The Verge

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy have laid out their plans for the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a currently nonexistent entity they say will cut the federal government down to size." Though DOGE isn't a real department - and may in fact just be President-elect Donald Trump's way of placating Musk by giving him the appearance of a real job - it represents a long-running right-wing attempt to gut the civil service, a plan the incoming administration fully supports.DOGE could be a mechanism for a Musk shadow presidency, a nonsense job designed to keep Musk busy without giving him real power, or a curious mix of the two. In any case, Musk and Ramaswamy have proposed cutting thousands" of federal regulations and determining the... Continue reading...

Image: The Verge Meta is promising long-overdue improvements" to its X competitor, Threads, including more precise search features and expanded trending topics.First, users will be able to search for posts within a specific date range or from a single account - similar to what X's search allows. Threads is also testing a new trending page in the US that includes additional topics to follow as well as AI-generated summaries of what other users are talking about.Instagram head Adam Mosseri, who led the launch of Threads, wrote in a post that the tests begin today.This week has been full of updates on Threads, which is facing increased competition from Bluesky, the decentralized text-based platform that people have been flocking to in recent weeks.... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Amazon announced today that it's pumping another $4 billion into Claude AI maker Anthropic, bringing its total funding amount to $8 billion. This latest round follows $1.25 billion last September and another $2.75 billion in March.Along with the money, Amazon wrote in its blog post that Amazon Web Services (AWS) would be named Anthropic's primary training partner" and that the OpenAI rival would use Trainium and Inferentia chips for future models.The investment and deeper partnership align with previous reporting by Reuters that Claude will power Amazon's new Alexa voice assistant. The improved Alexa - the release of which has been delayed - reportedly performed better with Claude than it did when using Amazon's in-house model. The... Continue reading...

Image: Alex Parkin / The Verge For two decades, Google Search has been unstoppable. Invincible. So thoroughly dominant that would-be competitors often couldn't even get funding, because investors didn't see the point in trying. But earlier this year, a judge declared that Google's power, and the way the company wields it, was an illegal monopoly. And so now the US Department of Justice has to figure out how to undo it.On this episode of The Vergecast, we dig into the DOJ's first attempt at a plan. The Verge's Lauren Feiner joins the show to talk through the recently filed proposal, which includes selling Chrome, possibly selling Android, and requiring Google to give vast quantities of its search tech and data to anyone wanting to compete.We try to figure out... Continue reading...

Some Apple Home users have shoehorned iPads into wall-mounted home controllers. However, reports indicate Apple is developing a dedicated home control device. | Photo By Carlos Avila Gonzalez / The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images The smart home has an interface problem. Searching for an app on your phone, fighting with a confused voice assistant, and fiddling with a smart" display to turn off a light is enough to send anyone running back to the wall switch. But now, Apple is taking a crack at solving the frustrations of smart home control - and it has the opportunity to actually make the smart home work.Next year, the company will reportedly launch an AI wall tablet for home control," and it's said to be developing more devices for the home (including cameras, a tabletop robot, and maybe even a TV). Among other features, such as video calling, this new smart display will reportedly be a hub for Apple's home automation platform, Apple Home, providing a communal... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Snap says the basis of a scathing lawsuit suggesting it systematically recommends teens' accounts to child predators is backwards - the company is now accusing the New Mexico attorney general of intentionally seeking out such accounts before recommendations were made. The company says the AG's case is based on gross misrepresentations" and cherry picks from Snap's internal documents.In a motion to dismiss filed Thursday, Snap says AG Raul Torrez's complaint makes patently false" allegations, and particularly misrepresents its own undercover investigation, in which the AG's office created a decoy 14-year-old account. Torrez alleges Snap violated the state's unfair practices and public nuisance laws by misleading users' about the... Continue reading...

Image: Department of Transportation The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has voted to finalize new spectrum rules that will push cellular vehicle-to-everything (C-V2X) communications technology forward.C-V2X will use existing cellular networks to send messages from vehicle to vehicle, vehicle to infrastructure, vehicle to cyclists, or vehicle to pedestrians to warn of each other's presence for safety purposes. It could cross-alert for hazardous road conditions, including speeding cars, weather, or traffic congestion.FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said the agency's efforts will drive innovation in wireless and transportation economies and keep us safe on our roadways when we walk, ride, and drive." The decision on the proposed rule promotes efficient use of... Continue reading...

Photo: David Pierce / The Verge Rabbit is rolling out teach mode" to its R1 devices, allowing you to create an AI agent that can perform tasks for you. The feature works by learning" a task you demonstrate, such as retrieving updates from a content creator you follow, or helping you draft a post on social media.You can access the feature by logging into the Rabbithole, the web interface for managing an R1 device. From there, you'll create a lesson" by describing a task and then recording yourself performing it. Once you show the AI agent what you want it to do, you can then ask it to recall what it's learned and have it complete the task. It seems straightforward, but Rabbit acknowledges that teach mode is experimental and results may not always be what you expect.... Continue reading...

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge Apple is planning a major AI overhaul of Siri that will make the digital assistant more like OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's Gemini Live, according to a report from Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. The assistant, reportedly called LLM Siri," will be powered by Apple's AI models and will let users have more conversational, natural-sounding interactions with Siri.As part of Apple's plan to infuse its iPhones with AI, Bloomberg says the company will make Siri better at handling more advanced tasks. The assistant will have an expanded" ability to use App Intents to interact with third-party apps, while also using Apple Intelligence to summarize and write text, too.Though Apple could announce these plans as soon as next year, the company intends... Continue reading...

Image: The Verge In a stunning misstep, OpenAI engineers accidentally erased critical evidence gathered by The New York Times and other major newspapers in their lawsuit over AI training data, according to a court filing Wednesday.The newspapers' legal teams had spent over 150 hours searching through OpenAI's AI training data to find instances where their news articles were included, the filing claims. But it doesn't explain how this mistake occurred or what precisely the data included. While the filing says OpenAI admitted to the error and tried to recover the data, what it managed to salvage was incomplete and unreliable - so what was recovered cannot help properly trace how the news organizations' articles were used in building OpenAI's AI models.... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Transferring your data from your old Android device to a new one will soon be less daunting, thanks to Restore Credentials," a new developer feature for Android which can keep you logged into your apps when you make the switch. While some apps already did this, Google is making it easier for developers to include this experience by implementing a restore key" that automatically transfers to the new phone and logs you back into the app.The change should help make going from one Android phone to another more like upgrading an iPhone. Apple users who move from one iPhone to another are used to having everything from email accounts to app credentials transfer to the new phone, but it hasn't always been so seamless for Android users.Verge... Continue reading...

The Google Pixel 9 Pro and Pro XL have never been cheaper than they are today. | Photo: Allison Johnson / The Verge Google's Black Friday sale has kicked off with sizable discounts on Pixel phones, wearables, earbuds, tablets, smart home gear, and more.You'll notice the base 128GB Pixel 9 is down to $649 ($150 off) at Google and Best Buy, for example. But some colors of the flagship Tensor G4 smartphone are actually even cheaper in Amazon's Black Friday sale right now, with its porcelain and peony pink models going for $548.98 there. That's beating the all-time low by a significant margin of about $49.The Pixel 9 Pro and Pixel 9 Pro XL - which have larger screens, bigger batteries, more cameras, and more RAM compared to the Pixel 9 - are also $150 off at Google, starting at $849 and $949 for their base 128GB configuration. Again, you'd probably... Continue reading...

Image: The Verge Steam is building support for season passes into its platform and setting up rules to help protect buyers from buying ones with unclear promises. Steam published new guidelines urging developers to think about whether there's a customer benefit" for purchasing season passes, as reported by SteamDB creator Pavel Djundik.Season passes have really picked up in popularity and are used mainly in free-to-play or other multiplayer video games that promise digital updates like special costumes and weapons for a fee.As part of Steam's new rules for season passes, developers must share a list of items with descriptions customers can expect to receive with the pass. If a DLC drop gets delayed, Steam will let developers reschedule it up to 3... Continue reading...

The new 2025 Kia EV9 GT Kia came to the LA Auto Show with not one but two revamped electric vehicles, a sign that the South Korean automaker is still feeling bullish about its momentum in the plug-in car market.First off, the 2025 Kia EV9 GT is a performance version of its three-row SUV, which we first tested earlier this year. This one promises more power and a sportier feel than the version we drove, which bore the GT Line badge but wasn't specifically tuned for performance. The new GT trim comes with over 500 horsepower (compared to 379hp in the 2024 model) and a zero to 60mph acceleration of 4.3 seconds. Kia is calling it the most powerful" three-row SUV it's ever created. The dual-motor EV9 GT will also be the first Kia vehicle to feature... Continue reading...

The Sonos Era 100, our go-to smart speaker, is down to an all-time low of $199 right now. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Good news: Black Friday has come early for Sonos fans. Now through December 2nd, you can potentially save hundreds on a variety of Sonos products, including soundbars, smart speakers, and headphones. There are a lot of things on sale - and the Sonos app is in better shape than it was a few months ago, thankfully - which means now is a great time to buy if you've been looking to upgrade your home theater setup.First up is the Sonos Ace, the company's first pair of wireless headphones. Right now, they're down to a new low of $349 ($100 off) at Amazon, Best Buy, and Sonos' online storefront. They're comfortable and stylish, with stellar noise cancellation, an exceptionally natural-sounding transparency mode, and excellent sound. However,... Continue reading...

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge; Getty Images A new cell phone carrier is launching with an interesting pitch: it says it will offer secure cell service that limits how much personal data users give up, as reported earlier by 404 Media. The service, called Cape, is geared toward high-risk" individuals like politicians, journalists, activists, and others.Cape is a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) that uses UScellular's network. But since it runs its mobile own core, Cape says it can control the technology powering the mobile network and implement protections over what data enters and leaves your phone." When signing up for the service, Cape says it will ask users for the minimum amount of personal information" and will store it for as little time as possible."The carrier... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge WhatsApp is introducing a new transcription feature that makes it easier (and more convenient) to communicate using voice messaging. The feature is rolling out globally to Android and iOS users in the coming weeks" according to WhatsApp, and will automatically create a text version of voice clips under the message for moments when you're unable to listen to them.This finds a great balance between the pros and cons of voice messages, which are easier to record than typing out lengthy conversations but can be cumbersome to listen to, especially on the go or in loud environments. Now you get the best of both worlds, but only voice message recipients who have the feature enabled can see the transcripts. Image: WhatsApp ... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge A federal lawsuit over Minnesota's Use of Deep Fake Technology to Influence An Election" law is now directly dealing with the influence of AI. In a recent filing, attorneys challenging the law say an affidavit submitted to support it shows signs of containing AI-generated text. The Minnesota Reformer reports Attorney General Keith Ellison asked Stanford Social Media Lab founding director Jeff Hancock to make the submission, but the document filed includes non-existent sources that seem to have been hallucinated by ChatGPT or another large language model (LLM).Hancock's affidavit cites a 2023 study published in the Journal of Information Technology & Politics titled The Influence of Deepfake Videos on Political Attitudes and Behavior."... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge We are rebalancing ranking to prioritize content from people you follow, which will mean less recommended content from accounts you don't follow and more posts from the accounts you do starting today," Threads boss Adam Mosseri announced on Thursday.This is another significant change to Threads since many people started flocking to Bluesky. It lets people default to seeing their Following feed when they open the app and offers lots of customizability, including custom feeds. Threads just yesterday rolled out its take on custom feeds less than a week after it started testing them.The change could make the For You feed include more accounts you care about, but we'll have to wait and see if the update addresses the problem of the... Continue reading...

Image: Universal Jon M. Chu's Wicked adaptation gets at the heart of what makes musicals such a spectacular form of storytelling. Continue reading...

Illustration: Hugo Herrera / The Verge Major digital payment providers will soon be subject to bank-like supervision from the US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). On Thursday, the CFPB issued a final rule that will regulate digital payment apps that process over 50 million transactions each year, covering services like Apple Pay, Google Wallet, PayPal, Cash App, and others.The new rule is meant to ensure digital payment providers adhere to the same laws as credit unions and large banks. It will give the CFPB the authority to oversee their compliance with federal laws surrounding privacy, fraud, and other rules through proactive examinations." This follows the CFPB's initial proposal to regulate digital payment providers last year, which would've covered a wider... Continue reading...

The Butter Bot has a functional camera that can live stream video to an included wireless remote. | Image: Kickstarter Geek Club and CircuitMess have created a functional replica of one of Rick and Morty's most tragic characters - the Butter Bot - with new capabilities so the bot is more than just a breakfast butler. With a camera, working treads, and AI capabilities, this Butter Bot can navigate the world, recognize your face, and chat with you.The tiny robot is available for preorder now through a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign for $139, with delivery expected as early as August 2025. For aspiring Ricks, the Butter Bot is also available as part of a pricier $219 Mad Scientist Pack" that includes a collection of upgradeable modules expanding its functionality.With any crowdfunded product there's always the risk of delays or delivery never... Continue reading...

Who even carries eight six-sided dice with them anyway? | Image: Timestop Dice hoarding is a common hobby among Dungeons and Dragons players, but I'm betting most won't have a digital watch in their collection. Alongside displaying the time, day, and date, the Timestop D-20 includes all the dice-rolling features you need to play tabletop roleplaying games directly from your wrist at the push of a button.The watch allows the wearer to digitally roll a 4-, 6-, 8-, 10-, 12-, 20-, or 100-sided dice, alongside Advanced Combat" features such as rolling up to 12 dice at once, and D20s with advantage or disadvantage (a fancy way of rolling two dice and taking either the higher or lower results). It'll also display specific icons when a D20 rolls a 1 or a 20 - known as a critical failure" or critical success"... Continue reading...

The 25L model is an improvement on perfection, but not without some help. Continue reading...

Image: Honda Honda set up a demonstration facility in Japan to show off its plans to mass-produce solid-state batteries at lower costs, which could be crucial to unlocking higher-range, longer-lasting electric vehicles for the future.Solid-state batteries have been elusive for many companies due to the complexity of scaling up production. The technology swaps out the liquid electrolytes found in current lithium-ion batteries with dry conductive materials, promising higher energy density and longer lifespans. But it will require a whole new production process to be successful.Several companies are actively pursuing solid-state batteries, including Volkswagen-backed QuantumScape, Nissan, and Factorial, which is testing semi-solid-state batteries that... Continue reading...

The SEL trim of the Hyundai Ioniq 9. | Image: Hyundai The South Korean automaker unveiled its newest EV ahead of the LA Auto Show. Continue reading...

A conceptual rendering of Blue Origin's cargo lander. | Image: Blue Origin / NASA After asking both SpaceX and Blue Origin to develop cargo landers for its Artemis missions, NASA has announced plans to use those landers to deliver heavy equipment to the Moon.The agency wants Elon Musk's SpaceX to use its Starship cargo lander to deliver a pressurized rover to the Moon no earlier" than 2032, while Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin will be tasked with delivering a lunar surface habitat no sooner than 2033. Both launches will support NASA's Artemis missions, which aim to bring humans back to the Moon for the first time in over 50 years.Both companies are developing human landing systems for Artemis missions - SpaceX for Artemis III and Blue Origin for Artemis V. NASA later asked both companies to develop cargo-hauling variants... Continue reading...

Image: The Verge Reddit had some issues on Wednesday afternoon, as many users couldn't get the platform to load reliably. In a statement to The Verge, Reddit spokesperson Tim Rathschmidt said, There was a bug in a recent update we made, but a fix is in place and we're ramping back up."Its status page now says the platform is monitoring the results" of its fix, but that there still may be degraded performance" on its website or mobile app. At the height of the outage, the site didn't load at all and simply displayed the error message: upstream connect error or disconnect/reset before headers. reset reason: connection failure."

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Microsoft has been trying to convince Windows 10 users to upgrade to Windows 11 for months now, ahead of the end of support date for Windows 10 in October, 2025. Earlier this year, Microsoft started using fullscreen prompts to warn Windows 10 users about the support cutoff, and now it's using similar prompts to try and tempt people to buy a new Windows 11 PC instead.Over the weekend some Windows 10 users have noticed these new fullscreen prompts, and Microsoft is using them to suggest you can do more with a new Windows 11 PC" or level up to the new Copilot Plus PCs" to get the ultimate Windows 11 experience." Like the prompts earlier this year, the read more link goes to a promotional site that includes links to new Windows 11 PCs.... Continue reading...

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge After its foray into headphones, the next major new product category from Sonos is rumored to be a video streaming box similar to a Roku, Amazon Fire TV, or Apple TV. Such a device has been rumored for ages now, with Bloomberg previously reporting that its price is expected to fall between $150 and $200. And today we got confirmation (or at least something close to it) that the Sonos streamer will run an operating system built by The Trade Desk, a digital advertising business.Janko Roettgers first reported on a partnership between the two back in September, noting that The Trade Desk is supplying Sonos with the core smart TV OS, and facilitating deals with app publishers, while Sonos is designing its own hardware, and customizing the... Continue reading...

Good one, T-Mo. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge T-Mobile isn't exactly known for having a stellar track record against hackers, but it seems that the company actually caught a recent cyberattack in progress and shut it down in time. Bloomberg reports that T-Mobile detected suspicious activity in a recent attempt to access customer data and kicked the cyber criminals out before they were able to infiltrate deeper levels of the network.The report doesn't name the hackers or the date when the breach occurred, but details are consistent with the recent Salt Typhoon attack in which Chinese hackers targeted US telecom companies - including T-Mobile. Targets of that attack included members of the Trump and Harris campaigns. Hackers successfully breached Verizon, T-Mobile, and Lumen ISPs.... Continue reading...

Dumbgood's Limewire apparel collection includes a mix of sweaters, jackets, and tees. | Image: Dumbgood LimeWire, the popular peer-to-peer file sharing app from the early aughts that was resurrected by new owners in 2022 as an NFT marketplace, is back once again. But this time it's just the platform's retro branding that's making a comeback as part of a new officially licensed apparel collection from lifestyle brand Dumbgood.The collection includes a $120 Playlist Work Jacket, a $90 Disc Burning Green Zip Up Hoodie, and a $90 Gnutella Network Beige Pullover covered in iconography from the burnable CD-R discs that were an important accessory for those using the original LimeWire app. Image: Dumbgood The collection ranges in price from $42 for t-shirts to $120 for a jacket. The collection also features a trio of $42... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge Just five days after Meta started testing custom feeds in Threads, the company is already rolling them out to everyone. With custom feeds, you can track topics and accounts in one feed, making it easier to keep an eye on specific things that matter to you.To make a custom feed, search for a topic, then click on the three dots menu next to the search bar, and then click on the Create new feed" option. Custom feeds can also contain information about multiple topics - just add a new one from a search or, on desktop, from the three dots menu next to a feed. You can add individual accounts to custom feeds, too, giving you a lot of flexibility on what's contained in that feed.The quick rollout of the feature follows increased pressure... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Google has released a beta version of the Google Drive desktop app that supports Windows 11 running on Snapdragon chips. The app offers the same features as on computers with Intel and AMD chips, with the exception of the Outlook Meet plugin, a Google employee wrote in a Drive community forum post spotted by Android Authority.You can download the beta from Google using this direct link to the .exe file. Besides requiring Windows 11, Google says the installer will prompt users to install the also-necessary Microsoft WebView2.Google Drive getting a native app for Windows on Arm brings the Snapdragon-powered PCs a step closer to native software parity with their x86 cousins. Chrome has already supported Arm PCs since January, and other... Continue reading...