The Verge

The PS5 Pro's announcement yesterday wasn't a surprise. What was a surprise was the price: at $699.99, it debuts as Sony's most expensive console ever. It brought back memories of the PS3's controversial price tag, a console that when adjusted for inflation is the same $779 price point of a PS5 Pro with the additional disc drive. It's a very expensive PlayStation, and I fear it's a test of what's to come for next-gen console pricing.For years, console gamers have been used to purchasing hardware at a significantly reduced price compared to what you could build yourself in the PC gaming space. Yes, you can find components that match the PS5 or Xbox Series X on paper, but it's still difficult to hit the price points that consoles sell... Continue reading...

Even in shadow, the new SUV looks like any SUV. | Image: Lucid Lucid revealed new information about the EV charge port of its upcoming Gravity SUV and teased an all-new, more affordable vehicle at Tuesday's Technology and Manufacturing Day event.The Lucid Gravity, slated for its first deliveries later this year, will come equipped with a native Tesla-compatible port in 2025." The Tesla connector, now known as the North American Charging Standard, or NACS, is being adopted by largely every auto manufacturer for their future EVs.So far, Hyundai has shown off its 2025 Ioniq 5 with a native NACS port, and Rivian's upcoming R2 SUV is also confirmed to have it. Lucid, however, might be the first to include the port on the driver's side rear, which is the same as Tesla vehicles. That means it likely w... Continue reading...

Hugs and kisses! | Image: Cody Peterson (Each Other) Though I'd heard this XOXO festival would be the last one, many people I spoke to seemed not to believe it. I was told by previous attendees that festival organizers Andy Baio and Andy McMillan - affectionately called the Andys" - always say that." But from the festival's beginning, it also seemed clear that the Andys didn't plan to do this forever.Anyway, this year's XOXO felt like an Irish wake to me. It was like we had all gathered over the body of a specific period on the internet to pay our respects.XOXO began in 2012, born on the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter, where Baio worked. The basic idea was to celebrate disruptive creativity" - that is, to take all the artists who make a living online and bring them together with... Continue reading...

The Dirigera hub and Ikea's Home smart app. | Image: Ikea Two years after announcing support, Ikea's Dirigera hub can now be updated to act as a bridge between Ikea's smart home devices and Matter-enabled systems. The software update builds upon early beta support by letting Ikea's entire lineup of Zigbee-based smart home devices - like lights, blinds, controllers, air purifiers, and sensors - communicate with Matter-enabled devices from any company.Bridging support for existing devices to Matter is a small but significant step in Ikea's plan to fully support the new smart home protocol. It's the same tepid approach Philips Hue has taken but hopefully with better results. Other companies like Aqara have more fully embraced the standard by launching native Matter devices that don't require... Continue reading...

The display creases are prominant at certain angles, but are barely noticable when looking at the Huawei Mate XT straight on. | Screenshot: Fixed Focus Digital Now that Huawei has officially launched the Mate XT Ultimate Design in China, demonstration videos are popping up online that reveal what the world's first dual-folding, triple-screen phone looks like in real-world conditions.Several unboxing videos show that the Huawei Mate XT is shipped in its unfolded position, which is just 3.6mm (around 0.14 inches) thick at its thinnest point - making it slimmer than Google's 5.1mm (around 0.2 inch) Pixel 9 Pro Fold. When fully folded, the Mate XT measures in at 12.8mm (around 0.5 inches), a smidge thicker than the Pixel 9 Pro Fold's 10.1mm (around 0.39 inches) and the 12.1mm Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6.A hands-on review from Gizmochina shows that the display can be used to view multiple app windows... Continue reading...

Photo by Noam Galai / TAS24 / Getty Images for TAS Rights Management Taylor Swift said on Tuesday that she plans to vote for Vice President Kamala Harris in November's presidential election - and that AI-generated images circulating of herself pushed her in part to make her support public.Recently I was made aware that AI of me' falsely endorsing Donald Trump's presidential run was posted to his site. It really conjured up my fears around AI, and the dangers of spreading misinformation," Swift wrote in an Instagram post. It brought me to the conclusion that I need to be very transparent about my actual plans for this election as a voter. The simplest way to combat misinformation is with the truth."

This little gadget keeps getting better and better. | Image: Flipper Devices Inc. One of our favorite hacking gadgets, the Flipper Zero, received its first major firmware update today. It includes a bunch of features the developers have been working on stabilizing for the last three years, including a big battery life boost that technically arrived with a previous update. While many of the features aren't technically new, the entire package should make this gadget feel like a supercharged version of its former self.One of the most notable updates since launch solves one of the developers' biggest problems: the device's internal flash memory originally limited how many features they could add. In the past, new features were built into the firmware itself, but they eventually exceeded what the memory could handle. Last... Continue reading...

Image: The Verge Disney was ready to turn part of its feed back on for DirecTV customers tonight - but DirecTV wasn't interested.Disney-owned ABC News is hosting tonight's presidential debate, and Disney offered to make the channel available to DirecTV subscribers for three hours at no charge, Disney spokespeople April Carretta and Bridget Osterhaus wrote in an email this afternoon. They said Disney wanted to provide the feed at no cost because we want all Americans to be able to view tonight's debate at this important moment in our history."DirecTV subscribers can still watch the debate on other networksBut DirecTV declined the offer, saying it would cause customer confusion" when those channels quickly disappeared again. In an unsigned statement... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge Google just landed a deal to capture planet-heating pollution at a huge bargain: $100 per ton of CO2, the price climate tech startups around the world are racing to achieve in order to make their technologies commercially viable.The company announced the agreement today with Holocene, a startup with an even shorter history than others in the emerging carbon removal industry that has nevertheless attracted some big-name backers.We think it's a self-fulfilling prophecy."If Holocene can actually pull it off - take carbon dioxide out of the air at a price far lower than competitors charging $600 per ton or more for the same service - it could prove that carbon removal technologies are ready to help in the climate fight. But it's still... Continue reading...

Popsicles or lightsabers - your choice. | Image: Lifx Lifx has a new smart Polychrome" Tube light that can glow with multiple colors and transform your home lamps and fixtures into fun light-up popsicles. The bulbs are made of a frosted glass tube and contain 104 LEDs with 52 controllable zones that enable color-shifting effects and include themes like cracking fire in Flame Mode" or a lava lamp effect in Morph Mode."The accompanying app also lets you paint" colors on the bulb surface for a more custom look for your room. Lifx is also releasing a new B10 Polychrome candlelight that has similar features to the tube, including the E26 standard bulb socket so that it can fit in the most common existing lamps or many newer specialty ones (the existing model has E12 tips). ... Continue reading...

The standard Galaxy Buds 3 can't go toe-to-toe with the pro-grade model, but they do offer many of the same features. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Apple's forthcoming AirPods 4 might be the latest pair of wireless earbuds to pique our interest, but if you're a Galaxy phone owner, it's hard to resist the appeal of the Galaxy Buds 3. And now, thanks to the latest Discover Samsung event, you can pick them up for $159.99 ($20 off) through September 15th from either Best Buy or Samsung.Like the Galaxy Buds 2 before them, Samsung's latest earbuds will likely become a default pick for Android phone owners with time. Regardless of whether Samsung will admit it, the Buds 3 take heavy design cues from Apple's now-ubiquitous AirPods, resulting in an angular stemmed look instead of the more discrete design of earlier models. They sport swipe and pinch-based gestures for controlling playback,... Continue reading...

Photo illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Between the Apple Watch Series 10, the Ultra 2, and the second-gen SE, there are more options than ever. We'll help you sort through them. Continue reading...

Photo by Bruce Bennett / Getty Images This week, the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) stunned safety advocates by proposing new vehicle rules that it says will help reduce pedestrian deaths in America. The new rules appear aimed directly at the trend of increasingly massive SUVs and trucks, which have been shown to be more deadly to pedestrians than smaller and midsize vehicles.Never in its 50-plus years in existence has the regulator issued new rules for automakers requiring them to change their vehicle designs to better prevent pedestrian fatalities. If enacted, the new rules could change how vehicles are designed in the US - permanently.It's good to see NHTSA acknowledge that a myopic focus on pedestrian detection - which is imperfect - is no... Continue reading...

Image: Microsoft Microsoft is launching its Xbox Game Pass Standard tier today. After briefly testing it with Xbox Insiders last month, the new $14.99 per month Game Pass Standard subscription is launching with the usual Game Pass library for Xbox and online console multiplayer access, too. This new tier doesn't include immediate access to day-one game releases, though.Microsoft first revealed this new Xbox Game Pass Standard tier in July, alongside price increases for Ultimate and PC Game Pass subscribers. Existing subscribers of Xbox Game Pass for Console will continue to be able to access day-one games, but new Game Pass subscribers will now only be able to pick between Core, Standard, PC, and Ultimate subscriptions. Image:... Continue reading...

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge This weekend, ESPN began publishing AI-generated recaps of women's soccer games, with more sports to come. It's using Microsoft AI to write each story, with humans only involved in reviewing each recap for quality and accuracy." ESPN says these stories will augment," rather than detract from, its other content - but needless to say, people have feelings about it.It's not that ESPN is masquerading AI work as that of humans. In fact, each story advertises that it's written by ESPN Generative AI Services," and ESPN includes a note at the bottom of each article about how the recap is based on a transcript from the sporting event.ESPN isn't the only news organization that does this; The Associated Press started using AI to write sports... Continue reading...

The replacement AirPods Max ear cushions in the new color options are now available. | Image: Apple If you're envious of the new AirPods Max colors but don't think a switch from Apple's proprietary Lightning port to USB-C is enough reason to upgrade, you can now buy replacement ear cushions in the new colorways that are still compatible with the original version of the headphones, as MacRumors discovered.The ear cushions are now listed in Apple's online store at $69 for a set in blue, orange, purple, midnight, or starlight, with shipping expected the next day. The new USB-C version of the AirPods Max are currently available for preorder but won't ship until September 20th.Apple is still selling replacement ear cushions matching the colors of the original Lightning version of the AirPods Max, including green, silver, black, sky blue,... Continue reading...

Image: Mubi Director Coralie Fargeat's The Substance goes full David Cronenberg body horror with a gruesome parable about the violence of youth-obsessed beauty standards. Continue reading...

The Iodyne Pro Mini. | Photo: Iodyne Do you know what's on your portable drives? Or where you saw them last? Are they ready to store and share massive gobs of video? Are they blazing fast?The Iodyne Pro Mini is designed to be the (pricey) answer to all of that.It's the first external SSD with a pair of Frore AirJet Mini Slim inside, a solid-state cooling chip that, the company says, helps it transfer data at a sustained three gigabytes per second with a drive no bigger than an iPhone.It's the first I've seen with a built-in e-paper display that can automatically keep track of remaining storage and the last time it was used - plus your project name, lost-and-found phone numbers or emails, QR codes, or anything else you type in. Image: Iodyne I... Continue reading...

Illustration by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge A coalition of 42 state and territory attorneys general is calling on Congress to pass regulation requiring warning labels on social media platforms. In a letter on Monday, the attorneys general wrote that the warning labels will bring attention to the inherent risks" social platforms pose to children.US Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy first proposed the warning labels in June as part of a plan to avert the mental health crisis" affecting young people. Attorneys general from a significant majority of states, including New York, California, Florida, Oregon, Michigan, and others, are writing in support of the measure, saying the move would help protect future generations of Americans." All told, the letter is signed by 39 state AGs as... Continue reading...

Apple now sells four different AirPods, all of which support USB-C charging. | Image: Apple Alongside the new iPhone 16 and Apple Watch Series 10, Apple announced three new versions of the AirPods during its It's Glowtime" event on Monday. They include the new entry-level AirPods 4 for $129, a higher-end AirPods 4 with active noise cancellation (ANC) that costs $179, and a revised AirPods Max priced at $549. All three will be available on September 20th and can be preordered today.According to Apple, the two new AirPods 4 models offer significantly improved sound over the third generation. And they have new features, like the switch to USB-C. The ANC version also gets a speaker built into the shrunken-down charging case to make Apple's Find My tracker more effective and wireless charging that works with both Qi and Apple... Continue reading...

Image: Insomniac Games Sony finally confirmed the PS5 Pro this morning, and in addition to enhanced features like Wi-Fi 7 and 8K gaming, PlayStation execs shared new info on how recent and older games will perform on the system and all the current games that can take advantage of the Pro's power.One feature the PS5 Pro will include is called Game Boost. The official PlayStation blog says PS5 Pro Game Boost may stabilize or improve the performance of supported PS4 and PS5 games." It also said that the Pro's enhanced image quality" can improve the resolution for certain PS4 games.Sony shared a short, non-comprehensive list of games that will receive free patches to take advantage of the Pro's graphical and performance features. The games that will be noted... Continue reading...

Image: Sony The PS5 Pro is official. After months of leaks, Sony just announced a more powerful PS5 console during a special technical presentation. Mark Cerny, the lead architect of the PS5 console, says the PS5 Pro improves on the original console in three key ways: a larger GPU, advanced ray tracing, and custom AI-driven upscaling.The PS5 Pro will launch on November 7th, priced at $699.99, and it looks similar to the slim version of the PS5 - just like recent leaks suggested it would. It has three stripes down the side, and it doesn't come with a disc drive. You'll be able to purchase a 4K Blu-ray disc drive separately and optional console covers.It's the most powerful console we've ever built," says Cerny. The hardware upgrades inside will... Continue reading...

Image: Alex Parkin / The Verge Let's be super clear about something: the iPhone 16's Camera Control" is very much a button. It's a cool multipurpose button that has a lot to say about how Apple views cameras and AI and the future of how we interact with technology and the world, but a button just the same. And the new button may be the most interesting thing about the new slate of iPhones.On this episode of The Vergecast, we gather a few hours after Apple's latest iPhone launch to talk through all the new devices. We dig into the differences between the iPhone 16 and the 16 Pro and why fans of the regular iPhone might be in for a good year. We talk about the new cameras, the new colors, and the button. We talk a lot about the button.After that, we talk about the... Continue reading...

The Crew Dragon capsule will launch aboard SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket. | Photo by Joe Raedle / Getty Images SpaceX is getting ready to set out on its historic Polaris Dawn mission, which will send four astronauts into orbit aboard its Crew Dragon capsule. The five-day journey through the Van Allen radiation belts will include the first spacewalk done by private astronauts.If you're curious about the mission, here's what you should know about today's launch targeting currently targeting 5:23AM ET.

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge; Getty Images Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance - a vocal proponent of conspiracy theories about immigrants replacing" Americans - is now spreading misinformation about Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio, killing family pets and protected wildlife.Reports now show that people have had their pets abducted and eaten by people who shouldn't be in this country," Vance posted on X on Monday, echoing an unsubstantiated rumor that took off on right-wing social media over the weekend.The unnamed reports" Vance cites are likely from Infowars or the Daily Mail, both of which published thinly sourced posts about Haitian migrants eating pets and wildlife. Both publications reference a Facebook post in which someone claims their neighbor's... Continue reading...

Photo by Jemal Countess / Getty Images James Earl Jones, the distinguished actor behind the voice of Darth Vader, has died at age 93, according to Deadline.Jones was born in Arkabutla, Mississippi, in 1931. After managing to overcome a speech impediment, Jones went on to have a massive acting career, with credits spanning dozens of plays, TV shows, and films over several decades. He got his start on Broadway, starring in Sunrise At Campobello at the Cort Theatre in 1958 - now known as the James Earl Jones Theatre.However, his 1977 role in the very first Star Wars left a huge mark on his audience, though he wasn't initially credited for voicing the villain as a courtesy to David Prowse, who wore Darth Vader's suit. While Jones is best known for his distinctive voice in the S... Continue reading...

Photo by Tom Warren / The Verge AMD is saying the quiet part out loud: it's now prioritizing AI chips ahead of flagship GPUs for gamers. The company's just laid out a new business strategy, where it will merge its RDNA gaming graphics and CNDA data center efforts into a single universal UDNA" that's aimed at AI first.In two interviews with Tom's Hardware (you'll definitely want to read both), AMD computing and graphics boss Jack Huynh doesn't beat around the bush. With gaming graphics, he explains, the goal is now building scale and market share at lower price points - not the King of the Hill" flagship GPUs that haven't convinced enough buyers to leave Nvidia behind.Here's the key passage from the first interview: