The Verge

Today, I'm talking to Rohit Chopra. He was the director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) until the end of January, when President Donald Trump fired him and Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) began trying to dismantle the agency. The CFPB has been around for just under 15 years now. Congress created [...]

After a bit of a brief, unexpected delay due to a component issue, the Google Pixel 9A is here - and it was worth the wait. Allison Johnson's review of the midrange phone just went live today, and the 9A seems like the ideal phone for those who want many of the same perks found [...]

Live from London, it's Saturday Night" is a phrase you're going to start hearing on a weekly basis next year. Variety reports that Sky Studios is working on a British adaptation of NBC's long-running Saturday Night Live sketch series. Like its American counterpart and previous international riffs on the series, Saturday Night Live UK will [...]

Around 2009, Dweezil Zappa ran into a space problem. He was busy touring the US, performing some songs written by his father, Frank. Recreating those signature apeculiar sounds,a as Zappa calls them, required lugging around a massive rig a roughly the size of two large refrigerators a held together by more than 200 connections and [...]

Allison Johnson is the smartphone reviewer for The Verge, along with, as she says, a bit of telecom on the side, which means I am a professional phone user." She came to The Verge from DPReview, where she covered digital cameras and smartphone cameras. That looks like a cozy space. Where in your home is [...]

The United Kingdom is preparing to respond to the series of tariffs President Donald Trump has introduced since taking office. New taxes on everything from pure-bred horses to bourbon are on the table, but the Labour government seems more interested in a conciliatory approach, and it's considering sacrificing a popular tax on American tech companies [...]

The creators of the Flipper Zero, a sort of electronic Swiss army knife for communicating with other devices, have come up with another tool that's designed to boost productivity and reduce distractions. The Busy Bar is a customizable app-connected pixelated display that lets others know when you need to be left alone to focus, but [...]

The A-series Pixels have been very good over the past few years. And in the Pixel 9A, Google has taken a good midrange phone and made it great. Itas $499, which feels just right for what you get in the 9A. Spend a bit more for the Pixel 9, and youall get some upgrades like [...]

Along with a new season of Black Mirror, Netflix might have just released its most interesting licensed game today. Season 7 of the sc-fi anthology includes an episode called Plaything," in which a genius coder in the 90s - the same one from the interactive Bandersnatch" episode - creates a new game that's a little [...]

Black Mirror started out as a grim, dark, and nihilistic exploration of near-future tech. But with the tragic romance of aSan Juniperoa in season 3, the anthology slowly started to shift its priorities. Early on, everything was bad: the technology and the people. And the former was used to show how awful the latter was, [...]

Oppo's new Find X8 Ultra is the latest entrant in the ongoing competition between Oppo, Xiaomi, and Vivo to produce the world's best camera phone. But unlike its rivals, Oppo has decided that bigger might not be better. Let's be clear: the Find X8 Ultra isn't a small phone by any means, with a 6.82-inch [...]

A man's recent attempt to use an AI-generated avatar in his legal appeal made an immediate impression on a New York courtroom, but probably not the one he was hoping for. Jerome Dewald - a 74-year-old that The Register notes is behind a startup that says it's revolutionizing legal self-representation with AI" - was chewed [...]

China says it will cut the number of US films that are imported into the country in retaliation against the latest wave of tariff increases imposed by the Trump administration. A statement issued by the Chinese Film Administration (CFA) on Thursday, which we've translated using Google, said that the decision to increase tariffs against China [...]

ChargePoint is ready to speed things up. On Thursday, the EV charging company revealed new AC Level 2 EV chargers that it says effectively double the speed of typical Level 2 chargers. The new architecture also supports bidirectional charging, so owners can use their EVs to power their home or business if the need arises. [...]

Next week, Waymo's driverless vehicles will begin testing on public roads in Japan for the Alphabet company's first international trip. Waymo has yet to confirm whether it will eventually launch a commercial robotaxi service in the country, but the company is still celebrating the excursion as a significant milestone." Waymo describes it as a simple [...]

OpenAI filed a countersuit against Elon Musk on Wednesday, saying on X that Elon's nonstop actions against us are just bad-faith tactics to slow down OpenAI and seize control of the leading AI innovations for his personal benefit." In the lawsuit, OpenAI's lawyers argue that Musk's continued attacks on OpenAI, culminating most recently in the [...]

Meta's latest whistleblower, Sarah Wynn-Williams, got a warm reception on Capitol Hill Wednesday, as the Careless People author who the company has fought to silence described the company's chief executive as someone willing to shapeshift into whatever gets him closest to power. The message was one that lawmakers on the Senate Judiciary subcommittee on crime [...]

Adobe is building AI agents for Photoshop and Premiere Pro that can suggest ways to edit your photos or videos and then carry out the tasks for you, according to a blog written today by Ely Greenfield, Adobe's CTO of digital media. Adobe Photoshop's agentic AI, or what the company calls its creative agent," will [...]

Aqara is adding support for over 50 new Matter device types, making it one of the most comprehensive smart home platforms in terms of Matter support, alongside Samsung SmartThings and Home Assistant. The company is also bringing advanced bridging to all its Matter controllers, allowing you to integrate Aqara's many advanced automation features into any [...]

The day before several major tech leaders appeared before Congress, begging for ways to get more energy for the nascent American artificial intelligence industry, Donald Trump signed an executive order offering a solution: increased coal production. As part of a series of executive orders released Tuesday designed to promote the rapid growth of the coal [...]

Thanks to Framework, one of the most transparent computer companies out there, we now have a sterling example of just how ridiculous President Donald Trump's tariffs can make life in the year 2025. Today, the company made all of its computers more expensive. Then, it almost immediately reversed that to bring its computers back to [...]

Were you clamoring for two AI-generated podcast hosts to talk through the key points of your document before you send it to your boss? No? Well, you're getting it anyway. Google has announced new Gemini features coming to Workspace apps, including NotebookLM-style AI podcasts integrated right into Google Docs. There's a wide spread of new [...]

President Donald Trumpas latest round of tariffs a including a now 125 percent levy on Chinese imports a will hit the smart home industry hard. Many smart home device makers are already struggling, thanks, in part, to Trumpas first round of tariffs. Increased competition from budget smart home companies largely based in China has also [...]

One of our favorite doorbells, TP-Link's Tapo D225 Video Doorbell Camera, is on sale for just $79.99 ($20 off) at Amazon. That's a buck shy of its best price. A lot of video doorbells come with extra hidden subscription fees if you want to make the most of them, but this one doesn't. It lets [...]

President Donald Trump's tariffs have only been in effect since midnight ET, and hours later he's already announced a 90 day PAUSE, and a substantially lowered Reciprocal Tariff" of 10 percent for countries that haven't retaliated against the tariffs he created. However, Trump also said in his post on Truth Social that he will be [...]

Nearly a year and a half after it first launched the EP-133 KO II synthesizer in late 2023, Teenage Engineering has released its first major software update. The OS 2.0 update, which can be downloaded to the synth through a web browser or installed using a USB cable, includes features like creating new samples from [...]

WordPress.com has launched a new AI-powered site builder in early access that can construct your WordPress webpage, including fully written text, layout, generated images, and more. WordPress.com says the AI website builder can make beautiful, functional websites in minutes." However, it can't yet do the heavy lifting of creating an ecommerce site or one with [...]

The Nintendo Switch 2 Pro Controller isn't the only new Nintendo gamepad getting two back buttons: the Joy-Con 2 Charging Grip has the additional buttons as well, according to Nintendo's online listing for the controller. Like the Pro Controller, the new back buttons are GL and GR that can be remapped to other buttons, the [...]

Google is trying to make it easier for users of its video AI model Veo 2 to make cinematic-looking generations and edit real footage. The new Veo 2 capabilities are available to preview via Google Cloud's Vertex AI platform, alongside other updates to improve Google's text-to-image generator, Imagen 3, and audio-related AI models. New Veo [...]

At Y Combinatoras Little Tech Competition Summit in downtown DC last week, there was an air of optimism and something verging on camaraderie among a surprising crowd. Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) a barely recovered from his 25-hour speech about preserving democracy on the Senate floor a day earlier a showed up to discuss the importance [...]

Anthropic just announced a new premium tier called Claude Max" that significantly increases usage limits for apower usersa who've been maxing out their existing plans. The new offering comes with two options: a $100 per month tier with 5x more usage than the Pro plan, and a $200 per month tier with 20x more usage. [...]

The Last of Us' second season hasn't even debuted yet, but Warner Bros. Discovery renewed the show for a third season. The company hasn't shared details about when the third season may air or how many episodes it might be. The second season's first episode debuts on Sunday on HBO and Max. Season 2 is [...]

Samsung's home robot Ballie is finally poised to roll into our homes... and maybe our hearts? Following teasing a release sometime this year at CES 2025, the company has now announced that the cute rolling bot will arrive in the US this summer, with pre-registration open on Samsung's website. The ball-shaped robot is equipped with [...]

Microsoft appears to be working on new 3D icons for its Office suite. Reddit users have discovered the new icons in an email survey from Microsoft, reports Windows Central. The survey includes a brief look at the new icons, with Microsoft asking for feedback on its changes to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and other Office apps. [...]

Sony is upgrading three of its wireless Bluetooth speakers with significant redesigns and new features as it integrates them into the ULT Power Sound series it introduced a year ago that includes speakers and headphones with improved bass-boosting sound modes. All three speakers will now have a dedicated ULT shortcut button for those sound modes [...]

Earlier this month, we got a close look at Sony's new Bravia 8 II OLED. Despite the name, this TV is actually the spiritual successor of the company's acclaimed A95L. It's going to be one of the very best TVs you can buy in 2025, and now Sony has revealed how much the Bravia 8 [...]

Samsung made waves at CES earlier this year when it announced The Frame Pro. We eventually learned that the company was over-selling the TV's Mini LED" technology, but the new model does come with legitimate upgrades like a Wireless One Connect Box, meaning the only cable running to the TV itself will be for power, [...]

For a being named Murderbot, the star of Apple's next sci-fi show is surprisingly relatable. The show - which is also called Murderbot - just got its first trailer, and it sets up the titular lead, played by Alexander Skarsgard, who has just become sentient and is, well, struggling. The bot is forced to hide [...]

If youave ever been to an anime or any fan convention, you know that the place thatas often the busiest is artists alley. There, creators sell their wares ranging from commissioned artwork to stickers, enamel pins, stuffed toys, apparel, food, and more. Often these goods are made with the artistas own hand. Other times, merchants [...]

Following an announcement last week that Sphere Entertainment was creating an immersive version of The Wizard of Oz for its unique Las Vegas venue, we now have more details on how companies like Google and Magnopus are using AI to enhance the 86-year-old film to fill the Sphere's massive 160,000-square-foot semi-spherical screen. But a collaboration [...]

Donald Trump is making it even more expensive for US consumers to shop online from Chinese retailers like Temu and Shein. In an executive order amendment published Tuesday night, Trump raised the tariff rate for packages valued under $800 entering the US from China and Hong Kong that previously were exempt. The increase essentially triples [...]

It's looking like another busy summer of gaming news: Microsoft just announced its next Xbox Games Showcase livestream, which will take place on June 8th at 1PM ET. The company says that the event will include a look at upcoming titles from across our first-party studios, in addition to incredible new titles from our third-party [...]

The image streams over YouTube in crisp grayscale: a young cahow a known outside Bermuda as the Bermuda petrel a scrambles through a sandy tunnel and pokes its tiny head above the ground for the first time. Itas a few months old, but it has never seen daylight. Gray fluffball hatchlings spend their whole lives [...]

Google is opening up its Google Maps Platform data so that cities, developers, and other business decision makers can more easily access information about things like infrastructure and traffic, the company announced on Wednesday. Google is integrating new datasets for Google Maps Platform directly into BigQuery, the tech giant's fully managed data analytics service, for [...]

Hours after Donald Trump's latest tariffs came into effect, China has announced retaliatory measures: an additional 50 percent tariff on US goods, on top of a planned 34 percent charge, and adding a further 12 US companies to its export control list. The US's practice of escalating tariffs on China is a mistake on top [...]

Universal, having just completed its latest Nintendo- and Harry Potter-filled theme park in the US, is now planning to build a new theme park and resort in the United Kingdom. The multi-billion dollar project will be Universal's first European theme park, with construction on the 476-acre complex expected to start next year in Bedford, England, [...]

Framework has confirmed it will no longer be opening US preorders for the new Laptop 12 today, or announcing a price, as it evaluates the impact of Trump's tariffs. The modular, convertible laptop will still be available later today for buyers elsewhere, including Canada and Europe. The Laptop 12 is Framework's smallest laptop yet, and [...]

Microsoft has started testing a new update to its Copilot app on Windows that will let you share your screen or apps with the AI assistant. Copilot Vision was originally limited to Microsoft's Edge browser, but it's now extending to any app on your PC. Copilot Vision will be able to do things like coach [...]

President Donald Trump's promised higher tariffs have gone into effect today, targeting many countries whose goods imported to the US were already subject to a 10 percent base tariff that started on April 5th.China has already retaliated in an escalation of Trump's global trade war. The White House announced the tariffs on April 2nd, dubiously [...]