The Verge

Apple's 42mm flagship is down to just $329 with various bands. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Whether or not you subscribe to them, New Year's resolutions are a capital-T Thing for many people in the US. Thankfully, if your goals for 2025 revolve around health and fitness, the 42mm Apple Watch Series 10 is on sale at Amazon, Walmart, and Best Buy starting at $329 ($70 off), matching its Black Friday low. You can also pick it up in the 46mm sizing at Amazon, Walmart, and Best Buy starting at $359 ($70 off), which remains the best price we've seen on the larger model.While there are certainly better fitness trackers for hardcore athletes, none of them offer the kind of robust third-party support you'll get with a flagship Apple Watch, nor do they integrate as well with Apple's larger device ecosystem. The Series 10 is a pretty minor update over the previous model, but it's still a solid bet for casual athletes, with a terrific wide-angle OLED display, sleep apnea detection, a thinner design, and a larger charging coil that lets you juice it from zero to 80 percent in just 30 minutes.The more substantial fitness updates come in the form of watchOS 11, Apple's latest software update for the Apple Watch, which brings a selection of new training features to the midrange wearable. These include the new Training Load feature, an app called Vitals that can contextualize a set of recovery metrics, and the long-overdue ability to pause your Activity Rings (praise be). I wouldn't say any of them are revolutionary, but if you're upgrading from an older model or you've never owned an Apple Watch before, they're certainly welcome.Read our Apple Watch Series 10 review.More deals, discounts, and ways to save

Image: Verge staff We take a look back at 20 of our favorite projects from 2024. Read the full story at The Verge.

Image: Tim Stevens / The Verge For months, the location information of around 800,000 electric Volkswagen vehicles was available online due to a data leak, according to a report from the German news magazine Der Spiegel. The leak reportedly stemmed from the software running inside Volkswagen vehicles and could've allowed a bad actor to trace a driver's exact movements, as noted by Electrek.A whistleblower first notified Der Spiegel and the European hacking association Chaos Computer Club of the vulnerability, which also affects EVs from Volkswagen-owned car brands on a global scale, including Audi, Seat, and Skoda.Der Spiegel found that Cariad, the Volkswagen subsidiary behind the automaker's software, made it possible for an attacker to find and access driver data housed in Amazon's cloud storage service. The data, which could be linked to the names and contact details of the drivers," reportedly included details about when EVs were switched on and off, along with the emails, phone numbers, and addresses of drivers in some cases.It included the precise" locations of about 460,000 vehicles, as Der Spiegel says the data was accurate to within ten centimeters" for Volkswagen and Seats vehicles, and within 10km (~6 miles) for Audi and Skoda models.Cariad has since addressed the issue, telling Der Spiegel customers have "no need to take any action, as no sensitive information such as passwords or payment details are affected." The Verge reached out to Cariad and Volkswagen with requests for comment but didn't immediately hear back.If anything, this leak serves as yet another reminder of the immense amount of data collected by modern-day vehicles, which Mozilla has called a privacy nightmare."

Apple's new CarPlay is still just a concept. | Screenshot: Apple We still haven't seen the next generation of CarPlay" that Apple first announced in 2022 and continues to say on its CarPlay webpage is arriving in 2024, as MacRumors points out. And barring some spectacular surprise, it's not coming today or tomorrow. What gives?So far, we've only seen changes like CarPlay mapping directions appearing in the instrument cluster in cars from manufacturers like Polestar, Porsche, and Lincoln. That's even the case for vehicles like the 2024 Lincoln Nautilus, which has the screen real estate to support Apple's vision for its dashboard-spanning infotainment software. Porsche and Aston Martin had announced their cars would be the first to get the new CarPlay, but both recently declined to give Wired a timeline for its rollout. Screenshot: Apple Apple's website still says First models arrive in 2024," which seems... unlikely. Other companies that Apple said would support its new CarPlay have been noncommittal about the software since it was announced. Some have closed the door on full support more forcefully since then, like when Mercedes-Benz CEO Ola Kallenius told The Verge's Nilay Patel in April that Apple won't be taking over all the screens in its cars.Outside of Apple's initial pronouncement that so many cars would use its big CarPlay update, automakers like General Motors and Rivian have taken a stand against both it and Google's Android Auto. That's not a popular position, particularly for GM, but both have indicated it's about having more control over their vehicles.Despite the lukewarm reception of Apple's ideas, the company has continued to talk about its plans for the software. It's just not clear what cars, if any, it will ever show up in.

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge One of the big benefits of buying a Pro" iPhone is currently that you get a fancy high-refresh rate OLED display, but that may become standard across the iPhone 17 lineup, according to a Weibo leak from Digital Chat Station spotted by MacRumors. The outlet notes that Digital Chat Station leaked accurate details about the iPhone 15 line's camera sensors and the display panel of the iPhone 12.The rumor is a bit vague, saying only that the base iPhone 17 will have a high refresh rate. But it follows some more specific supply chain whispers we've heard in recent months. MacRumors pointed to one in February that suggested Apple will use the same LTPO panel tech, which drives Apple's variable refresh rate ProMotion" iPhone 16 Pro displays, for all of next year's phones. That was later echoed by others, including display supply chain analyst Ross Young in September.The next set of iPhones is also expected to replace the base model Plus" iPhone with an iPhone 17 Slim" in 2025, which Young suggested will have ProMotion, too. Instead of differentiating by display tech, Apple could stratify the lineup in different ways, like by giving the iPhone 17 Pro Max a smaller Face ID sensor and Dynamic Island cutout, as well as 12GB of RAM for both sizes of iPhone 17 Pro and 8GB for the standard and Slim models.The whole line is rumored to have 24MP front-facing cameras instead of the 12MP found in current iPhones, and they may all use an Apple-designed Wi-Fi / Bluetooth chip for the first time.

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge PlayStation had a rocky 2024 but still put out some great games. Read the full story at The Verge.

DJI's new fast car charger connected to a DJI power station. | Image: DJI DJI has quietly introduced a powerful new car charger for its giant portable batteries. The $299 / 269 Power 1kW Super Fast Car Charger can charge the company's expanding lineup of power stations at up to 1000W from your car's alternator when the engine is running.This new class of (nearly) do-it-yourself alternator chargers are having a moment now that the most popular makers of solar generators and power stations have embraced DC-to-DC chargers. I wouldn't have survived without one when remote working from my van last summer.Once the Power 1kW is mounted inside your vehicle and connected to the car's battery via the included 5m (16 feet 5 inches) fused cable, it then connects to the proprietary SDC port of the dongle-happy DJI Power 1000 power station I recently reviewed. It'll also charge DJI's 2048Wh Power 2000 Expansion Batteries when daisy-chained together with SDC cables for up to 11kWh of stackable storage capacity. The Power 1kW can also be configured to reverse-charge your car's battery to prevent battery drain.At full power the DJI Power 1kW Super Fast Car Charger can charge the Power 1000's 1024Wh battery in just over an hour's drive. However, out of the box the Power 1kW is pegged to 500W of charging output. To reach 1000W you have to purchase yet another dongle - the $25 DJI Power Dongle - and then adjust the setting to 1000W in the app. Fortunately, DJI is bundling that dongle as a free gift" with new purchases of the DJI Power 1kW Super Fast Car Charger, at least in the US.DJI's announcement follows the arrival of the 800W EcoFlow Alternator Charger I reviewed last summer and the new 560W Bluetti AC500 announced in the fall (review is coming). EcoFlow's charger, like DJI's, uses a proprietary connector making it best suited to charge its own giant batteries, whereas the Bluetti AC500 can charge solar generators and power stations from nearly every manufacturer, but at half the rate of the DJI. Of course, all this assumes that your vehicle is fitted with a high-capacity alternator that can spare the amps.

LG's new microwave mounted above its range, thereby eliminating the need to bend down and check the oven manually.' | Image: LG LG has responded to Samsung in the battle to slap displays on every home appliance you own, culminating in the LG Signature microwave which puts a superfluous 27-inch LCD touchscreen and speakers into an appliance you probably don't even need.LG says the microwave's display provides an immersive entertainment experience" that'll surely prevent the onset of buyer's remorse at having overpaid for a potential advertising machine centrally located in your kitchen. And when paired with LG's oven, it conveniently shows the cooking progress of dishes in the range, eliminating the need to bend down and check the oven manually."In 2023, LG announced plans to transform its hardware-based business into a platform-based service model that continuously generates profits. In September, the company started displaying full-screen ads on its idle televisions. Image: LG LG's latest Signature devices. The company's second-generation Signature lineup of Wi-Fi appliances continues the tradition of putting a giant transparent OLED Instaview" touchscreen on its fridge, alongside smaller LCDs on its washer and dryer. LG's Signature displays can be used to operate the local appliance, access entertainment, and control devices in the LG smart home.The announcement follows Samsung recently announcing a wider variety of display choices on its home appliances, ranging from 4.3 inches all the way up to 32 inches. It's all part of the company's strategy to put screens everywhere," instead of easy-to-use buttons and dials that rarely fail and are cheap to replace.LG hasn't announced any prices, countries of availability, or shipping dates for its new Signature lineup of appliances. But we'll surely learn more when everything is demonstrated at the giant CES show which kicks off on January 7th in Las Vegas.

Image: LG LG isn't waiting until CES begins to reveal its new collection of gaming monitors. The 2025 lineup is led by the UltraGear OLED Bendable Gaming Monitor, which LG claims is the world's first 5K2K-resolution bendable OLED display." That strikes me as extremely specific, but hey, it's always worth bragging when you're first, I suppose. The 45-inch monitor has an expansive resolution of 5120x2160, so you're getting the same vertical pixel count as a typical 4K screen but a much wider canvas to game on.And with a 21:9 aspect ratio, LG believes it provides a more immersive gaming experience than standard 16:9 displays, while maintaining better content compatibility than 32:9 monitors." This format also makes the display a great fit for productivity work when you're not immersed in gameplay.The UltraGear OLED Bendable Gaming Monitor (model 45GX990A) can transition from completely flat to a 900R curvature, and the latest version of LG's Dual-Mode feature allows users to switch effortlessly between resolution and refresh rate presets, and customize the aspect ratio and picture size." It's certified for Nvidia G-Sync and AMD FreeSync Premium Pro, but the press materials don't specify a maximum refresh rate. I've asked for more details there. Image: LG Both 45-inch monitors have a 5K2K resolution of 5120x2160. LG is also releasing a non-bendable model with a permanent 800R curve. Otherwise, it's the same 45-inch size, same aspect ratio, and same 5K2K resolution. LG's press release says you can expect sharp, lifelike images with the stunning colors and exceptional contrast LG OLED products are known for." Shared specs between both monitors include a 0.03ms (GtG) response time and support for DisplayPort 2.1, HDMI 2.1, and USB-C with 90W power delivery. The 45GX950A uses a RGWB subpixel layout to improve readability of text on the screen and make the aforementioned productivity work easier on your eyes.Along with these two monitors, LG is also introducing the curved UltraGear 39GX90SA, a webOS-powered home entertainment hub" with easy access to streaming services - just like LG's TVs. It seems like the company has taken some cues from Samsung's smart monitors here. At 39 inches, this one's a bit smaller than the other GX9 displays, but it retains the 21:9 aspect ratio and 800R curve. Equipped with USB Type-C ports, it offers convenient connectivity, and incorporates LG's ergonomic and space-saving L-shaped stand for a clutter-free desk setup," LG said in tonight's press release.As per usual with CES news, pricing and a specific release date are still to come later in 2025. But we'll be getting our first in-person look at the UltraGear GX9 series in Las Vegas, so stay tuned for impressions early next month - along with an avalanche of stunning screens from many other companies, too.

Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge A Reddit user posted a screenshot overnight of a Spotify search that brought a surprise: a pornographic video tucked into suggested results for the rapper M.I.A. Here's a NSFW link to the thread. The video shown in their screenshot didn't appear for us, but we found others after scrolling through dozens of results in the Video" tab.One of the accounts that posted videos we saw has published erotic audio for years but has sprinkled in sexually graphic videos more recently. Another account, which was named with a long string of alphanumeric characters, has been publishing equally nonsensically-titled explicit videos as a podcast account since mid-November.Spotify representative Laura Batey told The Verge in an email that the examples we provided have been removed due to violation of our policies." Those policies include forbidding sexually explicit material. We asked Spotify for more information on how the videos made it past its moderation and will update here if it responds.The videos we found appear to be unmoderated podcast uploads, and reporting them isn't very convenient. The Spotify app lacks a button for doing so - instead, users have to copy the content's URL and head to a webpage for reporting possible violations.Porn on Spotify isn't a new thing. Other recent Reddit posts contain examples of unexpected explicit video in search results and even erotic audio tracks being suggested in one user's Discovery Weekly algorithmic playlist. A 2022 Vice story also detailed sexually explicit audio on the platform, as well as other content like graphic nudity in user-made playlist cover art.

Adrien Brody in The Brutalist | A24 Brady Corbet's 3.5-hour saga is a tale of one man's journey through architecture and assimilation - and one of the year's best films. The director tells The Verge how he got away with it. Read the full story at The Verge.

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images With rumors of Nvidia entering the CPU market, 2025 might be an even bigger year for Microsoft's Arm efforts. Read the full story at The Verge.

Illustration by Carlo Cadenas / The Verge A cyberattack campaign inserted malicious code into multiple Chrome browser extensions as far back as mid-December, Reuters reported yesterday. The code appeared designed to steal browser cookies and authentication sessions, targeting specific social media advertising and AI platforms," according to a blog post from Cyberhaven, one of the companies that was targeted.Cyberhaven blames a phishing email for the attack, writing in a separate technical analysis post that the code appeared to specifically target Facebook Ads accounts. According to Reuters, security researcher Jaime Blasco believes the attack was just random" and not targeting Cyberhaven specifically. He posted on X that he'd found VPN and AI extensions that contained the same malicious code that was inserted into Cyberhaven.Other extensions possibly affected include Internxt VPN, VPNCity, Uvoice, and ParrotTalks, as Bleeping Computer writes.

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images We're all impatiently awaiting Nintendo's next console, but in the meantime, it's been quite the sendoff year for the Switch. Read the full story at The Verge.

Amazon's finally added a key feature to the Scribe, but it has a long way to go before it's actually useful. Read the full story at The Verge.

Donald Trump. | Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photos from Scott Olson, Getty Images President-elect Donald Trump is asking the Supreme Court to let him negotiate a deal to save TikTok from an imminent US ban.In an amicus brief filed to the court, Trump says he seeks the ability to resolve the issues at hand through political means once he takes office," and that he alone possesses the consummate dealmaking expertise, the electoral mandate, and the political will to negotiate a resolution to save the platform."Last week, the Supreme Court agreed to hear arguments that a bill passed by Congress banning TikTok on national security grounds violates the First Amendment. The bill gives wide latitude to the president to delay its enforcement if there's progress being made towards a deal that ensures TikTok isn't fully controlled by its Chinese parent company, ByteDance.But the deadline for that determination is January 19th, which is one day before Trump is set to be sworn in.In his Supreme Court filing, Trump asks for the bill's January 19th deadline to be stayed, arguing that the deal he'd negotiate would obviate the need for this Court to decide the historically challenging First Amendment question presented here on the current, highly expedited basis."He offers no details on what said deal would look like, though it would likely have to involve ByteDance selling a signification portion of its ownership in TikTok to an American company.Trump argues that having over 14 million followers on TikTok, along with his ownership of Truth Social, gives him unique ability to evaluate TikTok's importance as a unique medium for freedom of expression, including core political speech." He also cites Brazil's temporary ban of Elon Musk's X as an example of the historic dangers presented" by a government banning a social media platform.While Trump pushed aggressively for a TikTok ban during his first term, he changed his tune after his campaign successfully used the video app during the 2024 election. He recently met with TikTok CEO Shou Chew at Mar-a-Lago and told a crowd that maybe we gotta keep this sucker around for a little while."There's still plenty of political pressure to enforce a TikTok ban, however. A group of senators and congressmen, including Mitch McConnell and Ro Khanna, filed petitions on Friday, joined by 22 U.S. states and former FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, urging the Supreme Court to reject TikTok's appeal.

Image: Warner Bros. If you've been waiting patiently to see how Matt Reeves' story for The Batman continues once the reboot's sequel arrives, you'll have to wait a little longer. It was once set to open October 2nd, 2026, after an initial delay caused by the Hollywood writers' strike derailed Warner Bros. plans to release it in 2025, but the studio has now announced that it's pushing The Batman Part II even further back to October 1st, 2027, according to Variety.It appears the most recent shift could be strategic. Variety adds that Warner Bros. has rushed to fill that October 2nd, 2026, slot with an unnamed film featuring Tom Cruise and directed by Alejandro G. Inarritu.While that sucks for fans of the bat, one nice consolation is news that Bong Joon-Ho's Mickey 17 is coming even sooner than expected; it is now scheduled for March 7th, 2025, after delays of its own caused the original 2024 release to slip. Mickey 17 stars Robert Pattinson (who also plays Bruce Wayne in The Batman Part II) and is directly inspired by the Edward Ashton novel Mickey7, which follows a willingly and literally disposable employee through his many doors of death. Also starring in the film are Steven Yeun, Naomi Ackie, Toni Collette, Mark Ruffalo, and Thomas Turgoose. Warner Bros. reportedly swapped its release date with Ryan Coogler's Sinners, which now opens April 18th, to give Mickey 17 more time on Imax screens.

Fitbit makes an array of fitness trackers, from basic fitness bands to full-fledged smartwatches, though the best Fitbit smartwatch isn't technically a Fitbit. | Photo illustration by William Joel / The Verge Whether you want a basic fitness tracker or a smartwatch, there's a Fitbit for everyone - though the best Fitbit smartwatch isn't technically a Fitbit. Read the full story at The Verge.

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images Elon Musk, Vivek Ramaswamy, and other members of President-elect Donald Trump's Silicon Valley coalition are clashing with the MAGA movement's hardline anti-immigrant faction, and it's allegedly resulted in Musk stripping far-right critics' verification badges on X.The conflict centers on Musk and Ramaswamy's recent praise for foreign tech workers, beginning soon after Indian immigrant Sriram Krishnan joined the team of Trump's AI and crypto czar David Sacks. It's pitted Trump's tech mogul donor class against his older network of far-right influencers like activist and Trump companion Laura Loomer while escalating into racist rhetoric against Indian Americans in particular. The ugly, extremely online fight between the American far-right influence network parallels the immigration debate currently being hashed out more quietly in Washington.Anti-immigrant rhetoric was a cornerstone of Trump's pitch to voters; on top of promoting false, racist rumors about immigrants and promising mass deportations that could destabilize the American economy, he's expected to revive an H-1B visa crackdown that he imposed during his first term. At the same time, Trump is leaning heavily on... Read the full story at The Verge.

An artist's rendering of the Parker Solar Probe. | Image: NASA NASA sent its Parker Solar Probe just 3.8 million miles from the surface of the Sun - and it survived. The probe transmitted a signal back to Earth on the night of December 26th, indicating it's in good health and operating normally," according to NASA.The mission marks the closest the Parker Solar Probe - or any human-man object at all - has ever gotten to the Sun. The probe set off on its mission on December 20th, with the closest approach occurring on December 24th as it flew 430,000 miles per hour past the solar surface. Mission operations were out of contact with the probe during this time.Now that NASA has confirmation of the mission's success, it expects the Parker Solar Probe to send detailed telemetry data on its status" on January 1st. The close flyby is supposed to help scientists get a better understanding of solar wind, the Sun's heat, and how energetic particles are accelerated to near light speed."The Parker Solar Probe was first launched by NASA and Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in 2018. It's designed to why study the corona - the atmosphere surrounding the sun - gets so hot. To survive these close encounters, the Parker Solar Probe is equipped with a Sun-facing heat shield that reaches around 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit, while the probe itself remains just 85 degrees Fahrenheit.

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images From postapocalyptic wastelands to cozy sci-fi futures, there's a lot to dig into on Microsoft's subscription service this year. Read the full story at The Verge.

I've finally had a chance to test out the new hybrid powerhouse from Canon, the R5 Mark II. The camera comes with much-improved autofocus powered by the new Digic X processor, new eye-controlled autofocus, a backside illuminated sensor capable of faster readout and better low-light performance, and stunning video specs like recording in 8K internally with Canon Log 2 color profile.But as much as those specs sound impressive (and they are), using the R5 Mark II also brought back so many memories I've made with previous 5D cameras that have been a huge part of my professional and personal life for well over 15 years, specifically the 5D Mark II.In this review video, I decided to try something a little bit different. Instead of going through every single one of the specs and pixel-peeping every photo I've taken over the past month, I've picked the top three photos that have taught me something about the new Canon R5. Let us know what you think about the new format. Read the full story at The Verge.

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge After years of of chasing live-service and open-world blockbusters, games like Astro Bot and Balatro showed that old formats could be a solution to modern industry problems. Read the full story at The Verge.

In late September, Dominik Domtendo" Neumayer received a troubling email. He had just featured The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom in a series of videos on his YouTube channel. Now, those videos were gone.Some of your videos have been removed," YouTube explained matter-of-factly. The email said that Domtendo had now received a pair of copyright strikes. He was now just one copyright strike away from losing his 17-year-old channel and the over 1.5 million subscribers he'd built up.At least, he would have been, if Domtendo hadn't spotted something fishy about the takedown notice - something YouTube had missed.Domtendo had been a little bit confused right from the start; the strikes didn't make sense. Like countless other creators, Domtendo specializes in Let's Play" videos, a well-established genre where streamers play through the entirety of a game on camera.The next copyright strike will close your channel"Nintendo has a complicated relationship with the fans who use its copyrighted works, infamously shutting down all sorts of unauthorized projects by sending cease-and-desists. It has gone after YouTubers, too. But both the Japanese gaming giant and the broader... Read the full story at The Verge.

Some EVs in stock on the Hertz Car Sales site. | Screenshot: The Verge Hertz has contacted multiple electric vehicle renters recently with interesting low-cost offers for cars like Teslas, offering them the option to buy their rental EVs instead of returning them. One 2023 Model 3 renter shared on Reddit that they were offered a price of $17,913, which is similar to deals currently showing on the Hertz Car Sales site. However, the rental they were in had about 30,000 miles on it - fewer than other current listings.Another renter was offered a 2023 Chevy Bolt for $18,442, while a Polestar 2 renter says they saw a $28,500 purchase price. The used cars come with a limited 12-month, 12,000-mile powertrain warranty and a buy-back offer within 7 days.Asked by The Verge if this was a special offer for EVs or a typical offer for Hertz's used cars, communications director Jamie Line confirmed the strategy isn't new, saying, By connecting our rental customers who opt into our emails to our sales channels, we're not only building awareness of the fact that we sell cars but also offering a unique opportunity to someone who may be in the market for the same car they have on rent."Last year, Hertz decided to scale back its big ambitions to electrify its rental fleet due to low customer demand and repair difficulties on some models, including the Tesla Model 3. Then, in February, Hertz said it would no longer buy Polestar 2 vehicles either before marking 30,000 Teslas to sell off from its rental fleet.

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge Here's what to watch over the holidays in case all those live sports broadcasts don't work out. Read the full story at The Verge.