The Verge

Today, the same day that Meta announced that it will soon use your AI chats to personalize the ads it shows you, Instagram head Adam Mosseri made a myth busting" video attempting to set the record straight on a persistent rumor about Meta: I swear, we do not listen to your microphone," he says. Meta's [...]

The UK government is reportedly once again demanding that Apple provide it with backdoor access to encrypted iCloud user data, following claims that the effort had been abandoned in August. The Financial Times reports that a new technical capability notice (TCN) was issued by the UK Home Office in early September, this time specifically targeting [...]

Microsoft has officially debuted its Windows XP-themed Crocs, which feature a design inspired by the classic operating system's Bliss" wallpaper, alongside Clippy and Internet Explorer shoe charms. In a post on Wednesday, Microsoft said it's launching the limited-edition Crocs with a blue sky and clouds drawstring backpack as part of its 50th anniversary. It doesn't [...]

When Microsoft first launched its Copilot Pro plan last year and wanted an extra $20 a month on top of a Microsoft 365 Family or Personal subscription to get AI-powered Office features, it seemed like a tall ask. After bundling Office AI features into Microsoft 365 subscriptions earlier this year, Microsoft is now taking the [...]

Microsoft is officially unveiling its new Office icons today, after they leaked earlier this year. The icons have a modern design that's more colorful and playful, with subtle changes that match Microsoft's recent work with its Fluent illustrations. All of Microsoft's 10 core Office icons are being refreshed, with a design that was inspired by [...]

Ford and GM have apparently worked up an interesting scheme to keep the expiring $7,500 federal EV tax credit from driving down sales. According to Reuters, the automakers are working with dealers on short-term programs that would allow customers to continue to receive the tax credit on leased EVs through the rest of the year. [...]

Thanks to a deal struck by Zillow and Redfin in February, renters have had fewer options for browsing apartment listings, and they might not have even realized it. Now the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is suing the companies, alleging that their partnership violates antitrust laws and calling it an illegal agreement to dismantle Redfin as [...]

Sony is adding support for audio sharing and Google's Gemini Live conversational AI assistant to its premium noise-canceling wireless headphones. The features are being added as part of new firmware updates for the two year old Sony WF-1000XM5 wireless earbuds and the Sony WH-1000XM6 wireless headphones available now through the company's Sound Connect mobile app. [...]

Few gadgets are as personal as a smartwatch, which you literally wear on your wrist all day (and potentially while you sleep). Samsung's Galaxy Watch 7 is one of the best Android smartwatches we've tested, and you can pick up a 40mm Bluetooth model for $158.99 ($90 off) at Amazon. Verge Senior Reviewer Victoria Song [...]

The Porsche Cayenne Electric won't make its official debut until later this year. But in the meantime, the sports car maker is offering a hint of what's to come with a detailed look at the new EV's interior, including a curved OLED display that I think I can safely say is unique in the automotive [...]

Microsoft is promoting Judson Althoff, currently executive vice president and chief commercial officer at Microsoft, to a new role as CEO of its commercial business. It's the latest shakeup inside the company, as Microsoft navigates what CEO Satya Nadella calls a tectonic AI platform shift." It's also a move that will allow Nadella to focus [...]

Recently, I dug out my old Nintendo 3DS because I was craving simpler times. Really, I just wanted to play some games; to chip away at the mystery of Majora's Mask, or solve a few puzzles in BoxBoy, without the headaches of system updates or subscriptions or any of that stuff. It's been refreshing. And [...]

We've been hearing rumors about Apple's plan to launch a new version of its Vision Pro headset for months, and now a new filing with the Federal Communications Commission seemingly confirms the company's work on the new device. In a filing spotted by MacRumors, Apple includes a diagram of a Head Mounted Device" that looks [...]

8BitDo hasn't rushed to offer big discounts on its 2025 controllers, including the new Ultimate 2 wireless gamepad made for Switch, Switch 2, and PC. But now's a good time to consider getting one, as there's a rare $10 off deal available at Amazon ahead of October Prime Day, which kicks off next Tuesday. The [...]

Microsoft is raising the price of its Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription again and rebranding some of its Xbox Game Pass plans. Starting today, Game Pass Ultimate will be priced at $29.99 per month instead of $19.99 - a 50 percent increase. Microsoft is attempting to justify the price hike with a variety of upgrades [...]

Xbox Cloud Gaming is finally coming out of its preview state, more than five years after the streaming service first launched in 2020. We're officially removing the beta tag from Xbox Cloud Gaming," says Dustin Blackwell, director of gaming and platform communications at Microsoft, in a briefing with The Verge. The beta tag removal coincides [...]

What is a good night's sleep worth to you? Does a grand seem like a small price to pay to avoid a night spent constantly flipping your pillow in search of the cool side? Eight Sleep has announced a new Pod Pillow Cover that ensures where you're resting your head is always at your ideal [...]

Ubisoft previously announced that it was working with Tencent on a new subsidiary focused on its biggest games. Now that offshoot has a name: Vantage Studios. The new operation, which Ubisoft describes as a creative house," will be responsible for the Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, and Rainbow Six series. It includes studios in Montreal, Quebec, [...]

Sony launched an updated PlayStation 5 digital console in Europe, but instead of offering 1TB of storage for 499, it now comes with just an 825GB Solid-State Drive (SSD) at the same price, as reported earlier by Eurogamer. YouTuber Austin Evans discovered the change in a teardown video posted earlier this week, confirming an earlier [...]

OpenAI is teaming up with South Korea's Samsung and SK Hynix for strategic partnerships" to supply the advanced computer chips needed for its mammoth Stargate project. The Korean firms said they will scale production in order to meet OpenAI's growing demand for memory chips needed to power its compute-hungry AI models. OpenAI said it expects [...]

Guillermo del Toro's upcoming take on Frankenstein has looked great in trailers (and looked great when I saw it in theaters) but one element has been largely shrouded in mystery: the monster itself. Yesterday Netflix teased a bit of the creature's new look in a poster, and now we have a trailer that shows how [...]

Google is rolling out its biggest smart home overhaul in years. Launching October 1st, Gemini For Home is a suite of new AI-powered features for Google's smart home hardware and software. The biggest change: Gemini is replacing Google Assistant on all of Google's smart speakers, all the way back to the original Google Home speaker. [...]

Philips has announced a new lineup of LCD TVs featuring both built-in immersive backlighting and the Roku TV operating system. The company's Ambilight technology, which uses a series of color-changing LEDs on the back of the TV set to project colors onto walls mirroring what's happening on screen, has been around for a few decades. [...]

Meta will soon use your conversations with its AI assistant to personalize the ads you see on its platforms. The change, which goes into effect on December 16th, means you'll also start seeing suggested posts, reels, and Facebook groups related to your AI text and voice chats, too. So if you ask Meta AI about [...]

Google is launching two new Nest Cams and a new Nest Doorbell, bringing 2K resolution to its lineup for the first time. The new wired Nest Cam Indoor 2K ($99.99), Nest Cam Outdoor 2K ($149.99 ), and wired Nest Doorbell 2K ($179.99) are the company's first hardware designed for its AI-powered Gemini for Home platform, [...]

Amazon is planning to refocus its Luna cloud gaming service towards party games, in a bid to attract more Prime subscribers. Amazon Luna head Jeff Gattis announced in a blog post on Wednesday that a completely redesigned and reimagined Amazon Luna" service will be relaunched later this year, introducing a Jackbox-like GameNight" social category that [...]

Apple has hit back at Elon Musk over his claims its partnership with OpenAI to build ChatGPT directly into the iPhone is stunting AI industry competition. In court documents filed on Tuesday and seen by Bloomberg, Apple's lawyers asked a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit filed by Musk's companies xAI and X Corp, decrying [...]

Peloton has been angling for a redemption arc ever since its status as a pandemic darling started faltering when the world reopened for business. It tried to steady the ship with a series of layoffs, a pivot to subscriptions, and a leadership shuffle. Now, Peloton's hoping to kick off a new era with the Cross [...]

The BromptonElectric G folding e-bike I reviewedlast year is now available to buy in the USstarting at $4,950. While it looks like a regular Brompton, it's been scaled up with 20-inch wheels and an extended wheelbase that improves the ride dramatically on all types of terrain, leaving behind the twitchiness of its16-inch brethren. Despite this [...]

The Epic Games Store has seen an uptick in downloads since the EU's Digital Markets Act (DMA) prompted Apple to streamline its process for installing third-party app marketplaces, according to a new blog published by Epic. Stats shared by the gaming software giant on Wednesday show the drop-off rate for Epic Games Store installations on [...]

The late English writer Douglas Adams is best known as the author of the 1979 book The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. But there is much more to Adams than what is written in his Wikipedia entry. Whether or not you need to know that his birth sign is Pisces or that libraries worldwide store [...]

Roland has largely decided sit out the analog synth renaissance of the last decade. But it's (belatedly) making amends for that error with the launch of the TR-1000 Rhythm Generator. Unlike previous instruments that tried to cash in on Roland's long legacy through digital technologies like its Zen-Core engine, Analogue Circuit Behavior (ACB) modeling, and [...]

The votes are in, and the winner of Fat Bear Week 2025 is the indomitable Bear 32, also known as Chunk. The public votes for their favorite brown bear each year in the March Madness-style tournament held by Katmai National Park and Preserve in partnership with the nonprofit Katmai Conservancy and online portal Explore.org. Weighing [...]

Amazon's fall hardware event had a little of everything: updated Echo speakers, several Blink security devices, and even a Kindle Scribe with a color screen. Most of the gadgets won't ship for at least a couple of weeks, if not longer; however, most are also available for preorder at Amazon if you want to be [...]

Google appears to have blocked AI search results for the query "does trump show signs of dementia" as well as other questions about his mental acuity, even though it will show AI results for similar searches about other presidents. When making the search about President Trump, AI Overviews will display a message that says, "An [...]

Hello and welcome to Regulator. Today is the last day of The Verge's very good subscription sale: $4 for a month and $35 for the year, for full access to the entire site. Don't delay! When we launched Regulator two months ago, the premise was that I'd write about the collision between Big Tech and [...]

With the impact of President Trump's tariffs leading to higher prices on Sonos gear, scoring a deal feels extra special. Right now, Sonos is currently offering up to 25 percent off a range of refurbished devices, including the Sonos Era 100, Era 300, and the portable Move 2, with prices starting at $134. If you [...]

LG first announced its new 32-inch UltraFine monitor at CES 2025. The company still bills it as the world's first 6K monitor with Thunderbolt 5 connectivity" built right in. Ahead of the display launching in South Korea and Japan in September, followed by a US launch next month, LG has shared more specs and pricing [...]

The image-sharing site Imgur has shut off access to UK users after the country's data watchdog warned the platform of a fine, as reported earlier by the BBC. In a post on Imgur's help page, Imgur confirms that users in the UK can no longer log in, view content, or upload images starting September 30th, [...]

Microsoft is trying to make Copilot more approachable by giving the AI assistant an animated face to talk with. The experimental Portraits" feature in Copilot Labs is currently available in the US, UK, and Canada, and provides 40 stylized human avatars that respond with natural expressions during real-time voice conversations. Announcing the new feature on [...]

Beats has announced a new version of the Fit Pro wireless earbuds that launched in late 2021, which are now called the Powerbeats Fit. The most notable upgrade is a redesigned wing tip that Beats says is 20 percent more flexible, improving comfort while also keeping the earbuds more securely anchored in your ear. The [...]

OpenAI has a new version of the Sora AI video generator that it launched at the end of last year, and it's arriving today alongside a new social video app, also called Sora, for iPhones. The currently invite-only app resembles TikTok with a feed of videos you can shuffle through. But instead of encouraging people [...]

Microsoft is rolling out its annual Windows 11 update (known as version 25H2) today. After testing the update in the Windows Insider Release Preview ring last month, version 25H2 is now starting to roll out to all Windows 11 users through Windows Update. The 25H2 update isn't a huge one, so it won't take long [...]

A Russian YouTuber just posted a video unboxing what appears to be an unannounced iPad Pro with an M5 chip. Rumors have indicated that Apple would launch an M5 iPad Pro as early as October, and this video could be our first look at the actual product. Externally, this new M5 iPad Pro doesn't appear [...]

I've got bad news if you've been impatiently awaiting the release of the Trump Mobile T1: it looks like the gold-tinted, bargain basement smartphone with American values" is running late. It was initially meant to launch in September, but with only a few hours of the month left, that's looking increasingly unlikely. The T1 was [...]

Is there a word that describes the feeling of "I want something to be just a bit better because it's already so good it only needs one last kick in the pants"? Because that's how I feel about the $60 Lego Nintendo Game Boy. It's better than the fan-made Lego Game Boy that I asked [...]

In Alien: Earth, a techbro wunderkind controls 20 percent of the world's continental land mass, and he likes to play God in a secret lab located on a remote island. That's where the trillionaire has engineered a new pathway to human immortality, and given a group of dying children a second chance at life. But [...]

Amazon's AI-powered Alexa is on its way to more homes soon. The upgraded assistant will be available straight out of the box with new hardware announced today. New Echo devices will come with Alexa Plus straight out of the box; it'll also be available to those who buy one of the new FireTV. Alexa Plus [...]

Amazon just finished up its fall event, where it shared big updates across its entire hardware lineup. In addition to revealing new Echo hardware and Kindle Scribe upgrades, Amazon also took the wraps off refreshed Fire TV devices and a whole bunch more. Here are all the announcements Amazon made during the event. Amazon revamps [...]

Alexa Plus is coming to a bunch of Amazon's new and current Fire TV hardware. Just like before, you can summon the new, improved version of Alexa with your voice, but it's designed to be much more helpful and better at fetching context-sensitive information about things happening onscreen that you might normally reach for your [...]