The Verge

The iPhone 15 Pro. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge What the rumor mill says about the first new iPhones in the era of Apple Intelligence. Continue reading...

It's no ROG Ally X, but Asus' last-gen handheld is still a powerful gaming machine. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Now that the new and improved Asus ROG Ally X has arrived, we're starting to see some solid deals on its predecessor, the Asus ROG Ally. Now until August 19th, for instance, the Windows-based gaming handheld is available at Best Buy with a Z1 Extreme chip for an all-time low of $499.99 ($150 off). That's almost half the price of its successor, which costs $799.99, rendering it a good alternative if you're on a tighter budget. The lower-end model with the Z1 chip is also on sale for $379.99 ($120), though, given the performance downgrades, we'd recommend sticking with the Extreme configuration.At this price, the standard Asus ROG Ally offers good value, even if it didn't impress us as much as ROG Ally X when it comes to comfort,... Continue reading...

Image: Marvel After dismissing X-Men '97's former showrunner, Beau DeMayo, just before the show's season 1 premiere, the studio seemed ready to move on with a new creative team. But following DeMayo's recent claims that Marvel unfairly pulled his credits from X-Men '97's upcoming second season, the company says he was fired over the egregious" findings of an internal investigation.Though DeMayo was fired before X-Men '97 aired, his name was still going to be included in the show's upcoming second season because of the preproduction work he contributed to the project. But in a thread posted to his X account on Thursday, DeMayo accused Marvel of stripping his season 2 credits away due to his posting fan art of himself. DeMayo, who is openly gay,... Continue reading...

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge A federal judge in New York blocked the upcoming live sports streaming service from Disney, Fox, and Warner Bros. Discovery, siding with streamer Fubo that the package likely violates antitrust law. Fubo argued in an antitrust complaint that the partnership was the culmination of a years-long campaign to block Fubo's innovative sports-first streaming business."The three entertainment companies had sought to create a new streaming service called Venu Sports that would launch this fall and charge $42.99 a month for access to networks across their portfolios, including ESPN, Fox Sports, and TNT. Bundling the sports content from all three companies would put other distributors like Fubo at an extreme competitive disadvantage," Fubo said... Continue reading...

Illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photos from Getty Images OpenAI has banned a string of ChatGPT accounts tied to an Iranian influence campaign that generated and shared content related to the US presidential election, among other topics. The operation mainly used ChatGPT to create longform articles and social media comments for platforms like Instagram and X, according to OpenAI.OpenAI linked the accounts to Storm-2035, a covert Iranian influence operation that has attempted to engage US voters by launching websites disguised as political news outlets. In addition to commentary about the US election on both sides of the political spectrum, OpenAI says the operation generated content about the Israel-Hamas war, Israel at the Olympic Games, politics in Venezuela, and the rights of Latinx... Continue reading...

Google design director Claude Zellweger holds up a Pixel 9 series phone in a form-fitting case. It's the first time we've designed the phone and case hand in hand," he says. | Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge There's one thing about the just-announced Google Pixel 9 that's hard to convey in photos - its camera bar is prominent. Bigger than ever before. It's roughly as thick as two US quarters stacked together - nearly a third as thick as the entire rest of the phone. It's so big even the vanilla Pixel 9 is now roughly as thick as a Pro" iPhone, with a far more prominent camera module.A modern and unapologetic approach"I've never felt a bump quite like it, but I don't hate it! I argued in 2022 that Google's camera bar was a good thing: the first major smartphone design element that's truly Google's own. In an era when most everyone's phone is a simple rounded rectangle, it's a playful way to stand out, giving the phone a cute robot face.I... Continue reading...

This has to have really thin components and batteries - but there's plenty of space to spread it out. | Photo: Whylab / Weibo Spy photos of a thin triple-folding phone held by consumer group CEO Yu Chengdong have surfaced again. The images were posted by Weibo user Whylab on Thursday, reports Android Authority.The device looks as if could get as thin as current single-hinged foldables like the Samsung Galaxy Fold 6 when held like a regular smartphone (of course, there's still a camera bump). Based on earlier rumors, Android Authority notes the device could unfold to a 10-inch tablet mode that is slightly bigger than other eight-inch foldables and launch as soon as next month.A picture posted last week of Chengdong using the device unfolded on a plane showed creases in the tablet screen, with a small front-facing camera on the top of the left side.

Unlike last-gen models that relied on the slower Qi standard, Anker's latest MagGo stand offers MagSafe speeds without MagSafe pricing. | Image: Anker Of all the features Apple has introduced to the iPhone over the last several years, few have been as convenient in my day-to-day life as StandBy mode. This docking mode is fantastic if you want to use your phone as a clock or ad hoc smart display - that is, assuming you own the right desk accessory. Fortunately, Anker's latest 2-in-1 MagGo Wireless Charger is available for $39.99 ($10 off) from Amazon with an on-page coupon or from Anker with offer code WSCPV22GRTOZ.Like previous models, Anker's newest charging stand isn't particularly flashy. The sleek 2-in-1 contraption features a magnetic charging pad on the top for juicing MagSafe-compatible iPhones and a slower charging pad on the bottom for supplying a pair of wireless earbuds... Continue reading...

Image: The Verge AT&T and Verizon have taken issue with SpaceX and T-Mobile's upcoming direct-to-cell satellite offering, arguing that SpaceX's implementation will harm their respective mobile broadband networks. Filings that urge the Federal Communications Commission to reject SpaceX's request to waive out-of-band emission limits were submitted by AT&T and Verizon this week, joining similar opposition from satellite companies EchoStar and Omnispace.T-Mobile announced the SpaceX partnership in 2022, pledging to eradicate dead zones by allowing mobile phones to connect to Starlink satellites. SpaceX is now seeking a ninefold increase" to current power flux-density limits for out-of-band emissions to enact the Supplemental Coverage from Space (SCS)... Continue reading...

Image: The Verge Getting to Mars will be easy. It's the whole living there' part that we haven't figured out. Continue reading...

The 2025 Lincoln Navigator Black Label in crystal white. | Image: Lincoln Lincoln is making a big change to the largest vehicle in its lineup by adding a panoramic display across the dashboard. The 2025 Navigator SUV is the automaker's second vehicle to get the Android-based digital dashboard developed by Ford, with its first implementation introduced in the 2024 Lincoln Nautilus.The new Navigator, which is making its debut during Monterey Car Week, takes the Nautilus' Panoramic Display (technically, it's two screens) with the Lincoln Digital Experience and drops it in with a more stylish and open flair and adds contrasting speakers to the sides. Meanwhile, the same continuous curved displays in the Nautilus go pillar to pillar, look more integrated, and its trim lines up with the doors.The Navigator and... Continue reading...

Photo by Tom Warren / The Verge The popular benchmarking utility Geekbench has launched a new cross-platform tool to evaluate the performance of devices under AI-heavy workloads. Geekbench AI measures a device's CPU, GPU, and NPU (neural processing unit) to determine how well it can handle machine learning applications.Geekbench developer Primate Labs has been working on the software using the name Geekbench ML, which launched in preview in 2021 but shifted the name to AI for reasons that seem obvious. To explore how different hardware responds to different AI-related tasks, it evaluates performance based on both accuracy and speed, with support for different frameworks, including ONNX, CoreML, TensorFlow Lite, and OpenVINO.It delivers three scores, full precision,... Continue reading...

This is a screenshot from Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas - The Definitive Edition. We never saw footage of the VR port. | Image: Rockstar Games The Quest version of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, which was first announced nearly three years ago, is on hold indefinitely," Meta confirmed to IGN and in a comment on a YouTube video. GTA: San Andreas is on hold indefinitely while we both focus on other projects," the Meta Quest VR account said in response to a comment on a video for Skydance's Behemoth. We look forward to working with our friends at Rockstar in the future."Meta announced the game in October 2021 as part of its Connect conference, saying that it was in development for the Meta Quest 2. Get a new perspective on Los Santos, San Fierro, and Las Venturas as you experience (again or for the first time) one of gaming's most iconic open worlds," Meta wrote in a blog... Continue reading...

With the right hardware, you can now connect the Meta Quest to deviceswith HDMI or DisplayPort output. | Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge Meta has released a new app for the Quest 3, 2, and Pro, letting you use the headsets as a screen for consoles, laptops, or any device with video out capabilities. Using the free Meta Quest HDMI Link app does require additional hardware, but it's still a relatively cheap way to repurpose the headset, instead of buying single-purpose video glasses that can cost just as much.In a post shared to the Meta Quest Blog today, the company warns that getting this to work isn't quite as straightforward as using Air Link, which allows the Quest headsets to stream video from a PC over Wi-Fi. Instead of plugging a PS5, Pixel 9, or even a laptop directly into the Quest's USB-C port with a cable, you'll need to add a UVC (USB Video Class) and UAC (USB... Continue reading...

Illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photos from Getty Images Probably you have already heard that astronauts Barry "Butch" Wilmore and Sunita Williams may not be able to leave on the Boeing Starliner that brought them to the International Space Station. I have been thinking about it in quiet moments - when I wake up in the morning, on hikes, in the shower.Those guys popped up there on June 5th, and they were supposed to spend a week on the ISS doing normal astronaut stuff and then go home. But apparently the Boeing Starliner was made about as well as the Boeing 737 Max, and so the astronauts have been on an unplanned vacation in orbit. They might be up there until next February - NASA hasn't made a decision yet.Man, I get antsy waiting for a bus, and these two have been cooling their heels for... Continue reading...

Image: Activision Call of Duty games have famously giant file sizes, but ahead of the October 25th launch of Black Ops 6, Activision is going to make some changes so that Call of Duty titles don't take up as much space on your hard drive - including separating Warzone from the default download for the annual games.The default separation of Warzone is happening soon: on August 21st, alongside the launch of Season 5 Reloaded. As part of that, when you download an annual Call of Duty game, you'll also be able to opt in to also download Warzone if you want. And if you just want to download Warzone, that will still be an option as well.With Season 5 Reloaded, Activision also says that it is going to rely more on texture streaming, and players will be able... Continue reading...

The Momentum Sport earbuds come in a few different color options, but the only vibrant hue is olive. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge The Sennheiser Momentum Sport earbuds are a pretty unique piece of tech, as the noise-canceling buds feature an embedded heart rate tracker for monitoring your performance during runs and exercises. They're also normally on the pricey side at $329.95, but right now, the olive and graphite colors are discounted to a new low of $254.06 (a savings of roughly $76) at Amazon.The Momentum Sport have a somewhat bassy tone that's often found in fitness-focused earbuds (since that oomph-oomph can help keep you going when you're really sweating), but they sound good and offer a secure fit for when you run. They also offer a transparency mode to keep you better attuned to your surroundings and IP55-rated weather resistance that should be able to... Continue reading...

Image: BioWare BioWare is announcing the release date for Dragon Age: The Veilguard and sharing a new trailer to commemorate the occasion. Players will be able to return to Thedas - the name of the game's world that is simultaneously a clever acronym for The Dragon Age Setting - on October 31st, more than 10 years after the release of the previous game, Dragon Age: Inquisition.Oh man, there's some lore going on in this new trailer. Up until now, fans assumed that Solas, a companion from Inquisition who went rogue during the events of the game's Trespasser DLC, would be the main bad guy. But this trailer confirms a burgeoning community theory that Solas is just a small fry compared to the game's real big baddies - the Elven gods.BioWare announced V... Continue reading...

Image: Kristen Radtke / The Verge Antisemitic streamer, Holocaust denier, Charlottesville rally attendee, and January 6th instigator Nick Fuentes disavowed Donald Trump's presidential campaign last week, claiming the America First movement had been hijacked" by consultants, lobbyists, & donors."The news that Fuentes had declared a groyper war" on his preferred presidential candidate has sparked some claims that Trump is losing support among a core part of his constituency: white supremacists. But Fuentes has long been at odds with another subset of the far-right - one that has ascended within the mainstream Republican Party in recent years, culminating in Trump's selection of JD Vance as his running mate.