The Verge

The Senate version of the budget reconciliation bill, backed by President Donald Trump, removes protections for unlicensed spectrum that broadens the capacity of the 6GHz Wi-Fi band. This could result in slower Wi-Fi speeds. Under the bill, which may be voted on at the end of this week, the FCC would sell off some of [...]

After a long week, the last thing I want to do is clean my floors (they're seriously overdue for a cleaning). Busting out the vacuum and mopping can be tiring. That's why I'm a big fan of robot vacuums, especially ones with built-in mops that can handle all the cleaning on their own. Speaking of, [...]

Google's carbon emissions jumped yet again as the company continues to push ahead in AI. The company's 2025 sustainability report emphasizes that its ambition-based emissions" grew 11 percent last year to reach 11.5 million metric tons of carbon dioxide pollution, marking a 51 percent increase compared to 2019. That puts Google farther away from its [...]

The Nintendo Switch 2 is here, and so you might be in the market for a microSD card to store more games. While all microSD cards look the same, only microSD Express cards will work on the Switch 2 for storing and playing games. The card you used in your original Switch or Switch Lite [...]

As the esports industry searches for new sources of revenue, Riot Games has opened up its League of Legends and Valorant esports leagues to sports betting sponsorships. The decision will permit tier one organizations - or the highest level of professional players - in the North and South America and European esports leagues of Valorant [...]

Adobe's Project Indigo is a camera app built by camera nerds for camera nerds. It's the work of Florian Kainz and Marc Levoy, the latter of whom is also known as one of the pioneers of computational photography with his work on early Pixel phones. Indigo's basic promise is a sensible approach to image processing [...]

With the Wear OS 5.1 update that was released last March, Google quietly introduced a new feature called Channel Sounding for the Pixel Watch 3 that could improve the accuracy of pinpointing the location of other devices using its existing Bluetooth hardware. But while Channel Sounding is now supported by the smartwatch, it's not yet [...]

The Supreme Court has upheld a Texas law requiring age verification to access adult websites, saying despite First Amendment claims, the law only incidentally burdens the protected speech of adults." The ruling, in Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton, opens the door to age-gating in states nationwide. The court ruled in Texas' favor by a margin [...]

The Supreme Court ruled that the funding mechanism behind a key broadband subsidy program for schools and underserved areas can continue operating. In a decision issued on Friday, the Supreme Court rejected claims that Congress and the FCC's implementation of the fund is unconstitutional. The program, known as the Universal Service Fund (USF), helps subsidize [...]

Eligible Fortnite players who felt bamboozled into making unwanted purchases have been given a second chance to request a refund. The Federal Trade Commission has reopened applications to receive refunds from the $245 million settlement that Epic Games reached with the agency until July 9th, after previously closing requests in February. The agreement was announced [...]

I just tried on five different outfits in about 10 minutes - or at least my AI lookalike did. That's all thanks to Doppl, a new app that Google is testing, which I used to create AI-generated clips of myself wearing outfits that I found across the web. It mostly works, but it has clear [...]

A new line of smoke and CO alarms from Gentex called Place is packed with smart features, including phone notifications, a nightlight, motion detection, and temperature and humidity sensing. There's also optional air quality monitoring and a camera/intercom. The four Place models start at $139, and are available now at The Home Depot. With the [...]

Universal and Blumhouse's first M3gan feature came out of nowhere with a premise so ridiculous and campy that it was hard not to be at least a little intrigued. Equal parts Child's Play and Small Wonder, M3gan was undeniably silly with its story about an AI-powered doll who sang Sia's "Titanium" and danced around as [...]

A lot of the future of AI will be settled in court. From publishers to authors to artists to Hollywood conglomerates, the creative industry is picking a big copyright fight over the vast quantities of data used to train AI models - and the ultimate output of those models. (Disclosure: Vox Media, The Verge's parent [...]

Threads has taken another step towards decoupling from Instagram by introducing its own word blocking filters. Instagram head Adam Mosseri announced on Thursday that the Hidden Words setting on Threads includes newly added custom filters to block words, phrases, and emojis in batches, with optional time limits." A previous version of Hidden Words was tied [...]

Sendi Jia, a designer running her own studio between Beijing, China, and London, England, says she mainly uses AI generators like DALL-E to make fake photos for background panels or websites when her clients don't have access to real ones. That's helped clients with limited budgets, but it's also exposed just how much of the [...]

Redwood Materials is repurposing old EV batteries into energy storage systems that cost substantially less" than brand new storage projects, the company said Thursday. The electric vehicle battery recycling and manufacturing venture, which was founded by Tesla's former chief technologist, has created a new division called Redwood Energy to manage these projects. The aim is [...]

During a company-wide all-hands meeting on Thursday, some of Meta's top executives were asked about the "$100 million signing bonuses" that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman claimed they had been offering to poach his employees. "Sam is just being dishonest here," Andrew Bosworth, Meta's CTO, said at the meeting when asked about Altman's remarks. "He's suggesting [...]

After quietly pausing the rollout of Google Photos' AI-powered Ask Photos" search tool, Google is now expanding access once again and making some improvements to the feature. Google's Gemini AI models power Ask Photos so that you can ask complex questions to help you find photos. But earlier this month, a member of the Google [...]

Apple has introduced new App Store changes in the EU in an attempt to avoid being further penalized under the European Union's Digital Markets Act (DMA). On Thursday, the company announced a new tier system for its Store Services fee that's applied to purchases made outside apps, and it will only give developers access to [...]

Ever been racing to meet a deadline only to realize your coffee's gone cold again? The EmberMug2 self-heating smart mug keeps your drink hot so you can stay focused without making constant trips to the microwave. And right now, Amazon, Best Buy, and Walmart are selling the 14-ounce smart mug in select colors starting at [...]

Microsoft announced earlier this week that it would start testing its new aggregated gaming library on the Xbox app for Windows, and it's now starting to show up for testers today. This new library experience lists Steam, Battle.net, Ubisoft, Epic Games Store, and Riot Games titles that are all installed on a PC from various [...]

Earlier this week some devoted Xbox 360 users booted up their aging consoles to find that Microsoft had updated the home screen to finally resolve an issue with box art. But in addition to that fix, several users on Reddit, as well as Kotaku, have confirmed the update also adds some sizable ads for the [...]

Comcast is changing its Xfinity plans nationwide to make them simpler - and it's dropping data caps so that the plans have truly unlimited data. The company announced today that it will now offer four plans - 300 Mbps, 500 Mbps, 1 Gbps, and 2 Gbps - across three different pricing tiers: an Everyday Price" [...]

Android users will soon be able to let Gemini control device features and apps with fewer privacy concerns. In an email seen by Android Police, Google recently notified Gemini users that it will start rolling out an update on July 7th that allows the AI bot to use Phone, Messages, WhatsApp, and Utilities on your [...]

Riley Testut, the developer behind the robust Delta emulator app for iOS, announced a new iPhone app designed to replicate the Game Boy Camera accessory but with features you'd expect from a modern camera app." The Delta Camera app's full feature list hasn't been revealed yet, but it's currently available for beta testing to those [...]

If you plug the world's best-reviewed webcams into the Nintendo Switch 2 today, they won't work, while many comparatively ancient webcams do. Why? That's been a mystery for the nearly three weeks since the handheld launched. Now, two companies say they've figured it out and are pledging to update the firmware on their cameras. Here's [...]

Staying cool during the summer is about more than comfort; being overly hot can accelerate the aging process and be the difference between life and death. The NIH has guidance on how to handle hot weather, including a recommendation to stay in a place with air conditioning, if possible. Luckily for those in warmer climates, [...]

CEOs would be nothing without the labor of their (typically) underpaid employees, and the unfairness of that reality seems to be what's causing all the chaos in director Yorgos Lanthimos upcoming film, Bugonia. A remake of South Korean director Jang Joon-hwan's 2003 feature Save the Green Planet, Bugonia zooms in on the life of Teddy [...]

Google is bringing an AI Overviews-like feature to another product: YouTube. The video streaming platform may now show an AI-powered search results carousel" when some YouTube Premium members in the US make searches related to shopping, travel, or things to do in a specific place," according to a blog post. As shown in a video, [...]

Google is launching a new AI function in Sheets to help you generate text to fill out parts of your spreadsheet. The feature, powered by Google Gemini, can reference specific cells to create text, summarize information, or categorize your data. In the example shared by Google, you can use the new AI function to generate [...]

It's been nearly a year since a faulty CrowdStrike update took down 8.5 million Windows-based machines around the world, and Microsoft wants to ensure such a problem never happens again. After holding a summit with security vendors last year, Microsoft is poised to release a private preview of Windows changes that will move antivirus (AV) [...]

Microsoft's "This is an Xbox" marketing campaign in November always felt a little too early. If you ask a friend or family member what an Xbox is, the response is likely going to be "it's a game console." Xbox is ingrained in popular culture as a box under your TV that you play games on, [...]

The Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) has held strong in Windows for nearly 40 years, but that's about to change. Microsoft revealed earlier this year that it was overhauling its BSOD error message in Windows 11, and the company has now confirmed that it will soon be known as the Black Screen of Death. The [...]

Insta360 has announced a new version of its entry-level smartphone gimbal. The new Insta360 Flow 2 includes many of the upgrades introduced on the Insta360 Flow 2 Pro that launched earlier this year including multi person tracking and the ability to use the Apple Watch as a remote control. But you're also going to lose [...]

The BBC wants to make people in the US pay for its content. The public broadcaster announced on Thursday that it will start offering US-based users an $8.99 per month (or $49.99 per year) subscription for unlimited" access to news stories, feature reports, and the BBC News channel livestream. Users in the US will still [...]

First, Amazon MGM secured creative control of the James Bond IP, then it brought Amy Pascal and David Heyman in to produce a new feature about the iconic spy. Now, the studio has found a director to lead the project. Last night, Amazon MGM announced that Denis Villeneuve has been tapped to direct a new [...]

Intel is shutting down its business dedicated to making processors for cars. In a memo seen by The Oregonian, Intel tells workers that it plans to lay off most" employees in the division, citing plans to shift focus to its core client and data center portfolio." As part of this work, we have decided to [...]

After first announcing it at CES 2025, the HDMI Forum is finally releasing the new HDMI 2.2 specification to manufacturers today. Although there is no definitive timeline for how long it will take hardware makers to adopt the new specification, the first Ultra96 HDMI Cables, with bandwidth capabilities boosted to up to 96Gbps, could be [...]

I've been testing the $269 Bose SoundLink Plus, which is the company's latest portable Bluetooth speaker. It's durable, attractive, and designed to join you wherever you go, thanks to solid construction and an IP67 rating. You can toss it in a small backpack or clip it to the outside of one for easy transport to [...]

After scrapping its XPS branding earlier this year, Dell has now launched two of the new Premium" laptop models that are replacing it. Aside from being refreshed with Intel's Core Ultra Series 2 Arrow Lake processors, a slightly revised Dell lid logo, and a few other spec changes, the Dell 16 Premium and Dell 14 [...]

"Maybe you could organize your plants like this," my friend's text message said, with an attached photo of white pots of plants floating midair in front of a huge, sunny window. As a newbie plant collector, I do need to organize my growing collection of flora, but not like this - the photo was AI-generated [...]

Meta won a major legal ruling in an AI copyright lawsuit brought by 13 authors alleging that the company illegally trained its AI systems on their work without permission. On Wednesday, Judge Vince Chhabria ruled in Meta's favor, saying it is entitled to summary judgment on its fair use defense to the claim that copying [...]

Anthropic is adding a new feature to its Claude AI chatbot that lets you build AI-powered apps right inside the app. The upgrade, launching in beta, builds upon Anthropic's Artifacts feature introduced last year that lets you see and interact with what you ask Claude to make. Start building in the Claude app by enabling [...]

WhatsApp can now call on Meta AI to summarize your personal chats. As shown in a GIF, you can access it by tapping the button to unfurl all of your unread messages in a chat. But instead of showing your messages, WhatsApp uses Meta AI to generate a bulleted summary of what you missed. The [...]

Signify has announced price increases for its Philips Hue smart lighting and accessories starting on July 1st due to US tariffs. As for how much the products will go up in price, that hasn't been confirmed, but the Hue Wall Washer that was recently launched is 10 percent more expensive than its price in the [...]

The Social Network is finally getting a sequel courtesy of Sony. Deadline reports that Sony is moving forward with The Social Network Part II, a follow-up" to David Fincher's 2010 feature about how TheFacebook went on to become one of the most singularly influential websites in internet history and made Mark Zuckerberg a billionaire in [...]

Apple's next-generation CarPlay is splitting the auto world down the middle. Several automakers are eagerly lining up to adopt the newly immersive CarPlay Ultra, which takes over more screens and includes embedded vehicle features like speedometers, heating and cooling, and radio functions. Others are flatly refusing to allow it, while the rest are taking a [...]

Dbrand will send replacement Killswitch Joy-Con Grips for the Switch 2 to buyers after admitting it had a spectacularly terrible response" to complaints that the controllers could detach from the console if held a certain way while the grips were on. The company is currently working on tweaks to the grips as well. A few [...]

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and a nonprofit privacy rights group have called on several states to investigate why hundreds" of data brokers haven't registered with state consumer protection agencies in accordance with local laws. An analysis done in collaboration with Privacy Rights Clearinghouse (PRC) found that many data brokers have failed to register in [...]