The Verge

Editor's note:Black Friday doesn't officially take place until Friday, November 28th; however, if you want to shop ahead of time, we've rounded up thebest early Black Friday dealsyou can already get. A foldable phone isn't for the faint of heart. They're generally heavier, pricier, and have less capable cameras than a standard slab-style phone. They're [...]

Current and former OpenAI employees have grown increasingly frustrated by the fact that the company hasn't allowed them to donate their equity to charity in years. But OpenAI has finally seemed to bow to pressure, sending out an email from the company's equity team stating that current and former employees with eligible shares will be [...]

Google debuted a new and improved AI weather model today that will be incorporated into popular products like Search, Gemini, and Pixel phones. The company's AI-enhanced forecasts have proven themselves to be quite accurate so far. AI weather models have also been able to make predictions faster and more efficiently than conventional physics-based models. Until [...]

The latest feature update for Google Calendar allows you to block off time for tasks and mark yourself as busy, all in one place, expanding the existing Tasks feature in Calendar. It's something Workspace users have been specifically requesting and effectively allows tasks to function like meetings, including options to set (and adjust) a specific [...]

The tech industry trade group NetChoice is suing Virginia over a new law that will restrict minors from using social media for more than one hour per day. The lawsuit, filed on Monday, asks the court to block the law over claims it violates the First Amendment by putting unlawful barriers on how and when [...]

Traveling during the holidays can be chaotic and loud, but a quality pair of over-ear headphones can provide much-needed peace and quiet on your journey. Fortunately, you can currently snag Bose's QuietComfort Headphones on sale at Amazon for an all-time low of $169.99 ($180 off) in select colors. That's more than 50 percent off the [...]

On December 11th, 2010, Jeffrey Epstein was fretting about what came up if you Googled him. By this time Epstein had already pleaded guilty to soliciting prostitution with a child and was a registered sex offender, and just a few days earlier he had been photographed in Central Park taking a stroll with Prince Andrew. [...]

Are you a red wine drinker? A high spender? Or perhaps you're a slow eater, the sort who takes up a restaurant's table for longer than they'd like. You might not even know - but OpenTable does. Those are just a few of the notes that the reservation platform has started serving up to some [...]

Editor's note:Black Friday doesn't officially take place until Friday, November 28th; however, if you want to shop ahead of time, we've rounded up thebest early Black Friday dealsyou can already get. Any ebook reader will let you cram a Beauty and the Beast-sized library's worth of books in your pocket, but so will your phone. [...]

Google users can now describe their next trip to its AI Mode in search and select the option to Create with Canvas," which will build out an itinerary in a side panel complete with data on flights and hotels. The document it puts together can lay out potential plans, with suggestions based on the user's [...]

Netgear announced its latest mobile hotspot today, the Nighthawk 5G M7, which will be available in January, along with a new mobile app and an eSIM marketplace where you can purchase local SIM cards for more than 140 countries. The M7 comes unlocked for $499.99, making it a more affordable alternative to the unlocked version [...]

If you're a film enthusiast or, better yet, a fan of Criterion's Closet Picks videos, then you'll want to know about the half-off sale on the Criterion Collection's DVDs now in progress at Barnes & Noble. The sale, which will last until December 7th, includes, according to the site, contemporary and classic films from around [...]

Whether you have a Steam Deck handheld, or an Asus ROG Ally (the older, non-Xbox version), you might be considering an upgrade to its internal storage. I'm not talking about microSD cards, which are convenient, but slow. I'm talking about M.2 2230-size SSDs that are significantly faster at reading and writing data. If so, Prime [...]

Less than two years ago, TikTok was a crisis situation on Capitol Hill. The chair of the House Select Committee on China called it "digital fentanyl" that brainwashes young Americans into supporting Hamas. A former national security adviser said letting TikTok remain in the US under its Chinese owner "would be akin to allowing Soviet [...]

A few months after announcing its big name change, MSNBC is getting a new domain featuring its new name: ms.now. It features essentially the same layout as the old MSNBC website, but with a fresh coat of paint, including the new MS NOW flag logo - the old MSNBC peacock is gone. The new website [...]

Ford will be the next automaker to allow its vehicles to be featured on Amazon's new online car buying site. Starting today, customers can browse, finance, and purchase certified pre-owned Ford vehicles online through Amazon Autos, with in-person pickup at a local Ford dealership. Ford is the second brand name, after Hyundai, to list its [...]

At $380, MSI's 27-inch 1440p QD-OLED gaming monitor is one of the best purchases Verge readers who want an awesome gaming upgrade can make now. That's how much it costs in an online-only deal at Costco for membership holders through December 1st. In case you're curious as to what kind of OLED monitor you can [...]

X has revealed Chat, an encrypted upgrade to the platform's direct messaging service. It also includes support for video and voice calls, disappearing messages, and file sharing. The company announced Chat on Friday, and it's available now on iOS and the web, with an Android version coming soon." It replaces X's existing messaging system, though [...]

Google officially turned off remote control functionality for early Nest Learning Thermostats last month, but it hasn't stopped collecting a stream of data from these downgraded devices. After digging into the backend, security researcher Cody Kociemba found that the first- and second-generation Nest Learning Thermostats are still sending Google information about manual temperature changes, whether [...]

Jeff Bezos is getting a new job. He'll reportedly become co-CEO of Project Prometheus, a new startup that he's partly funding. The company's exact plans are still unknown, but its focus is on AI that could improve manufacturing in fields including computing, automobiles, and aerospace. The New York Times reports that Project Prometheus is already [...]

Mercedes-Benz CEO Ola Kallenius is the eternal optimist, and for good reason. He has long pushed the European Union to roll back its lofty goal of phasing out new internal combustion engine cars, arguing that weakening the rules was a return to pragmatism and not capitulation to opponents of Europe's green agenda. His push is [...]

That Sky Sports felt the need to launch a TikTok channel specifically marketed towards women and billed as its lil sis" was questionable enough. But once people got a taste of the content on Halo, it was clear the company had absolutely no idea what it was doing. Halo didn't focus on women's sports, nor [...]

There's something irresistible about music that sounds as if it's coming apart at the seams. The Black Dresses are masters of barely contained chaos. All of their records feel as if they're in danger of collapsing into pure noise at any moment. But never have they so expertly woven the various threads of their sound [...]

If you're an indie rock fan of a certain age, the name Stereogum will probably conjure strong feelings. The site was launched "January 1st, 2002, on a whim," founder Scott Lapatine told The Verge. Originally, this early staple of the music blog era was focused almost entirely on music discovery and posting MP3s. "It was [...]

What do you get the man who says he has everything? It's a tough question - and one you have a limited amount of time to answer, given the holidays are nearly upon us. You could try dropping subtle hints or asking friends and family for suggestions, but they might save their best ideas for [...]

Quick: tell me how old you are by telling me which app you used to download free music. Was it Napster? Kazaa? Usenet? Gnutella? WinMX? Morpheus? The Pirate Bay? Were you, I don't know, sending your friends songs on AIM or BBM? The possibilities are endless. For a decade or so, if you were online, [...]

Hall effect gaming keyboards aren't uncommon. But Asus' ROG Falcata is the only one that's also a split ergonomic keyboard, aimed at alleviating wrist, hand, or arm pain. For the luxury of having it all, you'll pay $419.99, enough to buy a nice Hall effect keyboard and a split ergonomic one. It'd be worth it [...]

This is The Stepback, a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more on Hollywood trends and streaming culture, follow Charles Pulliam-Moore. The Stepback arrives in our subscribers' inboxes at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepback here. How it started Once upon a time (read: a few years ago), [...]

According to the Financial Times, Tim Cook could step down as Apple CEO as early as next year. And the board has started to seriously work out a succession plan. FT says that John Ternus, Apple's senior vice-president of hardware engineering, is considered the frontrunner for the position. Cook, who turned 65 recently, has been [...]

REI doesn't do Black Friday, but that doesn't mean you won't be able to save this holiday season. The outdoor retailer's annual Holiday Sale is now underway and runs through November 24th, offering up to 30 percent off gadgets and gear designed for the outdoors. Right now, you can save on Garmin watches, headlamps, sleeping [...]

I remember being blown away by the 2024 reveal trailer for Possessor(s), the new game from Hyper Light Drifter developer Heart Machine. The trailer features a striking art design, where an animated 2D character explores and fights in side-scrolling environments with gorgeous 3D backgrounds, and it's all set to moody, powerful music. The final game, [...]

While there is plenty of criticism to be hurled at what music the algorithm serves to us, and how, the real problem with music discovery in the age of algorithmic recommendations is that listening has become a passive activity. It's too easy to press play and let a pile of code take the wheel. Whether [...]

Framework did it again. It promised modular, upgradeable, and user-repairable laptops where other manufacturers dare not venture or have outright failed. And it's delivered. The 2025 version of the Framework Laptop 16 comes with not only new AMD Ryzen AI CPU options, but also Wi-Fi 7, a more powerful USB-C charger, redesigned cooling, and a [...]

The morning of Monday, October 27th, I started my workweek by asking my colleagues at The Verge for advice on buying a gaming PC. I wanted a small, portable, and semi-powerful machine that could easily sit beneath my living room TV and occasionally move over to my desk to play games or even use for [...]

If you weren't clear on just what a miserable person Carol (Rhea Seehorn) is, episode 3 of Pluribus sure makes it obvious. It opens with a flashback, as Carol and her partner Helen (Miriam Shor) are on a dream vacation at an ice hotel in Norway, and all she can do is complain about how [...]

Disney and YouTube have reached an agreement to bring back ESPN and more than 20 other Disney-owned channels two weeks after they went dark on YouTube TV. During the dispute, Google has accused Disney of trying to raise prices for its customers in an effort to boost its own Hulu + Live TV and Fubo [...]

ESPN and other Disney-owned channels will be returning to YouTube TV following a new agreement announced Friday. More than 20 channels went dark on YouTube TV on October 30th, but two weeks later - and after CEOs Bob Iger and Sundar Pichai reportedly got more involved in negotiations - the companies have reached a deal. [...]

Nintendo recently issued an update (21.0.0) for its Switch 2 console that, in addition to some small changes, has caused some third-party docks to stop working as intended. In the early weeks and months of the console's availability this summer, companies raced to figure out the right commands, the right power draw, and the right [...]

Paramount Skydance head David Ellison made it very clear that he was interested in restarting the studio's Star Trek movie franchise with some new blood, and it seems like that plan is moving forward. Deadline reports that Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves co-directors Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley have signed on to an [...]

Fortnite is going to be available on the Xbox on PC app beginning November 18th. Right now on PC, you have to launch the game from the Epic Games Launcher, but if you prefer the Xbox on PC app, that's going to be an option. The game is also joining the Xbox Play Anywhere program, [...]

If you're looking for movies to binge over the long Thanksgiving weekend, or perhaps you need some stocking stuffer ideas, Gruv is running an early Black Friday sale that drops 4K Blu-rays to just $12.99 each. Many of these titles came out in 2025 and haven't previously been this affordable, making it a great opportunity [...]

Walmart on Friday officially kicked off its early Black Friday deals, with the first wave of discounts lasting from November 14th to November 16th. One of the best deals we've spotted is on the last-gen AirPods Pro 2 with USB-C charging case, which are currently $139 ($110 off). That's even lower than the discount we [...]

Belkin has issued a recall for its Auto-Tracking Stand Pro for the iPhone and two versions of its 20,000mAh BoostCharge USB-C PD Power Bank because a manufacturing defect may cause the products' lithium-ion cell components to overheat," posing a fire and burn risk to users. While there's been just one report of a fire in [...]

For the past couple of weeks, I've been asking - repeatedly - where the promised Trump phone is, whether it exists, and what happened to all the money people have already paid for deposits. And I'm going to keep doing that every week for the foreseeable future. Not everyone thinks I should. I've been told [...]

When The Running Man was first published in 1982 under Stephen King's Richard Bachman pseudonym, the United States was just beginning to feel the impacts of then-president Ronald Reagan's neoliberal economic policies. Under Reaganomics, massive tax breaks for the wealthy and deep cuts to social safety programs like food stamps and Medicaid drastically intensified income [...]

This is Optimizer, a weekly newsletter sent every Friday from Verge senior reviewer Victoria Song that dissects and discusses the latest phones, smartwatches, apps, and other gizmos that swear they're going to change your life. Optimizer arrives in our subscribers' inboxes at 10AM ET. Opt in for Optimizer here. It's a truth universally acknowledged that [...]

Google is now widely rolling out Call Recording to Pixel 6 and newer devices that don't support the Gemini Nano-powered Call Notes feature found in the Pixel 9 and 10's Phone app, as spotted by 9to5Google. Google first announced the expansion of the Call Recording feature in September. It should be available after you update [...]

Meta, the largest social media company in the world, knowingly makes billions from scam ads, recent reporting on the company says. According to internal documents revealed by Reuters, users of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp see 15 billion ads a day promoting scams, from fake Trump stimulus checks to deepfakes of Elon Musk hawking cryptocurrency. The [...]

You don't have to wait two more weeks to pick up a great gadget as a gift; early Black Friday deals are in full swing. Case in point: Best Buy is offering the 128GB Meta Quest 3S for $249 ($50 off) along with a $50 gift card and a copy of The Walking Dead: Saints [...]