The Verge

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. [...]

OpenAI says it is pausing "internal activities" around an in-development AI model, Astra, because it doesn't yet meet new security standards the company is putting in place. The announcement follows its recent disclosure that OpenAI models accidentally hacked Hugging Face. Anthropic and Meta have also since admitted that they had AI models that went rogue [...]

There's something magical about using instant cameras that smartphones can't match. You can capture a moment, print it out, and then give the photo as a gift or hold onto it. Image quality won't be all that good, but imperfections are part of the allure. We tested instant camera models from popular brands and landed [...]

Disney is testing a new AI-powered tool for Disney Plus that uses a natural language search, a voice query, or a suggested prompt to create a customized row of show and movie recommendations. Disney Plus, like other streaming services, can recommend shows to watch based on your viewing history. But the company says this new [...]

Microsoft Edge is ending support for the Manifest V2 extensions platform, which will cut off the uBlock Origin adblocker and others like it, just like Google Chrome did earlier this year. According to Microsoft, there are only 58 extensions on the Edge Add-On Store "with any meaningful usage" that still use MV2, and only three [...]

Looking to spend a weekend inside with a good binge? Gruv has The Lord of the Rings trilogy on 4K Blu-ray marked down to $49.99, just below Amazon's price and only a little bit higher than the all-time low we usually see around Black Friday. This version includes both the original theatrical releases of all [...]

Some of the biggest names on Google's AI team got new jobs this week. In some cases, including for legendary Googler Jeff Dean, those jobs are no longer at Google. Given that Google's models seem to be behind the best of what's coming out of anthropic and OpenAI, is this a sign of Google in [...]

Following the release of its premium and very expensive $650 The Collexion headphones in May, Sony could be taking its 1000X line of wireless noise-canceling headphones in a cheaper direction next month. The company is reportedly planning a refreshed and more affordable version of its six-year-old WH-1000XM4 headphones that will feature similar performance and specs [...]

The Birdfy Feeder Rookie is a good option if you're new to birdwatching or simply don't want to spend a lot on a smart feeder, and several configurations are on sale. The standard model is down to $59.99 ($60 off) at Amazon, which is close to its lowest price. It includes seven days of access [...]

What makes the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra so Ultra? Samsung's first foldable with the Ultra name isn't a souped-up version of the regular Fold 8, as you might expect. Where the Z Fold 8 is squat and wide, the Fold 8 Ultra retains the thin outer screen and square inner panel of the [...]

When I haul my 27-inch desktop monitor into the garage to film fun gadget videos... or want to play Japanese SNES games with friends... or lose the AC adapter for my old external hard disk... I can now power them with a USB battery instead. None of them came with USB-C ports; the entire USB [...]

Starting with the original in Camp Miasma in 1980, the horror franchise went on to have a long life. There were multiple sequels, spinoffs in the form of arcade cabinets and board games, and just about every kind of merchandise you can think of, from alarm clocks and lunch boxes to Halloween costumes and action [...]

For roughly an hour this week, Telegram vanished from Apple's App Store. Even during that blip, it was a stunning absence for such a major app: an avenue of communication for more than 1 billion users around the world, used widely as a secure platform for people who live in countries under censorship. Apple later [...]

From the omnipresent One Night Only trailer, you'd be forgiven for thinking that the movie glosses over its terrifying and absurd premise - in otherwise normal modern New York, single people can only have sex one night a year - to deliver an entirely traditional romantic comedy. I'm here to report that it does not [...]

Meta has been ordered to pay $567 million in the second phase of New Mexico's landmark child safety case, bringing total charges to nearly $1 billion for being a "public nuisance." In a ruling published on Thursday, the Santa Fe district court found that Meta's platforms are a "significant contributing cause" of a teen mental [...]

Google is set to host its next live Made by Google hardware launch event on August 12th, and the company says in a new video that comedian Trevor Noah will be hosting the show. The video indicates that the event will feature other celebrities and influencers as well, including Call Her Daddy host Alex Cooper [...]

The AI device OpenAI is developing with former Apple designer Jony Ive is "essentially a smart speaker without a display" that's battery-powered, doughnut-shaped and roughly the size of a hockey puck, according to Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman. The device, expected to launch in 2027 for a price over $300, reportedly "will have a unique look, [...]

Best Buy kicked off a sale on Apple products with discounts on its latest smartwatches to phones. Another deal that caught our eye is on the latest AirPods Pro, Apple's flagship wireless earbuds, which are down to $189.99 ($60 off), with retailers like Amazon and Walmart matching the price. That's their lowest price since Prime [...]

Deadline reported Thursday that the upcoming The Legend of Zelda movie will feature Australian actor Uli Latukefu as the villain Ganondorf, and the publication notes that "We hear Latukefu inked a multi-picture deal." Nintendo or Sony haven't formally confirmed that there's more than one movie in the works, though it's been rumored that Nintendo and [...]

Suno announced plans to implement a new watermarking technology and download policy to limit the spread of spammy AI tracks and increase transparency. In a lengthy blog post, CEO and co-founder Mikey Shulman laid out the company's principles and the next steps for the company as it seeks legitimacy. The company is rolling out new [...]