The Verge

Sharge has made a name for itself amongst the tech-obsessed with chargers and power banks featuring eye-catching designs and extra functionality. Power bank feature creep is more often than not a bad thing, but Sharge is unabashedly leaning into the trend with its new Shargeek 300. We first went hands on with it over a [...]

Facebook is rolling out new AI features that let you animate your profile picture and restyle Stories and Memories. You'll also be able to add animated backgrounds to text posts to make them pop in the feed. With the animated profile pictures, you'll be able to give a still photo motion with some preset types [...]

A few weeks ago, I locked eyes with Sir Ian McKellen as he told me a story about how I was born, where I grew up, and when I would eventually die. Some of the details were a little off, but others were so unsettlingly on the money that it felt like he really did [...]

If you like to take your workouts outside, open-ear earbuds are helpful for staying aware of surroundings, but that extra peace of mind often comes at the expense of bass. The Shokz OpenFit Air Earbuds actually try to address that problem, though, and they're currently $79.95 ($40 off) at Amazon, Target, and directly from Shokz [...]

Microsoft is automatically replacing boot-level security certificates on Windows devices before they start expiring later this year. The new Secure Boot certificates will be rolled out as part of the regular Windows platform updates, according to Microsoft's announcement blog, marking a "generational refresh" of the security standard. Secure Boot was introduced in 2011 to protect [...]

Google is expanding its tools for removing your sensitive information and nonconsensual images from its search results. The company announced on Tuesday that you can now use its "results about you" tool to remove your driver's license, passport, and Social Security number from search, in addition to your phone number and address. Once you add [...]

Nostalgia's getting expensive. When Razer announced last December it would be relaunching the world's first gaming mouse with a few modern upgrades, it didn't reveal how much the Razer Boomslang 20th Anniversary Edition would cost or when it would be released. The company will officially open preorders for the mouse on February 10th at 8AM [...]

Telegram users in Russia may begin noticing service disruptions on Tuesday after Russia's communications regulator, Roskomnadzor, reportedly moved to slow down and restrict access to the app, as reported by Russian news outlet RBC. Roskomnadzor said in a statement to RBC, translated using machine translation, that it "will continue to introduce successive restrictions" on Telegram, [...]

Microsoft wants to design more efficient data centers using materials that allow electricity to flow with zero resistance. If these new materials, called high-temperature superconductors, can make it to market, Microsoft thinks it could be a game changer for how data centers and the energy infrastructure they connect to are built. Tech companies are facing [...]

Just over a year after OM System launched its vintage-styled OM-3 Micro Four Thirds mirrorless camera, the company has announced a new version with a handful of upgrades catering to astrophotography. The new OM-3 Astro will be available starting in March 2026 for $2,499.99, which is $500 more expensive than the standard model. Both can [...]

A postmodern surrealist tale of geopolitics. An otaku's hellbent journey to become the top-ranked assassin. A high school cheerleader who kills zombies with a chainsaw and pompoms, with a story co-written by James Gunn. Every project under the Grasshopper Manufacture umbrella sounds like an unlikely anecdote. The Japanese video game studio founded in 1998 by [...]

Autodesk, a company known for its suite of 3D design software, is suing Google over claims that it infringed on its "Flow" trademark, as reported earlier by Reuters. The lawsuit, filed in a California court last week, alleges that the name of Google's AI video generator, Flow, will likely confuse customers with Autodesk's own AI-enabled [...]

When you buy a new Nintendo device, there are a few things you can expect: namely, some excellent Super Mario, Pokemon, and Legend of Zelda games, and maybe a great Animal Crossing, Mario Kart, or Smash Bros. The question mark has always been the other stuff. But with the Switch 2, it doesn't seem like [...]

We have long had our doubts about the Trump Phone. Since its very first debut, the device - technically called the Trump Mobile T1 Phone 8002 - has seemed utterly impossible to execute as advertised. The Trump Mobile team has also spent the last eight months rapidly moving the goalposts, changing specs and making increasingly [...]

Discord is about to force some of the people who use its messaging app to make a choice: Use the platform with restricted features, or prove their age. It's a move that platforms have been slowly approaching, but Discord's teen-by-default rollout is a stronger clampdown that could offer a glimpse at an age-gated future on [...]

After a week vibe coding apps using Nothing's Essential Apps Builder, I'm conflicted. I buy into the smartphone maker's vision for software that adapts to you, not the other way around, but right now it doesn't deliver. It's hard to see how this goes from cool novelty to a reliable tool without serious refinement, and [...]

At the center of a consequential case about social media liability is a key question: did Meta lie or mislead the public about the safety of its platform, while knowing something very different? The state of New Mexico opened its case Monday arguing that public statements by Meta's top executives regularly contradicted its own internal [...]

Beast Industries, owned by YouTuber Jimmy "MrBeast" Donaldson, announced on Monday that it has acquired Step, a banking app designed for teens and young adults. The move comes a couple of months after Donaldson announced plans to start a new YouTube channel centered on personal finance and investing. His main channel has 466 million subscribers [...]

ChatGPT users may soon start seeing ads in their chats, as OpenAI announced on Monday that it's officially beginning to test ads on its AI platform. They'll appear as labeled "sponsored" links at the bottom of ChatGPT answers, but OpenAI says the ads "do not influence the answers ChatGPT gives you." Currently, ads will only [...]

One year and nearly 2,000 pages of documents later, a group suing to uncover what the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) was doing at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) says the agency has withheld relevant documents "in bad faith" and is asking a court to allow discovery and depositions to draw out the information. "Thus [...]

Using a game engine in a "digital cockpit" is useful for things like step-by-step 3D tutorials about a car, mapping the environment around your car, and offering more natural controls, explained Jamie Kerber, an employee of Very Good Ventures, at the FOSDEM 2026 conference. She's a lead engineer on Fluorite, a game engine for use [...]

If you haven't yet updated to the new Apple Home, your smart home devices may no longer work in the Home app on your iPhone, iPad, Mac, or Apple Watch starting Tuesday. On February 10, 2026, Apple will end support for the original HomeKit architecture. The biggest impact of the change will be felt by [...]

It feels like everyone who produced ad spots for this year's Super Bowl with generative AI failed in terms of making gen AI seem useful or like something worth getting excited about. Though we've seen plenty of AI-generated commercials before (at previous Super Bowls, no less), this year's event was oversaturated with them. That's in [...]

Ferrari released the first interior images of the company's first all-electric supercar, called the Ferrari Luce ("light" in Italian). This is the second time the Italian automaker has teased the Luce (formerly Elettrica) without showing us the actual car, or even a silhouette. But the interior images should suffice given the bold-faced name of the [...]

The Pixel 9A is an incredible phone that's worth hopping on while it's $349 for the 128GB version in blue, black, or pink at Amazon and Best Buy. It's discounted ahead of the new Pixel 10A, for which Google will open pre-orders on February 18. That's also when the company will share more details regarding [...]

Following images of Sony's new WF-1000XM6 earbuds shared by a retailer last week ahead of an official announcement, reliable leaker billbil-kun has revealed what they're claiming are the full specs and new features of the company's next flagship buds. The WF-1000XM6 will be powered by a new QN3e processor that's "three times faster" than what's [...]

On Sunday, Linux developer Linus Torvalds announced the release of Linux 6.19, which will be the last update in this kernel cycle, as previously reported by Phoronix. It adds support for the modern AMDGPU driver for older AMD GCN 1.0 and 1.1 graphics cards, like Radeon HD 7000 series GPUs, along with Vulkan support through [...]

YouTube TV has shared more details about the custom channel packages it will start rolling out this week. The new packages are cheaper than YouTube TV's standard $82.99 / month plan, and will span sports, entertainment, and news. Here's a breakdown of each package: YouTube TV says people who sign up for one of these [...]

Today, I'm talking with Roland Busch, who is the CEO of Siemens. Siemens is one of those absolutely giant, extremely important, but fairly opaque companies we love to dig into on Decoder. At a very basic, reductive level, Siemens makes the hardware and software that allow other companies to run and automate their stuff. Everyone [...]

OpenAI plans to start testing ads in ChatGPT today, according to a report from CNBC. The "clearly labeled" ads will appear in a separate area beneath your chat, OpenAI announced last month. A source close to the situation tells CNBC that OpenAI "expects ads to make up less than half of its revenue long term." [...]

Discord announced on Monday that it's rolling out age verification on its platform globally starting next month, when it will automatically set all users' accounts to a "teen-appropriate" experience unless they demonstrate that they're adults. Users who aren't verified as adults will not be able to access age-restricted servers and channels, won't be able to [...]

Nintendo and Xbox each had their turn, and now PlayStation is up. Sony just announced its next big State of Play showcase, which will stream on February 12th at 5PM ET. There aren't many details on what to expect, but Sony says that the event will be more than an hour long and include "eye-catching [...]

Despite the convoluted journey between concept and finished product, despite all the many things that change between initial prototype and whatever ends up in players' hands, something always remains of the initial feeling that inspired a video game. If you know what to listen for, it's easy to hear the echo of that original idea. [...]

Warner Bros. Discovery has announced that streaming service HBO Max will make its long-awaited debut in the UK and Ireland on March 26th, having previously promised that a launch would happen in early 2026. Until now, most HBO content has been exclusively available in the UK through Sky or the streaming service Now TV. In [...]

Live Nation executives have reportedly sidestepped the Justice Department's antitrust division to negotiate directly with more sympathetic senior officials in the hopes of avoiding a monopoly trial. Citing "people familiar with the matter," Semafor reports that some talks have excluded antitrust chief Gail Slater, who has pushed for a trial to take place in March [...]

Kit Rocha and Courtney Milan have a knack for drawing attention to a cause. The bestselling romance novelists helped raise half a million dollars for Georgia voting rights in 2020. Now, their cause is whistles, because whistles let neighbors alert each other when they see ICE agents abducting people. They've helped create a group that's [...]

As if OpenAI didn't have enough drama around the Super Bowl and advertising, as the game wound down, word spread of a "leaked" ad that actually wasn't leaked at all; it was just a fake. Screenshots of a now-deleted Reddit thread told the tale of a frustrated employee who, while posting about how upset they [...]

Free YouTube Music accounts are now seeing their access to lyrics limited, according to multiple reports. Google started testing lyrics as an exclusive feature for Premium users in September, but it appears that it's now receiving a wider rollout. It seems that free users will be limited to viewing lyrics for five songs per month, [...]

New York's state legislature is set to consider a pair of bills that would require labels on AI-generated content and would put a three-year pause on new data center construction. The New York Fundamental Artificial Intelligence Requirements in News Act (NY FAIR News Act, for short) would require that any news "substantially composed, authored, or [...]

Often, I focus on recommending older media that isn't currently getting a ton of attention. But this week, I can't stop listening to the new Mandy, Indiana album long enough to even think about anything else. It's early still, obviously, but URGH is my favorite release of 2026 so far. The band that I fell [...]

Almost exactly one year after launching the iPhone 16e, Apple is preparing to launch the 17e, according to Mark Gurman. The iPhone 17e will feature an upgraded A19 chip from the iPhone 17 lineup, plus MagSafe charging, and move Apple's in-house cellular chips. Just as importantly, the company apparently plans to keep the price at [...]

One of my pandemic hobbies that stuck was home automation. I discovered Home Assistant - the popular open source, extremely customizable home automation platform - and all the intricate things you can do with it to make your home work better. I have ADHD and have found Home Assistant to be a valuable tool for [...]

Dongles have a well-earned reputation for being a nuisance. They're often costly and annoying to deal with, but for gamers, there's one that I love to recommend that's neither. 8BitDo's $20 USB Adapter 2 lets you wirelessly link controllers to the Switch 2 that would otherwise be unsupported, like the Sony DualSense (complete with rumble [...]

Thirty years ago today, Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, a bill credited with creating the groundwork for the modern internet, became law and set off a chain of events that would make it a lightning rod for the techlash. The statute has survived everything from the dot-com bubble to a Supreme Court challenge [...]

Last month, over a dozen automobile and smartphone manufacturers gathered in Palo Alto, California, for the 16th annual "Plugfest," hosted by the Car Connectivity Consortium (CCC) to test out the latest in digital key technology. Digital keys, which allow vehicle owners to lock, unlock, and start their cars using smartphones or other digital devices, are [...]

This is The Stepback, a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more news about the streaming wars, follow Emma Roth. The Stepback arrives in our subscribers' inboxes at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepback here. How it started From 2019 to around 2021, we were in the midst [...]

After what can generously be called a contentious tenure as the CEO of The Washington Post, Will Lewis is stepping down following mass layoffs this week. Jeff D'Onofrio, former CEO of Tumblr from 2017 to 2022, will step in as acting CEO and publisher. D'Onofrio has been CFO at the Post since June of last [...]