The Verge

New York City residents struggling to get out of recurring subscription fees can now submit complaints to the city government. As of Thursday, the city's click-to-cancel rule has taken effect, which requires businesses to make it as easy to cancel a subscription as it is to sign up. That means a gym that lets you [...]

At OpenAI's annual DevDay conference, the company pulled out all the stops to compete with its rivals - primarily Meta, whose Muse AI agent platform has seen early runaway success. CEO Sam Altman walked onstage to cheers and announced Dots, a "real-deal AI" agent powered by GPT-6 Astra, "inspired by the cool agents that we [...]

Today I'm talking with Josh Dzieza, a longtime features writer here at The Verge, about Kevin O'Leary's plans to build a massive data center in Utah. The idea was to build the world's biggest data center - a 40,000-acre AI campus with nine gigawatts of power, or more than double the average power usage of [...]

On Monday, Variety reported that RoseBerry Media is recutting episodes of the Australian soap opera Neighbours "into microdramas." These clips will be available on Epis, a short-form vertical video streaming platform. Though Neighbours ran for 41 seasons from 1985 to 2025, at launch, RoseBerry is only recutting two storylines from the late aughts focused on [...]

The base Galaxy S26 with 256GB of storage costs nearly $1,000 after Samsung raised prices in the US by $100 or more, Phone Arena reports. The Galaxy S26 and S26 Plus were already $100 more expensive than their S25 predecessors when they launched earlier this year, which Samsung said RAM price hikes were partly to [...]

There are few blockbuster games that are as confident as Gears of War: E-Day. A prequel to one of Xbox's most transformative titles, E-Day knows exactly what it wants to be: a brutal, tense, and self-aware action game, one that is stronger because it doesn't deviate from that premise. Twenty years since the original Gears [...]

Kindles don't usually change much with each new version, but Amazon is launching next-generation models today that look and feel a whole lot nicer. The base Kindle, Kindle Paperwhite, and Kindle Colorsoft are a millimeter thinner and 30 percent faster at opening books, and their power buttons have moved from the bottom to the right [...]

Do we really need a new version of Carrie? That's the question that plagues any attempt to reimagine the classic horror tale. Stephen King's 1974 novel remains one of his most iconic, and the film version from Brian De Palma and Sissy Spacek two years later remains unsurpassed, despite a handful adaptations that followed in [...]

HP is announcing a new laptop that's squarely aimed at Apple's MacBook Neo. The 2026 HP OmniBook 5 14 starts at $699.99 with an Intel Core 5 315 "Wildcat Lake" processor, 8GB of RAM, and a 256GB SSD. Much of that sounds pretty familiar, being in lockstep with both Apple's Neo and its recent competition [...]

Over the last few years, Chinese Android manufacturers have followed Vivo's example of launching add-on "teleconverter" lenses for their flagship phones, enabling long-distance photography that the phones on their own could never match. Today, Huawei one-upped everybody with the add-on lens for its Mate 90 Pro Max flagship, which is not only a comically huge [...]

The Lemmo 3 is the first cargo bike from the respected German e-bike maker. This premium, step-through longtail is a slightly less insane take on Rivian's Also TM-B, with one major advantage: It's one of the first electric bikes to feature a semi-solid state battery. Semi-solid state batteries are far safer than traditional lithium-ion batteries. [...]

Universal Studios Hollywood has pledged to erect another sound barrier around its latest attraction after local residents complained about the bloodcurdling screams from riders. In a meeting attended by at least 350 people yesterday, park execs also promised that Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift won't operate between 8AM and 9AM for the rest of the [...]

It's a quirk of the release calendar that when Vivo's X Fold 6 launched in China this June, it was just another foldable. Now that it's ready for its global release, the size and aspect ratio feel oddly old-fashioned. The X Fold 6 is much the same size as Vivo's previous foldables, and most other [...]

Grokipedia, SpaceXAI's AI-powered competitor to Wikipedia, recently started incorporating edits again, and today, it got some design tweaks as part of a v0.3 update, including a new logo and refreshes to its homepage and live edits page. SpaceXAI head of design Benji Taylor calls it a "newly refreshed Grokipedia." Grokipedia's old homepage was pretty much [...]

Paramount is appointing a new co-CEO ahead of the close of its $110 billion merger with Warner Bros. Discovery. Ynon Kreiz, previously Mattel's chairman and CEO, will be joining Paramount to lead alongside chairman and CEO David Ellison. According to Paramount, "Ellison will focus on the company's long-term strategy, creative vision and direction, including its [...]

A24 pissed off one of the internet's largest horror communities when it announced it was working on an SCP Foundation film, but apparently hadn't bothered to contact the SCP Wiki team, nor did it commit to releasing it under a Creative Commons license as required. Seeing an easy PR win, Neon is cashing in by [...]

Google today revealed its next AI frontier model, which it's calling Gemini 4 Argon. The new model delivers "frontier performance in complex workflows across real-world software engineering, enterprise knowledge work like legal and finance, and cybersecurity defense," according to chief AI architect and Google DeepMind SVP Koray Kavukcuoglu. But the company is limiting access at [...]

While AI has made plenty of inroads on people's phones and computers, it's largely failed in dedicated devices. But over the next year, two major AI companies, Meta and OpenAI, will attempt to change that. And they're apparently betting on a similar path: testing appetites for physical hardware with their cutesy software agents. "Hardware is [...]

Reddit is further limiting who can use the "Old Reddit" experience as part of its efforts to combat scraping and automated traffic. Reddit recently started forcing users to log in to be able to use Old Reddit, but in the "next few months," the company says that you'll have to be logged in and have [...]

Amazon deliveries could soon come with a new catch: the delivery driver's smart glasses will be snapping photos of anything they see while they're in use, including people and private property. Bloomberg reports that the glasses could take "several thousand captures in a single driver's typical shift," which Amazon plans to upload to its AI [...]

After hosting a meal with Big Tech leaders on Tuesday, President Donald Trump responded to journalist questions about his artificial intelligence announcements in typical fashion. He said his previous claims regarding fears around AI safety being a "hoax" cooked up by Democrats no longer apply now that he's renamed the technology to "Super Intelligence." He [...]

This is Optimizer, a weekly newsletter sent from Verge senior reviewer Victoria Song that dissects and discusses the latest gizmos and potions that swear they're going to change your life. Opt in for Optimizer here. "I will explode your butthole with this poopmaxxer pesto," a calm Gen Z voice announced from my phone's speakers. "And [...]

This spring, the United States banned all future foreign-made consumer routers - effectively all future routers - unless their makers could 1) convince the US government that they weren't a national security threat, and 2) submit "a detailed, time-bound plan to establish or expand manufacturing in the United States." As of September 9th, Asus now [...]

Xbox CEO Asha Sharma has denied reports that Microsoft is considering selling off its Xbox business. The Information reported in June that Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and CFO Amy Hood had been considering spinning out Xbox entirely, and then reported earlier this month that both execs have "more recently supported Sharma's plans to overhaul the [...]

A new update to Lux Optics' anti-algorithm Halide camera app for the iPhone and iPad adds two new photography looks and support for the variable aperture on the new iPhone 18 Pro's main camera. Halide isn't the first alternative to the native iOS camera app to add support for the new feature, but it offers [...]

Meta launched a new Muse AI agent it claims can help you with everything from firing off emails to buying stuff online. Muse can be surprisingly effective at delivering on those promises - if you're willing to trust Meta with your data and hand Muse your credit card. Since the launch, Meta's also announced plans [...]

Google has launched a pilot program that pays publishers for their contributions to its AI-powered search features, according to a report from The Information. The pilot program reportedly includes around 100 publishers and comes as Google faces scrutiny over the impact of its AI features on web traffic. Digiday first reported on the pilot program, [...]

Instagram is the latest social media platform to add built-in AI-powered features that will give users feedback on their posts. The company announced Wednesday that its standalone Edits app will now include an AI "creative assistant" that pulls in data from a user's Instagram account and offers suggestions on what to change. Using the new [...]

The new Fire TV Stick 4K will be a little easier to set up than Amazon's previous 4K streaming sticks since it no longer requires a power adapter. You can power the device directly from your TV's USB port, like the updated entry-level Fire TV Stick Amazon launched earlier this year. The Fire TV Stick [...]

The Wing Hummingbird 7000W-B delivery drone weighs less than 15 pounds. It has 16 propellers - four for horizontal movement and 12 for vertical - a top speed of 60 miles per hour, a carrying capacity of up to 2.7 pounds, and a delivery radius of about six miles. It is authorized by the FAA [...]

DoorDash is launching new ways to use the local delivery platform, including text message ordering, drone deliveries, and retail returns. The new message ordering feature builds on capabilities that the Ask DoorDash AI chatbot introduced to the DoorDash app in June, allowing you to get recommendations and offload your browsing while skipping the app entirely. [...]

The original Sonos Ace headphones should have been a triumphant entry into a new product category. Instead, they were overshadowed by Sonos's disastrous app redesign. And while the original Ace are well built, sound good, and are incredibly comfortable, they weren't good Sonos headphones: Their flagship feature let you reroute audio from a Sonos soundbar [...]

We now have the full details of the "morally binding" AI safety deal announced by President Trump yesterday, in which top executives agreed to self-regulate their artificial intelligence technology. The accord, officially titled the Joint Commitment on Frontier Responsibilities, was shared online by tech founder and presidential adviser David Sacks, and has been signed by [...]

Since the Galaxy Tab S10 line, Samsung has updated its flagship Ultra tablet annually, but alternates its regular and Plus variants. It means that this year's Galaxy Tab S12 series includes an Ultra model with few changes from last year's Tab S11 Ultra, and a Plus variant that brings a bigger overhaul to the two-year-old [...]

Samsung has announced its third-generation Bluetooth tracker, the Galaxy SmartTag 3. It combines a smaller design and improved battery life with a few new tracking and software features, including cross-OS support intended to make it easier to share tracking information with friends and family. As revealed by leaks, the SmartTag 3 has adopted a squircle [...]

Apple's long-rumored smart home hub will reportedly be revealed on October 13th. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reports that the smart home device will be revealed alongside a new HomePod mini and an upgraded Apple TV device. All three products are set to showcase Siri AI, Apple's overhauled AI-powered assistant. The smart home hub, a new product [...]

For months, people have wondered when OpenAI will go public. CEO Sam Altman says it won't happen until the company can make better promises about model safety, with no firm timeline in sight. "We intend to continue with AI progress ... but as the models have had this surge forward in capability, and we see [...]

The US executive branch is no longer acknowledging the existence of "artificial intelligence." Going forward, official policy websites, policy documents, and press releases will refer only to "Super Intelligence," thanks to a new executive order signed by President Donald Trump. "The word super is the best word of all, and it's the simplest," Trump said [...]

When BMW first announced it was reimagining the i3 as an all-electric four-door sedan built on its Neue Klasse platform, it left out a lot of important details, like battery capacity, range, and price. Today, the German automaker is finally starting to fill in the blanks on the i3. Let's start with price. BMW says [...]

Dutch police say they arrested a 24-year-old Amsterdam man in connection with ShinyHunters, the hacking group that claimed responsibility for high-profile attacks on Ticketmaster, Rockstar Games, and more recently, the FBI. In a press release, Dutch authorities state that they arrested the suspect on September 15th - just days before the hacking group claimed to [...]

Grokipedia, the AI-powered online encyclopedia from SpaceXAI, appears to be updating articles once again after a months-long pause. In August, Lawfare reported that articles on Grokipedia hadn't reviewed edits since April, but the platform's live updates site is now showing various recent changes to pages - though as I write this, many are just a [...]

"The chance of human extinction is about a coin flip, in my view," Geoffrey Irving, a former OpenAI and Google DeepMind employee, said in a new interview. It's one of a dozen interviews with AI researchers, including current and former employees at OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic. Palisade Research, which says it's a nonprofit studying AIs' [...]

Woot has the Razer DeathStalker V2 Pro TKL on sale for $130, a significant discount from its usual $219.99 price point. This keyboard is built for competitive gaming, with a low latency 2.4GHz wireless connection, and low-profile linear optical switches for faster activations that require a lighter touch than regular mechanical switches. The TKL layout [...]

OpenAI is responding to Meta's buzzy Muse AI with agentic helpers of its own: Dots. During its DevDay keynote on Tuesday, OpenAI announced that Dots will serve as always-on AI assistants that can "do nearly anything" across connected apps in the background while learning your preferences over time. The company's capable GPT-6 Astra model powers [...]

On Tuesday, OpenAI's annual DevDay event began with protests, flyers, and chants. "Sam Altman, get off it, put people over profit," said a group of protesters marching in a circle in front of a series of signs that spelled out "PEOPLE OVER PROFIT." More than a dozen organizations came together to sponsor a rally outside [...]

Microsoft is officially announcing its new Xbox Mythic Achievements today, and they're already available for Xbox Insiders to test. Mythic Achievements work a lot like Sony's PlayStation Platinum trophies and are unlocked once you've earned every original achievement for a game. "Mythic Achievements have already been added to eligible games you completed in the past, [...]

John Ternus, Apple's new CEO, wants Apple to launch products more often than its usual splashy moments in the fall and the spring, according to a Bloomberg report detailing some of Ternus's initial plans for the company. Apple regularly holds iPhone launch events in September and often announces products later in the year and in [...]

It's OpenAI's turn in the fall tech events calendar. The company is hosting its annual DevDay on September 29th in San Francisco, and during a live keynote featuring CEO Sam Altman, it revealed several notable updates, including Dots, its AI agent product that rivals Meta's recently-launched Muse. However, unlike Muse, which is available for free, [...]

Google isn't making any significant design changes to its upcoming midrange Pixel update, judging by the leaks shared by Android Headlines. The image renders made by OnLeaks are potentially our first look at the Pixel 11A, which aside from having a slightly rounder oval-shaped rear camera module, looks almost indistinguishable from both the Pixel 10A [...]

Amazon typically introduces new Kindle models a few months ahead of the holiday shopping season, and this year it looks like that will include a bigger update to the entry-level Kindle than what debuted in 2024. The last upgrades to the basic Kindle model were limited to a brighter backlight, a new dark mode, and [...]