The Verge

For a very limited time, Sony's latest high-end noise-canceling earbuds are actually cheaper than their last-gen counterpart, the WF-1000XM5. B&H Photo is selling Sony's latest WF-1000XM6 in black for an all-time low of $238 ($92 off) at checkout. Other retailers aren't currently offering a discount on the XM6. The XM6 are a solid upgrade over [...]

Apple has sent invites to a second product launch this month, and it's scheduled for October 28th at 1PM ET in Los Angeles. At the event, Apple is set to announce new Macs and a refreshed iPad Mini, according to Bloomberg. The big announcement is expected to be a new MacBook Pro with an OLED [...]

Amazon has signed an agreement with X-energy and American Electric Power (AEP) to fund the building of a new nuclear energy facility in Indiana. The proposed plant, which would replace the now defunct coal-fueled Breed Generating Station in Fairbanks, Sullivan County, aims to provide up to 960 megawatts of carbon-free energy for both the regional [...]

Best Buy has a great deal for the rest of the day on the M4 Mac Mini base model that has 16GB RAM and a 256GB SSD. Normally, it doesn't make a ton of sense to buy the M4 model for its usual $799 price given that the newer, faster M6 version has been available [...]

Today, I'm talking with Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, who has a lot of thoughts about AI, tech, and privacy. If you've been listening to the show, you know that one of my running theories is that those issues are driving a big and maybe kind of unexpected political realignment - and with the midterms coming [...]

Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Telefonica, and Vodafone signed a letter of intent saying they're considering a joint bid for spectrum that would support European direct-to-device satellite competition for SpaceX's Starlink. The four telecom companies say they would handle the ground infrastructure while a separate, unannounced satellite partner provides the satellite constellation: The joint initiative by Deutsche [...]

Elon Musk says he plans to give one of his SpaceX shares to every child in the US starting next year. With around 72 million children in the US as of July 2025, Musk would be giving away about $10.5 billion worth of shares, according to a report from CNBC. Musk, who runs SpaceX and [...]

If you're on the hunt for lightweight wireless headphones but wearing earbuds or clip-ons never feels comfortable or secure, a relatively obscure Japanese headphone maker could have the solution. Final's new Porta headphones feature an on-ear design supported by a headband but with a structure made from a single piece of wire so they weigh [...]

A hacker broke into more than 100 websites using an army of AI agents that mostly operated on their own, according to findings from the AI security firm Norforge. Though Norforge doesn't name the targets, Reuters reports that the victims included companies like John Deere, SharkNinja, and Cummins. Concerns over AI-powered cybersecurity breaches have grown [...]

Wyze announced a new version of its Ultra BodyScan smart scale that debuted nearly a year ago with additional electrodes on a retractable handle, allowing it to provide a breakdown of various health metrics across your arms, legs, and torso. With the new Ultra BodyScan Plus, Wyze is introducing a redesign that moves the scale's [...]

If you spend any time on r/synthesizers or watch a lot of synth videos on YouTube, you've probably noticed the explosion of custom firmware for hardware synthesizers, samplers, and grooveboxes. What unites almost all of them is that they were made possible by increasingly sophisticated vibe coding tools. These sorts of custom firmware were exceedingly [...]

Democrats could win back control of Congress this November, and if they do, they'll need to decide how to approach one of the country's newest and thorniest political issues: AI. Polls predict Democrats will flip at least one chamber of Congress in the midterm elections, which would put committee leadership back in their hands. That [...]

There's a fast-growing category of two-wheeled electric vehicles splitting the difference between high-end scooters and entry-level motorcycles, fresh bikes with avant-garde style but approachable performance. I'm talking about offerings like the Infinite Machine P1 and BMW CE 02, similar concepts but with wildly different attitudes. Among this class, the Maeving RM2 stands out. It has [...]

Now, former Savannah police officer Amber Harpe was fired in August following a department investigation that found she had shared her Flock login information with her husband, Tyler Harpe, an ICE agent. SPD does not share its Flock data with ICE and said sharing access to the system violated the department's security protocols. While he [...]

Mister Organ doesn't reach the level of societal horror of The Act of Killing or the creepypasta-meets-true-crime gruesomeness of Beware the Slenderman, but there's something deeply unsettling about Michael Organ and his intimate campaign of terror against everyone who enters his life. Mister Organ is a documentary by David Farrier, an Auckland, New Zealand journalist. [...]

Carolyn Marvin was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct after blocking the path of an Uber delivery robot and refusing to get out of the way. Marvin told Philadelphia's ABC13 "I know they're taking the jobs of human delivery workers and so, I have been protesting them whenever I saw them by standing in front [...]

Rep. Ritchie Torres of New York's 15th congressional district in the Bronx introduced the Power To The Players Act this week. If passed, the bill would direct the Federal Trade Commission to establish regulations that guarantee consumers ownership of a game when they pay for it, rather than a licensing agreement. It's increasingly common for [...]

The Legion Go S with SteamOS is a pretty solid alternative to the $789 Steam Deck OLED. It runs identical software, but ships in a design with two-stage triggers, a bigger eight-inch IPS screen (1080p and up to 120Hz versus 800p and 90Hz in the Deck OLED), and it's got double the RAM and storage [...]

Dinosaur Jr. frontman J Mascis is known as something of a slacker guitar god. He stands stoically onstage, barely moving, as he seemingly effortlessly works through deft guitar solos and lopsided riffs. Unfortunately, Mascis has developed a similar reputation as an interview subject, quietly sitting and offering deft nonanswers. That's not to say that Mascis [...]

During a rally on Saturday, October 17th, in Highland Heights, Kentucky, Donald Trump bragged about how much more powerful and influential he was during his second term. While listing off his accomplishments, he mentioned his decision to rename the Gulf of Mexico and Lake Ontario. "This is a much more powerful term. I can do [...]

Back in February, I went to Los Angeles to take in some art and stayed in Koreatown. Down the street from my hotel, there was this little coffee shop - Stagger - that is, I think, best known for its matcha, which is good. But the drink I unexpectedly found myself obsessed with was their [...]

It used to be so easy to get away with things in school. The teacher, after all, was always turned around writing at the chalkboard! But then came a bit of technology, previously mostly used for military purposes, called the overhead projector. It would change far more than just the disciplinary record of students everywhere. [...]

This is The Stepback, a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more on autonomous vehicles, policy, and road rules, follow Andrew J. Hawkins. The Stepback arrives in our subscribers' inboxes at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepback here. How it started The first state to pass a law [...]

Just ahead of the wider release of Alex Gibney's Musk documentary, TikTok has banned the film's social media account from its platform. TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the film's distributor, Bleecker Street, was informed Friday afternoon that a "permanent suspension" was imminent. Bleecker Street has [...]

Earlier this year, Mercedes' AMG performance brand grabbed our attention with the GT four-door coupe, a souped-up sports sedan with three axial flux motors delivering over 1,150 horsepower. Well, now meet its beefier cousin, the 2028 Mercedes-AMG GT SUV, an equally powerful, ultra-fast-charging electric people-hauler. The AMG GT SUV (say that five times fast) marks [...]

In 2024, Elon Musk promised to give away $1 million a day to a randomly selected registered voter in a swing state. That prompted legal challenges, raised questions about its legality, and drew lawsuits from two Arizona residents claiming the lottery was a fraud. Musk has now agreed to settle the two lawsuits filed in [...]

After backlash, Meta is updating its terms again to remove language that suggested it could scrape content from sites, including news sites, to train its AI. Specifically, the following language no longer appears on the commercial terms page: ... Meta may use any content from such domains, web pages, or URLs to provide, develop, improve, [...]

If you're wondering what video game to play this weekend, my colleague Sheena Vasani spotted a discounted Nintendo Switch title with instant digital delivery. Walmart has the digital version of Pikmin 4 for Switch discounted to $39.88, just over $20 lower than its usual price. This version of the game follows the same puzzle formula [...]

It's hard to overstate Jad Abumrad's impact on the podcasting world. He created and hosted Dolly Parton's America and Fela Kuti: Fear No Man, two Peabody Award-winning shows that offered unprecedented looks at the lives of two of the most important music icons of the last century. Before that, though, he created Radiolab, an experimental [...]

Today, I'm talking with Walter Piecyk, a partner and analyst at LightShed Partners who covers tech, media, and telecom, about SpaceX's recently announced plan to become a major wireless carrier. Last week, SpaceX agreed to buy a big chunk of low-band spectrum to expand the Starlink network, spectrum that's been traded around the telecom business [...]

Autonomous agents are the hottest thing in AI. OpenAI, Meta, Google, Instinct, and others promise their agents can scour the internet on your behalf, doing anything from booking a dinner reservation and cleaning out your inbox to buying new shoes. But what happens when the rest of the internet won't play nice? In recent weeks, [...]

After Apple courageously removed the headphone jack from the iPhone in 2016, most people switched to Bluetooth earbuds and never looked back. But their wired counterparts have stuck around, and their sales even went up this year after five years of decline. Part of the resurgence can be tied to the fact that they're cool [...]

When Apple revealed the HomeView to the world, it did so with an unusual ad for the company: Instead of pristine, polished tech in immaculate rooms, it's a three-minute look at the messy, frantic morning routine of a family of five. Apple's new smart display sits in the center of the chaos on the kitchen [...]

Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 148, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you're new here, welcome, hope you're enjoying all your pumpkin-flavored everything, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.) This week, I've been reading about Marc Andreessen and the future of [...]

Apple has finally announced its long-rumored foldable: the iPhone Duo. The new phone has a 5.4-inch outer display and a 7.6-inch inner display, a nanotexture" finish on the inner screen, and barely any visible crease. Instead of Face ID, it uses Touch ID on the power button. It has two cameras, a main lens and [...]

Apple's App Store rules now more explicitly ban so-called "nudify" apps that generate intimate images of people without their consent using AI tools. The rule changes follow significant criticism toward Apple after X users used Grok earlier this year to make nonconsensual, sexualized deepfakes, including minors. Apple didn't pull X or Grok from the App [...]

Wu-Tang's Once Upon A Time in Shaolin album has, for the most part, been extremely difficult to listen to, but you can now hear two snippets of the album thanks to the podcast Pablo Torre Finds Out, which just published an episode all about the exclusive record. Once Upon A Time in Shaolin has a [...]

After this horrific crash involving a Tesla driver who said he was asleep and using the driver assist mode, the California Highway Patrol warns that "Despite its name, full self-driving is not fully autonomous. Technology does not relieve drivers of their responsibility to safely operate their vehicles." Video released by CHP shows the Tesla speeding [...]

For more than a decade, Apple has told other companies to build smart home devices for its platform. This week, Apple launched its own. The Apple Home Collection is a lineup of cameras, thermostats, sensors, a smart door lock, and a video doorbell, all codeveloped with LG Electronics and Schneider Electric. They arrive alongside HomeView, [...]

Earlier this week, Apple announced its new Apple TV 4K, which costs nearly twice as much as the 2022 model did at launch. Amazon is now offering the first discount on the forthcoming streaming box (coming out on November 13th), just days after discounting Apple's new smart display for the first time. Right now, you [...]

It's been a couple of days since Apple's big smart home announcement, and we have some more information - and a bunch of new questions - about the Apple HomeView. The device has plenty of computing oomph, is always connected to power, and looks like a perfect place to run a bunch of apps. And [...]

Analogue announced new versions of its Super Nt and Mega Sg retro consoles today with a "reworked industrial design" and built-in wireless connectivity for controllers and accessories. Like the original versions, the new Super Nt Plus and Mega Sg Plus are able to play Nintendo and Sega Genesis cartridges using an FPGA processor that perfectly [...]

After a Chrome clone was spotted on the Play Store earlier this week, a user on Reddit says they're seeing a fake version of WhatsApp in a "sponsored" slot above the real version. As reported earlier by Android Authority, the WhatsApp dupe has racked up over 500,000 downloads and, at the time of writing, its [...]

Nvidia's RTX Spark N1X processor is finally here, and we've been collectively testing a small fortune's worth of powerful laptops sporting this new "superchip." RTX Spark is designed to be a high-performing Arm-based SoC for laptops and small desktop computers, rivaling the best from Apple, Intel, AMD, and Qualcomm. It has loads of cores, Nvidia [...]

Last night, Elon Musk gave the people what they want: a car driving vertically up a multistory ramp, launching off the edge, executing a midair "kickflip" over a lineup of Teslas, and landing via cold-gas thrusters. That's what the people want, right? "We were promised flying cars," sure, but isn't the operative word in that [...]

Meta's new terms appear to give it permission to crawl and scrape websites "associated" with the businesses that use its platforms - including online publishers, according to a report from Nieman Lab. The new terms, which go into effect on October 30th, say Meta can use this outside content to "develop, improve, research," and "train" [...]

There's a new storage upgrade option for smartphones compatible with wireless chargers and other magnetic accessories, but it won't help if you've run out of room for apps, pics, and videos. The MagSafe Flex Pouch looks like a magnetic wallet for pairing a small stack of credit cards to your phone, but its storage capacity [...]

Delivery estimates for the iPhone Duo slipped into next year in less than an hour after Apple opened preorders for it at 8AM ET on Friday. At the time of writing we are seeing late January delivery dates for every configuration on Apple's website. The foldable is slated to launch in stores on October 23rd, [...]

When the midrange Sony Xperia 10 VI was announced over two years ago with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 chipset and Android 14, Sony promised three major OS updates which would have included this year's Android 17 release. However, according to a notice posted to the company's UK support site, the Xperia 10 VI [...]

Since gun-rights activist and alt-right-friendly agitator Cody Wilson made the first 3D-printed firearm 13 years ago, he's helped usher in a chaotic era of untraceable ghost guns. Now he's claiming another first: "the first AI-made gun." It's called the WASP. I stood about 20 feet away as Wilson and his sidekick clamped the WASP to [...]