The Verge - All Posts

The SwitchBot S10 robot vacuum and mop costs $1,199.99 and comes with an auto-empty / charging dock plus a battery-powered water refill dock. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge After previewing its latest robotic invention earlier this month, SwitchBot officially launched the S10 robot vacuum and mop at IFA 2023 in Berlin last week. The $1,199.99 bot, coming to Kickstarter in October, features an automatic water refill station that does away with the bulky water tanks housed in giant auto-empty docks that have become the hallmark of top-of-the-line floor cleaners from Roborock, Ecovacs, etc.Unlike those models that clean and dry their dirty mops in a small sink" in the dock, the SwitchBot S10 has an internal roller brush mop that it cleans using a squeegee method as it vacuums. This means no standing water or scuzzy mop left to get smelly.VIDEO: My hands-on demo of the new SwitchBot 10 and its automatic... Continue reading...

The Digital Stage" stretches across the entire dashboard. | Image: Audi The Audi Q6 E-tron comes with not one, but three screens tacked on its dashboard. As you can see in the first images of the electric vehicle's interior, the three-screen setup - dubbed the Digital Stage"- stretches from the driver's side to the front passenger, with each display sporting different sizes and features.The driver gets two displays nestled within a free-standing hub that gently curves on both sides. While the 11.9-inch screen dedicated to the gauge cluster and other vehicle information sits directly in front of the driver, it connects to a 14.5-inch touch infotainment display that extends beyond the right side of the steering wheel. Audi says special ambient lighting" makes the setup appear to float" at night. ... Continue reading...

A Dolby graphic showing a TV connecting to two asymmetrical speakers. | Image: Dolby The best bit of attending Berlin's IFA trade show is when companies use it to offer an early look at tech that'll get a proper" launch later. That's what I experienced with a demonstration of Dolby Atmos FlexConnect, a new technology to let you wirelessly connect compatible external speakers to your TV and create an Atmos-enabled spatial audio setup.The most interesting part of Dolby's pitch for the technology is that it's supposedly far more forgiving about where you can place these specialized external speakers. They don't need to be perfectly symmetrical, like the press shots show DTS's similar wireless Play-Fi Home Theater standard. With Atmos FlexConnect, the idea is you can place your external speakers anywhere in the room with... Continue reading...

Photo by Tom Warren / The Verge Microsoft has started selling a new black version of the Xbox Series S with 1TB of built-in storage. The only changes over the original white Xbox Series S are a black paint job on the exterior and more storage inside. Priced at $349, it's still one of the most affordable ways to play Bethesda's new Starfield game, which launches on Xbox Series S / X and PC this week.The carbon black exterior now matches the larger Xbox Series X, with the $299 white Xbox Series S still available with its regular 512GB of storage. The increase to 1TB on this black model will allow you to install a modern Call of Duty game and not have to worry too much about how much storage is left over.You're essentially paying an extra $50 for 512GB of additional... Continue reading...

Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge Senior YouTube staffers are reportedly worried that its TikTok competitor, Shorts, may eat away at its long-form content, which has for almost two decades been its primary bread and butter, according to The Financial Times. As FT points out, YouTube's ad revenue, though recently improved, had been on a downward year-over-year slide for three straight quarters.YouTube is still figuring out how to reap more ad money from Shorts. Its long-form content lets it show more ads per video, but as short-form content gradually takes over, content creators themselves are uploading fewer long videos, FT writes, citing YouTube staff fretting about internal figures.But whether YouTube's senior staffers like it or not, YouTube has to support Shorts... Continue reading...

The Verge Last week, Disney blocked Charter's Spectrum cable from accessing channels like ABC and ESPN over a disagreement between the two companies over new financial terms. Today, Disney says in a blog post that although Charter claims to value Disney's direct-to-consumer services," it is demanding these different services for free."With cable gradually losing customers and Disney openly musing about selling ESPN on its own as a streaming channel, Charter wanted to include Disney's streaming apps with its subscriptions. The blackout comes during a weekend when high-profile sports events like the US Open and big college football games are happening (not to mention the first NFL games start next weekend). Screenshot: Wes... Continue reading...

The 2020 iPad Pro Magic Keyboard as seen in The Verge's review. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Apple will release a stronger, more premium-feeling iPad Magic Keyboard alongside the iPad Pro next year, according to Mark Gurman's latest Power On newsletter for Bloomberg. The keyboard, he reports, will use an aluminum top case while keeping the soft material found on the bottom of the keyboard now. It will also still have only one USB-C port, he writes.Gurman notes that the current keyboard is prone to bending and tearing over time, so hopefully an aluminum top case and the larger trackpad he wrote about last week will improve things, though one wonders about closing it over the iPad's screen. The updated iPad Pro design isn't coming until next year, so how Apple handles that is for future us to learn.A hardier Magic Keyboard with... Continue reading...

The Q8 Max is one of two new robot vacuums from Roborock. It features dual roller brushes, obstacle avoidance, and smart mapping features. | Image: Roborock Robot vacuum manufacturer Roborock announced three new vacuum products at IFA 2023, the global tech show taking place in Berlin this week: the Q5 Pro robot vac; the Q8 Max robot vac; and the Dyad Pro Combo wet / dry stick vacuum. The new lidar-powered robot vacuums add more than double the suction power of previous models, a new and more advanced DuoRoller brush system, and more app features for a lower price. The Dyad Pro is a multifunctional upright vacuum that can convert to a stick vacuum.Part of the company's more affordable Q line, the Q5 Pro costs $429.99 standalone or $699.99 for the Q5 Pro Plus with an auto-empty charging dock. The Q8 Max costs $599.99 standalone or $819.99 for the Q8 Max Plus. Both are slated to go on sale in... Continue reading...

Image: William Joel / The Verge Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 4, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you're new here, first of all, hi hello welcome, and second of all, you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.)I've been sick a good chunk of this week, so my internet experience has been significantly more couch-based and horizontal than usual. I've been watching Twisted Metal and doing my umpteenth rewatch of Superstore, devouring this delightful documentary about the Apple Newton, reading about the booming product-return industry and the unmasking of a huge ransomware gang, buying just about everything on The Verge's cheap stuff that doesn't suck" list, listening to the ultra-chaotic new podcast from a bunch of... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge Microsoft is no longer updating WordPad and plans to remove the word processor from a future release of Windows. The software giant will instead recommend Microsoft Word, its paid word processor that has always been far more feature rich than the basic WordPad app that has shipped as part of Windows since Windows 95.WordPad is no longer being updated and will be removed in a future release of Windows," reads a support note published by Microsoft on Friday. We recommend Microsoft Word for rich text documents like .doc and .rtf and Windows Notepad for plain text documents like .txt." Screenshot by Tom Warren / The Verge WordPad hasn't been updated significantly since Windows 8. News of the WordPad removal... Continue reading...

A picture from Burning Man in 2009. | Photo by Frederic Larson/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images Nobody can go in or out of Burning Man after heavy rainfall on Friday turned the desert floor of the playa into impassible, sticky mud, prompting the Festival's organizers late last night to ask as many as 70,000 attendees to shelter in place (via SFGate). Organizers reposted a similar message to the Burning Man Traffic account on X (formerly Twitter) around 12PM ET today.An estimated 6 inches of rain soaked the festival Friday, according to The Associated Press, citing the National Weather Service in Reno, and another quarter of a foot of rain could fall this evening into Sunday.The Bureau of Land Management released a statement on Saturday saying festival officials and the Pershing County Sheriff's Office have closed ingress to the... Continue reading...

The 2025 Mini Cooper EV's interior. | Image: Mini The 2025 Mini Cooper EV reveal is showing off a facelift, increased range, and a giant, round OLED screen floating in front of the dashboard. The company says the Cooper E and Cooper SE - the two EV variants - have 190 miles and 250 miles of range, respectively, as calculated using the European EV test cycle. (Those numbers could drop to around 175 miles and 215 miles each when the EPA test cycle is applied, per Ars Technica.)But about that big OLED touchscreen that now floats in front of the center of the dashboard instead of the embedded rectangle in past models. The company teased the Cooper's redesigned interior earlier this year with videos showing the screen's animations and followed that up with another release with more detail... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Microsoft has released a new feature for its PowerToys utility suite called Crop and Lock, which lets you crop an app window to show only the details you want to see. The company brought PowerToys back from the dead in 2019 and open-sourced it on GitHub; other tools for the suite include toggles for small-yet-useful features like plaintext pasting or the ability to keep an app always on top.Crop and Lock, available for both Windows 11 and Windows 10 v2004 (19041) or newer, has two modes - a non-interactive Thumbnail crop that's essentially a live feed of the area you select that updates with the page, and a Reparent" mode that Microsoft writes is more interactive, but could have compatibility issues with some apps.Assuming you have... Continue reading...

The concern that 5G signals could cause massive flight delays appears to finally be over now that Delta has upgraded its airplanes to avoid interference.Reuters reported the airline has finished updating the radio altimeters in its currently in-service fleet. Other aircraft out for planned maintenance will also be outfitted with the new altimeters. Delta told the Associated Press the update means no Delta aircraft will be subject to additional weather-driven constraints."The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) had said certain 5G signals could impact the altimeters pilots use to measure how far they are from the ground during low visibility situations. Although altimeters and 5G cell towers don't really share the same spectrum, the... Continue reading...

Nest's wired indoor camera. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy Google is increasing the price of its Nest Aware and Nest Aware Plus subscriptions, which are required to get more than a few hours of footage history from Nest security cameras.Nest Aware prices have increased to $8 a month or $80 per year, up from $6/month or $60/year, as first reported by 9to5Google. This is the first price hike for the video recording plan since 2020. Users still get 30 days of event video history, which records when the camera detects something.Nest Aware Plus, the higher tier subscription, now costs $15/month or $150/year, up from $12/month or $120/year. Users still get the same 60 days of event history and 10 days of 24/7 video history.9to5Google said the price hike is effective beginning September 1st for new... Continue reading...

Urbanista's Malibu. After releasing two solar-powered pairs of headphones, you would have thought that it'd be simple for Urbanista to apply the same technology to a Bluetooth speaker. But with the Malibu, which is being shown off at IFA in Berlin ahead of its release later this month, Urbanista says it had a whole new set of challenges to overcome.That's because the company's approach to its solar powered products hasn't just been to put some solar-absorbing material on an existing device and call it a day. Instead, Urbanista product director Marten Sahlen and the company's brand and marketing director Tuomas Lonka tell me the company spends a lot of time making the products more power efficient in the first place, so they can get the maximum benefit from... Continue reading...

Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images After her Eras tour shattered ticket sales records last year, now Taylor Swift is coming for the box office. The upcoming Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour concert film set a single-day sales record for AMC in just three hours after the ticket presale went live, raking in a total of $26 million in sales in one day, the theater chain announced.That beats the previous single-day sales record held by Spider-Man: No Way Home at $16.9 million. Aside from AMC, Fandango says that the three-hour film now sits on the site's list of the biggest first-day ticket sellers throughout its 23-year history, alongside box office giants like Avengers: Endgame and Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

The Deebot X20 Omni - the latest robot vacuum mop from Ecovacs - was on display at IFA 2023 this week. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge The robot vacuum cleaner is undergoing a renaissance this year as all the major manufacturers figure out new and more outlandish ways to make the tiresome chore of cleaning your floors fully automated.At the IFA 2023 tech trade show in Berlin this week, robot vacuums were literally roaming the halls as companies showed off their latest innovations. We saw robot mops that integrate into your plumbing, big advances in navigation, smaller sizes for multi-function docking stations, and a robot mop that can do the splits to clean your baseboards better.Here's a rundown of the latest innovations in robotic floor cleaning we spotted at IFA this week. The X2 Omni is Ecovacs new flagship robot vacuum. It's hip to be square ... Continue reading...

The SwitchBot S10, the company's first robot vacuum for the US market, brings with it some unique features. | Image: SwitchBot Smart home robotics company SwitchBot - of robot finger fame - has come up with another ingenious solution for automating boring chores in your home. This one is a sizable leap toward a Rosie the Robot vision of a fully autonomous robot house cleaner, though without the personality. The SwitchBot S10 is a new robot vacuum and mop that autonomously drains and refills its dirty and clean water tanks using a battery-powered water station that hooks directly into your plumbing.Combined with an auto-empty charging dock that dries the mop, the S10 is the most fully automated floor cleaner I've seen. You won't need to refill its mopping tank, deal with emptying dirty water post-clean, or mess with its mops. The only dirty work you need to do... Continue reading...

If you don't mind refurbished headphones, this is a great deal. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge While Labor Day promotions have already been going on all week (despite the holiday itself still being another three days away), some early deals have been fairly attractive. A noteworthy one is eBay's 20 percent off sale on refurbished items, which is running through September 4th when you use code LABORDAYTWENTY at checkout. You can use this deal twice to save up to $500, and while plenty of crap is on offer, there are some genuinely good refurb deals to be had, many of which include a two-year third-party warranty from Allstate.One such deal is on the Bose QuietComfort 45 noise-canceling headphones, which you can get refurbished for $199.20 ($130 off) through the official Bose store on eBay. The Bose QC45 are one of the best ANC... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Zoom is trying to expand its video chat platform into a full-service office suite, and its latest addition hits on the need to create and share documents. The company is adding a feature called Notes that allows users to create, share, and simultaneously edit a text document.Notes will appear alongside a video call where Zoom's chat box usually is. People in the call can hop in to make edits as the meeting is happening, making it easier to keep paying attention to the conversation than if they had to switch over to another screen. Image: Zoom Zoom Notes show up beside a video call. The feature is being pitched as a handy meeting prep and follow-up companion. Zoom wants users to make a doc with a meeting... Continue reading...

Photo by Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images Representative Debbie Dingell (D-MI) is among the prominent voices in Congress advocating for a smooth transition to electric vehicles. Dingell, who was first elected in 2015, represents suburban Detroit, home to a large swath of the American car industry and the labor force that builds those vehicles.I spoke with Dingell, a former GM executive who serves on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, about the pressing issues facing legislators as the country races to make EVs dominant.The interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.You've been supportive of laws that have boosted EV investment in this country. Do you think that our government should have moved faster with these kinds of laws?It's a complicated subject.... Continue reading...

The Verge Disney has blocked its channels from being accessed by the nearly 15 million subscribers to Charter's Spectrum service, the second-largest cable TV provider in the US. The blackout means that viewers in major markets like New York and Los Angeles can't access ABC, ESPN, FX, Freeform, National Geographic and a dozen other Disney-owned channels.Carriage disputes happen with some frequency when network owners, like Disney, renegotiate contracts with service providers, like Charter. Disney is seeking higher fees, Charter doesn't want to pay them, and so Disney has yanked its programming as a negotiation tactic.Charter says that Disney is demanding an excessive increase" in fees and wants to force customers to pay for channels you may not... Continue reading...

The concept phone is designed to have a range of purse straps attached to it. | Image: Honor The V Purse is a new concept phone from Honor that asks what if foldables were more like fashion accessories?" The company showed off the device during a presentation at IFA 2023 alongside the Honor Magic V2, its latest foldable phone announced in China earlier this year.The V Purse is a demonstration of what's possible for folding devices, and Honor hasn't said if it'll ever be released it as a product. Conversely, the company says it plans to release the Magic V2 globally no later than Q1 next year, CNBC reports, but has yet to officially announce pricing outside China.There are two key elements to the V Purse's design. First is a series of interchangeable straps and chains that clip on to the foldable and allow it to be carried... Continue reading...

Image: Tesla Tesla has announced an upgraded and redesigned Model 3 in Europe, known previously as the Highland. The new design includes changes to the front and rear, a new screen for rear passengers, a redesigned interior, and improvements to aerodynamics and range.The most obvious exterior changes can be found at the front of the Model 3. The bump at the front has been removed in favor of a sleeker design with a single central vent. The headlights also look a lot slimmer with an Audi-like look for the LED daytime running lights.

The Yale Smart Outdoor Camera looks on even as the Smart Video Doorbell records a delivery. | Image: Yale Yale has launched a new line of its home security products specifically for the European market. In addition to a new video doorbell, the company revealed the next-gen of its smart alarm system, plus new indoor and outdoor smart cameras - all of which integrate with its line of smart locks.Using the Yale Smart Video Doorbell, you can keep tabs on your doorstep with 1080p footage and a 154-degree field of view. The device comes in wired and wireless options, offering two-way audio talk, live viewing, and night vision. You'll receive a notification when the doorbell detects motion and when someone rings the doorbell. The Smart Video Doorbell itself costs 129.99 / 159.99. Image: Yale The Yale Smart Video Doorbell.... Continue reading...

Here I am, washing a...truck? Every company and its mother seems to be putting out handheld gaming PCs these days, and Lenovo is next to the plate. The company has announced the Legion Go, its first Windows-powered gaming handheld, which will be available for purchase in October. It's got an 8.8-inch QHD Plus screen, an AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme processor, and a 49.2Wh battery (which is bigger than those of the ROG Ally and the Steam Deck). Oh, and the controllers pop off, which is neat.While Valve's Steam Deck tends to be the first product that comes to mind when this category is discussed, the Legion Go seems more like a cross between the Nintendo Switch and Asus' ROG Ally. For one, with models starting at $699, the Ally is clearly what Lenovo is trying to match on... Continue reading...

For a meager $4,400, all this can be yours. | Image: Lenovo Lenovo has announced a new Legion 9i, and it might just be the wildest thing I've ever seen from the Legion line. It's coming in October, it starts at a whopping $4,399 (you know, a totally normal price to pay for things), and Lenovo is throwing in all kinds of eccentric stuff.The company is clearly most excited about the fact that the 9i is the first 16-inch gaming laptop with a self-contained liquid-cooling system. This is exactly what it sounds like. Most laptops use air cooling to transfer heat along heat pipes to a radiator; a fluid-cooled device instead does that with water and a pump which, as you might imagine, can handle much more thermal mass. Such a system could theoretically allow the 9i to pull truly massive amounts of... Continue reading...

A Skydio 2 drone. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge If there's a drone flying over your backyard party this Labor Day / J'Ouvert / West Indian Day Parade weekend in New York City, it might be the police - because the NYPD have apparently granted themselves the power to surveil the city that way.If a caller states there is a large crowd, a large party in the backyard, we're going to be utilizing our assets to go up, go check on the party," said assistant NYPD commissioner Kaz Daughtry, at a live press conference earlier today.Lest you think we're taking that out of context, here's the full quote I just transcribed:

PlayStation Portal. | Image: Sony Sony is officially launching its handheld remote player, the PlayStation Portal, on November 15th. The portable device will stream PS5 games over Wi-Fi and features an eight-inch LCD screen running at 1080p resolution at 60fps. Sony says the Portal will launch in the US, UK, and other regions for $199.99 and, on August 31st, made it available to preorder in select countries via Sony's official PlayStation Direct storefront.Preorders for other regions - and from other retailers - will follow on September 29th, according to an updated post on the PlayStation blog.PlayStation Portal will connect remotely to your PS5 over Wi-Fi, so you'll be able to swiftly jump from playing on your PS5 to your PlayStation Portal," says Hideaki Nishino,... Continue reading...

Notepad's getting autosave. Notepad! | Image: Microsoft Microsoft's testing some neat new features for the Windows 11 Snipping Tool and the one and only Notepad dot exe. They're only in the Windows Insider Program for now, but they're there.Anyone who's ever tried to shut down their PC or close Notepad in the past, I dunno, 40 years, will be relieved to know that soon Notepad will finally just close without popping up a dialog box for each text file asking if you want to save changes. Notepad is getting autosave. Tabs, dark mode, a little spinny gear thing, and now this? It's startin' to look mighty modern around here.In the Windows Insider Program blog post announcing the new features, Dave Grochocki writes:

Image: James Bareham / The Verge A federal judge has blocked a Texas law that would require age verification and health warnings for pornographic websites, calling it unconstitutional and poorly defined. In a preliminary injunction decision released today, Judge David Ezra ruled in favor of the Free Speech Coalition, an adult industry trade association. The ruling prevents Texas from enforcing HB 1181, one of multiple state-level bills that would require age verification for accessing adult content online.Ezra, a Ronald Reagan-appointed district judge, said HB 1181 had numerous problems that could limit internet users and adult content creators' First Amendment rights. The restriction is constitutionally problematic because it deters adults' access to legal sexually... Continue reading...

Samsung's new app, Samsung Food, is designed to be a personalized AI cooking assistant. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge Wi-Fi-connected kitchen appliances have struggled to prove their worth, but Samsung's not entirely new app could help realize the potential of connected cooking. Continue reading...

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge New York's subway pass system has turned off a feature that could enable others to track your travels if they have access to your bank card number. In a statement to The Verge, Metropolitan Transportation Authority spokesperson Eugene Resnick says the agency disabled the feature" as part of its ongoing commitment to customer privacy."The MTA's OMNY system is a contactless subway pass option that lets you pay for a fare by tapping your phone or bank card at a station. However, a report published by 404 Media on Wednesday found that anyone with your card number and expiration date can see your rides within the past seven days through OMNY's trip history" feature.This feature was meant to help our customers who want access to their... Continue reading...

Image: Larian Studios It brings me no joy to say this, but I can't play Baldur's Gate 3 for the foreseeable future. Is it because my plate of games is full and will remain so for the next eight years? That's true, but it's not the reason. Or is it because the game has taken over my life such that I ignore my personal and professional responsibilities? Also true - but still not the reason. It's bugs.Bugs in a huge game like Baldur's Gate 3 aren't uncommon, and more often than not, they're tolerable nuisances. My bug encounter rate in Act 1 and 2 was negligible, just minor graphical issues, texture pop-ins, and noticeable delays between when an NPC stops talking and my dialogue choices appear. Ignorable. But in Act 3, I've encountered an apparent bug so... Continue reading...