The Verge

Photo: Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Decades before we got married and started a family, my partner and I connected over a little Boxer pup named Charlie. We tossed a ball around, scrubbed him down when he got dirty, and took him for daily walks. It was a bonding experience - mediated entirely through the original Nintendo DS's touchscreen. The tactile experience turned an otherwise simple game like Nintendogs, where the goal is to take care of virtual pets, into something that created a deep emotional connection. And years before smartphones were in everyone's pockets, it helped show a generation of gamers just what's possible with a touchscreen.Now, we mostly take them for granted, but prior to the arrival of the first DS in 2004, the idea of a touchscreen was, for many... Continue reading...

Project Know How builds on Adobe's work with Content Credentials. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge One of Adobe's most notable experiments this year could help combat misinformation and ensure artists are credited for their work, no matter where it appears online or offline. Announced during the Sneaks segment at Adobe Max, Project Know How' is an in-development tool that can link ownership of an image or video across any online platform, and a multitude of real-world surfaces like posters, tumblers, and textiles.Project Know How builds on Adobe's Content Credentials tech, which applies a digital tag to track where a piece of content has been posted, who owns it, and if/how it's been manipulated. Providing an image or video has Content Credentials applied, the tool can help creators establish ownership over their content even if... Continue reading...

Image: Kristen Radtke / The Verge In February 2004, a 19-year-old, flip-flop-wearing Mark Zuckerberg released an online directory of Harvard students. In those days, the internet still felt small. It was mostly about finding webpages, not people.It turned out that the internet was very good for connecting people. More than 1,000 Harvard students signed up for TheFacebook.com in the first 24 hours. The site started spreading quickly by word of mouth around campus. By the end of 2004, dozens of other colleges were on Facebook. The site had 1 million monthly users. Myspace's user base was about five times larger, though not for long.Social media predated Facebook, but nothing had captured the magic of what Zuckerberg and his classmates hacked together. The 2004 version of... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Microsoft has pulled its $1 Xbox Game Pass trial, just days before Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 releases on October 25th. The 14-day Game Pass trial was removed on October 8th, preventing people from signing up for a trial and playing through the Black Ops 6 campaign without paying for a full month of Game Pass.Microsoft first stopped its $1 trial for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass in March last year, before bringing it back and nerfing it down to just 14 days instead of a full month. The Xbox maker then briefly removed the $1 trial just days before Starfield's debut in September.It's not surprising to see the $1 Xbox Game Pass trial quietly removed once again, especially as Microsoft looks to Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 to boost... Continue reading...

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Microsoft launched its Surface Laptop 7 earlier this year without Intel chips, in a bid to promote Windows on Arm and Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite chips. Now, it looks like a Surface Laptop might arrive next year with Intel's latest Lunar Lake chips.A Surface Laptop prototype has appeared in a since-deleted listing on Chinese second-hand marketplace Goofish, complete with what looks like Intel's Core Ultra 7 268V processor inside. Windows Central spotted the listing, but it's not clear if this will simply be a Surface Laptop 7 variant or a Surface Laptop 8.Either way, the prototype laptop is clearly marked as such with a giant prototype - not for sale" etching at the bottom of the device. While it's easy to fake the CPU listing... Continue reading...

Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images Former president Donald Trump threatened in an interview today that, if elected president, he would do something" about Google but stopped short of specifically saying he would break up the company.In the interview, Bloomberg editor-in-chief John Micklethwait mentioned the US Justice Department's proposal to possibly break up Google and asked Trump if Google should be broken up. Trump initially didn't address Google at all, instead seemingly zeroing in on the Justice Department part of that question to rant about a recent DOJ lawsuit against Virginia election officials.But after Micklethwait got Trump back on course (the question is about Google, President Trump"), Trump expressed his unhappiness with how bad stories" seem to... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge YouTube is rolling out new labels that tell if uploaded videos come from a real camera with unaltered footage and sound. The new captured with a camera" label can be seen in action courtesy of digital content authentication service Trupic, which uploaded a video to its channel, triggering the disclosure in the video description panel. Trupic says it has the first authentic video with C2PA Content Credentials on YouTube."YouTube is leaning on the C2PA standard to detect the authenticity of uploaded videos, meaning the feature will work only with recording devices and tools that support the metadata. The site's help page for the new feature says the label signifies that the creator used specific technology to verify their video's... Continue reading...

UK retailer John Lewis is already selling the new Amazon Kindles. | Image: John Lewis Amazon hasn't officially announced the next generation of its Kindle e-readers yet, but following leaks of several models, the UK retailer John Lewis was already selling the 12th-gen entry-level Kindle and the new Kindle Kids Edition through its website earlier today, as spotted by Good e-Reader. Both listings have since been taken down.The 12th-gen Kindle Paperwhite recently popped up in an eBay listing that has also been taken down, and which included images of the new e-reader's packaging revealing minor upgrades such as a slightly larger seven-inch E Ink screen. Screenshot: John Lewis John Lewis' listing for the 12th-gen entry-level Kindle model appeared to confirm leaked details from September. According to those... Continue reading...

Image: AeroGarden AeroGarden, which produces smart indoor planters with built-in grow lamps that work with a connected app, recently announced that it will shutter its business starting on January 1st next year, Ars Technica reported.The company, which was acquired by Scott's Miracle-Gro in 2020, says it will update users later on the longer-term status" of its app, which lets users monitor water levels and set lighting schedules. For now, AeroGarden only says the app will work for an extended period of time." Owners can still control its smart garden gadgets without the app as described in the user manual" for their specific product. (For instance, the Bounty Wi-Fi offers a touchscreen control panel.)Even so, Wi-Fi-enabled software features are a... Continue reading...

An enthusiastic Gelsinger introduced the partnership at today's conference, hosted by Lenovo. | Photo: Allison Johnson / The Verge Nothing brings rivals together like a common enemy, and in this case it's the rise of ARM pulling Intel and AMD closer together than ever. The two chip makers - not exactly the friendliest frenemies - are the headlining members of a new x86 Advisory Group to try and defend the platform's interests against ARM, which finally appears poised to challenge x86's dominance.The alliance includes a long list of other founding members including Microsoft, Google, and Meta, as well as Lenovo, the company that hosted the announcement at its Tech World 2024 conference in Bellevue, Washington. This morning's keynote featured appearances by AMD CEO Lisa Su as well as Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger, who unsurprisingly said that the x86 architecture is... Continue reading...

Image: The Verge Google Chrome has begun to phase out uBlock Origin. The developer of the free ad blocker, Raymond Hill, recently reposted a screenshot that shows Chrome automatically turning off uBlock Origin because it is no longer supported."The change comes as Google Chrome migrates to Manifest V3, a new extension specification that could impact the effectiveness of some ad blockers. uBlock Origin has launched uBlock Origin Lite, which uses Manifest V3, in response to the transition. However, you have to manually install the extension because it's too different from uBO to be an automatic replacement," according to a FAQ Hill that posted to GitHub.Hill says you may notice a difference when using uBlock Origin Lite compared to uBlock Origin... Continue reading...

JLab's Go Pop ANC wireless earbuds include active noise cancellation and a pair of microphones on each bud. | Image: JLab JLab already sells a budget-friendly pair of noise canceling wireless earbuds with its $59.99 ANC 3, but at $29.99, the company's new Go Pop ANC are half the price while still offering features like an ambient sound boosting mode and up to 21 hours of battery life with ANC active.Although we haven't tested them, at $29.99, we're not necessarily expecting the JLab Go Pop ANC's active noise-canceling performance will rival the capabilities of industry-leading offerings from companies like Sony. The Go Pop ANC rely on just two microphones in a feed-forward system that detects and cancels external sounds. More advanced and more expensive ANC systems use a hybrid approach with additional mics inside the ear that can detect and remove a wider... Continue reading...

The Pixel Tablet displaying the new Home Controls screensaver. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge A new Home Controls screensaver in Android 15 turns your tablet or phone into a smart home dashboard, where you can control devices with a single tap. The interactive screensaver does away with the need to unlock your device or tap a shortcut button, making controlling your connected lights or cameras much quicker.The feature is live now on the Google Pixel Tablet and Pixel phones running Android 15 and should be available on more devices soon.The screensaver appears when your device is docked or connected to a charger. It works with the Google Home app and displays your Favorites tab, which can be customized to show your most used devices, such as individual smart lights, thermostats, and security camera feeds. The tab also has... Continue reading...

Illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photo from Getty Images The FIDO Alliance, the organization that's helping shepherd passkey adoption, announced a draft of new specifications that would let users securely move their passkeys across different password managers.Passkeys are great - it's nice to be able to log in to apps and websites without entering a password. But there hasn't been a standard protocol for transferring your passkeys across password managers. The new specifications, the Credential Exchange Protocol (CXP) and Credential Exchange Format (CXF), are designed to fill that gap.The FIDO Alliance's Credential Provider Special Interest Group," which includes representatives from 1Password, Apple, Bitwarden, Google, Microsoft, Okta, and more, collaborated on the specifications. The new... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge Meta is adding an activity status" to Threads so that you can see who's actively online as you're scrolling your feed. In a post, Threads boss Adam Mosseri pitches it as a way to help you find others to engage with in real-time." The activity status will show up next to your profile picture in the feed and on your profile, based on screenshots Mosseri shared. Screenshot by Jay Peters / The Verge A screenshot of Adam Mosseri's post about the feature on Threads - look for the green dots. Fortunately, if you don't want people to know when you're online, you don't have to share that. Only people who have activity status turned on will be able to see when you're online, and you can turn this off within your... Continue reading...

Photo: Jakub Porzycki / NurPhoto via Getty Images The New York Times has demanded that AI search engine startup Perplexity stop using content from its site in a cease and desist letter sent to the company, reports The Wall Street Journal. The Times, which is currently suing OpenAI and Microsoft over allegedly illegally training models on its content, says the startup has been using its content without permission, a claim made earlier this year by Forbes and Conde Nast.The Journal included this passage from the letter:

Illustration by William Joel / The Verge The video game voice actor strike could be over soon. SAG-AFTRA, which negotiates the interactive media agreement that governs video game performances, has announced that negotiations on the agreement will resume on Wednesday, October 23rd.SAG-AFTRA and members of the interactive media bargaining group - which includes video game companies like Activision, Insomniac Games, Take Two, Electronic Arts, and more - had been negotiating a new interactive media agreement for almost two years. In September of last year, SAG-AFTRA members voted for strike authorization, warning that a strike would be forthcoming if the two parties could not reach a deal. This summer, a strike was formally authorized and SAG-AFTRA members began picketing on July... Continue reading...

The Nuio Flow keyboard features a split design form factor for optimal hand positioning." | Image: Nuio A new company called Nuio, founded by two brothers with backgrounds in design and manufacturing, is rethinking desk accessories with the goal of making our computers more comfortable to use. It's debuting today with a collection of magnetic peripherals called Flow that's centered around a wireless split keyboard, all designed to make it easier to find your perfect ergonomic layout, even if that's constantly changing throughout the day.Tom Wilson, the CEO of Nuio (a combination of new and I/O), previously worked at companies including Apple, Google, and Frog Design, while Greg Wilson, the company's CMO, spent years at Frog Design and the creative agency Digitas. The brothers cofounded Nuio with the goal of improving how we physically... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Android 15 is now rolling out to Pixel devices, bringing them new privacy features, security tools, and improvements for foldables and tablets. The operating system first launched last month through the Android Open Source Project, but at the time, it wasn't yet available on Pixel phones and tablets - or other major Android devices. Google announced today that it's finally coming to Pixels alongside a series of Pixel feature drops.One major new feature in Android 15 is the ability to make a private space" for apps you might want to keep hidden from other people who get ahold of your phone. (Google gives the examples of social, dating, or banking apps.) Apps you put in the private space won't show up in your recent apps, notifications,... Continue reading...

The Anbernic RG P01 is the company's first wireless controller includes a six-axis gyroscope for playing Switch games that support motion controls. | Screenshot: YouTube Anbernic is expanding its extensive lineup of handheld consoles to include wireless controllers with the reveal of its new RG P01, which features Hall effect triggers and joysticks with minimal drift," according to the company.The Anbernic RG P01 features an Xbox-style Y, B, A, and X button layout that can be switched to a Nintendo-style layout through software, but it's not yet known if reconfiguring the controller is done through a desktop or mobile app.The controller is compatible with PCs, the Nintendo Switch, Steam devices, iOS, and Android; wireless connectivity includes support for Bluetooth 5.3 as well as a 2.4GHz connection for reduced lag. Anbernic hasn't confirmed if a 2.4GHz USB dongle is included for gaming devices that... Continue reading...

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge Spotify is rolling out the beta test of music videos to 85 additional markets globally, allowing Premium subscribers to watch a limited catalog" of videos from artists like Charlie XCX, Doja Cat, Ed Sheeran, Fontaines D.C., LISA, and more.However, that list of available areas doesn't include the US yet, and it's unclear when it will reach us here. As with all of our features, availability can vary across markets and tiers," Spotify spokesperson Brittany Le Roy said in a statement to The Verge. Music videos on Spotify are still in beta and we look forward to bringing it to even more users across more markets, including the US, in the future."With the wider rollout, Spotify is also adding the ability to instantly switch between audio... Continue reading...

Image: Tom Warren / The Verge Microsoft's discless Xbox Series X goes on sale today, and while it looks slightly different on the outside thanks to a white paint job and the lack of a disc drive, inside, it has been redesigned. Microsoft has redesigned the motherboard on the white Xbox Series X and new 2TB models, shrunk the system-on-a-chip (SoC) down to 6nm, and switched to a new cooling solution.YouTuber Austin Evans spotted the changes in a teardown of the new models and reported that the shrunken chip allows the new Xbox Series X models to run around 10 watts less than the original model at idle. Image: Austin Evans (YouTube) The new Xbox Series X motherboard has been heavily redesigned. Image: Austin Evans (YouTube) ... Continue reading...

Electrify America is one of several charging networks included in Nissan's offering. | Image: Nissan Nissan is starting up an electric vehicle charging network that lets Ariya SUV owners connect and pay at participating third-party charging stations using the MyNissan app. The new Nissan Energy Charge Network" consists of 90,000 fast chargers" in the US from partner companies Electrify America, Shell Recharge, ChargePoint, and EVgo. Starting in November, Ariya owners can use a stored payment method in their MyNissan app to start and pay for a charging session with one tap at a station.Nissan also says it will make available" Tesla Supercharger-compatible NACS adapters for Ariya owners later this year. Some companies like Kia, Ford, and Rivian will or have been providing the adapter for free, while others like GM will sell one for a... Continue reading...

An eBay listing that's no longer active included packaging photos of the 12th-gen Kindle Paperwhite e-reader. | Image: Reddit A handful of specs for the 12th-gen Amazon Kindle Paperwhite have leaked via an eBay listing, which shared images of the new e-reader's packaging before it was pulled, reports Good e-Reader. Those images, still available on Reddit, reveal a slightly larger seven-inch E Ink screen, up from 6.8 inches on the previous model.Other features of the 12th-gen Kindle Paperwhite include screen lighting that can be adjusted between warm and cool color temperatures, an IPX8 waterproof rating allowing the e-reader to survive a dunking to depths of two meters for a full hour, screensaver ads that can be removed for a fee, and weeks of battery life."Details on what processor the e-reader is using, how much memory is included, and its wireless... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge Google plans to buy electricity from next-generation nuclear reactors. It announced the deal yesterday, which it says is the world's first corporate agreement to purchase electricity from advanced small modular reactors (SMRs) that are still under development.Google inked the deal with engineering company Kairos Power, which plans to get its first SMR up and running by 2030. Google agreed to purchase electricity from multiple" reactors that would be built through 2035.Google needs a lot more clean energy to meet its climate goals while pursuing its AI ambitions. New nuclear technologies are still unproven at scale, but the hope is that they can provide carbon pollution-free electricity while solving some of the problems that come... Continue reading...

Sonos apparently believes its mobile app has reached a good enough place to resume product launches: today the company has announced the Arc Ultra and Sub 4. The $999 Arc Ultra is a more powerful take on the original Arc, and it's the first Sonos product to feature unique transducer technology from Mayht, a startup that Sonos acquired in 2022. Sonos refers to this as Sound Motion" and says it allows the Arc Ultra to produce richer, even more immersive sound than the original.The company is touting Sound Motion as one of the most significant breakthroughs in audio engineering in nearly 100 years" and says it unlocks greater clarity, depth, and balance than ever before possible from a soundbar this sleek."The Arc Ultra has fourteen... Continue reading...

Image: Roku Roku is making your TV more like a surveillance center. It's rolling out a carousel of all your Roku security camera feeds that will automatically rotate when cameras detect activity or during timed intervals.In addition to this update, Roku is expanding TV notifications to include alerts from all your cameras - not just your video doorbell. This can give you a heads-up when your baby's waking up in another room or if your dog is getting into trouble outside. You don't have to turn on the notifications if you don't want to, as I'd imagine they'd get pretty distracting while you're immersed in a show or movie. Image: Roku These new features will roll out this winter, and they're compatible with all Roku cameras and... Continue reading...

Image: Google / The Verge Google Shopping is rolling out a personalized feed that shows you a stream of products you might like. The new feature, which is coming to mobile devices first, shows up when you head to shopping.google.com.At the top of the page, you'll see a carousel of products you've recently shopped for, allowing you to jump back into your search. But once you scroll down, Google will surface recommended products and in-line videos related to items you might be interested in. Google will use your recent searches and YouTube videos to personalize your feed. GIF: Google Google's personalized feed shows recommended products and related videos. If you come across something in your feed that you don't like, you can hit the... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge YouTube is getting a bunch of small but handy new features, like the ability to more finely tune your playback speed, new tools to collaborate on playlists, a sleep timer, and more.For me, a person who has written multiple times about video playback speeds, YouTube's new speed controls are definitely the highlight. With the updated controls, you can select playback speeds in .05 increments instead of .25 increments, giving you a lot more options for exactly how fast or slow you want to watch a video. Playback speed is still capped at 2x - maybe someday it'll get bumped up higher than that.The upgrades to playlists sound useful, too. You'll be able to build collaborative playlists by sharing a link (or, in a feature coming soon" to... Continue reading...

The world we live in is, in so many ways, 20 years old. Let's go back and see how we got here. Continue reading...

The Wired Floodlight Camera provides many of the same features as Arlo's wireless alternative for a lower price. | Image: Arlo Arlo is releasing a new floodlight security camera that connects directly to your home's Wi-Fi and power source. That allows the Arlo Wired Floodlight Camera to monitor and illuminate outdoor spaces 24/7 without interruption, unlike battery-powered security systems.This is Arlo's first hardwired floodlight camera, and it's available to buy on the company's website now for $149.99. Wired security systems are harder to install than battery-powered alternatives, but Arlo says its first floodlight system features a simple, hardwired DIY installation." It's also more affordable than Arlo's $250 wireless Pro 3 Floodlight Cam, which can be set up as either a wireless or hardwired system.In fact, the Wired Floodlight Camera shares many of the... Continue reading...

Photo by Tom Warren / The Verge Microsoft has started selling a discless version of its Xbox Series X console today, in the same white paint job as the smaller Xbox Series S. The only change over the carbon black exterior of the original Xbox Series X is that this new white model doesn't include a disc drive.There's no option to add a disc drive to this white model either, so you'll have to be confident you're happy playing digital games or titles from Xbox Game Pass before purchasing this $449.99 variant.Microsoft hasn't changed the rear ports either, so there's two USB-A ports, a HDMI 2.1 port to connect to your TV or monitor, an Ethernet port, and the storage expansion slot at the rear of the console. At the front there's a single USB-A port, alongside the pair... Continue reading...

Photo: Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Is it possible for a phone to have pretty privilege"? Mediocre features and functionality be damned, the original Motorola Razr V3 and its successors dominated the US cellphone market for four years following its 2004 release - up to and including the iPhone's introduction in 2007 - seemingly on vibes and aesthetics alone. Not to glamorize consumerism or anything, but I miss it terribly.I was 11 years old when the Razr launched and probably among the first generation of kiddies that begged their parents to buy them a cellphone. We weren't really the target demographic before that - cellphones had mostly been bulky, boring things primarily for working adults. SMS texting had just become something that everyone did day-to-day, and mobile... Continue reading...

For a couple of years, there was nothing on the internet so simultaneously thrilling and terrifying as having your website hit the front page of Digg. Thousands of people, maybe tens of thousands, would immediately come to your site - and there's a good chance they'd crash it in the process. Hundreds of commenters would debate the merits of whatever you'd created or published, pick fights with you and each other about it, and make you feel like the internet's main character. At least for a few minutes, until something bigger and newer and more controversial hit Digg.com and everyone moved on.In its early days, Digg was something like the homepage of the internet. Any user could submit a link, and then any other user could either promote... Continue reading...

Image: Kristen Radtke / The Verge Flipping through your high school scrapbook is a humbling experience. There's a lot to reckon with - including braces and bootcut jeans, in my case - and you get a sense of what kinds of moments you thought were worth preserving. Apparently, a great deal of funny things happened to my friends and me as we loafed around a suburban coffee shop avoiding homework. Looking through those pages, I can find plenty of documentation of life as we waited for our teammates to finish their tennis matches and turned the communal couch at Caribou Coffee into our own private rec room. But only a few pages later, the photos abruptly stop.This was all in 2003, my senior year of high school. (Please don't do that math.) I carried around disposable cameras... Continue reading...

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images The Mojave Desert is not typically a place for a car race, but these were not your typical cars, and this was not your typical race. The course was 150 miles of rocks, loose dirt, and narrow switchbacks - harrowing terrain even for the most rugged vehicles. The obvious goal: be the first to cross the finish line without crashing, flipping over, or catching fire. The prize was $1 million.The participants looked straight out of Mad Max: military-grade Humvees, dune buggies, motorcycles, and a particularly gnarly-looking Acura SUV. No drivers with mohawks and shoulder pads, unfortunately. No drivers at all. This was the DARPA Grand Challenge - the world's first robot car race.It was March 13th, 2004, a watershed moment in autonomous... Continue reading...

Image: Kristen Radtke / The Verge In fashion, it's said that trends return every 20 years. But it seems technology has started to repeat itself at the same cadence, too. Can you identify what things happened in 2004, 2024, or in some cases, both?Microsoft loses its antitrust case in EuropeYear: 2004Two decades ago, the EU handed down a fine of over $600 million for not offering versions of Windows that did not come with Windows Media Player preinstalled. Microsoft still has antitrust problems in Europe at the moment, and last year, the EU attempted to block the company's acquisition of video game maker Activision Blizzard. But Microsoft has paid no fines this year... so far.Motorola releases a new Razr phoneYear: BothThe very first Razr, called the Motorola Razr V3,... Continue reading...

Before a podcast was a podcast," it was... well, it wasn't really much of anything. A few of the early believers called them audio blogs," and the journalist often credited with coining the term podcast" also offered GuerillaMedia" as an alternative in the very same article. (And actually, there's plenty of debate over exactly who coined the term and when. The history of the podcast is more contentious than you'd think.)It was in 2004, though, that many of the earliest names in on-demand audio began to smush iPod" and broadcast" into the word we've come to know as the way we all download and listen to shows now. In the 20 years since podcasts became a thing, they've changed dramatically - the earliest pods were mostly just dudes... Continue reading...