The Verge

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Amazon has shared some new AI-focused offerings at its annual AWS conference. Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge If you ever wanted to make your website sound a little more silly, now's your chance. Google Registry just released a new top-level domain that lets you slap a big ol' .meme at the end of your website.The new .meme domains are available to register right now as part of an early access period for an additional one-time fee." If you don't want to pay extra, you can wait until they become publicly available on December 5th at 4PM UTC (12PM ET) to pay just the base annual price.There are already a handful of sites that are embracing the .meme domain, some of which are dedicated to memes from the days of yore, including grumpycat.meme, nyancat.meme, and keyboardcat.meme. The meme tracker knowyour.meme even adopted the new domain. However,... Continue reading...

You can still buy a pack of four AirTags for $20 off. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge It's the most wonderful time of the year? Pfft, more like the most expensive. Gifts, travel, decorations, parties... these can all put a real dent in your wallet. That's why we're working hard to help you save in every way, from curating budget-friendly gift guides to offering deal-hunting tips. And now that Cyber Monday is done and dusted, we're rounding up the best deals you can still get for less than $100.There's still a range of discounted gadgets and goods to choose from, including fitness trackers like the Fitbit Charge 6, AirTags, and Legos featuring Sega's iconic mascot. And there are also deals that'll help you save on other expenses, like streaming services, making it a good time to lock down those subscriptions before the... Continue reading...

Image: Warner Bros. Animation It turns out that Warner Bros. Discovery actually won't be pulling Looney Tunes from Max.On Monday, in a 4:02PM ET email with the subject line What's New on Max This December," Warner Bros. Discovery listed Looney Tunes and The Looney Tunes Show among the titles leaving Max on December 31st. Even though Looney Tunes is a signature Warner Bros. franchise, removing episodes of the cartoon wouldn't be unprecedented; Warner Bros. Discovery pulled seasons 16-31 of the show from HBO Max at the end of last year. The company also recently shelved the nearly finished Coyote vs. Acme film, though that movie is now reportedly being shopped around.But a few hours later, the company announced that Looney Tunes' inclusion on the list of Max... Continue reading...

Sizovs is also believed to be running (or at least influencing) the popular Coding Unicorn tech influencer across social media. | Image: The Verge Something seems to be amiss with the diverse speaker list of the Devternity and JDKon developer conferences. The women, some of whom allegedly work for the parent company of both conferences, Dev.events, do not appear to exist. Devternity founder Eduards Sizovs has come under fire for creating fake women guest speakers for the events - and possibly creating a popular tech influencer" that's amassed over 115,000 real-world followers on Instagram.As first noted by 404 Media, on November 24th, engineer Gergely Orosz claimed that several women listed to appear as Devternity speakers - including Coinbase staff engineer Anna Boyko and Coinbase software craftswoman" Natalie Stadler - didn't actually exist and were made up by the event... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Apple Music Replay has arrived. The year-end summary of your most-listened-to songs, artists, albums, and more is now available from Apple Music's webpage - just days before Spotify is expected to drop its Wrapped stats.While Apple launched Replay in 2019, it gave the feature a major update last year that makes it a lot more like Spotify Wrapped. But unlike Wrapped, which offers a set of super shareable charts, the stats presented in Apple Music Replay just aren't as attractive to post online, and they're not directly available within the Apple Music app. You can still get your 2023 Replay playlist in the Apple Music app, though. Image: Apple Like last year, Apple Music Replay will show a fun highlight reel of all... Continue reading...

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Black Friday and Cyber Monday may be in the past, but some sales are still hanging around (although maybe not for long). For more leftover deals we recommend across all categories, be sure to check out the rest of the Cyber Monday still available here.Every month or so, we like to ask our staff about their favorite stuff - whether it's pet toys, travel aids, kitchen gadgets, or straightforward tech. And the results are usually very different, very interesting, and a lot of fun.In celebration of the annual post-Thanksgiving sales, we looked through some of our recent favorites" articles and found deals on a lot of the tech, kitchen tools, travel aids, and pet toys we like. We thought we'd list a few in case you've read about them in... Continue reading...

Airplanes at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) in Arlington, Virginia, on Tuesday, November 21st, 2023. | Image: Haiyun Jiang / Bloomberg via Getty Images American Airlines signed a deal to trap 10,000 tons of carbon dioxide underground. It's part of the airline's plans to limit the pollution causing climate change, and it marks the first major deal for the Bill Gates-backed startup Graphyte that's developing cutting-edge technology to tackle the problem.Similar startups are selling services to big brands that want to draw down some of the planet-heating emissions they release into the atmosphere. They're developing technology that filters CO2 out of the air or seawater - equipment that's so expensive that it hasn't been able to scale enough to make a meaningful dent in carbon emissions.It marks the first major deal for the Bill Gates-backed startup Graphyte that's developing... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Black Friday and Cyber Monday may be in the past, but some sales are still hanging around (although maybe not for long). For more leftover deals we recommend across all categories, be sure to check out the rest of the Cyber Monday still available here.If it feels like every streaming service received a price hike this year, it's probably because most of them have. Netflix, Apple TV Plus, Discovery Plus, and Disney Plus are just a few recent examples, though there are still ways to weather the price increases. Many Cyber Monday sales are still live, after all, offering an excellent way to save on your monthly streaming bill.In fact, some streaming services are offering deals that offset their recent price hikes - well, at least... Continue reading...

Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge I am a devoted Apple Music user, and you will pry the service out of my cold, dead hands. Still, I've spent the past few Decembers incredibly jealous of the sea of Spotify rewinds that populated my friends' social media profiles.Sure, Apple has always had ways to see your most-played songs over given periods of time. But it hasn't had anything nearly as comprehensive or interesting as what Spotify puts out - at least, until this year.I wouldn't go so far as to say that Replay, Apple Music's answer to Spotify Wrapped, is quite the same as its time-honored competitor. Still, it shows you the basics - your top artists, your top songs, stuff like that.Here's how to get it up and running.How to look up your Apple Music ReplayYou can... Continue reading...

Photo illustration by Alex Parkin / The Verge The co-founder of website builder Wix is embracing generative AI, and he's not too worried that it might destroy the business models of the web. Continue reading...

Alex Parkin How do you bring back a vanishing coral reef? That's what conservationists are racing to do in the Florida Keys, where they're coming up with a whole new playbook for saving corals.Over the summer, they did what used to be the unthinkable: they took thousands of corals out of the sea to save them from a killer ocean heatwave. Hot tub-like temperatures might have wiped them out otherwise. Now, what's next?The Verge visited the evacuated corals where they found temporary refuge on land. We spent time at a gene bank, home to a new generation of baby corals that could one day repopulate Florida's reefs. And we learned how to map restoration efforts out in the open ocean.It's all part of a massive effort to safeguard a future for coral... Continue reading...

Google partnered with clean energy startup Fervo on a new geothermal project in Nevada that will send electricity to the grid that serves two of Google's data centers. | Image: Google A first-of-its-kind geothermal project is now up and running in Nevada, where it will help power Google's data centers with clean energy.Google is partnering with startup Fervo, which has developed new technology for harnessing geothermal power. Since they're using different tactics than traditional geothermal plants, it is a relatively small project with the capacity to generate 3.5 MW. For context, one megawatt is enough to meet the demand of roughly 750 homes. The project will feed electricity into the local grid that serves two of Google's data centers outside of Las Vegas and Reno.It's part of Google's plan to run on carbon pollution-free electricity around the clock by 2030. To reach that goal, it'll have to get more sources of... Continue reading...

(Left) Badring water leak sensor; (Right) the Parasoll door and window sensor pair. | Image: Ikea Ikea's push to democratize the smart home continues with the introduction of three new Zigbee sensors that won't break the bank. There's Parasoll, the door and window sensor; Vallhorn, the motion sensor; and Badring, the water leakage sensor. They'll all be priced less than $10 when they go on sale globally in the first half of next year.Parasoll is a typical window and door sensor that can be discretely mounted to trigger an automation when an open / close event is detected. It can also be paired directly with an Ikea light bulb right out of the box without needing to buy and configure an Ikea Home smart hub. It's priced at 9.99 in Europe, but exact US pricing is yet to be confirmed for it or any of Ikea's three new sensors. ... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge If you've got an old Google account that you want to keep but haven't used in the past couple of years, you'll want to sign into it soon to prevent its deletion under Google's inactive account policy. The new rules were announced in May, when Google said that the earliest it would begin deleting accounts was in December 2023. Google has since started emailing affected users saying accounts will be eligible for deletion from December 1st.To be clear, Google hasn't said it would delete every eligible account starting on Friday. The company says it plans to take a phased approach, starting with accounts that were created and never used again." But now seems like as good a time as any to make sure your old accounts are in order so you... Continue reading...

Photo by Jaap Arriens / NurPhoto via Getty Images AWS added new languages to its Amazon Transcribe product, offering generative AI-based transcription for 100 languages and a slew of new AI capabilities for customers.Announced during the AWS re: Invent event, Amazon Transcribe can now recognize more spoken languages and spin up a call transcription. AWS customers use Transcribe to add speech-to-text capabilities to their apps on the AWS Cloud.The company said in a blog post that Transcribe trained on millions of hours of unlabeled audio data from over 100 languages" and uses self-supervised algorithms to learn patterns of human speech in different languages and accents. AWS said it ensured that some languages were not overrepresented in the training data to ensure that lesser-used... Continue reading...

The Yeedi Cube is the cheapest robot vacuum / mop that has a self-empty / self-clean dock, and it's $200 off today. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge The robots are coming... for your floors. If all you want for Christmas are clean carpets, check out some of the bargains you can grab during Cyber Monday on the best robot vacuums and mops you can buy. Even though Cyber Monday doesn't technically happen until tomorrow, you can get all of these deals now.From simple suckers like the Roborock's Q5 Pro that will best pet hair, to the all-singing, all-mopping DreameBot L20 Ultra, the prices are falling as hard as these robots can suck up dirt.Here's my pick of the best deals out there this holiday shopping week.Best robot vacuum deals under $450

Illustration: The Verge Tumblr is doing away with Post Plus, the feature that lets creators charge users a subscription to access their content. Starting on December 1st, creators will no longer be able to enable Post Plus on their blogs.The discontinuation of Post Plus comes just weeks after a leaked memo revealed the platform's plans to downsize after struggling to meet usage and revenue targets. At the time, Matt Mullenweg, the CEO of Tumblr's parent company Automattic, said the company had plans to focus on the core functionality" of Tumblr going forward.It appears Post Plus, which launched in 2021, is the first feature on Automattic's chopping block. In a post on Tumblr, the platform's staff members say they originally introduced Post+ to uplift and... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Google says it's investigating Google Drive users' reports claiming that their personal files have unexpectedly vanished from the cloud service. The company acknowledged the issue today in a new Google community support thread and believes it involves a limited subset" of Google Drive for desktop app users. Google notes it's a sync issue for Google Drive desktop versions 84.0.0.0 through 84.0.4.0.One of the users, who lost all of their Google Drive data going back to May, discovered the unwelcome surprise last week and took their grievances to Google's community support site, as reported by The Register. Google's support team, as the user explains, walked them through a data recovery process, including attempting to backup and restore... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge YouTube is branching out into games - at least for its paid subscribers. The platform is giving Premium users access to a set of online games that can be directly played on either the mobile app or desktop app. Known as Playables," the company first debuted the experimental feature to select users in September. As noted by Droid-Life, YouTube sent a notification last week to Premium subscribers informing them of Playables and allowing them to try it out. Those who opt in will be able to play a total of 37 mini-games that effectively live inside YouTube - there's no need to download or install them.The selection of games isn't too challenging or out there" - they include crowd-pleasers like Angry Birds Showdown, Brain Out, Daily... Continue reading...

Image: The Verge ffSports Illustrated published articles that were attributed to fake AI-generated authors, according to reporting by Futurism. The authors include Drew Ortiz," who's spent much of his life outdoors," and Sora Tanaka," who is a fitness guru, and loves to try different foods and drinks."Futurism found the associated author headshots for sale on an AI-generated image website, and someone involved in the creation of the content told the outlet that there are a lot" of similar fake writers. Rachael Fink, a spokesperson for The Arena Group, which publishes Sports Illustrated, disputed the suggestion that the stories themselves are AI-generated. Drew Ortiz" grew up in a farmhouse. His face is also for sale on an AI... Continue reading...

Google's HD Chromecast may not go up to 4K resolution, but it's still a great 1080p streamer that's just $20. | Image: Google Every Black Friday and Cyber Monday, there's always a ton of hype about the discounts on big-ticket items - you know, the deals on the OLED TVs, game consoles, and tablets of the world. But it never fails that many of the ultra-cheap items make for some of the most clutch deals, namely because spending very little on a small accessory you end up using all the time can be the most gratifying.This year, throughout the annual shopping weekend, we're once again keeping an eye out for the best tech deals on those little gadgets and gizmos under $25. We've also got roundups for those working with $50 or $100 budgets, but the items below are pretty much as cheap as you can get in the tech world without simply buying absolute crap that's... Continue reading...

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge There's no better time to stock up on games and gaming accessories than Cyber Monday, and this year, we're seeing sizable discounts on some of the biggest titles released this year - a year, need I remind you, that's been inundated with many excellent games.While not all of this year's biggest games are getting significant discounts, titles like Final Fantasy XVI and Star Wars Jedi: Survivor are. And when it comes to slightly older games, many, like Doom Eternal, can be had for a pittance, making this a great time to stock up on the releases you might have missed months or even years ago.As for gaming accessories and peripherals, Cyber Monday always presents a cornucopia of worthwhile discounts on things like controllers, headsets,... Continue reading...

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge The hard-to-resist holiday sales have officially arrived, with many headphones and earbuds from the biggest tech brands discounted to their lowest prices ever for Black Friday and Cyber Monday. And if you've been holding off for the best possible savings on something from Apple, Sony, Samsung, Google, and other brands, you're likely not going to do better than these early Cyber Monday 2023 offers.I'm not expecting any major new products from the biggest headphone makers anytime soon, so you don't need to worry about buyer's remorse should you decide to jump on any of the deals below. Heading into the colder months, it's always worth factoring in that headphones can double as earmuffs on a morning commute. But at the same time, it's... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge European Union regulators have sent a statement of objections to Amazon about the company's proposed $1.7 billion acquisition of Roomba maker iRobot. In a press release, the European Commission says that it has informed Amazon of its preliminary view that its proposed acquisition of iRobot may restrict competition in the market for robot vacuum cleaners."Amazon announced in August 2022 that it planned to acquire iRobot. The proposed acquisition has since come under regulatory scrutiny, with the European Commission revealing an investigation in July 2023. British regulators looked at the deal but cleared it in June. The Federal Trade Commission requested information about the deal from Amazon and iRobot in September 2022.The European... Continue reading...

The Ecobee Smart Thermostat Premium is down to $220 for Cyber Monday. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge If you missed out on grabbing a bargain on smart home gear this Black Friday, Cyber Monday is here to save you. There are still plenty of deep discounts to be found on smart speakers and smart displays as well as robot vacuums that you can control with a command and smart speaker and video doorbells whose live feeds you can see through one of those smart displays.There are also some excellent deals on smart door locks, smart lights, and smart plugs, including some of the first discounts we're seeing on Matter-compatible devices. So, read on for my picks of the best smart home gear bargains out there.Best deals on smart speakers and smart displays

A November 1920 issue of Popular Science. | Image: Popular Science via Wikimedia Commons After 151 years, Popular Science will no longer be available to purchase as a magazine. In a statement to The Verge, Cathy Hebert, the communications director for PopSci owner Recurrent Ventures, says the outlet needs to evolve" beyond its magazine product, which published its first all-digital issue in 2021.PopSci, which covers a whole range of stories related to the fields of science, technology, and nature, published its first issue in 1872. Things have changed a lot over the years, with the magazine switching to a quarterly publication schedule in 2018 and doing away with the physical copies altogether after 2020.In a post on LinkedIn, former PopSci editor Purbita Saha commented on the magazine's discontinuation, stating she's... Continue reading...

Photo by JOHAN NILSSON/TT News Agency/AFP via Getty Images Tesla sued Sweden's postal agency after mail workers in the country refused to deliver license plates in solidarity with striking service autoworkers.As CNBC reports, the company calls postal workers' refusal to deliver license plates a discriminatory attack" and says that the Swedish government has a constitutional obligation" to get plates to vehicle owners.About 130 workers at seven Tesla repair shops in Sweden have walked out in the past month as ordered by their labor union, IF Metall, the largest union for manufacturer workers in the country. Tesla has refused to negotiate a collective bargaining agreement with the striking workers. Other unions have thrown in their support, including dock workers who won't take Tesla vehicles... Continue reading...

Image: Bungie Bungie officially confirmed on Monday that Destiny 2: The Final Shape is delayed until June 4th, 2024. Reports of a delay to the expansion emerged last month after Bungie started making layoffs at the studio amid a drop in Destiny 2 players after the poorly received Lightfall release.Bungie reportedly laid off around 8 percent of Bungie employees, affecting roles in community management, engineering, social media, QA, and more. Now, the Halo creator is taking its time to get things right with The Final Shape after negative reviews and player sentiment from the Lightfall expansion.The Final Shape is an ambitious expansion that's meant to conclude Destiny's light and darkness saga. Bungie has shown very little about the expansion so... Continue reading...

iRobot's flagship robot vacuum and mop the j9 Combo Plus is $400 off for Cyber Monday. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge With a new owner looming, iRobot is already getting into the Amazon discounting game by dropping the prices on its brand-new vacuums this Cyber Monday. On Friday, it started with its new budget and midrange lines, the Roomba Combo i5 Plus and Combo j5 Plus, and on Sunday, iRobot slashed $400 off its new top-of-the-line models, the j9 Plus and Combo j9 Plus.The Roomba j9 Plus is the company's new flagship robot vacuum and is on sale for $599, down from $899 at Amazon, Best Buy, and Wellbots. It comes with a self-empty dock and all the smarts of the Roomba j7, including AI-powered obstacle avoidance to steer clear of household clutter such as cords, clothes, shoes, and pet poop, plus higher suction power than the previous... Continue reading...

Google's Pixel 7A is down to just $374, matching the best price we've seen on the excellent midrange phone. | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge If you've been putting off a new phone purchase all year, then I have great news: your procrastination is about to pay off. Cyber Monday is here, and there are already plenty of excellent deals to be had on Pixels, iPhones, and Galaxy devices, many of which are selling for hundreds of dollars below MSRP. And even if you picked up a new phone recently, it's a great time to stock up on some new cases, chargers, and accessories. And when you're done looking at phones, be sure to check out our roundup of the best Cyber Monday deals for a whole host of other discounted tech.The best deals on phone chargers, cases, and accessories

This Amazon Smart Thermostat deal will also help your loved ones save money on their energy bills this season. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge Do you know what's even better than scoring a good deal on a cool holiday gift? Getting a second gift for free. Right now, you can buy an Amazon Smart Thermostat bundled with Amazon's Echo Pop smart speaker from Amazon for $69.98 ($50 off). By itself, the Echo Pop costs $39.99 and the Amazon Smart Thermostat is $79.99, so you're essentially getting a free Echo Pop you can gift to another person on your list - we won't tell!We featured both gadgets in our gift guides because they're budget-friendly presents that'll make your giftee's life easier. Amazon's Smart Thermostat makes it easy for your loved ones to keep warm during the winter, and even adapts to their habits and preferences. It can also help them save money on their energy... Continue reading...

ByteDance has not confirmed how many employees will be affected by the restructuring. | Photo by Roslan Rahman / AFP via Getty Images TikTok parent company ByteDance is planning to wind down its Nuverse gaming brand and walk away from the mainstream video game industry, according to a new report by Reuters. Four unnamed sources told the publication on Monday that the decision will likely impact hundreds of employees, some of whom were only informed about the company's restructuring efforts over the weekend.We regularly review our businesses and make adjustments to centre on long-term strategic growth areas. Following a recent review, we've made the difficult decision to restructure our gaming business," a ByteDance spokesperson told Reuters. Nuverse, a subsidiary set up by ByteDance in 2019, was focused on standalone mobile and web games, including publishing the... Continue reading...

A pair of 15-inch M2 MacBook Air laptops at Frore Systems' HQ in San Jose, California. | Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge Two Fridays ago, I drove down to a squat single-story Silicon Valley office building to see a MacBook Air. There was no security guard, no need to badge in, not even a PR person in my demo room. That's because I wasn't visiting Apple headquarters for an unannounced laptop. Instead, I went to San Jose to see an existing MacBook - one surgically modified to prove how far an exotic cooling tech has come.Frore Systems is a startup with $116 million in funding, and I've shown you its first product before: the AirJet Mini is a piezoelectric cooling chip that weighs just nine grams and is thinner than two US quarters stacked together. Each nominally consumes one watt and can remove 4.25 additional watts of heat. Here's the question: what... Continue reading...

Apple's AirTag, our favorite Bluetooth tracker for iPhone owners, is available starting at just $23.99. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge It's the time of year again when utter chaos descends upon airports nationwide. That means the chances of losing your luggage are higher than usual, so it's worth preparing for the commotion if you're planning to travel.Right now, you can buy a single AirTag for just $23.99 ($5 off) at Amazon and Walmart, which is a rare discount that's just $1 shy of the tracker's all-time low price. If you want to buy even more AirTags, Amazon, Walmart, and Best Buy are also currently selling a four-pack for $79.99, about $20 off, which is $5 shy of their best price yet. This is the same discount we saw last week for Black Friday - and one likely to carry through Cyber Monday - but it remains one of our favorite budget-friendly deals we've seen so... Continue reading...