The Verge

Image: The Verge Google Maps is now starting to show Waze incident reports while you navigate and includes the ability to contribute by confirming road conditions in the app via prompts. Google announced in July that both apps would cross-pollinate more data, delivering more Waze-sourced road closures, construction, speed cameras, and police presence information into Google Maps.As reported by 9to5Google and Android Authority, over the holiday weekend, a Reddit user shared a screenshot of a prompt showing Police reported ahead" based on reports from Waze drivers. As with other incident notifications in Maps, the users can then update the report to note if they still see the same thing. Image: Reddit user Truckin_18 Very Waze-y of... Continue reading...

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge An Apple worker is suing the company over claims it requires employees to waive their right to privacy and subjects them to surveillance, as first reported by Semafor. In a lawsuit filed on Monday, Apple employee Amar Bhakta accuses Apple of accessing employee data through company-managed devices - including personal iPhones it actively encourages" workers to use.Though Apple gives employees the option to use an Apple-owned device for work, the lawsuit says Apple pushes users to bring their own iPhones to work, where they're managed by Apple's internal software. Under company policy, the data linked to these Apple-managed devices, including emails, photos, videos, notes, and other information, are subject to search by Apple,"... Continue reading...

Image: Sonos If you made me give up all of the Sonos products I own except for one, I'd keep the Sonos Five each and every time. Well, in my case, technically, it's the second-generation Play:5, but that speaker sounds identical to the current iteration. Typically priced at a steep $549, Sonos positions the Five as its true hi-fi option for audiophiles and vinyl listeners. (The speaker has an aux input for plugging in a record player and other external audio sources.)For Cyber Monday, the Five is seeing a rare discount and is 20 percent off, which brings the price to a more palatable $439. How rare? The speaker hasn't dropped this low since 2020, according to CamelCamelCamel.Something people occasionally say about Sonos gear is that the hardware... Continue reading...

For the cost of a day's lunch, it's worth locking in a for a year even if you don't know what to watch yet. | Illustration by Grayson Blackmon / The Verge Once upon a time, it made sense to load up on streaming services instead of lengthy and expensive cable contracts. If you're not careful these days, you can easily find yourself paying just as much to piece your watchlist back together, especially with prices continuing to creep up.That's why we're thankful this season for streaming deals like the ones from Hulu, which sets you up with ad-supported streaming for just $1 a month over the next 12 months (normally $9.99 a month, saving $108 on the year), or lets you bundle that with Disney Plus for $3 a month over the same period ($131.88 off). That's typically a once yearly deal, and your chance to take advantage will promptly leave the station after today.Hulu is one of the best... Continue reading...

Philips Hue's fabulous Festavia Indoor/Outdoor Holiday String Lights are 30 percent off this Cyber Monday. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge It's officially Cyber Monday, and many of the great deals on smart home gear are ending today. So, whether you are looking to expand your own setup or searching for a good gift for a smart home newbie, today's the last day to nab some of these bargains.The good news is that there are still steep discounts to be had on smart speakers, smart locks, and smart lights - including holiday lights for your tree. Plus, the excellent Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra headlines a bevy of botvacs on sale and you can save on a smart trashcan and a robot that can push your buttons for you.The best smart displays and smart speaker deals

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge I had a lot of positive things to say about Bose's SoundLink Max when I tested the portable Bluetooth earlier speaker this year, and that praise was universal from other reviewers as well. But there was one main hangup: the price.At its usual retail cost of $399, Bose's flagship Bluetooth speaker gets lumped into a very competitive crowd and isn't far off from more advanced products like the Sonos Move 2 and much larger party speakers. Even if you put those alternatives aside, it's a lot of money to spend on a Bluetooth speaker that doesn't offer any smarts, lacks audio playback over Wi-Fi, and has no AirPlay / Chromecast compatibility to speak of.But as is often the case, when you slash the price by $100, it's much easier to make an... Continue reading...

Our former top pick for best robot vacuum, the Roomba j7 Plus (with auto-empty base) is on sale for $360 for Cyber Monday. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge Robot vacuums are on sale all the time. But this holiday shopping weekend, there have been some significant price drops, which are rolling over from Black Friday into Cyber Monday. These include rarely reduced flagship models like Roborock's S8 MaxV Ultra and iRobot's Combo 10 Max. If you've been holding out on trying the latest and greatest, now is a good time to dive in.Deep discounts are also available on some of our favorite midrange and budget bots from Shark and Eufy, and iRobot is slashing prices on its entire line. Read on for our rundown on the best deals on robotic floor cleaners this holiday shopping weekend.Top-of-the-line robots with big discounts

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp is making its return a little earlier than expected. The free-to-play mobile game shut down on November 28th after launching seven years ago, and Nintendo had plans to launch a new version that would allow players to transfer their campgrounds to a new app that cuts out the microtransactions but requires a one-time paid fee. Originally slated to launch on December 3rd, the paid app - called Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp Complete - is available now on both iOS and Android, for a launch price of $9.99.The new version is largely the same as the original, and will still feature seasonal events and all of the other content from the base game. The biggest changes are the welcome removal of microtransactions and the... Continue reading...

Stellanis is the parent company behind many brands and vehicles, including the Dodge Charger Daytona EV (pictured). | Image: Stellantis Carlos Tavares is stepping down as Chief Executive Officer of Stellantis, effective immediately, following a sharp decline in the carmaker's sales. As the Wall Street Journal notes, in July, the company reported that its net profit for the first half of the year had dropped by 48 percent compared to 2023.The resignation comes over a year earlier than Tavares' planned retirement in early 2026. In a statement, Stellantis senior independent director Henri de Castries said that different views have emerged" between Tavares and the Stellantis board of directors in recent weeks that drove the decision. A special board committee headed by Stellantis chairman John Elkann will lead the company behind brands like Vauxhall, Jeep, Fiat, Dodge,... Continue reading...

Image: The Broswer Company The Browser Company CEO Josh Miller teased in October that it was launching a more AI-centric product, which a new video reveals is Dia, a web browser built to simplify everyday internet tasks using AI tools. It's set to launch in early 2025.According to the teaser, Dia has familiar AI-powered features like write the next line," - which fetches facts from the internet, as demonstrated by pulling in the original iPhone's launch specs - give me an idea," and summarize a tab." It also understands the entire web browser window, allowing it to copy a list of Amazon links from open tabs and insert them into an email via written prompt directions.AI won't exist as an app. Or a button," a message on the Dia website reads. We believe... Continue reading...

You're practically making money on this phone at 400 bucks. | Photo: Allison Johnson / The Verge For someone who wants to spend the absolute least on a phone and not have to think about buying another one for a good long while, I'll always recommend Google's A-series Pixel phone. That's doubly true now with the Pixel 8A on a $100 discount for Black Friday-ish Cyber Shopping Holiday or whatever it is we're currently experiencing. The 8A is a solid value at its full $499 price, and cut down to $399 it's a ridiculously good deal.Here's the kicker: Google is promising to update the Pixel 8A with OS version upgrades and security releases through May 2031. That means you can expect it to run Android 21. If you bought the 8A now for $400 and owned it for six years, that works out to $66 per year. You'd have to use a $1000 flagship phone... Continue reading...

NZXT's Player: Three prebuilt gaming PC. | Image: NZXT An hour-long video published Saturday by Gamers Nexus, a YouTube channel focused on PC gaming hardware, accuses NZXT's PC rental program of bait-and-switch" tactics, with prices and specs that are constantly changing.The Flex program allows customers to rent prebuilt gaming PCs starting at $59 per month (not including a mouse, keyboard, or monitor). But Gamers Nexus shows that NZXT changes the specs and prices of PC models day-to-day in some instances" and offers PCs with very different setups under similar model names depending on whether you are looking to buy or rent. The rapidly changing prices also obscure the potential value of listed discounts" as the packages shift back and forth.The video shows one instance of NZXT's... Continue reading...

Between extensive self-cleaning options and AI smarts, it might be even better than a pet. | Photo: Eufy 2024 has been a rough year. It might be nice to go into the new year with a robot that can take some housework off your plate. Unfortunately, there's no telling when or if Elon Musk's all-purpose Tesla robots will ever be ready, but in the meantime, a robot vacuum can be a great starter.Thankfully, many robot vacuums are at all-time low prices for Cyber Monday, including the Eufy X10 Pro Omni. It's one of our favorite midrange mopping robot vacuums, and it's down to $549.99 (from $800) at Amazon and Eufy's store with code WS24T2351. It's a good deal already at its regular price, and at $250 off, it's even more compelling.Dustbin capacity: Unknown / Self-empty dock option: Yes / Auto-refill mop option: Yes / Mop-lift: Yes, 12mm / Mop... Continue reading...

Image: Intel Intel is expected to release a pair of entry-level Battlemage GPUs this week, and now marketing materials posted by reliable leaker Roland Quandt show what we might see from the lower-specced Arc B570. The leaked materials, which have details for a dual-fan ASRock Arc B570 Challenger OC GPU, suggest that the new chip may feature 18 Xe2 cores and 10GB of GDDR6 VRAM on a 160-bit memory bus.The leak also indicates that Intel's Arc B570 chip could come with the 8-pin PCIe power connector and a 2.6GHz GPU clock, along with support for HDMI 2.1 and DisplayPort 2.1.

Image: David Pierce / The Verge Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 62, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you're new here, welcome, happy Post-Thanksgiving Chill Weekend, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.)This week, I've been reading about junk food and Madden 2004 and Anthony Jeselnik, watching Wicked and immediately making sure to hold space for the lyrics of Defying Gravity," exploring the back catalog of 60 Second Docs (which I found thanks to Jason Kottke), watching a lot of Thomas the Tank Engine with my toddler, marveling at how complicated it is just to shop for pizza stones, and listening to the first episodes of The Rest is Classified.I also have for you a productivity app that I truly... Continue reading...

This beefy battery from Anker, which can keep all your gadgets charged while traveling, is on sale for its lowest price to date. | Image: Anker As a power-hungry tech journalist, I'm constantly on the lookout for good bargains on portable power to keep my devices charged while I'm traveling for work. So, I snapped up Anker's 24,000mAh 737 Power Bank when I saw it on sale at Amazon for $73.99 - which is more than 50 percent off the original retail price. It's also available directly from Anker for the same Black Friday low when you use promo code WS24SJHXE0JN at checkout.I've been looking for a good power bank that could simultaneously charge my MacBook Pro, iPhone, and headphones while on the go, and I've had my eye on the Anker 737 for a while. Its whopping 24,000 mAh battery means I can ditch my other less powerful power banks and seriously streamline my go-bag (although at... Continue reading...

Image: Epic Games Fortnite's most recent virtual concert was supersized in multiple ways. Unlike previous events, which focused on specific artists like Ariana Grande or Metallica, this one featured a cast of four different artists: Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Ice Spice, and the late Juice WRLD. And it turned each one of the large lineup into a kaiju-sized performer, while also integrating deep cuts of Fortnite lore and providing a tease of what's next for the game.Things started out at Snoop Dogg's compound, which has been at the center of the battle royale map since the beginning of November. From there, a gigantic version of the rapper performed, before whisking players away into space for another song. In fact, the event constantly moved around: up next was... Continue reading...

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images There's no telling exactly what the new year and new administration in the US will bring. But there are likely big changes afoot in the world of tech, especially if President-elect Donald Trump enacts all the tariffs he threatened on the campaign trail. We don't have a crystal ball that tells us exactly what may get pricier or by how much, but there are several categories of big-ticket products that are at serious risk of being priced out of reach for many folks.Trump said on Monday that he'd put an additional 10 percent tariff above any additional tariffs" on all products coming in from China, after campaigning on the pledge to implement 60 percent tariffs on Chinese imports. A lot of tech products are imported from China, including... Continue reading...

With a new Marvel Rivals trailer, Marvel has revealed that Wolverine, Black Widow, Iron Fist, Squirrel Girl, and Cloak and Dagger will all be part of its upcoming 6 v 6 hero shooter. The company says in an announcement that each of them will be fully revealed" in one trailer per day leading up to its December 6th launch.The trailer hints at some of the attacks the characters will have, including a Hulk / Wolverine team-up that involves the big green guy flinging Marvel's furry short king at their adversaries. Some other paired attacks show up, like Squirrel Girl catching a Spider-Man web ball and apparently turning it into an exploding slingshot projectile, or Black Window and Hawkeye firing side-by-side.Marvel also took the wraps... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge A host of Canadian media companies filed a lawsuit against OpenAI today, alleging inappropriate and illegal" use of their journalism to power the company's GPT model, Reuters reports. It's the latest salvo fired by the media in its fight against AI companies that have scraped large swaths of the open web to train their large-language models.The suit was filed by several leading Canadian media companies, including the owners of the National Post and Toronto Star, The Globe and Mail, The Canadian Press, and CBC/Radio-Canada. The group alleges that OpenAI infringed on its copyrights when training its models, like ChatGPT, without seeking permission or offering compensation.OpenAI's public statements that it is somehow fair or in the... Continue reading...

Apple's second-gen AirPods Pro buds in front of the charging case against a dark background. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Black Friday and AirPods discounts go together like, well, AirPods and iPhones. We thought the latest AirPods Pro were an incredible deal at their recently discounted price of $189, but they've dropped even further at Amazon, Walmart, and Target where you can now pick them up for a new low of $153.99 ($95 off). That's less than the current price for the AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation, which are down to $164.99 ($14 off) at Amazon.Sure, the AirPods 4 are newer, but Apple was mostly playing catch-up with their release. The second-gen AirPods Pro are still the best wireless earbuds in Apple's lineup, even a couple of years after their initial release. Their voice call quality is fantastic, and their noise cancellation... Continue reading...

Last fall I was in the thick of a home renovation project, doom scrolling thousands of light fixtures in search of clean, modern designs I didn't hate. While I would normally consult my Verge colleagues for the best Black Friday TV and laptop deals, it did not initially occur to me to check for seasonal deals on the more contractor-oriented category of hardwired LED light fixtures. In fact, a lot of big lighting companies run meaningful Black Friday sales.Fortunately, I happened to finalize our lighting selections just before Black Friday 2023 - and then saved hundreds of dollars by ordering pretty much every pendant, flush mount, outdoor sconce, and track light we needed by the end of Cyber Monday. If you are embarking on a home... Continue reading...

Unlike many before it, Ray-Ban's smart glasses are actually trendy and inconspicuous. | Photo by Amanda Lopez for The Verge If you're in the market for a new pair of glasses (as I am), the Black Friday deals currently going on Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses are tempting. You can get several colors and sizes of the Wayfarer frames starting at $239.20 (about $61 off) at Amazon, Best Buy, and Target right now. If that all-time low price isn't enough, you'll even get a $90 digital gift card or credit when purchasing them from Amazon and Target. You can use it toward anything in their respective stores.If you need a prescription, note that you can only get lenses with a strength between -6 and +4. You can't get prescription lenses with your frames at the above retailers, but you can get them when ordering through Ray-Ban, which is offering the same Black Friday... Continue reading...

Image: Alex Parkin / The Verge 2024 is almost over, and it has been a year. The tech world has been shaken up a hundred times over, it seems: there was the splashy Vision Pro launch, Google being declared a monopoly, endless AI hype, a hugely consequential US election, the ongoing political ascendance of Elon Musk, and another generation of gadgets trying and failing to replace your smartphone. The industry looks different than it did in January; so does our relationship with technology.There's still a month to go, and we're not remotely ready to declare this year's tech news dead and gone, but given that it's a holiday weekend in the US we figured it might be time for a look back. (Hope you had a great Thanksgiving, by the way!)So on this episode of The Vergecast,... Continue reading...

Image: Pocketpair Pocketpair isn't letting a major lawsuit slow it down. The developer has announced that its Pokemon-like hit Palworld is getting a big update in December, which will add a new island to the game. It's described as the largest, harshest, and most mysterious" location in the game, measuring around six times the size of Sakurajima, an island that was added in a summer update.Aside from the new location, there aren't many other details about the forthcoming update. But the announcement comes amid a surge in news for the game, which became a viral sensation at the beginning of 2024. In 2025, Palworld will be getting some kind of crossover with the survival crafting game Terraria, and a mobile version is also in the works, helmed by PUBG... Continue reading...

The keyboard features eight RGB lighting modes that shine through the translucent keycaps. | Image: 8BitDo 8BitDo has announced a new version of its mechanical keyboard with a design inspired by the transparent green edition of Microsoft's original Xbox console. The 8BitDo Retro 87 Mechanical Keyboard - Xbox Edition features a transparent green shell and matching keycaps similar to the console. But unlike previous iterations of the keyboard, this is the first from 8BitDo to incorporate RGB backlighting.The Xbox Edition mechanical keyboard is now available for preorder through Amazon for $119.99 with shipping expected to start on January 16th, 2025. 8BitDo also announced the matching 8BitDo Retro R8 Mouse alongside the keyboard, which is also listed on Amazon, but not available for preorder yet. Image: 8BitDo The... Continue reading...

Photo by: Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images Eastman Kodak has temporarily paused all film production. The news comes as part of a shutdown in November allowing the company to upgrade and modernize its Rochester, New York factory, according to a report by Kosmo Foto. The decision was announced by Kodak CEO Jim Continenza during the company's Q3 2024 quarterly earnings call on November 13th. The improvements will help Kodak keep up with an increased demand for film.Our film sales have increased on motion picture and in still film and other films. So on film, we're doing a shutdown in November, total shutdown," Continenza said during the earnings call. We've continued to invest in our manufacturing process, while we need to shut down completely to bring light into the dark, right?... Continue reading...

Photo by Nikolas Kokovlis/NurPhoto via Getty Images Australia just voted into law a social media ban for children under the age of 16. The legislation was approved by Australian lawmakers on Thursday with the aim of protecting the mental health of children online, despite opposition from tech companies who claim the rules are unworkable.The new law is scheduled to come into effect in 12 months, giving social media companies time to meet the requirements. These include taking reasonable steps to prevent children who have not reached a minimum age from having accounts." Children who violate these upcoming restrictions won't face punishment, nor will their parents - the responsibility lies entirely with platform providers.We want Australian children to have a childhood, and we want... Continue reading...

Image: Elen Winata for The Verge From noise-canceling earbuds to robot vacuums and 4K OLED TVs, there is already plenty on offer. Continue reading...

Image: Snoo This time last year, I was pregnant with my first child and extremely overwhelmed by the sheer volume of decisions to make. Should we buy a rocking chair or a glider? Which bassinet should we get? What how-to book, white noise machine, or magical schedule would make a newborn sleep? I spent a lot of time asking friends, searching Reddit, and reading blogs to try to figure out what things I would actually need - and then which specific products to buy.I did not exhaustively test every product against the competition (having a baby is very all-consuming), but I can tell you what gear I frequently use and love with my son, who is now eight months old. A lot of these products get nice discounts on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, so it's a... Continue reading...

The team behind the note-taking app Craft released a new version this week, after months of beta testing and more than a year in development. It includes lots of changes, but three big ones: new ways to style your documents; a new section called Collections that lets you compile and organize related stuff; and a bunch of new task-management tools.Craft works on Apple devices, Windows, and the web, and the team says Android is coming eventually. I've been testing the beta for the last few months, and I absolutely love it. This new Craft is the best app I've tried for managing both big projects and day-to-day life. It's still missing a few features, particularly on the to-do list front, but it is both beautifully designed and very... Continue reading...

Here you can see the original 1983 G-Shock (left) compared to the DW-5000R recreation (right). | Image: Casio It's been 41 years since Casio debuted the very first G-Shock digital watch, and its latest timepiece is the brand's most faithful recreation to date. The new G-Shock DW-5000R is visually near-identical to the original DW-5000C launched in 1983 - right down to the length, and dimple positioning on the watch strap.The rugged appeal of the original DW-5000C carries plenty of nostalgic charm, but it was a novel concept when it first launched. Its creator, Casio engineer Kikuo Ibe, was inspired to make a damage-resistant timepiece after his mechanical watch shattered on the ground when it fell off his wrist. The resulting G-Shock design was intended to have triple 10" resistance - meaning a battery life of ten years, water resistance of 10... Continue reading...