The Verge

We're not competitor obsessed, we're customer obsessed. We start with what the customer needs and we work backwards," Jeff Bezos, previously. | Laura Normand / The Verge The fallout from the non-endorsement of Kamala Harris at The Washington Post is here: more than 200,000 canceled subscriptions, NPR reports. This is about 8 percent of the paid subscriber base, and the number of cancellations is still growing.To put that in perspective, in an Oct. 15th story about Post CEO Will Lewis's strategy to get more paying subscribers, The New York Times reported that the Post had added 4,000 subscribers since the beginning of 2024 through September. Like, I am actually flabbergasted: that's fifty times as many cancellations in one weekend as The Post earned in the better part of a year.This is obviously an effort by Jeff Bezos to curry favor with Donald Trump in the anticipation of his possible victory."Now,... Continue reading...

Illustration: Nick Barclay / The Verge Meta is working on an AI-powered search engine to decrease its dependence on Google and Microsoft, according to a report from The Information. The search engine would reportedly provide AI-generated search summaries of current events within the Meta AI chatbot.The Meta AI bot built into Instagram and Facebook currently uses Google - whose parent company, Alphabet, will report quarterly earnings tomorrow - and Microsoft Bing to answer questions about recent news and events.That could eventually change, as Meta's web crawler was spotted roving the web months ago. The Information's source indicates a team has been working for about eight months to build a database of information for its chatbot. Meta has worked on building up location... Continue reading...

Illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photos by Getty Images The Open Source Initiative (OSI) has released its official definition of open" artificial intelligence, setting the stage for a clash with tech giants like Meta - whose models don't fit the rules.OSI has long set the industry standard for what constitutes open-source software, but AI systems include elements that aren't covered by conventional licenses, like model training data. Now, for an AI system to be considered truly open source, it must provide:

We take pride in the fact that we are expanding the market by welcoming new investors into the financial system." - Robinhood's S-1 | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge US citizens can gamble on the upcoming election on Robinhood, the financial nihilism app announced. Robinhood has termed this unlocking a new asset class that democratizes access to events as they unfold."Let's pause - I would like to reflect on this incredible phrase, about an asset class that democratizes access to events as they unfold. See, I thought we all had access to the events of the election because we all exist in reality and can find out about them. But apparently, if we can't gamble on an event, it isn't happening. This is a fascinating vision of metaphysics, and I would like to hear more about it. No one bet on my birth, for instance, and thus there is no asset class relating to my existence. So am I real?Democratizes... Continue reading...

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge Microsoft is taking its gloves off today. The software giant is accusing Google of being behind what it calls shadow campaigns" to discredit Microsoft's cloud business. In a scathing blog post, Microsoft deputy general counsel Rima Alaily reveals that Google is about to launch a new astroturf" group this week.It is designed to discredit Microsoft with competition authorities, and policymakers and mislead the public," says Alaily. Google has gone through great lengths to obfuscate its involvement, funding, and control, most notably by recruiting a handful of European cloud providers, to serve as the public face of the new organization. When the group launches, Google, we understand, will likely present itself as a backseat member... Continue reading...

Google is selling refurbished Pixels, including the Pixel 7 and 7 Pro. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Google now sells refurbished Pixel 6, Pixel 6A, and Pixel 7 phones in a special section of the Google Store. The company says that these phones will be of like-new quality with phones, screens, and batteries that technicians carefully inspect" and are offered at up to a 40 percent discount versus their original price. The phones also come with the same 1-year limited warranty and customer support options as a new phone.Here's the price breakdown:

Image: Apple Apple did more than put out a series of press releases when it announced the new iMac with M4 and the release of its Apple Intelligence software updates. The company also made a video to go with them - although it took a keen eye to spot it at first, as it was tucked away in a Watch the announcement" link on the company's splashy iMac page.Apple has since released the 10-minute video on YouTube as well. In it, Apple Intelligence product manager Allegra Tepper discussed Apple's AI system, which is now available as a software update for compatible iPhones, iPads, and Macs. Tepper ran through coming features, while specifying that today's update only includes things like writing tools and slight Siri improvements (including the glowy... Continue reading...

Yup, it's still there. | Image: Apple Apple's new USB-C-equipped Magic Mouse somehow still has the charging port on the bottom. While Apple could have used the launch as an opportunity to move the charging port from the underside of the device - where the port has remained for nearly a decade, despite other updates to the mouse and being mocked for the decision - the port is still there.This new $99 Magic Mouse means that, for the foreseeable future, Apple still thinks that the best way to charge your Magic Mouse is by flipping it over to plug it in, making it so you can't use it. Why?There have been other solutions to the ridiculous Magic Mouse charging situation. For example, my colleague Wes Davis wrote about an ergonomic grip for the Magic Mouse 2 that can charge the... Continue reading...

Leaked details hint Google might go with a custom wearable Tensor chip in 2026. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Starting in 2026, Google might go in-house with a custom Tensor processor for the Pixel Watch 5.The rumor comes courtesy of Android Authority, which cites leaked documents from Google's gChips division. According to the leaked plans, the wearable Tensor chip, codenamed NPT, sports a core configuration of an ARM Cortex A78 and two Arm Cortex A55s. These are older CPU cores, but that's a fairly typical move with wearable processors. Other than that, details are scant and it's currently unknown which process node technology the planned wearable Tensor chip might have.Chips aren't usually as heavy a focus for smartwatches as they are for smartphones. So long as performance is snappy, smartwatch makers tend to focus on ways to prolong... Continue reading...

Image: BioWare After 40 hours with BioWare's latest fantasy RPG, it feels like I'm just getting started. Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge Microsoft is finally adding threaded conversations to its Microsoft Teams communications app. Threaded conversations in Teams won't arrive until mid-2025, but ahead of that, Microsoft is also combining its separate chats and channels UI inside Teams into a single view.I exclusively revealed Microsoft was planning a new chats and channels experience in my Notepad newsletter in August, and Microsoft is now bringing this unified UI to Teams in public preview in November. Image: Microsoft The new combined chats and channels view in Microsoft Teams. We've redesigned the chat and channels experience to simplify your digital workspace by bringing chats, teams, and channels into one place under Chat," explains Jeff... Continue reading...

Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge Netflix is launching a new feature called Moments" that lets you save and share bookmarks to a specific spot in a show or movie. The feature seems like it could be a very useful way to share parts of something you're watching with friends or on social media.To capture a moment, tap on the screen while you're watching something on Netflix to see the various menu options, then tap on the new Moments" button to pop up a new menu, and then tap the save button. From the Moments menu, you can also see other Moments you've saved for that show or movie and share Moments to various apps. You can also copy a link to the Moment to your clipboard.Netflix gave me early access to the feature, so I used it to make a moment of the best scene in... Continue reading...

Image: Mr.Nelson design for The Verge / Getty Images The Verge's guide to Project 2025. Continue reading...

Image: Mr.Nelson design for The Verge / Getty Images Your vote matters. Here's how it will change the future. Continue reading...

Image: Kristen Radtke / The Verge Ever wondered why some of your Instagram videos tend to look blurry, while others are crisp and sharp? It's because, on Instagram, the quality of your video apparently depends on how many views it's getting. That's according to a video AMA from Instagram head Adam Mosseri, in which he explained why some videos are lower-quality than others.Here's part of Mosseri's explanation, from the video, which was reposted by a Threads user today:

Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge While there aren't a lot of new features in Android 15, it does offer some useful additions for your phone - and one of the most interesting is called Private Space." Think of it as a separate app vault that locks away specified apps on your Android device.Of course, the main lockscreen already stops other people from accessing your phone, but Private Space puts an extra barrier in place. The idea is that if you lend someone your device to make a call or look at a photo, they won't accidentally (or deliberately) stumble into something they shouldn't. It's also an extra safety net if your phone is lost or stolen while it's unlocked.I tried the feature on a Pixel 8 phone running Android 15. Here's how it works.Setting up Private... Continue reading...

Image: Finji I used to hate jigsaw puzzles. I thought they were frustrating, messy, and took way too long to solve. But my wife showed me how those parts of jigsaw puzzles can actually be fun: there's something satisfying and meditative about working through those frustrations, sorting through the mess, and putting a picture together, one piece at a time, over the course of a few hours. (Or days.)The makers of Wilmot Works It Out, a new puzzle game, understand this, and everything about the game is designed to make solving puzzles fun instead of annoying.In the game, you play as Wilmot, an adorable white square with a face who has a puzzle-by-mail subscription. (He's the same smiley square from Wilmot's Warehouse, a 2019 puzzle game also made by... Continue reading...

Fear the Spotlight. | Image: Blumhouse Games More than most genres, survival horror feels rooted in time. It started with the methodical Resident Evil on the original PlayStation and is defined in part by limitation - a slow pace, grimy visuals, and scant resources to help amplify the scares. Many of those elements stemmed from the early, awkward days of 3D gaming, whether it was Resident Evil's clunky controls, which made zombie chases more terrifying, or Silent Hill's fog, which lent an iconic atmosphere while also letting the developers get around technical limitations of the time.And a few decades later, developers are still finding ways to bring the most important elements of those games - namely, the mood and scares - to modern horror without feeling dated.The most obvious... Continue reading...

Image: Remedy Entertainment Remedy's latest release is connective tissue for its growing video game universe. Continue reading...

Collage by Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photos from Getty Images When video game scholars want to study games that are no longer on sale, they sometimes have to drive many hours to do it legally - and that won't be changing anytime soon. The US Copyright Office has just denied a request from video game preservationists to let libraries, archives and museums temporarily lend individuals some virtual, remotely accessible copies of those works.Kendra Albert, who made the argument on behalf of the Software Preservation Network and the Library Copyright Alliance, says preservationists weren't asking for a lot: It was the thing that basically exists for all kinds of special collections in libraries: the library reviews the request, makes sure it's not harmful, and allows access to the work."While the... Continue reading...

Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos | Laura Normand / The Verge The Washington Post's editorial page had drafted an endorsement of Kamala Harris for president when its owner, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, intervened to cancel its publication, The Washington Post reports. In its place, The Post ran a bizarre column by its current publisher (and former Rupert Murdoch henchman) Will Lewis, saying The Post would not endorse anyone.This is now the second American newspaper, after The Los Angeles Times, to kill a Harris endorsement at the owner's behestIn his editorial, Lewis cited the Post's decision not to publish an endorsement in the race between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon in 1960. Nixon would later be implicated in the Watergate scandal, which generated 69 indictments and 48 criminal convictions... Continue reading...