The Verge

TikTok has suffered from extensive problems on its first weekend after completing a transaction that changed the ownership of its US arm. According to Downdetector, the issues initially spiked in the early hours of Sunday morning, but many users, including editors here at The Verge, are still reporting errors. On Monday morning, TikTok USDS head [...]

Over the next year, top social media executives are expected to take the witness stand to defend their companies from an avalanche of claims about their failure to protect kids. The first of many trials is set to begin this month in California, when Meta, TikTok, and YouTube face claims that tech addiction harmed a [...]

Today, I'm talking with Alex Lintner, who is the CEO of technology and software solutions at Experian, the credit reporting company. Experian is one of those multinationals that's so big and convoluted that it has multiple CEOs all over the world, so Alex and I spent quite a lot of time talking through the Decoder [...]

Apple has revealed a new AirTag that comes with the company's upgraded ultra wideband chip, allowing for more precise location tracking. It has the same $29 for one or $99 for a four-pack price as the AirTag it's replacing, while the new chip powers Apple's Precision Finding feature, which uses haptic, visual, and audio feedback [...]

When Marvel first announced that Avengers: Doomsday would be directed by the Russo Brothers and star Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom, it seemed like the studio might be using the feature as a massive nostalgia play. Though the film will feature a number of characters from more recent projects like Thunderbolts* and The Fantastic [...]

Intel's been talking the talk for months about its new generation of laptop chips, the first made on its long-anticipated 18A process. 18A is meant to steer Intel back toward bluer waters by making its chips better, and, if possible, attracting chip designers like Qualcomm and Nvidia to use Intel's foundries, not just its rival [...]

Microsoft's first update for Windows 11 in 2026 has been a buggy mess, to say the least. After reports of shutdown issues on some machines, Microsoft issued an emergency update to fix its January 2026 Windows 11 update last weekend. Now, exactly a week later, the software maker has been forced to issue a second [...]

It's not surprising when the guy who's been yelling about the horrors of late-stage capitalism on Instagram for the last five years turns his ire toward ICE. But something different has been happening over the week or so, following the most recent shootings of civilians by federal agents - even accounts that stay laser focused [...]

Shortly after federal agents killed Alex Pretti Saturday morning, the Department of Homeland Security began to run with the story that the dead man had been armed and dangerous. He had a gun, DHS said. (A Bellingcat analysis of the video concludes that Pretti was unarmed when he was shot.) He had approached the agents [...]

As a retro gaming fan, I was thrilled when Apple opened its App Store to emulators in 2024, but I've yet to find a controller that makes me want to fully embrace retro gaming on my phone. Clamp-on controllers like the Backbone Pro are a bit too bulky, and I don't want to prop my [...]

Americans do not like masked secret police. There is really no other way to put it. The reasons why are manifold: accountability, trust in law enforcement, and just plain overall vibes. More concretely, not being able to tell who's a cop and who's not is dangerous. An assassin masquerading as law enforcement killed Minnesota legislator [...]

The Sony LinkBuds Clip are the company's first clip earbuds. They follow the innovative donut-hole LinkBuds and LinkBuds Open and, like their predecessors, allow you to listen to music or podcasts, make phone calls, or be active outdoors while still maintaining awareness of your surroundings. The clip design has become more popular over the past [...]

This is The Stepback, a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more on the e-bike movement, follow Andrew J. Hawkins. The Stepback arrives in our subscribers' inboxes at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepback here. How it started Last week, I did something I don't typically do, which [...]

Steven Garcia, as told to Gaby Del Valle: I was in the middle of a frozen lake when I got the notification from The Minnesota Star Tribune that there had been a shooting. I was on assignment at a pond hockey event, and someone who was supposed to play later that evening said he probably [...]

The FBI went to Microsoft last year with a warrant, asking them to hand over keys to unlock encrypted data stored on three laptops as part of an investigation into potential fraud involving the COVID unemployment assistance program in Guam - and Microsoft complied. Typically, companies resist handing over encryption keys to authorities. Most famously, [...]

Welcome to the weekend, friends! We're still in a bit of a deals lull before the Presidents Day and V-Day sales begin, the bulk of which we anticipate kicking off the first week of February. However, for now, we're still seeing some solid discounts on a few newer gadgets and some old, Verge-approved favorites. Anker's [...]

Some Gmail users may have noticed that promotional emails that normally go to their own siloed tab have started flooding their inbox. Reports hit the Google forums and Reddit that messages are bypassing the Updates and Promotional filters and went straight to Gmail inboxes. Some also reported seeing a banner at the top of some [...]

Federal agents in Minneapolis repeatedly punched a man, forced him to the ground, and then shot him multiple times. The man was later pronounced dead. This is just the latest incident of deadly violence involving ICE, which has grown increasingly frequent, especially on the streets of Minneapolis. It's been less than three weeks since an [...]

Every month, Circana video game analyst Mat Piscatella posts fascinating data about video game sales on Bluesky, highlighting trends like November's historically bad month for game hardware and Battlefield 6's big launch in October. But he doesn't just share data about what is selling the most; as of late, he's also posted delightful lists of [...]

I'll confess, with no shame whatsoever, that I really love ads. Artsy ones, funny ones, weird ones, emotional ones - TV commercials were my childhood TikTok before any of us were using terms like "short-form video." But like most creative things in my life, AI is sucking the joy out of it. And it's only [...]

There's a lot about Perfect Tides: Station to Station's Mara that I find relatable. Like me, she's recently moved to a place simply called "the City" from the middle of nowhere, and like me, she's an avid writer. But these biographical details aren't the important thing; it's the way she's painted by the game's incredibly [...]

By lots of metrics, Gemini is winning. It has raced ahead of OpenAI, become scarily good at creating convincing imagery, and even won Apple's business. So last week's news that it was enabling something called Personal Intelligence felt like a victory lap. Personal Intelligence allows Gemini to reference past conversations and access your data in [...]

Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 113, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you're new here, welcome, please send hot cocoa to my freezing-cold house, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.) This week, I've been reading about private garbage collectors and vintage [...]

A dishwasher is a luxury item some people can't live without. It's one of the first major kitchen devices I bought just as soon as I could afford one, and the appliance I thought I'd miss most in my nomadic vanlife pursuits. Loch sent me its $459.99 / 459.99 countertop Capsule dishwasher to review in [...]

Internal documents revealed as part of a child safety lawsuit hint at Google's plan to "onboard kids" into its ecosystem by investing in schools. In this November 2020 presentation, Google writes that getting kids into its ecosystem "leads to brand trust and loyalty over their lifetime," as reported earlier by NBC News. The heavily-redacted documents, [...]

Intel and AMD have split the Windows laptop market for years, but the x86 players may be getting outnumbered. It's not just Apple MacBooks and MediaTek-based Chromebooks using Arm chips anymore. There are finally competent Qualcomm Snapdragon laptops running Windows, and - as soon as this spring - Nvidia will finally power Windows consumer laptops [...]

TikTok finally closed a deal meant to bring it into compliance with the law that should have banned it a year ago, and the lawmakers who passed that law still don't seem to know what's going on. The company announced Tuesday that its US service is now part of the separate TikTok USDS Joint Venture [...]

Meta is "temporarily pausing" the ability for teens to chat with its AI characters as it develops a "new version" of the characters that will offer a "better experience." The company made the announcement in an update to a blog post from October where the company had detailed more parental controls for teen AI use. [...]

TikTok is officially under new ownership in the US, and that could spell big changes for the video-sharing app. On January 22nd, ByteDance - TikTok's Chinese parent company - and a group of investors closed a $14 billion deal to spin off the platform's US operations, introducing a new slate of American executives. The Silver [...]

Casio showed up to NAMM (CES for music gear nerds) this year with a prototype sampler called the SX-C1 that looks every bit the lovechild of a Game Boy and an SP-404. The top has a directional pad and four buttons just like you'd find on a game controller, flanking a 1.3-inch OLED screen. But [...]

Where's the Trump Phone? We're going to keep talking about it every week. We've reached out, as usual, to ask about the Trump Phone's whereabouts. As usual, we're still waiting for a response. In the meantime, it turns out we might have two Trump Phones to worry about. The Trump Phone may be no more [...]

Marshall has announced a new music streaming hub called the Heddon that can broadcast to multiple speakers using the Bluetooth Auracast feature that's finally starting to catch on. Similar to Sennheiser's BTA1 TV Transmitter announced earlier this week, the Heddon doesn't require wireless audio devices to go through a pairing process to stream audio, as [...]

If you're considering gifting the AirPods Pro 3 for Valentine's Day, now's a great time to pick them up. Today only, Best Buy is selling the noise-canceling earbuds for $199.99 ($50 off), matching their all-time low. For iPhone owners, nothing else really compares to the AirPods Pro 3. They deliver the best active noise cancellation [...]

Every week, more than 230 million people ask ChatGPT for health and wellness advice, according to OpenAI. The company says that many see the chatbot as an "ally" to help navigate the maze of insurance, file paperwork, and become better self-advocates. In exchange, it hopes you will trust its chatbot with details about your diagnoses, [...]

Most of the US is bracing for a prolonged stretch of frigid weather and a massive winter storm that could wreak havoc on roads and power grids over the next several days. At least 170 million Americans are under winter weather alerts. "Bitterly cold temperatures and dangerously cold wind chills" will linger even after the [...]

There aren't many tech companies that can claim Sony's level of influence in how we live our lives. From the Walkman to the PlayStation to the Trinitron, Sony has been making excellent gadgets in multiple categories for decades, which makes this week's news just a little sad. Sony's new joint venture with TCL isn't the [...]

Anbernic has announced its second wireless controller through a teaser video on YouTube highlighting its features. The company's first gamepad, the RG P01, offered features like Hall effect triggers and joysticks for just $18. Pricing for the new Anbernic RG G01 hasn't been revealed, but it may be more expensive due to several upgrades, including [...]

This is Optimizer, a weekly newsletter sent every Friday from Verge senior reviewer Victoria Song that dissects and discusses the latest gizmos and potions that swear they're going to change your life. Optimizer arrives in our subscribers' inboxes at 10AM ET. Opt in for Optimizer here. On TikTok, it's disturbingly easy to find videos of [...]

This is an excerpt of Sources by Alex Heath, a newsletter about AI and the tech industry, syndicated just for The Verge subscribers once a week. The leaders of the three preeminent frontier AI labs spent this week at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, taking shots at each other like candidates in a [...]

Tesla scrapped its Autopilot driver assist feature that used to come standard in new vehicles, as it attempts to steer customers to its newly subscription-only Full Self-Driving (FSD) system. According to Electrek, the company removed Basic Autopilot as a standard feature from new Model 3 and Model Y vehicles in North America. That means in [...]

In early December, I brought you the news that Google has begun replacing Verge headlines, and those of our competitors, with AI clickbait nonsense in its content feed. Google appeared to be backing away from the experiment, but now tells The Verge that its AI headlines in Google Discover are a feature, one that "performs [...]

Microsoft is giving its Paint and Notepad apps on Windows new AI capabilities for editing text and making digital illustrations. The updates are currently rolling out to Windows Insiders in the Windows 11 Canary and Dev channels, and include features that feel oddly niche or advanced for such simplified apps, such as AI text improvements [...]

Just over a year after it briefly disappeared from app stores, TikTok in the US is now part of a new entity, TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC. With approval from both the US and China closing on the schedule laid out in December, ByteDance's ownership of the new joint venture is now only 19.9 percent [...]

Ring has launched a new Ring Verify tool that the company says can "verify that Ring videos you receive haven't been edited or changed." But since Ring won't verify videos that have been altered in any way, it probably won't be able to verify those videos you see on TikTok that look like they're from [...]

In what world does Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake get canceled amid corporate restructuring and yet BG&E2 does not? "Beyond Good & Evil 2 remains a priority for us in the context of our strategy centered around Open World Adventures," an unnamed Ubisoft spokesperson told Kotaku and Insider Gaming. The original Beyond [...]

Unless you're dead set on picking up a larger panel, Samsung's forthcoming 2026 Frame lineup represents a fairly minor upgrade. That makes last year's model an easy rec for those on the hunt for an art-inspired 4K TV, especially given the 43- and 50-inch models are down to the lowest prices we've seen at Woot, [...]

After sharing a brief look at its new Talking Flower during a Nintendo Direct showcase last September that generated more questions than answers, Nintendo has finally revealed more details about what the interactive toy actually does and how much it costs. It shares some functionality with Nintendo's Alarmo alarm clock, but the Talking Flower seems [...]

Vimeo is laying off employees around the globe just months after the Italian software company Bending Spoons acquired the platform for $1.38 billion, as reported earlier by Business Insider. Even though it's not clear how many people were laid off, Dave Brown, Vimeo's former brand VP, says in a post on LinkedIn that "a large [...]

A judge is questioning whether Epic Games and Google are settling their long-running antitrust fight partly because of a previously unannounced partnership involving the Unreal Engine, Fortnite, and Android. In a hearing in San Francisco today, the court revealed that Epic and Google have struck a new deal that apparently includes "joint product development, joint [...]