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Updated 2026-09-01 03:22
The Google TV Streamer now costs $50 more
Google raised the price of its 4K streaming box to $149, up $50 from its original $99 price. The new price is currently live at the Google Store and Best Buy, but Amazon appears to still be offering the original price. The price hike comes just a couple of weeks after Google launched its new [...]
JMGO’s very bright all-in-one projector looks ideal for gamers and sports
JMGO's 4K 120Hz Iris Ultra Max all-in-one Google TV projector is now available outside China. It gets its name from a new dual-iris system that lets it produce an impressive 10,000:1 native contrast, according to JMGO. It boosts the contrast - always an issue with projectors - by placing two separate physical apertures (irises) along [...]
FTC lawsuit alleges Amazon has been ‘secretly and systematically’ overcharging for ads
The FTC and 22 state attorneys general are suing Amazon for allegedly using a "secret ad surcharge" to drive up prices for ads on its website and app. FTC chairman Andrew Ferguson claims in a blog post on the lawsuit that the higher advertising prices "were largely passed on to American consumers." According to the [...]
I went to the loneliest baseball game on Apple Vision Pro
This weekend, I strapped on an Apple Vision Pro to watch a baseball game in immersive virtual reality for the first time. It was technically impressive, visually pretty remarkable, and also didn't make that much sense. Apple and Major League Baseball chose a classic match-up of the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees [...]
Alienware’s budget-friendly QD-OLED is discounted for the first time
While memory and storage prices are still high, there are still good discounts on other gaming-related hardware. Take Alienware's AW2726DM, for example. Dell is selling it for $319.99, a $30 break from the usual price of $349.99. The 27-inch gaming monitor features an QD-OLED panel for deep, immersive black levels, and quantum dots for full [...]
Car owners want tech they can ignore
Automakers keep shoving more tech into their cars, despite evidence that consumers are increasingly fed up with huge screens and glitchy software. In fact, the features that car owners appreciate the most happen to be the ones they barely notice, according to the latest tech survey from JD Power. The consumer research firm surveyed 68,084 [...]
Phil Schiller is leaving his biggest jobs at Apple
Longtime Apple executive Phil Schiller is stepping down from his role as the head of the App Store and Apple events, according to a report from Bloomberg. Following the change, Schiller will keep his Apple Fellow title and continue "working on unspecified initiatives," Bloomberg reports. Schiller initially joined Apple in 1987 and became the company's [...]
Markiplier is now GoPro’s biggest shareholder
YouTuber Mark "Markiplier" Fischbach has invested enough in GoPro to become its single largest shareholder, with an 8.5 percent stake in the company, Bloomberg reports. Speaking to Bloomberg, Fischbach said he thought GoPro "seems undervalued" and sees his investment as "part of a larger mission to make filmmaking more accessible," following the release of his [...]
Read Tim Cook’s final message to Apple staff as CEO
Steve Jobs' successor carried the torch of the iPhone and built Apple into a global powerhouse with few rivals. Since becoming CEO in 2011, Tim Cook has led the company to become one of the most dominant forces in the daily lives of billions of people. Today is his last day as CEO. We'll have [...]
Debian won’t ban AI code from its Linux distribution
Debian voted to allow developers to use AI tools in their contributions to the Linux distribution's "development, maintenance, [and] documentation." The new policy on AI acknowledges that "responsible" use of AI can improve developers' productivity, and goes on to say, "generative AI is neither exempt from nor subject to special rules beyond the standards already [...]
Sony’s WH-1000XM5 headphones are back down to their lowest price
Sony is one of many companies offering Labor Day discounts on tech products, though its week-long sale on the last-gen WH-1000XM5 is one of the most attractive deals I found upon logging in this morning. The comfy over-ear headphones offer some of the best sound quality and active noise cancelling, and are down to $198 [...]
New York governor to 3D-printed gun leader: ‘tell Cody I will get ahead of him’
Cody Wilson, the creator of the first 3D-printed gun, announced a tool last week aimed at skirting a New York law that prevents 3D printers from making firearms - and taunting governor Kathy Hochul in the process. But Hochul isn't having it. In this week's episode of Decoder, Hochul responded to Wilson's "Hochulization" tool, warning [...]
New York Governor Kathy Hochul thinks AI should be ‘less evil’
Today, I'm talking with New York Governor Kathy Hochul, and I'll just warn you - this episode moves really fast. It's an election year, after all, with a shocking amount of tech policy at stake, and Governor Hochul has taken strong positions on almost every major tech issue there is. For example, Meta just reached [...]
ChatGPT to face tougher regulation in the EU
OpenAI will soon be held accountable for mitigating risks related to ChatGPT's impact on minors, user mental health, and the spread of illegal content in the European Union. That's because ChatGPT is now considered a Very Large Online Search Engine under the EU's Digital Services Act, a set of laws regulating major online services and [...]
Instagram cracks down on AI accounts pretending to be human
Instagram is finally taking steps to address the rise of fake AI-influencer accounts that have gotten harder to spot. It's also renaming the "AI creator" label to "AI-generated profile" to make it clear when a profile features an AI-generated person that's not a real human being. "We've heard that people don't like seeing a profile [...]
Professor Murder Rides the Subway is a forgotten slice of dance punk perfection
I recently dug out my CDs and started reripping them all. I've found a few forgotten gems in there, but few hit harder for me than the beautifully concise Professor Murder Rides the Subway EP. There was a period of time in the mid-aughts in NYC where it seemed like every indie band wanted you [...]
Enormous 12TB Steam leak includes abandoned Half-Life 2: Episode 3 assets
Over 12 terabytes of data, containing builds of every game uploaded to Steam between 2003 and 2013, has been leaked. We don't know everything in the archives yet because of its massive size. But people have already dug up assets related to the canceled Half-Life 2: Episode 3, content cut from Portal 2, and a [...]
The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope launches to study dark matter and dark energy
After funding struggles and a name change, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope has been successfully launched. It will now make a three-month, one-million-mile journey to its orbit at the second Sun-Earth Lagrange point (L2) beyond the Moon. From this vantage point, Roman will conduct an unprecedented survey of the universe. Its field of view [...]
Texas Governor Abbott blocks funding for more Flock cameras
As backlash grows over Flock's AI surveillance cameras, Texas Governor Greg Abbott has frozen state spending on them. The move came just ahead of the publication of a Texas Tribune investigation that revealed the state spent over $30 million on Flock cameras. That money was primarily raised by tacking a $1 fee onto insurance policies, [...]
Chess.com launched a poker site, and it’s planning even more classic games
Chess.com has done one thing, and one thing very well, for almost 20 years, but now it's going beyond its domain name. The biggest name in online chess quietly launched its first companion site in beta back in May: Gambit, a free online poker website where players can learn the game without risking any real [...]
China’s robots race ahead
This is The Stepback, a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more on falling robots and the US-China AI race, follow Robert Hart. The Stepback arrives in our subscribers' inboxes on Sunday at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepback here. How it started I've admitted my fondness for [...]
Two new small, powerful Macs
Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 142, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you're new here, welcome, how is it almost September already, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.) This week, I've been remembering Dolly Parton, Tim Curry, and Peter Cullen, absorbing [...]
Vicariously hike the Appalachian in the gorgeous A Trail Tale
I used to be an avid hiker and would try to go backpacking a few times a year. I always dreamed of thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail, but life kind of got in the way. (Turns out jobs, wives, and children aren't thrilled with the idea of you disappearing for three months.) But I've been longing [...]
Alt-right troll Milo Yiannopoulos has been deported
Alt-right troll Milo Yiannopoulos was arrested by ICE on Thursday, and today the Department of Homeland Security confirmed to Reuters and the Washington Post that he had been deported to the UK. Yiannopoulos came to the US legally in 2019, but overstayed his visa. After he failed to appear in court for an immigration hearing, [...]
Sony Music Publishing and Warner Chappell are suing Anthropic
Sony Music Publishing and Warner Chappell have filed suit against Anthropic in the US District Court for the Northern District of California seeking damages for "tens of thousands" copyrighted works. The companies are asking for up to $150,000 per work, plus up to $25,000 for each instance when identifiable copyright data was stripped. In total, [...]
Distraction-free writing gadget BYOK is adding custom extensions
BYOK is a no-frills, single-purpose gadget that 90 percent of people will find absolutely frivolous. But for those who spend a significant chunk of their lives putting words to virtual paper, there is an obvious allure. Personally, I think it's at its best when you just stick to the bare minimum, focusing on pure text [...]
Welcome to Night Vale cocreator Joseph Fink learned storytelling from Grim Fandango
Joseph Fink is the cocreator and cowriter of Welcome to Night Vale, arguably the most important fiction podcast ever. He's also the creator of the noir podcast Unlicensed and Alice Isn't Dead, which takes some of the conspiratorial cosmic horror of Night Vale and turns it into fodder for a more serious series about relationships, [...]
The Galaxy Z Flip 8 is at its best when there’s friction
What do you want from a flip phone when it's closed? A simple interface, perhaps notifications and a widget or two, for handling the basics? Or a fully fledged Android experience shrunk down for the Flip form factor? For years, Samsung has insisted on the former, even as some fans - and Razr rival Motorola [...]
Musicians-turned-detectives are hunting for AI grifters
As audio-focused generative tools and platforms have gotten more sophisticated, the internet has become increasingly filled with AI-generated music whose melodies and vocals are algorithmically derived from the work of human artists. While some of the people pumping out this kind of content immediately own up to using AI, others have denied using the technology [...]
Google further buries search results under AI mode
Google is now automatically expanding its AI search summaries at the top of the results page for some searches, as reported by Search Engine Roundtable. The change, when it kicks in, pushes the typical list of links from a search much farther down Google's results page; instead of seeing part of an AI Overview with [...]
Xbox CEO calls Project Helix a ‘family of devices’
According to Xbox CEO Asha Sharma, Project Helix, which she announced in March as a codename for Microsoft's "next generation console" - phrasing that seemingly implied a singular device - will actually be a "family" of devices." "We've been hard at work on a great next generation and a great family of devices for Helix, [...]
Save hundreds on a TCL mini-LED TV with quantum dots and high refresh rate
Amazon and Best Buy have the TCL QM7L mini-LED TV on sale for as low as $797.99 for the 55-inch model, a $200 discount from the usual price. We spotted scaling discounts on larger sizes as well, although Amazon already listed low stock on the 65-inch version. While OLED televisions are great for deep black [...]
Trump’s EPA wants to let data centers hide their air pollution
Just as new data centers face growing backlash from neighboring communities, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is about to make it harder for people to weigh in on any pollution those centers create. The EPA plans to toss out a federal rule requiring public notice and an opportunity to comment when certain industrial sites [...]
DLSS 5 leaked and modders are putting Nvidia’s AI effects on everything
Modders are trying out an unofficial version of Nvidia's DLSS 5 on Skyrim, Cyberpunk 2077, GTA V, and a bunch of other games after code for the AI upscaling tech appeared in an early-access build of NBA 2K27. Members of the RenoDX modding channel on Discord reportedly found a way to extract the DLSS "Neural [...]
The iPhone Fold could make concerts even worse
You know the person blocking your view of the concert because their phone is swaying in the air, recording the entire thing? Get ready for the unfolded version of it. This week on The Vergecast, we dive right into the big week of Apple news. First, it's the refreshed Mac Mini and Mac Studio, as [...]
Apple TV now costs $14.99 a month after its fourth price hike in four years
Apple raised the price of its streaming service for new and current subscribers on Friday, bumping it up from $12.99 per month to $14.99, Deadline and Variety are reporting. An annual subscription now costs $119, up from $99. Apple also increased the cost of its individual Apple One subscription, which includes Apple TV and Apple's [...]
Apple TV’s sci-fi thriller Dark Matter gets even trippier in season 2
Confusion is a generally accepted side effect of mystery box shows. They slather on secrets with the promise of a satisfying payoff in the end, and sometimes the cast and crew even have a hard time following what's going on. But even by the standards of the genre, Dark Matter is extreme. Its multiversal premise, [...]
Anthropic was illegally blacklisted by the Trump administration, court rules
On Thursday, a judge ruled that the Pentagon's blacklisting of Anthropic earlier this year was unconstitutional, delivering the AI lab a win in a monthslong rollercoaster of a battle with the Trump administration. The lawsuit, filed in March in a California district court, accused the Trump administration of unlawfully retaliating against Anthropic for setting "red [...]
The GTA VI ‘extended look’ is now streaming on YouTube
Rockstar has officially published its "extended look" at Grand Theft Auto VI on YouTube and on its website, as promised. The in-depth preview, which "entirely" features footage captured from the PS5 version of the game, initially premiered on Netflix at 3PM ET. But because Rockstar allowed creators to post reaction videos, you've technically been able [...]
The biggest video game of all time looks like a movie
I think I know why Rockstar Games debuted its "extended look" of Grand Theft Auto VI on Netflix instead of immediately dropping it for free on YouTube. Unlike most video game trailers, the almost 27-minute preview of GTA VI felt more like a slice of a prestige crime drama than any video game trailer that [...]
Meta addresses ‘pervert glasses’ reputation with a privacy fix and a new marketing campaign
Meta is updating its AI-powered smart glasses to close a loophole that allowed wearers to keep recording after covering the front-facing LED. Alex Himel, Meta's vice president of augmented reality, writes in a post on Threads that "the camera will now stop working if the light is covered during a recording." The company's line of [...]
GTA VI: all the news on Rockstar’s next entry in the Grand Theft Auto series
It's been over a decade and two console generations since GTA V came out, and its sequel is still a work in progress. GTA VI has faced multiple delays, with developer Rockstar Games bumping back its predicted release date twice, eventually shifting to November 19th, 2026, a full year after its originally planned fall 2025 [...]
GTA VI looks just as great as we could hope for
Netflix and Rockstar Games finally debuted their "extended look" at Grand Theft Auto VI. It showed that the new game looks to keep much of the spirit of GTA - exploration, driving, crimes, shooting, and cinematic story scenes. But everything just looks much better than previous entries, with impressive graphics, densely packed rooms, and detailed [...]
Google’s AI note-taking app now allows you to interact with books
Google's AI note-taking app, Gemini Notebook, can now pull information from the books you've purchased. The new "Expert Intelligence" feature allows you to bring titles from Google Play Books directly into Gemini Notebook, which means you can ask questions about the material, as well as generate plans, infographics, AI podcasts, and more based on their [...]
Google tells Android app developers to cool it on memory use, or else
Google will start policing memory-hungry Android apps as a direct response to the RAM crisis. Spotted by TechCrunch, the company yesterday published a memo addressing the Play Store's role in enforcing new memory-usage restrictions. The post emphasizes the importance of meeting new memory usage limits for apps, in order "to help developers navigate industry-wide hardware [...]
Speedo’s new smart goggles module can track all four swim strokes
Speedo is launching a removable smart module for its Vanquisher goggles that can analyze a swimmer's performance across all four swim strokes: freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke, and butterfly. The new Speedo iQ system uses swim-specific sensors to analyze head movement in the water, time breaths, and track distance per stroke. Unlike other smart goggles, such as [...]
Jensen Huang says Nvidia achieved AGI, again — not that it matters
On Nvidia's earnings call Wednesday, CEO Jensen Huang casually announced the company had "achieved AGI," one of the tech industry's ultimate goals some of its biggest players have spent years chasing. Almost immediately, Huang dismissed the coveted milestone as "senseless." He's right. For the supposed finish line of the AI race, there is no consensus [...]
Sony finally has a cheaper OLED to compete with midrange Samsung and LG TVs
After unexpectedly showing up on a wall-mounting compatibility chart on Sony's site back in June, the company has announced the Sony Bravia 6 OLED TV. The TV sits below its other OLED TVs - the Bravia 8 and Bravia 8 II - as well as its Bravia 9 II and Bravia 7 II RGB LED [...]
Americans are cheering for vigilantes who take down Flock cameras
Americans have declared war on Flock cameras. They've protested them, damaged them, and destroyed them. This is only the beginning. The spontaneous and decentralized nature of the vigilante protests is also what makes them difficult to suppress. There isn't a uniform method of disruption; people have done everything from unplugging, smashing, stealing, and spray-painting the [...]
Google launches Pokémon Sleep special-edition Fitbit Air
The latest special-edition of Google's Fitbit Air is inspired by the Pokemon Sleep game, with a "Sleepy Blue" band emblazoned with a snoozing Pikachu. It's not exactly Snorlax blue, but matches the classic blue and gold of a Pokemon card pretty closely. The special-edition is available to preorder now for $129 and starts shipping September [...]
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