The crypto weed vape found me on 4/20, the high holiday of cannabis enthusiasts everywhere. It arrived over Slack with the thumbnail of a man exhaling a plume of vapor, the words "every hit delivers Bitcoin" emblazoned across it. It claimed to be advertising a device called Gudtrip, and I thought everything about it sounded [...]

This is The Stepback, a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more news about gadgets and smartphones, follow Dominic Preston. The Stepback arrives in our subscribers' inboxes at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepback here. How it started In 2023, the European Union agreed on two landmark pieces [...]

Despite headwinds from the current administration, automakers continue to release well-equipped EVs with bigger battery packs and increasingly faster charging speeds. For those who want to travel further between plugging in, the future is still bright, just slightly tinted. But there haven't been many sedans starting around or below $50,000, as crossover SUVs have largely [...]

The Kane Parsons' film Backrooms is expected to earn up to $90 million in its opening weekend after pulling down $38 million on Friday alone. That's not only above expectations, but absolutely obliterates A24's previous opening weekend record of $25.5 million for Alex Garland's Civil War. It's also a better opening day than The Mandalorian [...]

Cecil Baldwin's resume includes appearances on Gravity Falls, narrating the documentary Scream, Queen! My Nightmare on Elm Street, and performing as part of the New York Neo-Futurists theater company. But he is best known as the host of the podcast Welcome to Night Vale, a long-running fiction show that blends macabre Lovecraftian horror with absurdist [...]

Microsoft is facing criticism for its handling of zero-day exploits. Someone going by the name Nightmare Eclipse has been publicly feuding with the company, posting proof-of-concept exploit code. Some of their posts suggest that they're a disgruntled former employee. But what caught cyber security researcher Kevin Beaumont's eye was how Microsoft has responded. Microsoft suggests [...]

Art TVs aren't exactly known for being affordable, which is why Woot's latest sale is notable. Now through June 26th, the retailer is discounting Samsung's 2025 Frame TV and Hisense's 2025 CanvasTV. The 65-inch CanvasTV is down to $779.99 ($520 off) - its best price of the year - while Samsung's like-minded Frame TV is [...]

You may have heard that Valve's new Steam Controller can ring like a telephone or do the Wilhelm scream. But did you know it can sing songs, too? Let me show you. Here's the new Steam Controller performing the "Ground Theme" from Super Mario Bros. 2: Here is "Still Alive" from Portal - fitting for [...]

I live in a part of Los Angeles where I feel safer bringing pepper spray on walks. The problem is, I don't always remember to bring it with me, and it's not legal to carry it everywhere I go. Pebblebee's $59.99 Halo Bluetooth tracker surprised me by being a suitable replacement because it doubles as [...]

As handheld consoles continue to grow and push the limits of what you can actually hold in your hands, the Arduboy FX-C comes in a refreshingly pocketable package. It manages to squeeze the best features of past models and some welcome upgrades into a handheld that's still no larger or thicker than a few credit [...]

Craig Campbell walked away from the river of investor money flowing into AI to create, of all things, a website. Sure, Campbell probably could have started an AI company. He's a former engineer at Meta and an experienced tech founder who in 2022 sold his last venture - an e-commerce tool for businesses that use [...]

Aliyah, a light-skinned Black woman dressed in country-western gear, is struggling to sell metal buckles she handmade on TikTok. In a video for the social media platform from March, she cries to the camera and pleads for views: "Even as a black woman, I have more faith that white women will stay 13 seconds [on [...]

Slots & Daggers, a low-key, fantasy-themed slot machine roguelike, was one of my favorite games last year. That may sound like a complicated description, but the game mixes ideas from deckbuilding roguelikes with slot machines to create an engrossing loop, and there's steady meta-progression that helps you push further with just about every run. Perhaps [...]

I haven't seen anything as stupid as the WeWork IPO document in a very long time - that is, until Elon Musk filed to take SpaceX public. WeWork was a joke. SpaceX is a threat. And if Musk and his bankers have their way, you are going to be their bagholder. Lots of the top-line [...]

Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 130, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you're new here, welcome, don't forget to hydrate, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.) This week, I've been reading about Victor Wembanyama and mahjong and Merlin Mann's pearls of [...]

It's the world's worst kept secret that Nvidia is about to announce its own Arm-powered laptop chips at Computex this weekend, and now Microsoft, Nvidia, and Arm are all openly teasing the announcement. The Windows and Nvidia GeForce accounts on X both posted "A new era of PC" earlier today, and now Arm has followed [...]

The Pentagon awarded SpaceX a $4.16 billion contract to build missile-tracking satellites linked with President Donald Trump's planned "Golden Dome" defense system, as reported earlier by Bloomberg. In an announcement on Friday, the US Space Force says the sensor-equipped satellites will allow it to detect and track targets from space. The Elon Musk-owned SpaceX - [...]

The Acer Nitro Blaze Link might run on Linux, but it's no Steam Deck. Acer says it's a "streaming-first handheld and companion device," like a PlayStation Portal for your PC. Announced ahead of Computex on Friday, it's launching in Q4 2026 with a 7-inch (1920 x 1200) display, Wi-Fi 6, just 1GB of LPDDR4 RAM, [...]

This week, an AI training startup called Shift said it would clean New Yorkers' homes for free. It has plans to expand into other cities as well, including London, and looking around my flat, I get the appeal. But there's a catch. There's always a catch. In exchange for the cleaning, Shift wants footage of [...]

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 [...]

Microsoft has delayed its upcoming Fable reboot once again. The game was set to launch in autumn 2026, but Microsoft now says that Fable will come out in February 2027. However, it will show a "new look" at the game at its Xbox Games Showcase on June 7th. "This is year is packed with incredible [...]