The Verge

After turning a string of spectacular mathematical results into a reputational crisis, OpenAI is consulting human mathematicians to help it figure out a less disastrous path forward. On Monday, the company announced a new independent panel of mathematicians tasked with advising it and other AI companies on their interactions with mathematical research and the wider [...]

Now that Paramount has reached a settlement with the 12 states that were suing to block its $110 billion merger with Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), the studio is even closer to becoming one of the world's biggest production houses. In addition to spending at least $300 million more on film and TV projects produced in [...]

Rabbit, the company behind the underwhelming R1 device, is rolling out a standalone AI agent that you don't need its hardware to use, as reported earlier by Wired. The startup says its new OS3 "agentic operating system" runs in the cloud but operates locally across Windows, Mac, and Linux devices. According to Rabbit, you can [...]

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is mostly known for its global dominance over petroleum production and oil reserves - not necessarily cars and auto manufacturing, and certainly not electric vehicle production. So it was a little surprising on Monday when a Saudi startup called Ceer unveiled a pair of hyper-angular, spaceship-like EVs, with plans to [...]

Qualcomm has announced the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6, this year joined by the 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 too. The company describes both new phone chips as flagships, and the spec differences are relatively minor, mostly limited to improved AI processing, video capture, and gaming performance on the Extreme model. Both Gen 6 chips [...]

Motorola is the first company to announce a phone running Qualcomm's top-end Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 chip. The Signature 27 looks set to be Motorola's most advanced flagship in some years, though we're still waiting for the full specs, price, and release date. Any prospective buyers will first have to get over the [...]

Apple's new texture and grain controls for stylizing photos will be more limited on older phones than initially expected. A confusingly worded press release from Apple indicated that the new features, announced alongside the iPhone 18 and 18 Pro earlier this month, would be "available" on older devices like the iPhone 16 and iPhone Air [...]

The Android-powered Googlebooks are coming soon, with familiar brands and specs that rival Windows Copilot machines. For anyone eager to get their hands on any the new laptops, there's a preorder perk you may want to know about lasting until October 25th, 2026. When you add a Googlebook to your cart at Best Buy, a [...]

Until the end of the day on September 22nd, 2026, Best Buy and Amazon have the black Apple Magic Keyboard on sale for $169.99, a $30 discount from the usual price. This is the souped-up version of Apple's full-size, wireless keyboard, with a Touch ID button, numerical pad, arrow keys, plus additional function keys. The [...]

San Francisco is suing the Trump Media & Technology Group, the parent company behind Truth Social, for selling early access to President Donald Trump's posts on the social media site. The lawsuit, filed today in California state court, alleges that the Truth API feed is a "corrupt business scheme" that violates both California's Unfair Competition [...]

Apple is working on a new fitness tracker with a screenless design, similar to the one made by Whoop, according to a report from Bloomberg. A prototype of the device reportedly has "a thin fabric band with a sensor-equipped computing module." The device is in an early stage of development and likely wouldn't arrive before [...]

Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) is creating an "academy" positioned as a pipeline for young people to build or join a Silicon Valley startup. The "Horowitz Andreessen Academy" will launch with 10 partners, including Anduril, Anthropic, Coinbase, Google, Meta, NVIDIA, OpenAI, Palantir, Replit, and Stripe, along with $42 million in funding led by a16z. [...]

Anthropic says its new Claude Opus 5.5 model comes with stronger safeguards in the wake of recent rogue AI hacking incidents. In an announcement on Tuesday, Anthropic says Opus 5.5 comes with improvements to certain risky behaviors, including attempts to escape the company's testing sandbox. It's the first model released by Anthropic after CEO Dario [...]

Rivian always planned for its all-important R2 vehicle to be less expensive than its pricey R1 predecessors, but also less polluting. The production process for the R2 would rely on more renewable energy, and the vehicle itself would feature more recycled and biodegradable materials than the models that came before it. With this and a [...]

In a speech Tuesday morning at the UN General Assembly, Donald Trump railed against Iran, "globalists," climate change, and transgender people while also claiming that the US is now "officially" renaming artificial intelligence to "super intelligence." Oddly, this wasn't one of the entries in the poll Trump posted a few days ago when he started [...]

Xbox has become a shell of its former self - and things are only getting worse. As part of its planned cuts impacting around 3,200 workers, the company announced today more changes that will further dilute the brand. Studios are being consolidated, others are on the brink of being closed altogether, and Xbox's most iconic [...]

Microsoft is uniting its two Forza developers into a single studio today, as part of a massive restructuring of Xbox. Playground Games, which develops Forza Horizon, and Turn 10 Studios, creators of Forza Motorsport, are merging together to focus on Forza Horizon and Fable. "Playground and Turn 10 will come together as one studio focused [...]

Microsoft is laying off around 260 Xbox employees today, as part of an ongoing "reset" of its gaming business. 1,600 Xbox employees were impacted by layoffs in July, with Xbox CEO Asha Sharma describing the cuts as "the most significant restructure in Xbox history." Today's layoffs are part of the 3,200 roles that were previously [...]

Microsoft is announcing a massive restructuring of its Xbox studios today, months after laying off 1,600 Xbox employees and selling off studios. The latest changes will see Activision take on the Halo and Sea of Thieves franchises, as well as Age of Empires. Microsoft is also laying off around 268 Xbox employees as part of [...]

Everyone has seen someone at the gym or running around their neighborhood wearing headphones that were never designed for workouts. Quite often those headphones are Beats. Good news for the earbud haters: The new Beats 360 over-ear headphones are durable and built to withstand sweat, with water resistance and swappable knit ear cups. And there [...]

The White House is now airing reruns of President Donald Trump's speeches, bill signings, and other moments on a YouTube livestream that it's calling "Trump TV," as reported earlier by Time. The 24/7 station launched just days after Trump banned CNN, MS Now, and Politico from the White House. Following several teasers propping up "Trump [...]

Waymo has made several attempts over the years at offering transit discounts to its customers in the hopes of getting them to more frequently use the company's robotaxis to connect with a train or a bus. The Alphabet-owned company announced the latest effort today, teaming up with Visa to offer a discount on robotaxi rides [...]

EssilorLuxottica, the company that Meta partnered with for its Ray-Ban smart glasses, announced a new version of its Nuance Audio glasses that are designed to double as discreet over-the-counter hearing aids. The new Nuance Audio Plus still manages to squeeze their FDA cleared hearing aid tech into temple arms that don't look much thicker than [...]

Oppo's new Find X10 Pro Max flagship phone, launched today in China, is the first anywhere to use 200-megapixel sensors on all three of its rear cameras. A 17-stop dynamic range for the main camera, delivered thanks to what Oppo calls "DeepPix sensor technology," suggests megapixel count won't be the only thing this camera has [...]

Last year, Peloton did a sweeping refresh of its hardware that added cameras, fans, and AI-powered software called Peloton IQ. This year, it's zeroing in on its treadmill lineup - refreshing its two existing Treads and adding the new, more affordable Tread Flex into the fold. At a New York City launch event, Peloton chief [...]

The Mac Mini is a great little desktop computer, and back when it cost $599, it was easy to recommend to anyone who wanted something speedy, simple, and cheap. The new M6 model is even better, but it starts at $899, and its 12-core CPU and 12-core GPU might actually be overkill for someone who [...]

Meta has issued a patch for its Muse macOS app following the discovery of a zero-day vulnerability that could allow someone to take control of the AI agent. The bug found by security researcher Patrick Wardle utilized an undocumented Muse setting that enabled potential attackers running local code to redirect transcription processing from Meta's servers [...]

In 2021, as a whistleblower emerged with dramatic allegations that Facebook was harming children, CEO Mark Zuckerberg posted a rebuttal on Facebook. We care deeply about issues like safety, well-being and mental health. It's difficult to see coverage that misrepresents our work and our motives," he wrote in a note to Meta staff, which he [...]

Apple is preparing to open a new "state-of-the-art" live music venue in the UK, a 600-capacity space for hosting performances, recording sessions, and video broadcasts. The venue, called Apple Music Hall, is located underneath Apple's European headquarters in London's iconic Battersea Power Station, and is set to open next week on September 28th. Details about [...]

Hundreds of flights were cancelled or delayed on Monday after construction crews in New Jersey accidentally cut a Verizon fiber cable used for air traffic control. FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said that a circuit failure led to the discovery of the severed fiber cable, ABC News reports. The outage hammered airports across the Northeast, causing [...]

Amazon plans to spend $20 million on water conservation projects along the Colorado River, a crucial but dwindling water supply for 40 million people in the Western US. The initiative comes as Amazon and other tech companies face mounting scrutiny over how much water their data centers use. Amazon has a goal of becoming water [...]

California Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed seven bills designed to prevent AI data centers from passing utility costs onto residents, as reported earlier by the Los Angeles Times. The package of laws requires the California Public Utilities Commission to introduce a new rate classification for data centers while forcing them to pay for upgrades to [...]

Last week, GM announced a new software experience for its upcoming Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra trucks, including a new look for Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, the popular phone mirroring systems that the automaker made a big deal about removing from its electric vehicles in 2023. Naturally, this led to some confusion about whether [...]

Paramount has reached a settlement with California and the 11 other states that sued to block its planned $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery. The settlement removes a major roadblock standing in the way of the massive media merger. According to the proposed consent decree filed with the court, it includes requirements like minimum [...]

Months after seemingly giving up on Destiny 2, Bungie now says it's planning to restore vaulted content in the game like campaigns, destinations, and raids. The decision reverses the Destiny Content Vault that Bungie created six years ago, controversially removing older content from Destiny 2 that players had paid to access. "We understand that removing [...]

Newegg is hosting a bundle that includes Microsoft's wireless Xbox controller (in black) and a $50 digital Xbox gift card together for $80. Given that this model typically sits around $50 to $60 depending on the color you want, this is a fantastic value since it essentially knocks its price down to $30. Another way [...]

Today, I'm talking with Mark Gurman, who is the world's best-sourced Apple reporter - both as Bloomberg's chief Apple correspondent and the host of the upcoming podcast Power On. Earlier this month, Apple hosted its annual iPhone hardware event, virtually every detail of which was reported ahead of time by Mark. But this event was [...]

Apple is paying $250 million to settle claims that it failed to deliver an AI-upgraded Siri - and now, eligible iPhone owners can submit a claim for a payout. If you live in the US and purchased an iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, or any iPhone 16 model between June 10th, 2024, and [...]

Vivo's new X500 flagship phones have arrived in China, and as usual the company's focus is firmly on photography. The X500 Pro Max - a new tier in its lineup - is the first phone to use new sensors and silicon from Sony and MediaTek that enable impressive dynamic range and slow-motion video recording. The [...]

In late 2010, an up-and-coming Google executive named Sundar Pichai took the stage in front of a bunch of reporters and explained that Google had a big new idea about laptops. In the future, he said, the only thing you'd need on your computer was a web browser - that was where all your apps, [...]

There are a few things about using a Googlebook that immediately feel just right. The hardware is polished (since it's based on current laptops). The OS is familiar (if you've ever used a Chromebook). But most impressive, it integrates your Android phone with your PC so they feel more like one device. It's the culmination [...]

There are lots of compact desktop computers out there, but none match the Mac Mini's small size and big power. 2024's redesign reduced the Mini to 0.82L, a chassis so minimal you can easily mount it behind a monitor or under a desk. I've used gaming laptop charging bricks that are nearly as large and [...]

The Mac Studio review unit that Apple sent us to test this year is, put simply, kind of outrageous. It has an M5 Ultra chip with a 36-core CPU and 80-core GPU, 256GB of RAM, and 4TB of storage and costs $12,299. This thing is not for your typical content creation workloads. It's for AI [...]

There's a good chance that my next laptop will be a Googlebook. If you're an Android user like me, then yours might be too, because Google is making a compelling pitch: The Googlebook does for the Android phone what the MacBook does for the iPhone (and then some). John Maletis, Google's head of laptops and [...]

iFixit's latest device teardown shows us the inner workings of the new variable aperture lens inside Apple's iPhone 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max, alongside some repair concerns to be mindful of. The adjustable mechanical iris opens and closes magnetically, controlling how much light should pass through to the sensor, featuring six leaf-like overlapping blades [...]

Governments need to rein in increasingly capable AI agents before their risks are fully understood, a United Nations scientific panel warned in the global organization's first major assessment of OpenAI's hack of Hugging Face earlier this year. The report cements AI's place on the global diplomatic agenda this week as leaders gather in New York [...]

Meta's Muse AI agent has been blocked from shopping Amazon on behalf of its users, GeekWire reports. A popup message started appearing on Sunday for Muse users saying that "continued access by an unauthorized AI agent violates Amazon's Conditions of Use, to which our customers have agreed." According to GeekWire, Meta didn't notify Amazon that [...]

In August, I wrote about my love of the music history podcast No Dogs in Space, but mourned the fact that there hadn't been a new episode in over two years. Little did I know that hosts Carolina Hidalgo and Marcus Parks were gearing up to announce the show's return with season four, Punk 2.0. [...]

The man who may stand to make the most money from the AI boom seems to think he knows better than anyone else, including researchers who have studied and worked on AI for decades. In an interview with CBS Sunday Morning, he claimed there was a "0% chance" of AI being the end of the [...]