The Verge

Asus's latest gaming monitor is a little smaller than usual. The ROG Strix XG129C, announced on Friday, is a 12.3-inch touchscreen IPS display that's intended to be a sidekick for a larger main monitor, similar to the 14.1-inch secondary display in the 2020 Asus ROG Zephyrus Duo 15. It's a slightly smaller competitor to Corsair's [...]

Amazon Prime Video is joining Netflix and Disney Plus in adding a vertical feed of videos to its streaming app. The new "Clips" feed will offer a stream of short-form videos from shows and movies, with options to jump into the full title, rent, or buy it. Prime Video previously offered a TikTok-style feed with [...]

Yesterday, I told you how a hacker ran me over with a robot lawn mower. We explained how thousands of these bladed Chinese robots, made by Yarbo, could be hijacked with ease - exposing people's GPS coordinates, Wi-Fi passwords, email addresses, and more to any casual hacker who comes along. Today, Yarbo has issued a [...]

Massive new data centers are the physical foundation for tech companies' hopes and dreams for AI. But the rush to expand warehouses full of energy-hungry servers has also kicked up fights across the world over their impact on power grids, utility bills, nearby communities, and the environment. From audacious plans to launch data centers into [...]

The Department of Government Efficiency's cancellation of over $100 million in grants was unconstitutional, according to a ruling on Thursday. In the 143-page decision, US District Judge Colleen McMahon cites DOGE's process for eliminating grants, which involved using ChatGPT to determine if something is related to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). The ruling, which stems [...]

Where's the Trump phone? We're going to keep talking about it every week. We've reached out, as usual, to ask about the Trump phone's whereabouts. This week, Trump Mobile has been trumped. It's been another long week without the Trump phone, but it's no longer the only nonexistent phone I have to worry about. Robot [...]

Apple and Intel reached a "preliminary agreement" for Intel to make chips for Apple hardware, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday. Apple had famously moved on from Intel-powered computers with its highly successful transition to Apple Silicon, but now it appears the two companies will be working closely together again. Intel appointed Lip-Bu Tan as [...]

After quickly selling out of the Steam Controller on May 4th, Valve has launched a reservation system to ensure that you can get one without too much hassle. You may not get one as quickly as you'd like to, but at least you can now easily reserve the $99 controller. If your Steam account is [...]

As part of an earnings presentation on Friday, Sony shared how it's thinking about AI at the company, including many details about how it's evaluating AI as part of making PlayStation games. Generative AI has recently been showing up in bigger games - though many indie developers still reject it - and while Sony calls [...]

The EP-136 KO Sidekick is Teenage Engineering's stylish new two-channel mixer, clearly designed to connect two of its KO-II samplers for live performances and DJ sets. Though, it can connect any two audio sources, not just TE gear. The mixer leaked a couple of times, but what those leaks didn't show was that it's also [...]

Google's new Fitbit Air, the $99.99 screenless fitness tracker, comes out on May 26th. It's the company's first Fitbit release in four years, and you can use it on iOS or Android phones without a paid subscription if all you want to do is track activities, sleep, and basic health metrics (heart rate, breathing rate, [...]

Logitech is introducing a new feature to its rugged iPad Combo 4 keyboard case that addresses an ongoing issue with the tablet as Apple continues to push it toward being a laptop alternative. The new Rugged Combo 4c and 4c Touch cases, compatible with the 10th and 11th-gen iPads, add a second USB-C port to [...]

When OpenAI was busy experimenting with AI-powered gaming bots, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman were in the early days of forming an AI partnership. Court documents from the ongoing Musk v. Altman trial have provided a rare look at the communications between Microsoft's top executives about investing in OpenAI and fears [...]

Native Instruments' suite of music production software and gear, including Traktor and Kontakt, will soon live under the inMusic umbrella alongside other music tech brands like Akai Professional and Moog Music. As MusicRadar reports, Native Instruments CEO Nick Williams said the company was looking for a buyer in March, following news it had entered bankruptcy [...]

I'm not sure if we've mentioned this yet, but Govee has been on a tear lately, having recently announced everything from rechargeable table lamps to multicolor, Matter-compatible ceiling lights that can display custom images with retro, pixelated flair. In April, the company also unveiled a 34-foot set of Outdoor Solar String Lights, which are now [...]

It's been a real good news / bad news week for Nintendo. Out of nowhere on Wednesday, the company announced a lush remake of Star Fox 64, jolting the dormant franchise to life and helping to fill out a relatively sparse lineup for the Switch 2 for the rest of the year. But then on [...]

Boox has announced its own alternative to the Kobo Remote that offers more functionality than just turning the page while reading on its tablets and e-readers. The Tappy can also be used to scroll vertical content in browsers or social media apps and skip to the next or previous track when listening to music or [...]

This is Optimizer, a weekly newsletter sent every Friday from Verge senior reviewer Victoria Song that dissects and discusses the latest gizmos and potions that swear they're going to change your life. Opt in for Optimizer here. A fitness band is for bettering yourself, but casually. It's lightweight, easy to wear, and not something you [...]

Tesla is recalling its RWD Cybertruck Long Range over faulty brake rotors that could cause the wheels to fall off, as spotted earlier by MotorTrend. In a notice on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's website, Tesla says "brake rotor stud holes may crack and allow the stud to separate from the wheel hub." The [...]

Sometimes, companies pick CEOs based on carefully laid succession plans designed to maximize investor confidence and future performance. Other times, apparently, companies pick CEOs based on a bunch of video calls while the current CEO is texting the former CEO about who the new CEO even is. Such was the story of The Blip, the [...]

Smart lighting company Nanoleaf has been unusually quiet recently. While competitors such as Govee and Philips Hue have been pumping out new products and innovative features at an impressive pace, Nanoleaf has launched just a handful of smart lighting products in the last two years. There's a reason for this lull - the company has [...]

Apple now requires proof of eligibility from US customers who purchase products online at discounted education rates, which also apply to the Apple Watch for the first time. According to a new pop-up message displayed on Apple's education webstore, Apple is directing students, parents, and teachers to verify their status via Unidays' third-party verification service [...]

Sony sold just 1.5 million PS5 consoles in its most recent fourth fiscal quarter, down 46 percent year over year. The slump in PS5 sales comes after Sony raised the price of its PS5 consoles twice over the past year, pushing the price of the regular PS5 from $499.99 all the way up to $649.99. [...]

Nintendo is raising the price of its Switch 2 console globally, "in light of changes in market conditions," and is now forecasting a drop in sales over the next year. Starting September 1st, the Switch 2 will cost $499.99 in the US, up from its current $449.99 price. At the same time, prices will also [...]

The Instructure-owned learning management platform, Canvas, is now online again after it went down following a massive data breach that impacted student names, email addresses, ID numbers, and messages. Before systems were restored, students who attempted to access the system on Thursday saw a message from the hacking group ShinyHunters, which claimed responsibility for the [...]

The week leading up to Thanksgiving 2023 was the AI industry's biggest soap opera moment. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was abruptly ousted from his role at the ChatGPT maker. The explanation? That Altman was "not consistently candid in his communications with the board." Now, via witness testimony and trial exhibits in Musk v. Altman, the [...]

Apple's rumored AirPods with cameras are nearing a stage where the company will test early mass production, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reports. Currently, Apple testers are "actively using" prototypes that are in the design validation test stage, which is one step before the production validation test stage. The AirPods' cameras "aren't designed" to snap photos or [...]

Elon Musk's plans to get into the AI chip manufacturing business are going to be costly. As the The New York Times and CNBC report, SpaceX is planning to invest at least $55 billion into its "Terafab" chip plant in Austin, Texas. That's according to the details of a public hearing notice filed in Grimes [...]

To celebrate founder Peter Dering's birthday, Peak Design is taking up to 50 percent off a host of bags and accessories through May 8. The sale includes steep discounts on many of the company's most popular backpacks and bags, as well as a couple of other items, including camera accessories. Many Verge staffers are fans [...]

Valve's new Steam Controller sold out quickly when it went on sale on Monday, and the company is going to open a "reservations queue" on Friday at 1PM ET for anyone who missed that initial run. When the controller initially went on sale, many potential buyers experienced difficulties checking out before the controller went out [...]

OpenAI is launching an optional safety feature for ChatGPT that allows adult users to assign an emergency contact for mental health and safety concerns. Friends, family members, or caregivers designated as a "Trusted Contact" will be notified if OpenAI detects that a person may have discussed topics like self-harm or suicide with the chatbot. "Trusted [...]

Sam Altman and Elon Musk are facing off in a high-stakes trial that could alter the future of OpenAI and its most well-known product, ChatGPT. In 2024, Musk filed a lawsuit accusing OpenAI of abandoning its founding mission of developing AI to benefit humanity and shifting focus to boosting profits instead. Elon Musk, his financial [...]

Microsoft showed off a "consistent" Xbox UI across handhelds, consoles, and cloud gaming during its Xbox keynote at the Game Developers Conference in March. At the time it was difficult to see if there was anything new about the UI from the videos and photos captured during the event, but Microsoft has now given us [...]

I'm lying in the dirt. It's coming for me. Then, with a lurch, it's climbing up my chest. If Andreas Makris doesn't stop the 200-pound robot lawn mower in time, it could drag its blades across my body. Makris certainly can't reach over and hit the emergency stop button - he's nearly 6,000 miles away, [...]

Two weeks ago there was a buzz in the air inside Microsoft's studio D building. Hundreds of Xbox employees gathered early on a Thursday morning, packed into the hallways and atrium, to hear from Xbox CEO Asha Sharma. The "return of Xbox" slogan was plastered all over the walls of the building, the same message [...]

Newly minted CEO Josh D'Amaro says that he wants to turn Disney Plus into "the immersive, interactive digital centerpiece of the company." It used to be that people went to the movies or theme parks to immerse themselves in Disney's fictional worlds. But now, D'Amaro says that he sees Disney Plus becoming "the primary relationship [...]

It's been tough to recommend the Xbox Series X recently, especially at the $649 price it has sold at since last October. But if you're thinking about getting one, at least consider the Forza Horizon 6-themed console bundle you can get at Best Buy that's just $10 more than the usual inflated price. The set [...]

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. A small subset of Netflix viewers just got a new way to find movies and TV shows. The streamer recently started to test an AI-powered native voice search feature with [...]

The 2027 BMW iX3 is now available in the US, and its starting price my surprise and delight fans of the Bavarian automaker. The iX3, which is the first vehicle built on BMW's next-gen Neue Klasse platform, starts at $62,850 including shipping, which is about $5,000 less than the equivalent gas-powered BMW X3 M50 xDrive [...]

The MacBook Neo might lose its most appealing trait thanks to the ongoing RAM shortage. According to analyst Tim Culpan, Apple could discontinue the budget-priced $599 base configuration of the Neo, leaving only the $699 model with 512GB of storage. Earlier this week, Apple similarly stopped selling the most affordable configuration of the Mac mini, [...]

II know I'm not the only person who wants a MacBook Pro for Windows: a sleek, ultra powerful, super portable machine with an excellent screen and high-quality build. Samsung's Galaxy Book6 Ultra certainly tries. It's got a beautiful screen and a nice design, and it's as solidly built as laptops come. It also looks, well, [...]

Save to Spotify is a new command-line tool designed specifically for AI agents like OpenClaw, Claude Code, or OpenAI Codex. If you're the kind of person who collects research on a topic, then feeds it through their AI of choice to create audio summaries and personal podcasts, this lets you save them right alongside the [...]

It's a Whoop dupe. That was my first thought when I saw the new $99 Google Fitbit Air. You can hardly blame me. The band is screenless with a metallic fabric clasp. My eyes flickered between the Fitbit Air and my wrist, where I'm wearing a Whoop MG. Was I not seeing double? But as [...]

Ploopy has announced another open source mouse alternative that skips touchpads and trackballs. While the new Ploopy Bean looks like a tiny travel-friendly mouse, you don't need to move it around. Instead, surrounded by four buttons is a red pointing stick similar to the TrackPoint that IBM included on its ThinkPad laptops long before Lenovo [...]

Hundreds of influencers, media folks, and a few C-list celebs (sorry, Woz) filled the cavernous halls of the San Francisco Palace of Fine Arts last week. They were assembled for Dreame's launch event, ostensibly into both America and a much bigger ecosystem of products. Across the four-day showcase, the Chinese robot vacuum company pitched an [...]

I sat down in the Musk v. Altman trial courtroom today, painfully aware that no one was going to ask Shivon Zilis the question on everyone's minds: Girl, what the fuck are you doing? Zilis, who testified under oath that she is the mother of four of Musk's children, was... what's the best way to [...]

It turns out Fox McCloud's appearance in the Super Mario Galaxy Movie was a tease of things to come: Nintendo just surprise announced the first new Star Fox game in a decade. The game is called, simply, Star Fox, and it's out very soon, launching on June 25th. Nintendo says that it's "based" on the [...]

Google has pulled the plug on Project Mariner, an experimental feature designed to perform tasks for you across the web, as reported earlier by Wired's Maxwell Zeff. The Project Mariner landing page now contains a message that says: "Thank you for using Project Mariner. It was shut down on May 4th, 2026 and its technology [...]