The Verge

In the ongoing fight for content and talent, YouTube is pitching itself as the connector between the creators and advertisers - and marketing its creators not just as the future of social media, but also of advertising, TV, streaming, and entertainment more broadly. At the company's annual advertiser event in New York on Wednesday, YouTube [...]

Hello and welcome to Regulator, the newsletter for Verge subscribers that goes into tech shenanigans that take place in the backrooms of Washington. Really, it sometimes does feel like the online series The Backrooms: a parallel universe with no internal logic, evil corporations lurking in the background, and mind-rending eldritch horrors around every corner. (Not [...]

A week ago, newly appointed Disney CEO Josh D'Amaro was busy regaling investors with plans to turn Disney Plus into the company's "digital centerpiece." By last Friday, though, his attention had presumably shifted to a fight with the Trump administration over free speech. Disney-owned ABC has now accused the administration of violating its First Amendment [...]

For the second year in a row, Netflix's ad-supported tier more than doubled its monthly viewerbase. During its 2026 upfront presentation, Netflix revealed that its $8.99-per-month plan reaches more than 250 million people around the globe, a significant leap from 94 million users reported last year. The streaming service reported earning $1.5 billion from ads [...]

If you've been meaning to grow your physical movie collection, now's a good time to do it. Through May 25th, The Criterion Collection is taking 30 percent off every disc on its site, including standard Blu-rays, 4K releases, box sets, and even films that are currently only available to preorder. The sale spans every category [...]

Instagram is once again cribbing from competitors like Snapchat and BeReal with a new photo-sharing format it calls "Instants," which are ephemeral photos that you can't edit and that you can only share with your close friends or followers that follow you back. Instants are available globally beginning on Wednesday as a feature in the [...]

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg says its new Incognito Chat is "the first major AI product where there is no log of your conversations stored on servers." Messages in Incognito Chat aren't saved or stored in users' chat history, similar to incognito modes on other AI chatbots, but Meta says its version is different because it [...]

Maybe I'm just punch-drunk in my third week attending Musk v. Altman, but I have become very, very fond of Microsoft during the course of this trial. They don't want to be here any more than I do. Their opening statement was honestly one of the most Microsoft things I've ever seen. More than anything [...]

Sony announced its new flagship high-resolution camera, the A7R VI. The standout feature is its fully stacked full-frame sensor with 66.8 megapixels of resolution and up to 16 stops of dynamic range. That's only an increase of about six megapixels for the VI model, but its stacked architecture means a much faster readout speed for [...]

Following a series of cryptic newspaper ads and Instagram teasers that had watch fans speculating about its next collaboration, Swatch announced a new timepiece collection created with luxury watchmaker Audemars Piguet. Inspired by Swatch's iconic Pop watches from the '80s and Audemars Piguet's Royal Oak timepieces that first debuted in 1972, the new Audemars Piguet [...]

Google announced its new Googlebook laptop platform yesterday, and so far I've been left asking, "Why?" Why is Google blowing up its Chromebook and ChromeOS platform for this? I've been excited by the prospect of Android and ChromeOS unifying under the long-rumored Aluminium OS. The theory was that Aluminium might unite Android and ChromeOS under [...]

No one paid attention to the gunshots that echoed through the convention center. They were real enough, and so were the screams that accompanied them, in the sense that they were recordings of real people who, like guest stars on Law and Order, reenacted scenarios that had clearly been plucked from the headlines: a kidnapping, [...]

With the Switch 2 getting a price hike in September, this holiday season will be pivotal for Nintendo. That increased cost means that the company will rely heavily on new games to sell its current console - but as of right now the lineup for the second half of the year is sparse. However, without [...]

Canon has announced a new EOS R6 V mirrorless camera, a 32.5-megapixel camera with 7K video. It's the first full-frame EOS camera to carry the V moniker, signifying that it's designed primarily for video capture. The R6 V is based on the EOS R6 Mark III, but it eschews features like a viewfinder and a [...]

Amazon is bringing Alexa Plus to Amazon.com, integrating its LLM-powered AI assistant directly into the company's shopping experience. Beginning today, when you type a query into Amazon, you'll be talking to Alexa for Shopping, the company's new shopping assistant, powered by Alexa Plus. So, while a search for "toilet paper" will still return the expected [...]

Unitree is already one of the most recognizable names in the humanoid robot industry, but now it's pursuing even nicher sci-fi tech: giant mech suits. The Chinese robotics company has debuted the GD01, which it describes as "the world's first production-ready manned mecha," and it can be yours for a paltry $650,000. What is it [...]

Microsoft appears to be working on expanding its Xbox Game Pass subscription to China. References to "Project Saluki" have been discovered in a recent update to the Xbox PC app this week, with Microsoft describing the codename as "China market expansion for Game Pass, Rewards, and subscription tiers." While Microsoft offers a variety of games [...]

The Trump phone may finally be here: Trump Mobile's CEO told USA Today that the phone will begin shipping to buyers this week. The announcement comes as reports have gone viral this week alleging that preorders for the phone have been canceled. Trump Mobile CEO Pat O'Brien confirmed the release plans to USA Today over [...]

For the better part of 12 years, Apple owned the 5K monitor world - primarily because it made basically the only options. LG's 5K UltraFine was a solid, if bland choice, but many people bought a 27-inch iMac from 2014 for its 5K screen alone. Then in 2022, Apple finally gave the people what they [...]

At its peak, the Androscoggin paper mill in Jay, Maine, a rural town about 67 miles northwest of Portland, employed about 1,500 people - until a pulp digester exploded in 2020, forcing the mill to close permanently. In 2023, the 1.4 million-square-foot facility was purchased through a joint venture by JGT2 Redevelopment and a number [...]

Amazon's head of devices and services, Panos Panay, says that the company is "not necessarily" planning to release a smartphone, but has stopped short of denying it outright. It was previously reported that Amazon is developing an Alexa-enabled AI phone codenamed "Transformer," more than 10 years after it scrapped its ill-fated Fire Phone. Speaking to [...]

Sony's Xperia 1 flagships have looked more or less the same since 2020, but that's finally changing with the Xperia 1 VIII, which moves to a chunky square camera island. The phone also boasts what should be a substantially improved telephoto camera, along with an AI camera assistant that looks like an improved version of [...]

After two weeks of hearing from assorted witnesses that he was a lying snake, the jury finally heard from the lying snake himself: Sam Altman. At the end of the testimony, his lawyer William Savitt asked him how it felt to be accused of stealing a charity. "We created, through a ton of hard work, [...]

Apple's next iOS update could include something phone photographers have been waiting for: a lot more control over the Camera app. According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, the Camera app will be "fully customizable" in iOS 27 and users will be able to "pick their own set of controls - called widgets - that run along [...]

Meta announced on Tuesday that it's testing a Threads feature that lets users tag a Meta AI account to get answers to questions or context about a conversation on the platform. If you've spent any time looking at replies on X as of late, this new feature sounds a lot like Meta's take on people [...]

Starting Tuesday, parents can get more details about what their teens are up to on Instagram. Meta is adding a feature to its Teen Accounts that shows parents the "general topics their teens engage with," like "basketball" or "fashion." Meta also says it will soon start notifying parents when their teen adds a new interest [...]

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says Elon Musk did "huge damage" to the culture of the AI startup. During testimony as part of Musk's lawsuit against OpenAI, Altman said Musk required OpenAI president Greg Brockman and former chief scientist Ilya Sutskever to rank researchers by their accomplishments and "take a chainsaw through a bunch." Altman conceded [...]

This week at I/O, Google rolled out a series of major updates for Android Auto that include better sizing for unconventionally shaped screens, video streaming through YouTube, widget support, and of course, more AI-powered Gemini features. The company also announced some updates for cars that run on Google's built-in native software, including the ability to [...]

Google is announcing a new line of laptops coming in the fall called Googlebooks. Details are sparse for now, as the tease is just a small part of various Android announcements during Google's Android Show. But we do know this is a major new initiative in the laptop space for Google, seemingly designed to succeed [...]

Would it shock you to hear that Android 17 is filled with new AI-enabled features, like improved dictation and vibe-coded widgets? Fortunately, that's not all. The platform is getting non-AI updates too, from an emoji overhaul to a new screentime tool that helps you avoid distracting apps. Google has just revealed the biggest changes coming [...]

It is, once again, Gemini season. Google is announcing a host of new Gemini features during its pre-I/O Android showcase, many of which aim to help use your phone for you. You'll find Gemini in more places, like Chrome on Android, in your autofill suggestions, and all up in your apps - if you want. [...]

Panasonic has announced a new addition to its Lumix camera line with a compact body and fixed lens that's targeted at photographers instead of creators making video content. The Lumix L10 is available for preorder today with a black or silver finish for $1,499.99. To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Lumix brand, the L10 [...]

The family of a 19-year-old college student is suing OpenAI over claims that his conversations with ChatGPT led to an accidental overdose. In the lawsuit filed on Tuesday, Sam Nelson's parents allege ChatGPT "encouraged" the teen to "consume a combination of substances that any licensed medical professional would have recognized as deadly," resulting in his [...]

Google I/O is just days away, and that means it's time for another Android Show event to unpack all the Android ecosystem highlights Google has in store. The highlight of this year's Android Show was Googlebooks, a new line of laptops running Android. They can cast apps from Android phones, pull files directly from a [...]

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has begun his testimony against Elon Musk in a high-profile jury trial in a California federal courtroom. Altman, alongside OpenAI president Greg Brockman, is a primary defendant in the trial brought by Musk. Altman, Brockman, and Musk were all part of the initial founding team at OpenAI, with Musk investing up [...]

Hollywood actors and producers are standing behind a new AI licensing standard that will tell AI systems whether they'll need to pay to use a person's likeness, creative work, characters, and designs. With the Human Consent Standard, people can set terms for the use of their work or likeness, including giving AI systems full permission [...]

Rivian's AI-powered voice assistant is rolling out today to the company's vehicle fleet. The assistant will be available through a software update to all compatible Rivian Gen 1 and Gen 2 vehicle owners who subscribe to the company's Connect Plus cellular service, which costs $15 a month or $150 a year, or are in an [...]

Anker's Prime Wireless Charging Station is a small, yet powerful 3-in-1 charger that can charge your iPhone, Apple Watch, and earbuds simultaneously, and now it's on sale for $104.99 ($45 off) at Amazon, Best Buy, and Walmart. The price has only dropped this low one other time since it launched in February. There are a [...]

Aluminium OS, Google's upcoming version of Android for PC, may have just leaked a few hours before Google's Android Show presentation. As Android Authority reports, leaker Mystic Leaks shared a 16-minute video on their Telegram channel that appears to show a lengthy hands-on demo of the new operating system. After a loading screen featuring the [...]

The vast majority of the world's data - emails, financial transactions, the internet - is carried by fiber optic cables that run along the ocean floor and converge at a few narrow choke points. Periodically, policymakers will release reports noting that this arrangement seems risky, but these routes are the shortest, often in use since [...]

Following a limited test run in parts of Seattle and Philadelphia that started last December, Amazon Now is officially available to millions of Amazon shoppers across the United States. In addition to Seattle and Philadelphia, the 30-minute delivery service is now widely available in Atlanta and Dallas-Fort Worth, and also available with ongoing expansions in [...]

Waymo is recalling its autonomous driving software that allowed its vehicles to drive on flooded roads. The recall affects 3,791 vehicles that operate using Waymo's fifth and sixth generation systems. In documents filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the Alphabet-owned company said that an unoccupied Waymo robotaxi "encountered an untraversable flooded section of [...]

Instructure, the company behind the Canvas learning management platform, says it has "reached an agreement" with hackers that breached its systems last week to prevent stolen data from being leaked online. The ShinyHunters hacking group claimed responsibility for the attack before Canvas was briefly taken offline. The group threatened to publish 3.5 terabytes of student [...]

Spotify is celebrating its 20th anniversary by giving listeners a "fully personalized look at their entire music history." Starting today, Spotify mobile app users can access a new Wrapped-like experience that features "never-before-shared data" going back to when they first joined the service. The "Spotify 20: Your Party of the Year(s)" experience will allow users [...]

Google I/O is still a week away, but Google's big announcements kick off today with the "Android Show: I/O Edition," where it's expected to announce the major Android ecosystem highlights coming to its annual developer conference. When the Android Show will happen and where you can watch it Android Show: I/O Edition will be streaming [...]

eBay has officially rejected GameStop's offer to buy the online marketplace for $56 billion, citing concerns around "operational risks" and how the acquisition will be financed. In a letter to GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen on Tuesday, eBay's board of directors said it has "concluded that your proposal is neither credible nor attractive." "We have taken [...]

iRobot has announced a new line of Roombas, a year after it debuted its first lidar-based robot vacuums. This week, it introduced eight robot vacuums that improve on its current lineup and feature lower prices, some up to 200 (about $270) cheaper. Key changes include higher suction power, a smaller overall size to better navigate [...]

Sony has announced a new version of the wearable personal air conditioner the company first revealed in 2019 ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. The latest version is an upgrade to last year's Pro model, and while the new Reon Pocket Pro Plus isn't a complete overhaul of the hardware, it comes with performance upgrades [...]

OpenAI is launching Daybreak, an AI initiative focused on detecting and patching vulnerabilities before attackers find them. Daybreak uses the Codex Security AI agent that launched in March to create a threat model based on an organization's code and focus on possible attack paths, validate likely vulnerabilities, and then automate the detection of the higher [...]