The Verge

A still photo from the film Heretic. When codirectors Scott Beck and Bryan Woods started thinking about who could play the antagonist in their new horror flick Heretic, they knew he had to have a few specific characteristics. The film is about a man who lures missionaries into his home, eventually turning a pleasant chat about religion into a nightmare scenario. So he had to be able to disarm with charm and humor, before switching gears to become intense and terrifying. He had to have these moments of feeling dangerous, of feeling safe, contradictory traits that had to coalesce into something," says Beck.Early on in the casting process, the pair landed on a surprising name - and they couldn't let it go. As soon as we thought about him we were like: This has to be Hugh... Continue reading...

Image: Hugo Herrera / The Verge It's virtually certain" that 2024 will go down in the books as the hottest year yet. The planet is on track to pass a worrying threshold when it comes to global average temperatures, warns the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service.After a scorching summer, and with countries making slow progress on climate change, it's not too surprising that 2024 is going to be off the charts. Greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels are pushing temperatures higher, forcing communities around the world to adapt to harsh new realities.Humanity's torching the planet and paying the price."Humanity's torching the planet and paying the price," UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in remarks yesterday.Both Copernicus and the World... Continue reading...

Image: Laura Normand / The Verge Donald Trump's second term means significant changes for AI, crypto, and EV policy. Continue reading...

Google Vids' Help me create" screen powered by Gemini AI. | Image: Google Google is generally rolling out its Gemini AI-powered Vids app that lets you create video presentations using a prompt. Some of Vids' key features include letting Gemini auto-insert stock footage for you, generating a script, and making AI voiceovers so you don't have to speak. Google advertises that the tool can help turn customer support articles into videos, make training videos, share company announcements, create meeting recaps, and more.Vids will be available by default for Workspace organizations with access, but Google notes possible usage limits may apply to features like Help me create" and AI voiceovers starting in 2026.First announced in April, Vids lets you drop in relevant docs, slides, voiceovers, and video recordings... Continue reading...

Photo by Tom Warren / The Verge AMD launched its latest Ryzen 7 9800X3D to glowing reviews this week, but if you're looking to buy one then you might have to wait for more stock. The 9800X3D is currently sold out at Newegg and Best Buy, with the majority of Micro Center locations also sold out of AMD's best gaming processor.The situation is similar across Europe, too. In Germany most retailers have run out of stock, with new shipments not expected to arrive until later this month. In the UK Scan is accepting preorders for the 9800X3D, but stock won't arrive until November 29th. Overclockers in the UK says its stock is currently held at UK customs and that its first and second shipments are allocated and sold out. It's not expecting another shipment until December.

Illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge Apple is showing some love to Android users by finally displaying their message reactions correctly. Now when an Android user reacts to an RCS message from an iOS user, the selected emoji will appear in line with the message bubble on iOS - instead of archaically appearing as a separate line like this: to that wasn't supposed to happen.'"The Verge sent test messages and emoji reactions between iPhones running iOS 18.1 and different Android phones, confirming both devices now display reactions as intended. It's unclear when this change happened or whose side - Google or Apple - had to make adjustments to get it working.When RCS first launched widely on iOS in September, message reactions from Android users still weren't being... Continue reading...

Image: Sega Sega is planning to delist a lot of its classic games from digital storefronts as of December 6th at 11:59PM PT.Steam will be affected the most, losing 62 titles including Crazy Taxi, Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine, Jet Set Radio, NiGHTS into Dreams, and Sonic 3D Blast. Sega is pulling 12 titles from the Xbox store. The Nintendo eShop and the PlayStation Store will just" lose SEGA Genesis Classics - but that title includes more than 50 old Genesis games, so it still means a lot will be unavailable. You can see the full lists of what's getting pulled on a Sega support page.Any games that you have purchased will still be available to download and play after they're delisted from the storefronts, so if you've had your eye on any of... Continue reading...

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge; Getty Images Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav thinks putting Donald Trump back in the White House could offer a friendlier environment for major media mergers. We have an upcoming new administration," Zaslav said during an earnings call on Thursday. It's too early to tell, but it may offer a pace of change and an opportunity for consolidation that may be quite different."Zaslav made the statement in response to a question about streaming partnerships, saying changes under the Trump administration could have a real positive and accelerated impact" on the entertainment industry. With more competition than ever in streaming, it's getting harder for services to get a viewer's undivided attention.This is an industry that really needs to... Continue reading...

Apple's AirPods are an excellent option for iPhone owners looking for noise-canceling earbuds. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Black Friday might technically be a 24-hour event, but in reality, it's more like a month-long affair. That's because many retailers have already begun their sales, including Best Buy, which is dropping impressive deals ahead of its early sales event tomorrow. Today only, for example, Best Buy is offering the second-gen AirPods Pro with a USB-C for $169.99 ($80 off), which is just $1 shy of their lowest price to date. Walmart is also matching Best Buy's pricing, though the latter retailer won't begin offering Black Friday deals until November 11th.The current promo drops Apple's highest-end earbuds to roughly the same price as the open-style AirPods 4 with ANC, which are currently on sale for $168.99 ($11 off). That being said, Apple's... Continue reading...

Image: BioWare After its success with Fallout and the recently released Like A Dragon: Yakuza show, Mass Effect is the next game Amazon wants to adapt. According to Variety, a show based on BioWare's military space opera RPG is officially in production at Amazon MGM Studios. Variety has reported that F9: The Fast Saga writer Daniel Casey has signed on to write the show with BioWare producer Mike Gamble serving as executive produce along with Ari Arad.Though BioWare released the Mass Effect Legendary Edition - a collection of the first three games updated for modern consoles - back in 2021, the Mass Effect series hasn't had an original entry since the release of Mass Effect: Andromeda back in 2017. After Andromeda, BioWare released Anthem, a... Continue reading...

Image: Laura Normand / The Verge Jeff Bezos might just be the biggest climate philanthropist out there, which is what makes his swift embrace of Donald Trump as the next US president particularly cringeworthy.Wishing @realDonaldTrump all success in leading and uniting the America we all love," Bezos posted on X, hours after Trump declared victory.The Amazon founder and chair launched his Bezos Earth Fund in 2020, committing $10 billion to funding action on climate change. The fund's website describes it as the largest philanthropic commitment ever to fight climate change and protect nature."

The store will be around from November 8th to December 31st. | Image: Meta Meta announced it is opening up Meta Lab, a pop-up experiential retail space for its Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses starting November 8th in Los Angeles. The temporary store will be around through the end of the year and allow customers to try out the glasses and customize their glasses cases as they shop. Meta Lab will also have local events with various creators, including stand-up comedians, live podcasts, and cooking classes.This particular retail store is an extension of the Meta Lab experience earlier this year at Connect 2024. At that time, Meta had unveiled the transparent versions of its Ray-Bans. The company says that over 90 percent of Connect attendees had attended, with more than 25 percent then purchasing a pair. It appears... Continue reading...

Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge iRobot, the parent company of robovac maker Roomba, is laying off around 105 employees. In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission spotted by TechCrunch, iRobot says the job cuts will impact 16 percent of its current workforce.The company announced the news as part of its earnings report released on Wednesday. These moves, while challenging, have fundamentally changed the way we work with our partners to efficiently develop and build our robots," iRobot CEO Gary Cohen said during an earnings call.In January, iRobot laid off 350 workers after Amazon's deal to acquire the company fell through. The company also appointed Cohen as CEO, who shut down Roomba's subscription service iRobot Select.Additionally, Cohen said the... Continue reading...

The Fitbit Inspire 3 offers a bright, easy-to-read OLED display, which is a nice perk at this price. | Photo by Victoria Song / The Verge Google's Pixel Watch 3 is still down to a record low price, but honestly not everybody wants to - or even needs to - fork out $275 on a smartwatch. That's especially true if all you really need is something to help you keeps tabs on basic health and fitness metrics basics. The Fitbit Inspire 3 is a better, more affordable alternative, one that's currently down to its best price of $69.95 ($30 off) at Amazon, Best Buy, and Google.The comfortable tracker does a good job of delivering the essentials, helping you accurately keep tabs of basic health and fitness metrics while lasting up to 10 days on a single charge. It also comes with some extra conveniences found in pricier trackers, from a bright OLED screen to features like irregular... Continue reading...

Netflix Toei's Mononoke the Movie: Phantom in the Rain from director Kenji Nakamura is one of this year's most visually stunning anime films, and it's making its way to Netflix in just a few weeks.Like the Mononoke series, Phantom in the Rain tells the tale of an unnamed merchant (Hiroshi Kamiya) who, in addition to selling medicines, specializes in exorcizing mononoke" - malevolent spirits who terrorize the living. When the Medicine Seller arrives at the imperial palace, his senses tell him that a mononoke is lurking somewhere deep within the building's innermost chambers.As a man, the Medicine Seller is forbidden from stepping foot inside of the imperial harem of women like Asa (Tomoyo Kurosawa) and Kame (Aoi Yki), who have gathered in... Continue reading...

Image: Hello Games The developers at Hello Games are back with yet another update for No Man's Sky. Starting today, a select number of users will have the ability to play around in their NMS universe across a collection of platforms with the new cross-save functionality. According to the announcement, adding cross-saving was a bit of an undertaking for the development team.It's very common for players to rack up thousands of hours of saves," the announcement reads. Adding cross-save for us is a little bit like moving house, the longer people have lived there the more complicated it is to move them."No Man's Sky now supports cross-saves across PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Series S/X, Xbox Game Pass, PC, Steam Deck, PSVR 1 / 2, PCVR, GOG, and Nintendo... Continue reading...

Photo by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge The latest macOS beta changes the options you'll see when you use AirPlay to mirror your screen. As reported by MacRumors, the new beta version of macOS Sequoia 15.2 lets you select a single window or app on your Mac to display on another screen, like your TV - or maybe something else, like a Vision Pro headset or Apple's rumored smart display.macOS 15.2 is expected to be released publicly in early December. It also brings new Apple Intelligence features, including Image Playground and ChatGPT integration for Siri. It's also getting a new weather menu item that can give you the outside temperature at a glance.The new AirPlay experience includes a new menu pop-up asking what do you want to show" on Apple TV, with three large buttons... Continue reading...

Image: Kojima Productions It took a few years, but Sam Porter Bridges has finally trekked his way to Xbox. Kojima Productions announced today that the director's cut of Death Stranding is now available on the Xbox Series X / S. At launch, for a limited time," the port will be available for 50 percent off.Death Stranding first launched in 2019, as Hideo Kojima's first release after going independent, following a messy split with Konami. The director's cut - which isn't really a director's cut - launched two years later on the PS5, and the game has also been ported to PC, Mac, and iOS. As part of today's announcement, the studio also launched the game on Luna, Amazon's fledgling game streaming service.The news comes as Kojima Productions is expanding quite a bit... Continue reading...

Image: Microsoft Microsoft appears to be stepping back from charging Microsoft 365 Personal and Home subscribers another $20 per month to get access to AI-powered Office features. The software giant quietly announced it's making Copilot Pro features part of its Microsoft 365 Personal and Family subscriptions last week, but only in Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, and Thailand for now.It's been nine months since we introduced consumers to Copilot in our Microsoft 365 apps via Copilot Pro. We've spent that time adding new features, improving performance, and listening carefully to customer feedback," says Microsoft in a press release spotted by ZDNet. Based on that feedback, we're making Copilot part of our Microsoft 365 Personal and... Continue reading...

Pokemon developer Game Freak's unreleased Project Bloom game is included in the sale. | Image: Private Division Take-Two Interactive is selling off its indie games label Private Division, which published titles such as The Outer Worlds and OlliOlli World, following rumors over the summer that Take-Two laid off most of Private Division's staff.Take-Two did not disclose the buyer of Private Division or how much they paid. In an emailed statement to The Verge, Take-Two spokesperson Alan Lewis wrote:

Image: Cath Virginia/ The Verge The Federal Trade Commission has charged Sitejabber, an online review platform, with violating its new fake reviews rules by using point-of-sale reviews to misrepresent what customers think about products. In one of its first enforcement actions under new rules banning companies from making or selling fake reviews, the FTC is ordering the company to stop.The FTC says Sitejabber deceptively" punched up businesses' review counts by incorporating responses to point-of-sale questionnaires asking customers to rate and review their shopping experience, before they'd actually gotten any products or services. It also alleges that by giving its clients tools to publish that feedback on their own sites, Sitejabber enabled them to mislead people... Continue reading...