The Verge

Avian influenza is aevolving in ways we havenat seen before,a says Martha Nelson, a computational biologist and staff scientist researching pathogen evolution at the National Institutes of Health a one of many scientists who have been monitoring the global H5N1 outbreak. Bird flu ais adapting to mammals, and it continues to show new tricks,a Nelson [...]

YouTube is looking into an issue causing lower than usual video quality" on iOS, desktop, and smart TVs. The platform says the apparent bug could make YouTube videos and shorts stream at 144p or 360p even with a strong internet connection. Over the past week or so, many users on Reddit have reported having YouTube [...]

The space science community has long prided itself on its ability to inspire and move people of all backgrounds, but President Donald Trumpas recent executive orders demanding the end of diversity programs have thrown that optimism into chaos. In response, NASA has suspended funding for diversity and outreach programs, paused the meetings of community groups [...]

Huawei has launched a new flip phone that upends the form factor, opening sideways rather than vertically to create a wider device with a tablet-esque aspect ratio. It's the first Huawei phone to ship without Android app compatibility, and debuts the company's in-house AI assistant, Harmony Intelligence - something the industry shouldn't ignore, Nvidia's CEO [...]

Fujifilm just announced its latest medium format camera, the GFX100RF. This one differs from the company's other GFX models in two key ways: it's the lightest body in the GFX series so far, and it's the first to feature a fixed-lens design. Up front you're getting a 35mm lens (equivalent to a 28mm in full [...]

Can you love and hate something equally? Thatas the relationship I have with Bluettias Handsfree 1 Backpack. For $349 you get a large 42L backpack and a skinny 268.8Wh solar generator built around long-lasting LFP battery cells that can be recharged by up to 200W of connected solar panels. It features two USB-A and two [...]

Meta is bringing its AI chatbot to Europe almost one year after pausing its launch in the region. Starting this week, Meta AI will roll out across WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger in 41 European countries and 21 overseas territories - but it will be limited to text-based chat features for now. Meta AI launched [...]

Tesla protesters are planning their biggest day of action" yet, aiming for 500 demonstrations at Tesla showrooms across the world on March 29th, organizers said during a mobilizing call Wednesday. The protests started at a handful of Tesla locations in early February, and has grown to hundreds of locations across the world, as more people [...]

President Donald Trump's sudden and unlawful firing of the Federal Trade Commission's two remaining Democrats will serve the tech billionaires who backed him, not the American people, warned one of the ousted officials today. I think we need to be focused on the billionaires over President Trump's shoulder at his inauguration and what this attempt [...]

This week, Roborock announced that its highly anticipatedSaros Z70is now available for pre-order. The Z70 features a robotic arm and is one of the most expensive robot vacuums in the world, at $1,899. For the launch, Roborock is sweetening the pot by bundling the new bot with the choice of a free second vacuum cleaner. [...]

The smart home holds so much promise. It can make life more convenient with lights that turn on as you walk in a room, doors that unlock as you approach, and robots that clean your floors. It can also make your home safer, more energy efficient, and even a little more fun. (Have you tried [...]

Newsletter platform Ghost switched on its fediverse connectivity this week, allowing bloggers to share their works across the various social platforms that support the open ActivityPub protocol. Ghost initially promised the feature would go live in 2024. But it's available now in beta for Ghost(Pro) users, TechCrunch reports. With ActivityPub, users on platforms such as [...]

A legal permanent resident claims he was tortured by customs agents after returning home from a trip to Europe. A doctor with a work visa was denied entry into the country a then flown out of the US in spite of a court order halting her deportation. Two German tourists were hassled at a port [...]

This deal caught my eye last night. Google is knocking $200 off its flagship Pixel 9 Pro and Pixel 9 Pro XL, which means the smaller model now starts at $799, or the same price as the regular Pixel 9. That's a no-brainer right there.Or, you can head to Best Buy where it starts at [...]

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is moving the companyas HR chief, Kathleen Hogan, into a new role focused on corporate strategy. Announced in an internal memo to Microsoft employees this morning, Hogan will report directly to Nadella and be responsible for strategy and transformation. Hogan has been at Microsoft for more than 20 years and spent [...]

Netflix just announced Spirit Crossing during a press event at GDC 2025. Spirit Crossing represents a first for Netflix, becoming the service's first MMO offering. It was developed by Spry Fox, one of Netflix's in-house game studios, and will launch sometime later this year. Spirit Crossing is described in the press release as a cozy [...]

Netflix is making a big push into video games. The company first dabbled in games with interactive titles like Black Mirror: Bandersnatchand aCarmen Sandiego game. But starting in 2021, it made gaming a much bigger priority - Netflix hired a former EA exec and let people play a selection of mobile games for free as [...]

Andor showrunner Tony Gilroy told Collider he has killed plans to publish the critically acclaimed show's scripts, despite having the 1,500-page collection ready to go, due to fear that the material would become training fodder for artificial intelligence systems. At an Emmy event in 2023, Gilroy announced plans to launch a free website featuring all [...]

Verizon's previously announced satellite messaging service is now available to owners of some Android smartphones, the company said in a statement today. It comes at no extra charge to Verizon customers, though you'll need a Google Pixel 9 or Samsung Galaxy S25 series phone to take advantage of it. The service allows people to send [...]

The European Commission is instructing Apple to make iOS work better with third-party devices like smartwatches and headphones. The Commission adopted two legally binding decisions Tuesday under the Digital Markets Act (DMA), the European competition law that governs large digital gatekeepers. The first decision will give app developers and device manufacturers more access to key [...]

Analogue has released a new firmware update for its Pocket handheld with bug fixes and expanded support for wireless controllers. PocketOS v2.5 - available for download here - fixes an issue with backup save exports for Game Boy and Game Boy Color games, but also introduces a long list of updates for the Pocket's TV [...]

There's a lot of interest in daily puzzle games right now. The New York Times has a great collection of games like its crossword, Wordle, Connections, and Strands. Apple is in the mix with crosswords and more in Apple News Plus. Zach Gage's puzzle gaming platform Puzzmo has some fun twists on classic games and [...]

Last year, GameStop shut down Game Informer, laying off all its staff and putting an end to one of the last remaining video game magazines still published in the United States. But now, cryptic posts on social media hint that the publication may make a return. On Bluesky, the Game Informer account, which had not [...]

Plex is raising the price of its Plex Pass from $4.99 to $6.99 per month and gating a key featurebehind the subscription. Starting April 29th, users who want to stream content from their media server outside their homes - and let other people access it for free - will need a Plex Pass subscription. The [...]

Death. Taxes. All your streaming services getting a little more expensive all the time. These are the new certainties in life, it seems. In recent years, as the streaming TV and movie business has gotten more competitive and companies around Hollywood have thrown billions into building their own platforms and libraries in order to compete [...]

Google is breaking European antitrust laws by favoring its own Shopping, Hotels, and Flights search services over rival comparison providers, according to the European Commission. The EU announced in its preliminary ruling today that Google's parent company, Alphabet, had also violated anti-steering rules under the Digital Markets Act (DMA) by preventing app developers on its [...]

The European Union's Digital Markets Act (DMA) has come into force, and it's meant that some of the world's biggest tech companies are having to make major changes to how they operate. The law, which is designed to increase competition in the EU's digital markets, designates some large online companies and their services as gatekeepers." [...]

Family members of people who died in Tesla crashes are urging the US Department of Transportation not to scrap a Biden-era rule requiring companies to report crashes that involve fully or partially autonomous vehicles. They also say they are worried that Tesla CEO Elon Musk's influence in the Trump administration may lead the department to [...]

Google's brand new midrange phone, the Pixel 9A, won't be shipping until sometime in April. That's not strange in and of itself, but it turns out you can't even preorder one from the Google Store yet. The latter situation is fairly unusual, as Google normally starts taking orders for new hardware right after announcing it. [...]

Copilot is coming back after Microsoft accidentally uninstalled it from some Windows 11 devices. In an update to its support page, Microsoft said affected devices are being returned to their original state," ending what some may have considered a brief respite from the AI assistant. On Monday, Microsoft said it was aware of a bug [...]

When AI giant OpenAI submitted its afreedom-focuseda policy proposal to the White Houseas AI Action Plan last Thursday, it gave the Trump administration an industry wishlist: use trade laws to export American AI dominance against the looming threat of China, loosen copyright restrictions for training data (also to fight China), invest untold billions in AI [...]

Nvidia has cut prices on its RTX 50-series of GPUs across Europe this week. The price cuts are thanks to a stronger Euro against the dollar, allowing Nvidia to cut the price of some of its latest GPUs by nearly five percent due to better exchange rates. Videocardz reports that the RTX 5090 has dropped [...]

After 11 years, Boston Dynamics has said goodbye to its humanoid robot Atlas - but only the hydraulic version. In a video posted on YouTube, the robotics company says it's time for Atlas to kick back and relax" in retirement, letting the new all-electric Atlas take the reins. Boston Dynamics revealed Atlas in 2013 as [...]

Razer is getting into AI with a new developer platform called Wyvrn. It encompasses dev-focused automation tools like the Razer AI QA Copilot to assist with quality assurance / game testing and the AI Gamer Copilot (formerly called Project Ava) for real-time tips and guides via voice assistant while playing games. Wyvrn (pronounced wyvern," like [...]

Automattic-owned Day One has announced a Windows version of its journaling app, available now on the Microsoft Store. The company says it offers the same trusted, distraction-free experience" as it does on other platforms. It's also free to use, and won't count against the free plan's one-device syncing limit, for now. One of the more [...]

TikTok's curse or blessing, depending on how you look at it, is that any video made by any random person can get millions of views without much rhyme or reason. Thousands of comments flood in, people make reaction videos, your random thoughts are referenced as gospel, and the TikTok content machine starts to whir. If [...]

The Playdate, Panic's cranky little console that could, is going to get $30 more expensive next week. Panic announced the increase in an email to customers, bringing the bright yellow handheld's price from $199 to $229. Yeah, so, guess what: after getting up and running at our new factory, they soon let us know that [...]

In a time when video game consoles are becoming more powerful and more connected than ever and AAA games are massive, bloated endeavors, Untitled Goose Game publisher Panic decided to go back to basics with the now $199 Playdate: a minuscule yellow handheld about the size of a Post-it note with a non-backlit black-and-white screen [...]

Suno wasnat supposed to be an important part of Amazonas Alexa Plus presentation. The AI song generation platform was a minor demonstration of how Alexa Plus could integrate into other apps, sandwiched between other announcements. But it caught my attention all the same a because whether Amazon realized it or not, the company blundered into [...]

Nvidia has announced that Isaac GR00T N1 - the company's open-source, pretrained but customizable foundation model that's designed to expedite the development and capabilities of humanoid robots - is now available. The age of generalist robotics is here," says Nvidia founder and CEO, Jensen Huang. With Nvidia Isaac GR00T N1 and new data-generation and robot-learning [...]

Googleas latest acquisition is its most expensive yet a and perhaps its riskiest, too. On Tuesday, the search giant announced that it acquired the cloud security startup Wiz for $32 billion. Itas a major bet that Wiz can help beef up Googleas cloud business, which makes far less money than the offerings built by its [...]

President Donald Trump and Elon Muskas slash-and-burn approach to the US government has thrown federal agencies into disarray, as thousands of civil servants have been dismissed from their jobs without rhyme or reason. But in the chaos of the cuts carried out by Muskas pseudo-agency, the Department of Government Efficiency, some federal workers say the [...]

I donat remember when I started using Google. Google justa is. Itas the verb for internet search, it commands 10 times the market share of all its competitors combined, and it is responsible for routing a huge amount of the internetas traffic. Almost two years ago, I got out. I signed up for a search [...]

Microsoft is rolling out a new gamepad keyboard for Windows 11 that lets you type with an Xbox controller. It improves the on-screen keyboard in Windows 11 making it a lot easier to navigate with an Xbox controller and type into text fields throughout the operating system. The gamepad keyboard even has shortcuts that are [...]

Microsoft is working on a new feature in Windows 11 that will help explain how less RAM or a weaker GPU might affect your PC performance. The latest preview builds of Windows 11 include a new frequently asked questions section in the system settings, with answers related to GPU memory, system RAM, and even OS [...]

Samsung has announced that One UI 7, its smartphone software based on Android 15, will start rolling out to existing phones and tablets from April 7th worldwide, with a US rollout slightly later on April 10th. In the US the update will first arrive on 2024's Galaxy S24 models, along with the Fold 6 and [...]

Amazon's next Prime Day event likely won't occur until July; however, that hasn't stopped the retail giant from launching a slew of seasonal promos. The next one comes in the form of Amazon's Big Spring Sale, which kicks off on March 25th and runs through March 31st. And, in typical Amazon fashion, we're already seeing [...]

The Strange $55 Million Saga of a Netflix Series You'll Never See," reported in 2023 by the New York Times, is now a criminal matter, as today prosecutors in the Southern District of New York charged director Carl Erik Rinsch with wire fraud, money laundering, and other financial crimes. They allege that after Netflix (referred [...]