The Verge

Meta is adding group chats to Threads, allowing users to message multiple friends in shared conversations instead of sending separate DMs. Threads users can create a group chat by starting a new message and adding up to 50 people who follow their Threads account. The group chat name can be customized to make it easier [...]

Kobo announced an official remote control for its e-readers, allowing you to turn the page easily even when you don't have the e-reader to hand. While it won't quite allow you to read ebooks hands-free, it will help if you're trying to read while your hands are otherwise occupied by cooking or cats, or when [...]

Honor has announced what it's calling the Robot Phone," a concept device with an AI-enabled, gimbal-mounted camera that unfolds from the phone's rear and can shoot photos and film video in any direction. The phone - so far only seen in CGI form in a teaser video, with no glimpse of real hardware just yet [...]

Japan's government is dialing up the heat on OpenAI, formally asking it to stop ripping off Japanese artwork, according to ITMedia and reported by IGN. The company has been in copyright hell after the launch of its social video app Sora, which users swiftly filled with questionable AI-generated material. Minoru Kiuchi, whose many Japanese ministerial [...]

On Wednesday, the largest US group of unions called on employers and policymakers to join in an effort it's calling the workers first initiative on AI." Functionally, the effort by the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) amounts to strengthened collective bargaining in the workplace and advocating for regulations to limit [...]

Apple just announced a new model of its best and highest-end tablet, the iPad Pro. The new device comes with a couple of internal upgrades over the M4-powered model, most notably a brand-new chip, the M5. Apple says the chip brings up to 3.5x the AI performance" of last year's Pro, whatever that means, along [...]

Apple just revealed that the Vision Pro headset is getting upgraded to an M5 chip. There's also a new strap called the Dual Knit Band, which the company says will help users achieve an even more comfortable fit." The M5 headsets will be available starting October 22nd for the same $3,499. But aside from the [...]

Apple is refreshing its 14-inch MacBook Pro with a new processor. Announced this morning via press release, the entry-level MacBook Pro now features an M5 chip, faster storage, and a claimed 24 hours of battery life. The rest of the design remains the same, and the price still starts at $1,599 for a 10-core CPU [...]

Roku is updating its voice assistant with AI features that can answer questions about movies, shows, and actors, as well as help you find something to watch next. Now, instead of just following simple commands, Roku says its voice assistant can respond to questions like How scary is The Shining?" or What kind of fish [...]

What does "Xbox" mean? Some might say it can only refer to a box-shaped Microsoft game machine. Others will argue it's a collection of Xbox-native titles like Halo, Gears, Forza, and Fable. I think most would probably agree it's a game console experience, a way to kick back and easily play the latest games without [...]

Google is introducing new recovery tools that aim to make it less frustrating to regain access when you're locked out of your account. Instead of answering security questions or entering a recovery email address, Google's new security features allow account holders to verify their identity using a linked mobile number, or trusted friends or family [...]

Honor announced its Magic 8 and Magic 8 Pro flagships at a launch event in China today, with an international launch scheduled for later this year. They boast some of the biggest batteries in mainstream phones, along with a suite of AI features including a dedicated AI shortcut button. The version of the Magic 8 [...]

Ad-free podcasts are now officially available for Verge subscribers! There are a few steps to follow to set up ad-free feeds, so read on for instructions. If you're not yet a Verge subscriber but would like access to ad-free listening, you can go here. Like with all other subscription perks, subscribers can manage and update [...]

In May, The Verge reported that the US aviation system was so fragile that "the smallest disruption can throw the entire system into chaos." That disruption arrived on October 1st, when the federal government shut down over a budget dispute. Chaos has indeed ensued. More than 6,000 flights are being delayed every day, nearly twice [...]

Microsoft is busy rolling out new curvy and colorful new Office icons, and now it's revealing a set of design concepts it experimented with before finalizing these new icons. Some of the concepts are radically different from what Microsoft is shipping, with design explorations for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint that more closely resemble the Office [...]

We have some new insight into Apple's muddled rebrand of Apple TV Plus to Apple TV, courtesy of an interview with the company's senior vice president of services, Eddy Cue. Speaking on The Town podcast, Cue said that no consultants were involved, and that it was a collective decision to drop the Plus" from the [...]

London's iconic black cabs could soon face a new rival: Waymo. The Alphabet-owned company said today it intends to launch a fully driverless robotaxi service in London, starting in 2026 -marking its first effort to expand internationally. The UK currently doesn't have any fully driverless vehicles on the road. The government has said it will [...]

Samsung is finally about to reveal more details about its Project Moohan mixed reality headset. The company just announced a new Worlds Wide Open" Galaxy event that will take place on October 21st at 10PM ET, where it's promising to reveal details about the device. The headset will run on Android XR, a new mixed [...]

Netflix is no longer just a home for TV shows, movies, documentaries, and live WWE matches - soon, you'll be able to stream video podcasts, too. The streaming giant announced on Tuesday that it's partnering with Spotify's podcast studio and The Ringer to offer 16 series on its platform, including The Bill Simmons Podcast, Conspiracy [...]

Google might have yet another Pixel with a battery problem, and this time, affecting the brand new Pixel 10 Pro Fold. In a video published today, YouTuber JerryRigEverything, aka Zack Nelson, subjected the foldable to his usual durability tests, but as he's filming his bend test - after having already broken the phone open - [...]

YouTube is updating the look of the video player to be cleaner and more immersive" beginning this week. This includes updated controls and new icons to make the viewing experience more visually satisfying while obscuring less content," YouTube says. It started testing changes to the player earlier this year. A screenshot from YouTube shows how [...]

Meta has removed a Facebook page dedicated to tracking Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) action in Chicago after the Justice Department got involved. Attorney General Pam Bondi wrote on X Tuesday that Facebook had taken down an unnamed large group page that was being used to dox and target" ICE agents after outreach from the [...]

Apple is teasing the imminent launch of a new MacBook with an M5 chip. In an X post, Apple SVP of worldwide marketing Greg Joswiak wrote that something powerful is coming," and a short video in the post includes the words coming soon" and a silhouette of an Apple laptop. Joswiak's post also includes the [...]

OpenAI will soon allow erotica" for ChatGPT users who verify their age on the platform. In an X post on Tuesday, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said the company will add support for mature conversations when it launches age-gating in December. As we roll out age-gating more fully and as part of our treat adult users [...]

California has enacted new legislation that aims to limit companies from charging consumers exorbitant" fees to cancel fixed-term contracts. Assembly Bill 483 was signed into law by California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday, placing transparency requirements and fee limits on early terminations for installment contracts - plans that allow consumers to make recurring payments for [...]

5CA is a customer service support company that works with Discord. Recently, the chat platform said the vendor had been breached as part of a security incident" where 70,000 government ID photos may have leaked. Now, 5CA says in a post on its website that it was not hacked." According to Discord, this incident impacted [...]

After shaking up the Pokemon formula with Pokemon Legends: Arceus, its successor, Legends: Z-A, pushes things even further - and it's a very welcome change of pace. With Arceus, Nintendo and Game Freak demonstrated how much more vibrant, weird, and exciting the monster catching series could become with a few key changes to the classic [...]

Google is trying to make it easier to find time to meet with coworkers and clients. It's launching a new Gemini AI-powered Help me schedule" feature that suggests meeting time slots based on your Google Calendar and the context of the message. You can directly insert the suggestions into your email. The new Help me [...]

Thin phones are in, and Motorola doesn't want to miss out. It's teasing the imminent launch of the X70 Air in China, a slim phone with an unexpectedly big battery, which we're expecting to see launch in Europe as the Edge 70 soon too. The X70 Air is less than 6mm thick, putting it in [...]

If you're on the fence about trying a foldable smartphone, Motorola's Razr Ultra (2025) may be the one you've been waiting for, and you can pick it up for $999.99 ($300 off) at Amazon and Best Buy. Our reviewer praised its design (the wooden back panel has a layer of actual wood), and found Motorola [...]

Is a smartwatch better than a smartphone? Not which one is more important or which would you rather have, but simply which one is better? This is the kind of question you really never need to ask - but we're here to ask it. Why? Because Google has had a terrific year of gadget launches, [...]

Windows 10 is so popular that Windows 11 only overtook it in terms of usage just a few months ago. That's why I'm surprised that Microsoft is still, kind of, going ahead with its end of support cutoff today. At one point last year, I wasn't sure if Microsoft was actually going to end support [...]

SteelSeries is launching the second generation of its popular Nova 7 wireless gaming headset today, with support for real-time audio control and a massive 40 percent battery life improvement. If you're not interested in the $599.99 Nova Elite or the $349.99 Nova Pro, the Nova 7 Gen 2 is SteelSeries' more affordable midrange option at [...]

It's been more than a decade since there was a proper Splinter Cell game. So when Derek Kolstad, a writer best-known for creating the John Wick series, approached making the new animated Netflix adaptation, he treated it as if the story continued as the games were dormant. "I wanted to do it almost like the [...]

In the early 1970s, long before social media and more than a decade before the earliest internet forums, a woman named Peggie Ames became a human rolodex for trans women in New York state. Born in Buffalo, Ames spent years working for gay rights organizations in the rural and suburban areas of Western New York. [...]

DirecTV wants to use AI to put you, your family, and your pets inside a custom TV screensaver. If that's not uncanny enough, you'll find items you can shop for within that AI environment, whether it's a piece of clothing similar to the one your AI likeness is wearing or a piece of furniture that [...]

Spotify is expanding shared account features that make it easier for parents to control what their kids listen to. Managed accounts are now launching for Premium Family subscribers in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, Germany, France, and the Netherlands following a pilot that kicked off last year, allowing account holders to manage a separate music-only [...]

I renewed my passport the day after Trump won again. It wouldn't expire for years, but I did it anyway, along with many trans people I knew who could scrape together the fee. We all had the same thought: get your documents in order now, while you still can. For over a decade, I've written [...]

Instagram is making a major update to teen accounts that will only allow them to view content similar to what you would see in aPG-13 movie. Under the new system, Instagram will continue to hide content containing nudity, sexual content, or suggestive poses from teens, but now it will also avoid recommending content with strong [...]

It's the end of an era for TiVo. Cord Cutters flagged that the company has removed every digital video recorder product from its website, with TiVo confirming to the publication last week that it has officially ceased making DVR hardware after 26 years in the industry. Its last DVR release was the TiVo Edge in [...]

Meta, a company that is not shy about bolting new features onto its platforms, is bolting another new feature onto Facebook: jobs. This one is actually a throwback - Facebook initially introduced job postings in 2017, only to retire it less than five years later. But jobs are back now, with an emphasis toward local [...]

Microsoft AI just announced its first text-to-image generator, MAI-Image-1, designed and developed in-house. The tech giant, which recently announced its first in-house Microsoft AI models, called the new image generator the next step on our journey." Microsoft says it sought feedback from creative professionals in order to avoid repetitive or generically-stylized outputs." MAI-Image-1 excels" at [...]

Ads in Google search results are getting a more prominent label, and a way to hide them if you're not interested. Handy! The thing is, you still have to look at them first. Currently, Google labels paid results on search pages individually with a sponsored" tag on each one. This change groups them all into [...]

After a brutal few months, Tesla sales are finally picking up thanks to expiring federal EV tax credits. But while customers are snatching up Model 3s and Ys, they are increasingly turning up their noses at the newest addition to Tesla's lineup: the Cybertruck. Tesla only sold 5,385 Cybertrucks in the third quarter, down 63 [...]

A bill attempting to regulate the ever-growing industry of companion AI chatbots is now law in California, as of October 13th. California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law Senate Bill 243, billed as first-in-the-nation AI chatbot safeguards" by state senator Steve Padilla. The new law requires that companion chatbot developers implement new safeguards -for instance, [...]

California joins a growing group of states with a new internet age-gating law after Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed AB 1043, the Digital Age Assurance Act. The law mandates that device operating systems and app stores require users to enter their age or date of birth when setting up a new phone or computer. The [...]

The Apple TV Plus streaming service is being rebranded with a vibrant new identity," according to the Cupertino company, and is now simply Apple TV." The announcement was briefly mentioned at the bottom of Apple's latest press release regarding the December 12th streaming debut of F1 The Movie. At the time of writing, no changes [...]

EcoFlow just announced its latest most powerful" and easy-to-install" whole-home battery backup system. It's called the Delta Pro Ultra X because when you've already launched the superlative-lacedDelta Pro Ultra in 2024, the only thing left is to add a variable to the name. Perhaps that X stands for 60 percent, which is the increase in [...]

OpenAI is teaming up with Broadcom to produce its own computer chips to power its AI data centers. The deal is the latest in a series of partnerships designed to reduce the company's reliance on Nvidia and secure enough computing power to fuel apps like ChatGPT and Sora and realize its mission to develop superintelligent [...]