The Verge

A mandatory update for Google's mid-range Pixel 6A phones is coming next week that is meant to reduce the risk of the battery overheating on some devices. According to a support page post, Google is issuing the mandatory Android 16 update starting July 8 to all Pixel 6A devices. However, only users with Impacted Devices" [...]

On July 2nd, Microsoft announced sweeping layoffs affecting as many as 9,000 employees, and they had a big impact on the company's Xbox studios. Microsoft canceled Perfect Dark from The Initiative and closed the studio. Rare's Everwild, announced in 2019, was canceled, too. And Forza Motorsport developer Turn 10 Studios will lose more than 70 [...]

There's always a reason why universal USB-C ports don't "just work" like you'd expect. In the early days, it was incompetence or naivete. Later, manufacturers often cheaped out. But in the case of Nintendo's Switch 2, it appears to be intentional. With the Nintendo Switch 2, it should be easy to plug your new, more [...]

Microsoft says that Phil Spencer, Microsoft Gaming CEO and the head of Xbox, isn't retiring anytime soon." The company has responded to rumors of Spencer's retirement, which have spread online today following Microsoft's major layoffs. Phil is not retiring anytime soon," says Kari Perez, head of Xbox communications, in a statement to The Verge. The [...]

Banks are facing renewed pressure to protect their customers from scams on Zelle, the payment network owned by JPMorgan, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Capital One, and other big banks. In letters to the banks, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), and Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) asked them how often their customers report [...]

A court in France has sentenced three former Ubisoft executives for sexual and psychological harassment. Serge Hascoet, Tommy Francois, and Guillaume Patrux each received fines and suspended prison sentences for their actions that were discovered as a part of a years-long investigation into sexual harassment and bullying at the game publisher. According to The Guardian, [...]

With less than a week until Prime Day kicks off, we're already seeing some exciting early deals pop up. And now we can add two more great discounts to the list: the refurbished ad-supported Kindle Paperwhite is down to $106.99 ($37 off) at Amazon, while the refurbished Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition is $126.99 ($53 off) [...]

The subtitles for one of Crunchyroll's newest anime series make it pretty clear that the company is going all in on ChatGPT. This week as viewers logged on to Crunchyroll to check out Studio Gokumi's Necronomico and the Cosmic Horror Show, many were surprised to see that the series' subtitles were filled with typos, grammatical [...]

Neil Druckmann, co-creator of The Last of Us video game and co-showrunner on the HBO adaptation, will be stepping away from the television series moving forward. In a statement, Druckmann - who is also studio head at The Last of Us developer Naughty Dog - said the decision was made to focus on the studio's [...]

Microsoft is canceling its Perfect Dark and Everwild games as part of sweeping cuts to its Xbox division. Matt Booty, Xbox president of game content and studios, revealed that Microsoft will be closing The Initiative, the studio behind Perfect Dark, in an internal memo to Xbox employees today. The cuts are part of layoffs affecting [...]

Microsoft announced layoffs today affecting as many as 9,000 employees, and as part of the changes, more than 70 people will be let go at Forza Motorsport developer Turn 10 Studios, according to a source familiar with the situation. The cuts were made on a call with Microsoft HR representatives this morning, and are hitting [...]

Lorde fans are clearly struggling to play the CD version of her new album. Customers who purchased the special edition of Virgin released on a transparent plastic disc are reporting on Reddit and TikTok that many CD players, car stereos, and other sound systems they've tried are unable to play it. The transparent CD, promoted [...]

The entire point of Jurassic World Rebirth is to get the franchise back into audiences' good graces with a new set of characters and a story meant to tap into the spectacular energy that made the original such a huge hit. All the same ingredients are there - dinosaurs running amok in a tropical paradise, [...]

Amazon's early Prime Day sale started off slow, but as the event draws closer to its official kickoff on July 8th, it's beginning to pick up steam. Right now, for example, Prime members can grab an Amazon Echo Hub at Amazon for just $119.99 ($60 off), marking a new low price. As you might expect, [...]

Microsoft confirmed that it's laying off as many as 9,100 employees, or about 4 percent of its workforce, in yet another round of cuts this year, reports The Seattle Times. Employees in Microsoft's Xbox division, known as Microsoft Gaming, are being hit hard by these layoffs, although exact numbers and divisions are not yet known. [...]

ICEBlock, an app that lets users anonymously report sightings of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials, has soared up App Store charts after receiving criticism from Donald Trump's administration. On Monday, US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem responded to CNN's coverage of ICEBlock in a post on X, calling it an obstruction of justice." Following [...]

The new Nuki Smart Lock ($159), the company's first designed for US deadbolts, is the most advanced retrofit smart lock I've tested. It features a sleek, compact design that looks and works like a regular doorknob, but it's much more than a doorknob. It can automatically unlock as you approach, lock behind you, unlock using [...]

The alien invasion continues, as Apple just confirmed the next season of Invasion will be streaming this summer. The new season will premiere on Apple TV Plus on August 22nd, with weekly episodes running on Fridays through to October 24th. Alongside the announcement, Apple also released a very brief teaser, which, if nothing else, suggests [...]

Tesla sales hit a new low, with the company reporting a 14 percent drop in second-quarter vehicle deliveries compared to a year ago. The company said that it produced a total of 410,244 vehicles between April-June of this year, including 396,835 Model 3 and Model Y vehicles, as well as 13,409 other vehicles" like the [...]

After launching its first portable power stations last year, DJI just launched the Power 2000 with double the capacity, more output power, and big scalability. Unlike a fixed Tesla Powerwall solution, DJI's followup to the Power 1000 I reviewed last year is designed to scale in support of your day-to-day energy needs no matter where [...]

Honor has announced the Magic V5, which it says is the thinnest foldable phone in the world right now - though only if you ignore the raised camera module, and only for its white version. The phone launches today in China, but Honor says an international release is coming soon." At 8.8mm thick when folded [...]

The Google Photos app has been updated to make it easier to navigate your gallery and view image information. Google says the photo view - the screen that appears when you open an image in Google Photos - has been redesigned to provide a simpler, more modern, and more intuitive UI" while adding a new [...]

Paramount has agreed to pay $16 million to resolve President Donald Trump's lawsuit against its subsidiary CBS, clearing a path for the administration to approve the media giant's multibillion-dollar merger with Skydance Media. In a statement seen by CNN on Tuesday night, Paramount said the settlement payment is inclusive of Trump's legal fees and costs, [...]

Editor's note:Amazon Prime Day will run from July 8th through 11th, but if you want to get a head start on your shopping, we've compiled a guide to thebest early Prime Day dealsyou can already get. Robot vacuums are impressive devices that will clean your floors well and - thanks to bigger batteries and better [...]

Figma, the platform that specializes in collaborative interface design, has filed for an initial public offering (IPO). The company will trade under the ticker symbol FIG" as it prepares to double down" on its investments in AI. Figma was nearly acquired by Adobe for $20 billion in 2022, but the two companies scrapped the deal [...]

X is launching a way for developers to create AI bots that can write Community Notes that can potentially appear on posts. Like humans, the AI Note Writers" will be able to submit a Community Note, but they will only actually be shown on a post if found helpful by people from different perspectives," X [...]

Google Home's latest update will make it easier to decide who in your household can control your smart home. It comes with a new feature, which Google first started testing last year, that will let you assign people Admin" and Member" roles. People with Admin status have full control of all the devices, services, and [...]

T-Mobile is bringing some of its Uncarrier energy to Ultra Mobile, the carrier's international-focused MVNO that operates on its network. It announced that its plans now have slightly higher data caps and more international perks, but with the same prices as before for new and existing subscribers - a rare thing to see these days. [...]

Senate Republicans today passed a sweeping spending bill that narrowly avoided punitive tax measures on renewable energy but still threatens to stall its growth in the US. After wrangling over hundreds of amendments for more than 24 hours in a so-called vote-a-rama" on Monday and Tuesday, Senate Republicans advanced the bill with provisions that make [...]

When it comes to finding a device to read ebooks, you have a few options to choose from. You can always buy a tablet or use your phone, but those devices are multipurpose and can be used for a ton of things, like surfing the web or doom-scrolling on X or Bluesky. If you are [...]

Grammarly plans to acquire the buzzy email app Superhuman, according to a press release. Email is already the number-one use case" of Grammarly for professional users, the company says, with the AI assistant helping to revise over 50 million emails per week across more than 20 email providers." Buying Superhuman makes some sense, then: it [...]

Earlier this year, Sonos permanently dropped the price of its Era 100 speaker to $199, making it more affordable for people looking to build a multiroom wireless speaker setup. Now, the small-but-mighty speaker is even cheaper to kick off summer. Sonos is offering the refurbished Era 100 for just $119 ($40 off), the lowest price [...]

Major League Soccer (MLS) is now nearly halfway through its 2025 season, and Apple is giving fans a great reason to tune in. For a limited time, the MLS Season Pass is available for just $49, offering new and returning subscribers access to every remaining match at half the regular price. If you're an Apple [...]

Laptop Mag is shutting down after nearly 35 years of providing consumers with in-depth information about laptops and other technology. In a staff meeting seen by The Verge, Faisal Alani, the global brand director at Laptop Mag owner Future PLC, said, After careful consideration and a review of our long-term strategy, we've made the decision [...]

Nothing's first pair of over-the-ear headphones has arrived, bearing the company's signature retro-transparent design that it introduced with the Phone 1. But until now, that design has mostly been in your pocket or peeking out of your ears. With the $299 Nothing Headphone 1, you have to commit to having that aesthetic wrapped around your [...]

Nothing has launched its first pair of over-ear headphones, imaginatively named the Headphone 1. At $299, these are priced to compete with flagship fare, distinguished primarily by their distinctive Nothing design language - right down to the buttons. While the boxy outline calls to mind Apple's AirPods Max, the semi-transparent detailing on the outside of [...]

The Glyph interface is not a gimmick," Nothing founder and CEO Carl Pei told the press as he revealed the Nothing Phone 3 for the first time, shortly before announcing that its new iteration lets you play Spin the Bottle on the back of the phone. It's mixed messaging, but in Nothing's defense, you couldn't [...]

Apple is suing a former employee for allegedly stealing confidential Vision Pro headset research before leaving to join Snap's product design team. In the complaint filed in Santa Clara County Superior Court on June 24th, Apple accuses Di Liu of downloading thousands of documents containing proprietary information from Apple's internal systems and saving them to [...]

AT&T is launching a new Account Lock feature that's designed to protect wireless users against SIM swapping attacks. The feature, which you can enable from the myAT&T app, prevents unauthorized changes to your account, like phone number transfers, SIM card changes, and updates to billing information. SIM swapping attacks have become increasingly common in recent [...]

Threads has officially launched direct messaging for everyone. You can now privately message other users on the Meta-owned X rival, though Threads will only allow DMs between your followers or mutual followers on Instagram to start. You can send a DM on Threads by selecting the envelope icon in the toolbar at the bottom of [...]

President Donald Trump and Elon Musk's fighting over the big, beautiful" domestic policy bill has returned to the spotlight, with the president telling reporters on Tuesday that we'll have to take a look" into deporting the billionaire. He also proposed targeting Musk via the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), saying, We might have to put [...]

Update, July 1st: Casio has sold out of its online inventory of the Ring Watch. Casio's $120 CRW001-1 (AKA the Ring Watch) is back in stock on Casio's website for the first time since it launched - then swiftly sold out - in December. The Ring Watch was released to commemorate the 50th anniversary of [...]

As previews for Donkey Kong Bananza come in ahead of the game's July 17th release date, one tidbit has stood out on the development of this game. It's been nearly eight years since Super Mario Odyssey, and now we know what that team has been up to, as Nintendo has officially revealed that the developers [...]

The risk of a power bank causing a fire, which is the result of a chain reaction known as a thermal runaway, is low. But when it does happen, the fires are intense, occasionally explosive, and difficult to extinguish. Early in June, Anker recalled more than 1.1 million aging power banks, and while the company [...]

The Federal Communications Commission will suspend the enforcement of a rule that would lower the price of prison phone and video calls. On Monday, the Trump-appointed FCC Chair Brendan Carr announced that prisons won't have to comply with the pricing rules until April 1st, 2027, reversing plans to apply the caps this year. Family members [...]

Allison Johnson is a reviewer for The Verge who writes about phones and mobile technology. Occasionally," she adds, I yell at your wireless carrier." I asked her if there were any items that she especially liked using, and after thinking about it, she eventually came up with... a pencil sharpener. Where did you first hear [...]

AMC Theatres is making it easier for moviegoers to know the actual start time of their film screening and avoid sitting through lengthy ads. A new notice has started appearing when people purchase tickets via the AMC website, warning that movies start 25-30 minutes after showtime." This already mirrors the estimated runtime of AMC's pre-show [...]

The US Senate has voted overwhelmingly to remove a moratorium on states regulating AI systems from the Republican big, beautiful bill." Legislators agreed by a margin of 99 to 1 to drop the controversial proposal during a protracted fight over the omnibus budget bill, which is still under debate. The vote followed failed attempts to [...]

As promised, the first trailer for director Edgar Wright's take on Stephen King's novel The Running Man is here - and it looks like a playful throwback to 80s action movies. The story centers on a struggling man named Ben Richards, played by Glen Powell, who is a contestant on a mega-popular TV game show [...]

One way to think about the tech industry is just as a series of people trying to build stuff they saw in movies. Ready Player One helped kick of a flood of interest in the metaverse, despite the movie's deeply dsytopian undertones. If you've talked to anyone working in AI, they've surely told you about [...]