The Verge

The holidays have a way of sneaking up on us. One minute you're trick-or-treating with your kids, and the next you're panic shopping in a Buc-ee's gift aisle. But it doesn't have to be that way. With the right cheat sheet, you can keep the holiday spirit high and stress levels low. Fortunately, we did [...]

If you're feeling the stress of having procrastinated on your holiday shopping - and you missed out during Black Friday and Cyber Monday - we've got you. We've found a variety of gadgets on sale that make for great gifts, many of which will ship in time for the holidays. One of the standouts is [...]

Holiday shoppers, it's time to finish knocking out that seasonal wish list. At this point, your online purchases may not arrive in time unless you're willing to pay extra for priority shipping - or you happen to get lucky. Still, gifting anything at all is awfully nice of you, regardless of when it arrives. If [...]

The most affordable Steam Deck, the $399 LCD model, is not available in the US. And, according to the Steam Deck site, it won't be coming back. Underneath the listings for the various models is a note that says: We are no longer producing the Steam Deck LCD 256GB model. Once sold out, it will [...]

One day, video game critics and journalists will put together a comprehensive study on the impact Balatro had on the industry - of how so many games that came after tried to capture its essence by adding complex systems to otherwise simple, easily understood games. Until then, I'm gonna play Dogpile. Dogpile is a deckbuilding [...]

Even at $1,000, the Xbox Ally X handheld didn't ship with magnetic drift-resistant joysticks, and neither did the $600 model. But for an extra $20 at Amazon, you can change that today - with officially Asus-approved and sanctioned TMR joysticks from Gulikit, the company that's made a name for itself by supplying aftermarket drift-resistant sticks. [...]

When a friend invited me to play a new game called REPO earlier this year, I thought I was wasting my money - not because the game looked bad, but because it looked like Lethal Company. The surprise-hit 2024 co-op survival horror game has players wander through unnerving ruined structures collecting trash while evading monsters. [...]

RJ Scaringe is sitting in Rivian's Palo Alto offices, explaining why the adventure-themed EV company suddenly decided to build its own self-driving cars, when an unexpected guest glides by the window outside: Waymo. A robotaxi from the Alphabet-owned company pulls up outside the office. The passenger, an analyst from Goldman Sachs, briefly takes a selfie [...]

If you told me last year the Nex Playground would outsell Microsoft's Xbox, even for two weeks, I would have laughed my way out of the room. It's a three-inch cube of a game console that's likely less powerful than your phone, one which uses a single camera to track your body. It only plays [...]

Today was the deadline for Google to reveal how it's complying with Judge James Donato's order to crack open Android for third-party app stores, stop illegally tying its Google Play Billing system to its app store, and let developers link to ways to download their apps outside the Play Store in the US. But Google [...]

Google is once again part of Movies Anywhere, meaning that movies you've purchased from Google Play and YouTube will now show up as part of your Movies Anywhere collection. Films from Google Play and YouTube became unavailable on Movies Anywhere on October 31st, but now they should sync to your account again. "Support for Google [...]

On Friday, retro and arcade game publisher ININ Games surprisingly announced it's been able to "recalculate production" on offering a physical version of R-Type Dimensions III for the Switch 2 because "Two days ago Nintendo announced two new smaller cartridge sizes for Nintendo Switch 2." Physical games on the Switch 2 have been something of [...]

Google isn't quite ready to replace Assistant with Gemini on Android devices. The company said on Friday that it will "continue our work to upgrade Assistant users to Gemini on mobile devices into 2026," instead of its original plans to make the switch by the end of 2025. "We're adjusting our previously announced timeline to [...]

President Trump signed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2026 Thursday with measures that further the bipartisan push for next-generation nuclear power plants. The Trump administration has embraced the technology as a new energy source for data centers demanding greater amounts of electricity for AI. Many Democrats, meanwhile, have championed smaller and [...]

Google has filed a lawsuit against SerpApi, a company that offers tools to scrape content on the web, including Google's search results. SerpApi is accused of violating the Copyright Act by using "deceptive means" to automatically access and take Google's search results "at an astonishing scale" before selling the data to customers. Reddit also sued [...]

As Netflix continues to build out its gaming strategy, which has recently included a new era of TV party games, it's going to let people build avatars - with the help of a new acquisition. The company is acquiring avatar company Ready Player Me and its "cross-game avatar tech" to let players "carry their identities [...]

Trump Media - yup, the parent company of Truth Social - is the latest entrant in the near century-long race to develop a nuclear fusion power plant. It announced a merger agreement with fusion company TAE Technologies on Thursday and a bold plan to break ground on the first utility-scale fusion plant some time in [...]

Most of us in the Northern Hemisphere spend the holidays indoors, but you can only watch so many TikToks about cute cats and cooking hacks before the need for something a little more substantive kicks in. Choosing the right game or movie to gift is tough, though, especially if you don't have an exact read [...]

After the self-induced tumult Sonos has gone through this year, I can understand why some people are reluctant to spend money on the company's products. But newly appointed CEO Tom Conrad has shown that he's determined to get back on track and revitalize Sonos as the leading whole-home audio brand. The contentious mobile app is [...]

Your next smartphone or PC might cost more amid a global memory shortage that the International Data Corporation expects to "persist well into 2027." A new report from the research firm lays out the potential impact of the RAM crunch, saying it "signals the end of an era of cheap, abundant memory and storage" - [...]

If you value peace and quiet, particularly when traveling, Bose's first-gen QuietComfort Ultra Headphones are worth checking out. They're our favorite noise-canceling headphones for travel, and right now, you can snag a pair for an all-time low of $279 ($150 off) in select colors from Amazon, Best Buy, and Bose. All three retailers estimate that [...]

Where's the Trump Phone? We're going to keep talking about it every week, except next week, when we take a break until the new year. We've reached out, as usual, to ask about the Trump Phone's whereabouts. As usual, we're still waiting for a response. In the meantime, we're wondering who's actually behind the mobile [...]

Although our phones are all equipped with cameras, there is still something special about being able to immediately produce a printed photo to pass around or give as a gift. If that's something that appeals to you, the Fujifilm Instax Mini 12 instant camera is a great gift idea, and it's now on sale at [...]

Rapid advances in AI and robotics are set to become both powerful tools for police and potent weapons for criminals, a 48-page report from pan-European police agency Europol argues. Earlier this month, Europol's Innovation Lab published "The Unmanned Future(s): The impact of robotics and unmanned systems on law enforcement." The document is framed as more [...]

All year on The Vergecast, we've been tracking the many bizarre and problematic actions of FCC Chairman Brendan Carr. There has been a lot to discuss! Then, this week, ahead of one of our last episodes of the year, Carr appeared in front of the Senate Commerce Committee and spent three hours explaining how he [...]

A year or two ago, when a phone showed up at my door for review, I could pretty much count on it being black, gray, or maybe (as a treat) white. But in 2025, that hasn't been the case. Phones I reviewed this year featured everything from real wood grain back panels to deep blue [...]

If there's one thing Republicans and Democrats came together on in 2025 - at least at the local level - it was to stop big, energy-hungry data center projects. For communities sick of rising electricity bills and pollution from power plants, data centers have become an obvious target. Fights against new data centers surged this [...]

Things might finally be looking up. In the penultimate episode of Pluribus' first season, Carol (Rhea Seehorn) actually seems to be happy. That's a pretty big deal for someone the show describes as the "most miserable person on Earth," who also happens to be living through an odd sort of apocalyptic scenario that she is [...]

A new company called BMX, founded by accessory royalty, has emerged from Kickstarter to make its SolidSafe semi-solid state power banks available to the general public. Like the Kuxiu semi-solid state power banks I've recently reviewed, BMX's promise to have twice the longevity and be safer than traditional power banks, which have been the subject [...]

SpaceX says it has lost control of a Starlink satellite that's now falling back to Earth after suffering an anomaly. The sudden loss of communications, drop in altitude, "venting of the propulsion tank," and "release of a small number of trackable low relative velocity objects," suggests the anomaly was some kind of explosion. SpaceX says [...]

After briefly going dark in the US to comply with the divest-or-ban law targeting ByteDance that went into effect on January 19th, TikTok quickly came back online. It eventually reappeared in the App Store and Google Play as negotiations between the US and China continued, and Donald Trump continued to sign extensions directing officials not [...]

TikTok has finalized a deal to sell enough of its US business satisfy the divest-or-ban law, as initially reported by Axios, The Hollywood Reporter, and CNBC. According to a memo sent from CEO Shou Zi Chew to employees (included in full below) on Thursday, they are targeting a closing date of January 22nd, 2026. Once [...]

This is an excerpt of Sources by Alex Heath, a newsletter about AI and the tech industry, syndicated just for The Verge subscribers once a week. By all measures, Meta's Threads app had a very good year. The app was Apple's second-most-downloaded iOS app of the year, trailing only ChatGPT. Threads now has 400 million [...]

In 2022, we called a simple magnetic ring from Anker the best MagSafe phone grip, but things have evolved dramatically since then! You can buy two or even three magnetic rings joined at the hip these days to wield your iPhone, recent Pixel, or really any phone if you stick a magnetic case or included [...]

If you're lucky enough to have a bit of time off around the holidays, we have great news: Steam's annual winter sale kicked off today, and will run through Monday, January 5th at 1PM ET. Now's a great time to stock up on some of the best games of 2025 at a solid discount, or [...]

OpenAI and Anthropic are rolling out new ways to detect underage users. As OpenAI has updated its guidelines on how ChatGPT should interact with users between the ages of 13 and 17, Anthropic is working on a new way to identify and boot users who are under 18. On Thursday, OpenAI announced that ChatGPT's Model [...]

If you're tired of seeing Instagram posts with a seemingly endless list of hashtags, Instagram is making a change to stop that. In a post today, Instagram chief Adam Mosseri said that the platform will now cap hashtags to five per post. "While I know it can be tempting to use more, a few specific [...]

A foldable phone isn't for the faint of heart. They're generally heavier, pricier, and have less capable cameras than a standard slab-style phone. They're also still not as durable as regular smartphones, though they're not nearly as fragile as they once were. In fact, thanks to Google, we finally have a foldable phone we can [...]

LG says it will let users delete the Microsoft Copilot shortcut it installed on newer TVs after several reports highlighted the unremovable icon. In a statement to The Verge, LG spokesperson Chris De Maria says the company "respects consumer choice and will take steps to allow users to delete the shortcut icon if they wish." [...]

Google expanded Gemini's AI verification feature to videos made or edited with the company's own AI models. Users can now ask Gemini to determine if an uploaded video is AI-generated by asking, "Was this generated using Google AI?" Gemini will scan the video's visuals and audio for Google's proprietary watermark called SynthID. The response will [...]

Between all the new phones, smartwatches, and laptops we see throughout the year, it often feels like we're constantly being nudged toward shinier, more expensive gadgets. And I get it. As a self-professed gadget nerd, few things are more exciting than unboxing and setting up a new device. But the truth is, you can still [...]

You don't need to deal with long mall lines or crowded parking lots just to wrap up your holiday shopping, but you probably already knew this. Some of the best deals are online, and even though Christmas is now just a few days away, a lot of Verge-approved gifts should still arrive on time if [...]

Riot Games says a security flaw in many recent motherboards could be exploited by cheaters undetected, and now companies including Asrock, Asus, Gigabyte, and MSI have released BIOS updates to address the issue. According to Riot, "had this issue gone unnoticed, it would have completely nullified all existing DMA detection and prevention tech currently on [...]

Netflix is bringing ESPN host Elle Duncan onboard to become the voice of its growing roster of live events. Duncan, who has appeared on SportsCenter, College GameDay, and WNBA Countdown, will make her debut on Netflix with next year's Skyscraper Live broadcast. During the livestream, free solo climber Alex Honnold will attempt to ascend the [...]

Smart home products are all about making everyday life a little easier, which is why they're some of the best and most thoughtful gifts you can give. Some people go all out building a multi-gadget IoT kingdom (like our resident smart home expert, Jen Pattison Tuohy), but a smart home is whatever your recipient wants [...]

Kia and Hyundai will offer free repairs for millions of cars that lack anti-theft technology as part of a settlement with dozens of US states. The automakers agreed to outfit the roughly nine million eligible cars sold between 2011 and 2022 with a zinc sleeve installed around the ignition cylinder to prevent the viral "Kia [...]

The news that the maker of the Roomba robot vacuum, iRobot, filed for bankruptcy this week came as no surprise. Its CEO, Gary Cohen, had been warning investors all year that the company could run out of cash unless a buyer was found. When its last potential deal fell through, bankruptcy became inevitable. But Cohen [...]

This is Lowpass by Janko Roettgers, a newsletter on the ever-evolving intersection of tech and entertainment, syndicated just for The Verge subscribers once a week. Atlas Obscura has been crowdsourcing strange and wonderful places from all around the world since its founding in 2009. To date, the site's users and editorial staff have collected and [...]