The Verge

After a former lead writer claimed Saber "replaced me with ChatGPT," CEO Matthew Karch now claims, "Neither Saber nor Unigine have replaced any writers with AI," for the Rideshare "Stimulator" game announced last month, developed by Unigine. The writer, Stella Sacco, says differently, however, posting on Bluesky that "I was lead writer on this one! [...]

Did a prototype Microsoft gamepad fall off the back of a truck? We can't say, but a Redditor has legit-looking photos of a prototype Xbox controller that's almost certainly the Xbox Elite Series 3. Incredibly, they claim they bought the pad for $200 on OfferUp. In May, a Brazilian regulator's leaked images revealed that Xbox [...]

It looks like we'll be getting a successor to the Sonos Ace headphones sometime this fall, which was hinted at by CEO Tom Conrad during a third quarter earnings call. As reported by What Hi-Fi?, an FCC filing by Sonos, Inc reveals details about upcoming wireless headphones with the model number S52A. In addition to [...]

For the 14th time, a Google product has hit 1 billion users. Google CEO Sundar Pichai posted on X that a billion people are using Gemini every month, and that Gemini is Google's fastest-growing product ever. A billion users is a huge milestone, but Google isn't the first AI app to hit it. OpenAI's ChatGPT [...]

Meta has launched a Threads app for Meta Quest VR headsets, the company announced on Tuesday. The launch follows Meta bringing the app to its Ray-Ban Display AR glasses last month and the recent news that the platform has crossed 500 million monthly active users. It seems like a pretty full-featured app. Meta says that [...]

Google TV Freeplay, the company's free, ad-supported streaming service, now supports video on demand. Instead of tuning into Google TV Freeplay's selection of always-on channels, you can now choose from over 10,000 shows and movies to watch whenever you want. The update introduces titles like Lady Bird, Seventeen Again, and Hell's Kitchen, according to Google's [...]

Brad Lightcap, OpenAI's special projects lead and the company's former COO, announced his departure after an eight-year stint at the AI lab. In an internal memo he later posted to X, Lightcap told colleagues he'd be starting "something new." "Over the last few months, I've been focused on the next horizon and what would stand [...]

Looking for great pair of earbuds that work particularly well with Android phones? The Google Pixel Buds 2a are currently discounted to $99 (usually $129) at various retailers, including Amazon, Best Buy, and directly from Google. These very capable Bluetooth earbuds come in four colors, with a lightweight fit that helps them disappear into your [...]

Last year's Made by Google event for the Pixel 10 resembled a late night talk show, complete with Jimmy Fallon as host, and it aired an hour after the phones were revealed. Spec dives and executive appearances were replaced with celebrity cameos and awkward skits, to the confusion of many diehard Pixel fans. But it [...]

Google is gearing up to reveal a bunch of new Pixel devices on August 12th. A series of leaks leading up to the event suggest that the Pixel 11 lineup will come in an array of colors, with signs pointing to a built-in light coming to Pro models. Teasers from Google also indicate that it [...]

Apple is seemingly developing an iOS feature that can verify when a photograph was taken using an iPhone camera. 9to5Mac reports that the iOS 27 beta 5 includes code references for an "Apple Reference Image" system that can embed provenance metadata into iPhone photographs at the point of capture - enabling users to prove where [...]

Zoom has patched a major security vulnerability that could allow an attacker to hijack anyone's device during a meeting. In a blog post on Tuesday, researchers at A Security say they uncovered the flaw using "fewer than 20 prompts on publicly available AI models," as reported earlier by Wired. The exploit involved Zoom's annotation feature, [...]

Earlier this summer, Amazon customers began noticing that emails related to their online orders looked sparse: Order confirmation emails didn't name specific items anymore, and instead listed only item categories. "Your Beauty item is confirmed!" an email about my retainer cleaning tablets read. Shoppers have posted other iterations of the redacted emails as well: "Ordered: [...]

GuliKit announced its first wireless controller to use an improved version of the anti-drift tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) thumbsticks featured in its budget-friendly ES Pro that debuted nearly a year ago. Available now for $49.99, the new GuliKit ES Max is more expensive than last year's $29.99 ES Pro, but still cheaper than Nintendo's Switch 2 [...]

Bumble was famously built around exclusively giving women the power to initiate messages in heterosexual matches when it first launched in 2014 - but now the times they are a-changin' for the dating app. Today, Bumble has announced a "global evolution to its signature conversation experience": anyone can now send the first message, and the [...]

Spotify will soon label AI artists and remove their music from your recommendations. The change, which will start rolling out in mid-September, means you'll see an "AI Persona" badge on an artist's profile across the app if they do "not represent a real person." The music streaming platform will allow artists to disclose that they're [...]

Anthropic has pledged to start marking Claude-generated text and images with machine-readable data, in an effort to comply with European rules for AI transparency. "Generated text will carry embedded watermarks, and generated files will include digitally signed provenance metadata where supported," Anthropic says on a new Claude support page. The changes are invisible to human [...]

Joby Aviation announced it was acquiring Dayton, Ohio-based defense firm Resonant Sciences in a $500 million deal, in a bid by the electric aircraft company to expand further into the military industrial complex. Joby says it expects to finance the deal with $450 million in cash and $50 million in equity. After the deal closes, [...]

Mathematician James Maynard has spent a lot of time this past year "soul searching." A professor at the University of Oxford and winner of the prestigious Fields Medal, Maynard told The Verge he's been grappling with the future of his field as the traditionally slow-moving discipline hurries to adapt to AI. Days before we spoke, [...]

Recently, a man I was rock climbing with told me about how he'd used AI to make a motivational poster for himself, which he'd hung on his bedroom wall: a bear, walking a slackline over a canyon, holding a sign that said, "Do cool shit." I made what I hoped was a polite noise. What [...]

If you've got international travel coming up, an adapter is essential for keeping your phone, earbuds, power banks, and other gadgets charged. Anker's Nano Travel Adapter is one of our picks from our guide to the best gadgets for summer travel because it can charge up to five devices at once, yet it's small enough [...]

Bluesky has added a new feature that lets you hide reposts from a specific person in your feeds. The tool might be helpful if you want to stop seeing reposts from that one person who clogs up your feed with reposts of things you don't care about. If you follow me, I may be that [...]

The cost of the Nintendo Switch 2 is going up by $50 on September 1st, 2026, resulting in a $499.99 price tag for just the console. We're just weeks away, but Costco is offering a fantastic $499.99 bundle for its members that includes a Nintendo Switch 2, a 256GB microSD Express card (usually $59), and [...]

It's that time of year: On Wednesday, Google is set to host its annual Made by Google hardware launch event for Pixel gadgets. Google itself has already teased new slab-style and foldable Pixel smartphones, but leaks also indicate that the company could announce updated watches, a new color for familiar earbuds, and perhaps a brand [...]

Starting February 1st, 2027, creators who want to monetize their channel through YouTube's Partner Program (YPP) will need at least 1,000 subscribers and either 8,000 qualified watch hours over the past year, or 20 million qualified Shorts views in the last 90 days. That's a sizeable jump from YouTube's current requirement of 1,000 subscribers with [...]

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has a lot to say about the idealized future he now envisions for humanity co-existing with artificial intelligence - his latest essay spans more than 6,500 words on the matter. The lengthy manifesto Zuckerberg published on Monday, titled "The Future is for Everyone," broadly lays out his beliefs about how the [...]

Starting on Friday, August 28th, Apple will begin streaming Friday Night Baseball in immersive video on Apple Vision Pro. The stream will feature commentary from various analysts and reporters, and live graphics will be anchored around the viewers space during the game. After the games conclude, replays will be made available in the Apple TV [...]

Getting a keyboard with customizable Hall effect sensors is more affordable than it used to be, and you don't need to compromise on quality to get a good deal. Keychron's aluminum-clad K2 HE with a 75-percent layout is down to $103.99 (was $130) at Amazon, which matches the lowest price we've seen occur a few [...]

Today, I'm talking with Lila Snyder, who is the CEO of Bose. You certainly know Bose - it's one of the most famous brands in all of consumer tech. The company started 60 years ago selling speakers to consumers, and its focus on research and development has led it to be a leader in both [...]

Boeing is selling three of its electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) subsidiaries to Archer Aviation, in addition to taking an undisclosed stake in the San Jose-based company. The subsidiares to be acquired by Archer include Wisk Aero, which has been developing an autonomous electric aircraft; SkyGrid, which is building air traffic management systems to [...]

Valve says a data breach may have exposed the personal information of customers who ordered its Steam hardware in Europe. In an email sent to users, Valve says its European shipping partner, CEVA Logistics, suffered a data breach that may have included customer names, addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses. The breach at CEVA occurred [...]

You probably know just by looking at it if the Classic-TKL Underscore Edition is for you. Do you want a retro-looking wired keyboard without a number pad? Great. Do you care that it doesn't have wireless? Perfect. Do you want it preassembled? Buddy, you're in the right place. But Nathan, you might say, preassembled is [...]

Following the latest twist in Google's legal battles with Epic, US Android users are now able to open Google's Play Store and download a third-party digital store with its own selection of apps. Aptoide, a store specializing in mobile games, is the first to become available. Third-party app stores have always been available on Android, [...]

Ford is rolling out a new AI-powered assistant that can answer questions about your Ford or Lincoln vehicle, such as how much fuel you'll need for your next road trip or whether your truck can tow that new motor boat. The app is rolling out first to the Ford and Lincoln mobile apps, where it [...]

Solar energy, at any time of day or night - that's the dream of space mirror projects. Futurists have been imagining satellite mirrors that could reflect the sun's light onto the Earth's surface for over a century. Russian scientists experimented with the concept in the '90s with the Znamya project. The idea is to put [...]

Sadly, there hasn't been a new episode of No Dogs in Space since July of 2024. Part four of the podcast's series on Can wrapped up an abbreviated season 3, which focused on experimental rock. Don't get me wrong, I loved seasons 1 and 2, but the show seemed to be gearing up for a [...]

Earlier this week, the Alaskan cruise ship Wilderness Legacy rescued a small skiff stranded near Farragut Bay after running out of fuel. But, according to tracking data reviewed by the Alaska Beacon and Halifax Shipping News, the closest vessel was actually Mark Zuckerberg's super yacht, Launchpad. Michael Love, a passenger on the Wilderness Legacy, posted [...]

Four weeks ago, San Francisco 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan was involved in an accident near downtown Palo Alto. At the time, Shanahan said only that the accident was his fault. But during a recent press conference, he shared more details about the incident, including the fact that he had his Tesla's Autopilot engaged at the [...]

In 2018 I bet my reputation and self-worth on a huge crowdfunded game design project. It could have been a failure for many reasons, but the one I became most worried about was losing all of the work that was stored locally on my home-built PC - a scenario that would have left a lot [...]

This is The Stepback, a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more news about how AI is changing our daily lives, follow Emma Roth. The Stepback arrives in our subscribers' inboxes at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepback here. How it started Long before ChatGPT became a thing, [...]

X is ending its controversial revenue-sharing program for content creators, which has seen numerous revisions under Elon Musk's reign. In its place, it's launching a new Original Content Rewards program on September 8th. To be eligible, creators must have at least 500 verified followers and at least 500,000 Home Timeline impressions from verified users in [...]

To power its new West Texas data center, Amazon is investing in the construction of a new power plant that could be one of the largest single producers of greenhouse gases in the US, according to the New York Times. The new gas-burning plant in Pecos County, Texas has received significant investment from Amazon and, [...]

Buc-ee's became something of a viral sensation during the World Cup, but it has a troubling history of suing small gas stations and convenience stores. On a recent episode of Last Week Tonight, John Oliver literally begged the company to sue him for selling merch featuring his squirrel mascot, Mr. Nutterbutter, with branding that reads [...]

Tom Vek burst onto the scene in 2005 with his album We Have Sound, which garnered a solid 7.6 from the tastemakers of the day over at Pitchfork. His undeniably catchy brand of dancy indietronica landed him an appearance on The OC and placement on the Grand Theft Auto IV soundtrack. His follow-up, Leisure Seizure, [...]

Finding a good laptop under $500 was hard enough before RAMageddon. They nearly always had cheap hardware and underpowered, often outdated chips. That's what made the MacBook Neo so disruptive: It offered great build quality and good-enough performance starting at $599. Windows laptops couldn't touch it. Even though it's gone up to $699, it's still [...]

Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 139, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you're new here, welcome, barbecue sauce, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.) This week, I've been reading about Johnny Knoxville and Google Zero and the history of the bicycle, [...]

There's two things you should know about me, your intrepid reviewer: I hate the feature creep associated with modern power banks, and I love shaving grams off the gear I carry when backpacking, bikepacking, and trail running. So imagine my delight when Nitecore released a new generation of its ultralight NB10000 battery. After a few [...]

Restart, a games media website launched in late 2024 that was sponsored by Walmart, has laid off its "entire editorial team," according to a Friday post from Brandy Berthelson, the site's former editor-in-chief. Other staffers have also posted about being laid off. Restart is operated by Moonrock, a content marketing agency, though its editorial mission [...]

It took long enough, but now LA rapper Fenix Flexin appears to have admitted using AI for the 80s synth pop-themed song "Rubberz." His comments follow the producer Medasin's videos claiming that an AI tool called Treblo (formerly Sonauto) was used to make the song, and the company releasing an AI detector that identifies it [...]

The appeal of free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) channels has always been the way they make it easier to (re)discover classic films and series. But Roku's latest experiment in the FAST space has less to do with traditionally produced entertainment and is entirely focused on giving viewers access to a constant source of AI-generated content. [...]