The Verge

Fitbit's latest LTE-enabled wearable gamifies exercise, only without ads and unwanted microtransactions. | Image: Fitbit As you might expect, not every parent wants to outfit their kid with a phone, especially given the rise in cyberbullying and the sheer amount of distractions they pose while in school. Thankfully, the Fitbit Ace LTE is a more pared-down alternative, one that's matching its all-time low of $199.95 ($30 off) at Amazon, Best Buy, and the Google Store through August 25th.Unlike most smartwatches, the Ace LTE is specifically geared toward children. The durable watch features the same innards as Google's Pixel Watch 2 and LTE connectivity, which enables calling, messaging, and real-time location sharing. It also comes with a Tamagotchi-like buddy (nicknamed Eejie) and several wrist-based video games, all of which require children to complete... Continue reading...

Image: Neon With MaXXXine, Longlegs, and Cuckoo, this summer is about the scary movie that has nothing to say. Continue reading...

Samsung's first Copilot Plus PC is everything a thin and light laptop should be - but its performance is limited. Continue reading...

The Vision Pro got its first Virtual Boy emulator in an app called VirtualFriend, finally giving me, a person with an irrational love for Nintendo's most short-lived console, a chance to play it in immersive 3D once more. The app is also available for iOS and iPadOS, where it's a virtually identical experience, minus the 3D effect.The first games I played after downloading VirtualFriend were those I owned as a kid: Red Alarm, Wario Land, and Mario's Tennis. I'm pleased to say that apart from some minor audio glitches in Red Alarm, the games run well - it's all just as I remember it. GIF: VirtualFriend The preset Game Boy" color scheme might be my favorite. VirtualFriend supports Bluetooth controllers and... Continue reading...

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Tesla has stopped selling the $60,990 RWD Cybertruck, the cheapest version of its angular EV truck, Jalopnik writes. At the same time, the company increased the price of the next-in-line AWD Cybertruck by $20,000. Now $99,990, it elevates the EV's price floor by a whopping $39,000.The Cyberbeast - the tri-motor version of the truck with more torque and a higher top speed than the standard all-wheel drive EV - is also costlier, at $119,990 (it was $99,990 before August 6th). The updated prices are especially bleak when you consider Tesla had said in 2019 that the Cybertruck would start at $39,990.On the bright side, the company bumped up delivery times. Tesla estimates it can get AWD Cybertrucks to customers between August and... Continue reading...

Photo: Dennis Troper (Facebook) Susan Wojcicki, Google's 16th employee who helped jumpstart the company in her garage, ran its advertising business, and then helmed YouTube for most of the past decade, has died at 56, according to posts by her husband Dennis Troper and Google CEO Sundar Pichai.She joined Google in 1998 and was CEO of YouTube from February 2014 until February 2023, when she stepped down to focus on family, health, and personal projects." Troper and Pichai say she had been battling non-small cell lung cancer. Her son, Marco Troper, died earlier this year.In 2014, we called her one of the 50 most important people shaping the world. Beyond helping build Google into one of the most important companies of the past two decades, she helped transform YouTube... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Disney's D23 showcase of new projects from Marvel Studios, Lucasfilm, Pixar, and more is upon us. Continue reading...

Nova Launcher, in a very dated screenshot on top of the project's website. | Image: Nova Launcher Nearly the entire team working on Nova Launcher, one of the biggest names in Android homescreen replacements, has been laid off. The team is now down to just one full time developer: Kevin Barry, the launcher's founder.Barry said development will continue and that he will remain in charge of the project. But team members who were laid off said work on Nova will have to slow down, and Barry has already posted that he needs to cut scope" on the next major version of Nova compared to what was initially planned.Development will undoubtedly slow with less people working on the app, but the current plan is for updates to continue in some form," Rob Wainwright, one of the laid off developers, wrote in the project's Discord.Nova has been a... Continue reading...

The Verge All the Matter-compatible devices you can buy, plus the latest on the Apple, Amazon, Google, and Samsung-backed smart home standard. Continue reading...

Final Fantasy VI is a hallmark of the series thanks in part to its dark story. | Image: Square Enix It's wild to think that the Final Fantasy series is nearly four decades old, but it's thankfully less hard to believe you can get all six of the original games in cleaned-up remastered form for just $60. That's exactly what's happening now with this weekend deal discounting the Final Fantasy 1-6 Pixel Remaster bundle to $59.99 ($15 off) at Humble (PC), the Nintendo eShop, and PlayStation. (Humble's offer ends August 12th at 1PM ET while the Nintendo and PlayStation deals run through August 14th.)The collection offers all the original Nintendo and SNES Final Fantasy games with revamped pixel graphics and gameplay tweaks, allowing you to play the games more flexibly and with rearranged orchestral soundtracks (but you can switch to the... Continue reading...

Typing is one of the most annoying things about having long nails. Taking out contacts is the scariest. Life with long nails is not for the weak, but at least typing can be less annoying. Continue reading...

Screenshot by Jay Peters / The Verge Warner Bros. Discovery has updated Cartoon Network's website to remove basically everything and turn it into a page pointing to the Max streaming service. Before the change, the website let you watch free episodes of shows like Adventure Time and Steven Universe. The switchover appears to have happened on Thursday, Variety reports, and follows Warner Bros.' announcement last week that it would be shutting down Boomerang, its streaming service for classic Warner Bros. cartoons.Looking for episodes of your favorite Cartoon Network shows?" reads a message that pops up on Cartoon Network's website. Check out what's available to stream on Max (subscription required)." Screenshot by Jay Peters / The Verge We are... Continue reading...

The last-gen bot vacuums well, mops hardwood floors, and comes with an auto-empty dock for $679. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge Basic robot vacuums can speed up the cleaning process, but they don't do much for hard floors. If you want a robovac that requires less work, consider the Roomba Combo j7 Plus, which can mop your floors and features an auto-empty dock. Now through August 10th, it's down to a new low at Wellbots, where Verge readers can buy the Roomba Combo j7 Plus for $679 ($320 off) with promo code VERGE320.The j7 Plus offers similar capabilities to our favorite Roomba, the Roomba Combo j9 Plus, which is also on sale at Wellbots for $979 ($420 off) when you use offer code VERGE420 at checkout. Both feature a retractable mop that can lift itself up to keep your carpets dry, along with dual rubber roller brushes that can dig up dirt from carpets... Continue reading...

AMD stands up to Qualcomm with its new Ryzen AI chips, showing it's nowhere near out of this race. Continue reading...

Collections is replacing the Library tab, but keeping its bookshelf symbol. | Image: Google You can say goodbye to your library tab in Google Photos, because Google is introducing a new destination called Collections that's supposed to make finding content easier than ever." Collections house all of your albums in one place, such as your private albums and those that have been shared with you by other users, as well as new folders for people and pets, documents, and places.The changes are presumably in support of Google's upcoming Gemini-powered Ask Photos assistant, which CEO Sundar Pichai said would be arriving sometime this summer. 9to5Google notes that the search tab has also been redesigned, replacing the previous image tiles with a list of suggested options like Screenshots, Selfies, and Menus. Image:... Continue reading...

Image: Bethesda If you haven't played Doom or Doom II for a while - or ever - a new rerelease that Bethesda surprise-dropped (sorta) on Thursday might be the perfect excuse to jump into the classic games. The rerelease, which combines both games into one package called Doom + Doom II and is a free update for anyone who already owns Doom (1993) or Doom II, offers a long list of great new features - including a brand-new single-player episode and online, cross-platform deathmatch multiplayer.With Doom + Doom II, you'll have access to both of those games as well as extra single-player content like John Romero's Sigil episode released in 2019 and Legacy of Rust, which is a new Doom episode created by individuals from id Software, Nightdive Studios and... Continue reading...

Nanoleaf's Essentials Matter line, which includes an A19 bulb and light strip, will be one of the first Matter products to work with Apple Home's Adaptive Lighting feature. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge A major feature of Apple Home will soon work with Matter devices. With iOS 18, Apple is enabling Adaptive Lighting for smart lights connected to its smart home platform through Matter, the interoperability standard developed by Apple, Amazon, and Google. The feature, which automatically adjusts the color temperature of smart lights throughout the day, currently only works with a few brands. Adding support for Matter bulbs means it should work with many more.Gimmy Chu, CEO of Nanoleaf, confirmed to The Verge that his company is currently testing the feature on its line of Essentials Matter lights. We are one of the partners that are part of the launch of Adaptive Lighting on Matter products," he said in an interview. For the past... Continue reading...

Image: Oculus Studios Meta is closing Ready at Dawn, the first-party studio behind VR games like Echo VR and Lone Echo, Android Central reported on Wednesday. The shutdown is effective immediately. Meta acquired the studio in 2020.As for why Meta is shutting down the studio, here's what Android Central said: