The Verge

Valve is testing a low-power way to complete downloads on your Steam Deck without having to leave the handheld running with the screen on. As part of an update that's currently on the Steam Deck's Beta and Preview channels, the handheld can complete all active downloads in a new display-off low-power mode before going to [...]

Apple Podcasts will soon include automatically-generated chapters for shows in English and allow creators to add links at specific timestamps in their episodes. Timed links may also be added to episodes automatically whenever creators mention another podcast. Creators can opt-out of both features, and chapters will only be generated when creators don't add their own. [...]

Did your Stream Deck sprout a red Device Not Supported" badge where a button used to be? If so, you were probably using BarRaider's popular plug-ins, which apparently check to see if StreamDeck.exe is digitally signed - and it just so happens that Elgato's digital signature expired yesterday (see image below). But as of 5PM [...]

Microsoft's first in-house AI image generator, MAI-Image-1, is now available in two products, Bing Image Creator and Copilot Audio Expressions. The company announced the model in October. Microsoft AI chief Mustafa Suleyman wrote in a post on X that the text-to-image model will be coming soon" to the EU. Suleyman added that the model really [...]

Nomad has announced updated versions of its Stand One and Stand One Max hubs that now support the Qi2.2 standard for faster wireless charging rates of up to 25W when used with compatible smartphones like the Pixel 10 Pro XL and the iPhone 16 and 17 series. As with previous versions, the new Stand One [...]

Amazon doesn't want to be a part of Perplexity's AI-powered shopping experience. In a post on Tuesday, the ecommerce giant says it has repeatedly requested" that Perplexity stop allowing its Comet AI browser to buy products for customers, which Perplexity has responded to by accusing Amazon of bullying." Perplexity's AI browser, Comet, currently offers an [...]

Hello and welcome to Regulator. Happy New York City mayoral election day to everyone who's voting, watching from afar, or just here for the memes. And happy 35th day of the federal government shutdown, which, as of today, is tied for the longest shutdown in history. But let's step back for a second, because there's [...]

This weekend, I turned my home into a test lab for Google's new Gemini for Home AI and subjected my family to 72 hours of surveillance as it watched, interpreted, and narrated our every move. My purpose? To find out if an AI that sees everything is actually helpful or just plain creepy. "R unpacking [...]

The legal fight over whether the president can send troops into Portland, Oregon, depends on whether judges believe their own eyes or their smartphones. Even before inception, the lawsuit has been dogged by a war on reality fueled by social media influencers, some of whom have direct lines to federal officials. At every turn, influencers [...]

After debuting a matchbox-sized handheld called the Arduboy Mini and a banana-shaped version of the original Arduboy, creator Kevin Bates has announced a new model of Arduboy FX called the FX-C with some welcome upgrades and new color options. For the first time, the credit card-sized Arduboy now has a USB-C port for charging, syncing, [...]

Now that spooky season's over, it's time to swap the pumpkins and skeletons for something a little more cheery ahead of the holidays. Govee's Christmas Lights 2 are customizable string lights that will add some smart home magic to your tree, with plenty of slack left over to adorn your space. Right now, they're discounted [...]

OpenAI has brought its AI video app, Sora, to Android. The app, which lets you create, share, and remix AI-generated videos, is now available on the Google Play Store in the US, Canada, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam, according to an announcement on Tuesday. OpenAI launched Sora on iOS in September, with the app [...]

During a press junket last week, Samsung showed a simulated demo of the new dynamic HDR format, and it includes six features similar to what the recently-revealed Dolby Vision 2 will offer. TVs from Samsung and any other manufacturers who support it will be able to boost picture brightness for 4,000-5,000 nit TVs that have [...]

Black Friday is still nearly a month off, but that hasn't stopped the big-name retailers -specifically Amazon, Walmart, and Best Buy -from discounting a slew of Fitbit devices in the run-up to the main event. Most of the company's smartwatches and fitness trackers are either matching or exceeding their lowest price to date, and in [...]

Between Prey and Predator: Killer of Killers, 20th Century Studios' classic survival thriller franchise has been on a tear with stories that get at the heart of what makes this world of alien big game hunters great. In both films, director Dan Trachtenberg stuck to the Predator series' narrative basics and focused on crafting clever [...]

Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales has jumped into a conflict over the online encyclopedia's page on Gaza genocide." Just days after a Wikipedia editor froze changes to the article, Wales posted a statement on a page dedicated to discussing edits, saying the article requires immediate correction" and is part of a broader neutrality problem on the [...]

Apple is working on a low-cost Mac laptop powered by an iPhone chip that it plans to launch in the first half of 2026, according to Bloomberg. The laptop will also have a a lower-end LCD display" and a screen size that's slightly below" the 13.6-inch screen on the current MacBook Air. The laptop will [...]

Google Maps is rolling out live lane guidance to drivers of the Google-powered electric Polestar 4. The company announced Tuesday that the new feature relies on the EV's front-facing camera to see" lane markings and road signs. That information feeds into Google Map's AI and provides the driver with customized audio and visual cues about [...]

If you're going to buy a phone in the next couple of days, you might already be considering one of Google's Pixel 10 devices. Whether you want the cheapest model, which, like the iPhone 17, is very good, or you want the better camera performance and extra AI features offered by the Pixel 10 Pro, [...]

There are a couple of universal truths about the smart home. Yes, you will come to treat your robot vacuum like a member of the family, and no, you cannot escape the fact that there will always be one light that doesn't turn on even though there's simply no reason it won't. These are just [...]

Amazon is using Alexa Plus to bring new AI capabilities to its Music streaming service. Starting today, customers in the Alexa Plus Early Access beta will be able to access the generative AI assistant within the Amazon Music app on iOS and Android, allowing users across all subscription tiers to request obscure information or complex [...]

AI companies know that children are the future - of their business model. The industry doesn't hide their attempts to hook the youth on their products through well-timed promotional offers, discounts, and referral programs. "Here to help you through finals," OpenAI said during a giveaway of ChatGPT Plus to college students. Students get free yearlong [...]

In 2010, when Microsoft unveiled the Kinect, it pitched the camera as a revolutionary new gaming device. Swing an imaginary lightsaber and that would be translated onscreen. Throw a football and it would be caught on your TV. Fifteen years later, we know the Kinect as an expensive failure. Microsoft overestimated the demand for playing [...]

The Switch 2's popularity has exceeded even Nintendo's anticipations, with the company raising its sales forecast for the console by more than 25 percent. In its latest earnings release, covering April 1st to September 30th, Nintendo now predicts that it'll sell 19 million Switch 2 units by March 2026, compared to its previous forecast of [...]

OpenAI says ChatGPT's behavior remains unchanged" after reports across social media falsely claimed that new updates to its usage policy prevent the chatbot from offering legal and medical advice. Karan Singhal, OpenAI's head of health AI, writes on X that the claims are not true." ChatGPT has never been a substitute for professional advice, but [...]

Apple has just released iOS 26.1, which includes a new transparency toggle for Liquid Glass, expanded language features, and new controls for the Apple Music and Camera apps. The toggle helps address some of the legibility issues introduced in iOS 26 by allowing iPhone users to tone down the glassy design for buttons, tabs, and [...]

Last month, General Motors added its name to the growing list of automakers who are pursuing a novel type of partially automated technology called "eyes-off driving." What they didn't do, though, is provide a thorough description of how they'll take responsibility when something goes wrong. Not to be confused with the type of "eyes-off" distracted [...]

Apple has launched its App Store on the web, offering a central hub where you can browse through different categories of apps across all of the company's devices, as spotted earlier by MacRumors and 9to5Mac. Now, when you navigate to apps.apple.com, you'll see the revamped interface instead of a webpage that just contains information about [...]

Gaming laptops come in various shapes and sizes, though many of the heavy hitters remain thick and beefy machines that maximize cooling to get the most out of their powerful chips. Most are awash in RGB lighting and edgy designs geared toward capital-G Gamers, but there are also thinner, lighter options that are more portable [...]

A person claiming to be one of the University of Pennsylvania hackers says that about "1.2 million lines of data" will be kept private for the group to sell before it is made public. The group also plans to make other documents public. In comments to The Verge, the hacker or hackers distanced themselves from [...]

With everything from the next Knives Out movie to the final season of Stranger Things on the way, there's going to be a ton of great stuff to stream in the coming weeks. And if you want to watch it all in glorious 4K resolution, Google's TV Streamer (4K) is a great streaming device that's [...]

Apple has shared a new intro sound and video that will accompany things you watch on the newly-renamed Apple TV streaming service. Apple rebranded Apple TV Plus to just Apple TV last month, and the previous intro prominently highlighted the plus, so it makes sense that Apple made a new version to accompany the updated [...]

The Content Overseas Distribution Association (CODA), an anti-piracy organization representing Japanese IP holders like Studio Ghibli and Bandai Namco, released a letter last week asking OpenAI to stop using its members' content to train Sora 2, as reported by Automaton. The letter states that CODA considers that the act of replication during the machine learning [...]

Coca-Cola is once again using generative AI to reimagine its classic Coke caravan holiday commercials, and in doing so, killing some of the festive joy you have for the brand. After receiving backlash for airing three AI-generated holiday commercials last year that featured gliding wheels and uncanny-looking faces, the company has doubled down with a [...]

For Big Tech, a penny invested in AI is a penny earned... Maybe. After an indeterminate amount of time. Investors hope. On earnings calls last week, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Meta reported more than $350 billion this year on capital expenditures, or longer-tail investments in a company's future. All four told investors to expect the [...]

If you haven't upgraded your Apple Watch in years (or haven't tried one at all) the Apple Watch SE 3 (40mm GPS) offers the best bang for your buck, and the Starlight color is down to a new all-time low of $199.99 ($50 off) at Amazon. Verge senior reviewer Victoria Song was impressed with how [...]

Waymo said it plans on launching commercial robotaxi services in three new cities: San Diego, Las Vegas, and Detroit. The announcement comes after the company said it would begin rapidly scaling to bring its fully driverless technology to more people on a faster timeline. Waymo didn't say exactly when it plans on opening up its [...]

OpenAI has struck a $38 billion deal with Amazon Web Services that will give the AI giant access to hundreds of thousands" of Nvidia GPUs to power its AI models. The seven-year partnership comes as Microsoft continues to loosen its grip on OpenAI, dropping its status as its exclusive cloud provider and losing the first [...]

For Mike Hill and Guillermo del Toro, it all started with Frankenstein. Years ago, Hill - a sculptor and special effects artist - was exhibiting his works at a convention in Burbank. Del Toro saw some of Hill's monstrous creations on display and was so impressed that he decided to get in touch, tracking down [...]

The Redmagic 11 Pro is the first phone (outside of a OnePlus concept design, at least) to feature true liquid cooling, and it's launching worldwide later this month -including the US, though you won't be able to buy it direct from any carriers. We've seen plenty of phones launch with vapor chambers and call it [...]

Google says it has pulled AI model Gemma from its AI Studio platform after a Republican senator complained the model, designed for developers, fabricated serious criminal allegations" about her. In a post on X, Google's official news account said the company had seen reports of non-developers trying to use Gemma in AI Studio and ask [...]

Logitech's Alto Keys K98M mechanical keyboard is now available in North America after its initial launch in China and other select markets. The $149.99 Alto Keys K98M is an almost full-size 1800-layout keyboard, offering a slightly compact design that maintains a number pad. But what makes the K98M special for a mass-market Logitech board is [...]

Spooky season is over, which means it's officially Mariah Carey season. It also means streaming services are already loading up on Christmas movies. On pure principle, they'll be omitted here - Santa doesn't need a full two months of our attention. Also, while not a movie, worth noting that season two of The Vince Staples [...]

Found footage movies are tough to pull off. For every classic like The Blair Witch Project or Rec, there are 100 movies like Slender and Megan Is Missing that are, at best, forgettable, and at worst, an affront to the very concept of cinema. My personal favorite, though, is Lake Mungo, a slow burn mockumentary [...]

The Microsoft Zune is mostly just a footnote in tech history. Microsoft spent years - and vast sums of money - trying to create a true competitor to Apple's iPod, without ever coming close to actually pulling it off. The Zune was simply too little, too late. You know what's surprising about the Zune, though? [...]

There is no more chaotic activity than willfully entering a grocery store without a list. I know. Some people thrive on vibes-based grocery shopping. They can come up with meals on the fly, buy what's on sale and work around that, or follow some bizarre "3-3-2-2-1" rule or whatever I'm always seeing on Instagram. I [...]

This is The Stepback, a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more on the real-world effects of Trump's tariffs, follow Mia Sato. The Stepback arrives in our subscribers' inboxes at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepback here. How it started The economists tried to warn us. From the [...]

Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 104, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you're new here, welcome, happy belated Halloween, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.) This week, I've been reading about lotteries and Jennifer Lawrence and religious AI, shame-watching Finding Mr. [...]

There are plenty of good smartwatches out there, and Google's last-gen Pixel Watch 3 is one of them. Right now, the 45mm / Wi-Fi model is available at Amazon, Walmart, and Target for $199.99 ($100 off), which is a new low price and $150 less than the Pixel Watch 4. In her review, our own [...]

Ayaneo is best known for its retro gaming handhelds, but the company has now confirmed its first phone will be coming soon. Ayaneo briefly teased that it was working on a phone back in August during the event where it unveiled the dual-screen Pocket DS. Of course, many of the company's gaming handhelds run a [...]