The Verge

REI's anniversary sale may be winding down in the coming days, but many of our favorite outdoor gadgets and goods are still available at a hefty discount. Although some of our earlier gear recommendations have sold out - sorry, Jetboil stans - the outdoor retailer will continue to offer 30 percent off a large number [...]

Valve has been building up to this for months, first in preview, then in beta, and now finally in a full stable release: a new version of SteamOS that brings brand-new features to the Steam Deck and supports third-party handhelds like Lenovo's Legion Go and Asus' ROG Ally series. SteamOS 3.7.8 is the first stable [...]

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has officially dropped its case against Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard. The FTC filed an order to dismiss its complaint on Thursday, just days after it lost an appeal for a preliminary injunction to prevent Microsoft from finalizing its acquisition. The Commission has determined that the public interest is best [...]

Xiaomi unveiled its hotly anticipated PU7 electric SUV in China today, in the latest potential blow to Tesla's position in the world's hottest EV market. The electronics giant says the PU7 will get up to 518 miles of range on certain trims and accelerate from 0-62mph in just 3.23 seconds. The new EV, which is [...]

Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun - Words of Vengeance is a new typing game based on Warhammer 40,000, and it's available now for free on PC via Steam. The dark sci-fi spin on a typing teacher was shadow-dropped during a series of announcements made during the latest Warhammer Skulls Showcase. Also shown was a trailer for Boltgun [...]

The last 48 hours have been a wild rollercoaster ride for AI hardware. On Tuesday, Google ended its I/O keynote - a roughly two-hour event with copious references to AI - with its vision for Android XR glasses. That included flashy partnerships with Gentle Monster and Warby Parker, as well as the first hands-on opportunity [...]

Apple is planning to debut its first pair of smart glasses next year, according to a report from Bloomberg. The upcoming glasses will reportedly come with cameras, microphones, and speakers, allowing them to analyze the external world and take requests via the Siri voice assistant," Bloomberg says. The glasses would also be capable of taking [...]

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act" that House Republicans narrowly passed early Thursday would strip state legislatures of AI oversight and scale back consumer protection and climate initiatives while funding border surveillance, among many other provisions. The budget reconciliation bill still needs to be approved by the Senate, where some Republicans have voiced concerns with [...]

The US Senate voted today to strip California of its authority to enact state limits on tailpipe pollution that are tougher than national standards. Opponents called it an illegal move by Republican lawmakers that flies in the face of Senate rules and norms. Senate Republicans went forward with the vote today anyway, revoking waivers that [...]

Once Donald Trump won office for a second time, the writing was on the wall. Trump ran on many messages, most of them confusing and contradictory, but one of his loudest and clearest messages was to end President Joe Biden's EV mandate." It made no difference there never was a mandate, just a series of [...]

Microsoft is now testing a new feature in Notepad that can generate text for you using AI. It's part of a Windows 11 update being released to Windows Insiders in the Canary and Dev channels with Copilot Plus PCs. The update also includes new AI-powered features for Paint like a sticker generator, and improvements to [...]

House Republicans advanced a sweeping spending package that would roll back Biden-era tax credits for renewable energy projects. If the bill passes the Senate and makes it to President Donald Trump's desk to sign, it could deal a serious blow to renewables, new nuclear technologies, and clean energy manufacturing across the US. The rollbacks would [...]

The wireless GameCube controller that's for use exclusively with the Nintendo Switch 2 can now be pre-ordered by those who have a Switch Online account. The controller costs $64.99, and is currently limited to one per account. For those who've bought one, you'll get it on Switch 2's launch date, which is June 5th. There's [...]

Mozilla is shutting down Pocket, the handy bookmarking tool used to save articles and webpages for later. The organization announced that Pocket will stop working on July 8th, 2025, as Mozilla begins concentrating its resources into projects that better match their browsing habits and online needs." Following the shutdown, you'll only be able to export [...]

From savings on big-ticket items like LG's C4 OLED TVs to smaller ones like the Garmin Forerunner 265, there are plenty of great Memorial Day deals to shop right now - many of which we've gathered in our roundup of the best Memorial Day deals. Here's another good one: the AirPods Max with USB-C are [...]

What Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One lacked in narrative cohesion, it made up for by leaning into the reality that larger-than-life spectacle and Tom Cruise's enthusiasm for doing his own stunt work have always been the franchise's main draw. Even though the film's artificial intelligence-focused plot felt a little shaky, its action was [...]

Meta is beginning to test showing 3D photos on Instagram if you're looking at your feed on a Meta Quest VR headset. Thanks to our AI view synthesis algorithms, we can transform the existing photos that show up in Instagram feed pixel by pixel - no fancy 3D cameras required," Meta says in a blog [...]

Nvidia has gone too far. This week, the company reportedly attempted to delay, derail, and manipulate reviews of its $299 GeForce RTX 5060 graphics card, which would normally be its bestselling GPU of the generation. Nvidia has repeatedly and publicly said the budget 60-series cards are its most popular, and this year it reportedly tried [...]

Google executives took the stage this week at I/O to unveil their latest AI technology: Deep Think. Or was it Deep Search? Then there's the new subscription plan, Google AI Pro, which used to be Gemini Advanced, plus the new AI Ultra plan. Then there's Gemini in Chrome, which is different from AI Mode in [...]

Rode has announced a firmware update for its Wireless Micro microphone system introducing a new feature called Direct Connect that allows the mic to directly connect to iOS devices over Bluetooth. Previously, you needed to use the company's USB-C dongle receiver. First launched last November, Rode's $149 Wireless Micro pairs two tiny rechargeable lavalier mics [...]

Blue Prince's planned 1.10 update, which will add things like a color assist mode, controls remapping, and more, will be the final major update" and the definitive version" of the game, director Tonda Ros says in notes for the 1.04.5 patch that was released today. It had always been my dream to release a definitive [...]

Anthropic has introduced Claude Opus 4 and Claude Sonnet 4, its latest generation of hybrid-reasoning AI models optimized for coding tasks and solving complex problems. Claude Opus 4 is Anthropic's most powerful AI model to date, according to the company's announcement, and capable of working continuously on long-running tasks for several hours." In customer tests, [...]

If you've ever wondered how the Internet Archive uploads all the physical documents on its site, now you can get a behind-the-scenes look at the process. The Internet Archive launched a new YouTube livestream that shows the digitization of microfiche in real time - complete with some relaxing, lo-fi beats. Microfiche is a sheet of [...]

Google is bringing Gemini intelligence to its Home APIs, allowing smart home developers and manufacturers to tap into Gemini's AI-powered features and potentially making your smart home a lot, well, smarter. The company announced the news in a blog post during the Google I/O developers conference this week. Last summer, Google added several new Gemini-powered [...]

When Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella ran into Meta's former engineering chief, Jay Parikh, at a conference last summer, he had the future of AI top of mind. The pair have known each other for around 15 years, but this meeting was different, and Nadella called Parikh shortly after bumping into him to dig into what [...]

Honor has announced the 400 and 400 Pro, two midrange phones that launch today in the UK and Europe. They're capable-looking handsets in plenty of respects, but stand out mostly for the guarantee of six years of software support, bested only by Google's Pixel 9A for the price. In fairness, at 699.99 / 799 (around [...]

Whether you're hunting for a last-minute graduation gift or an early Father's Day present, Grid Studio's deconstructed gadgets are worth a look. The company transforms old-school electronics into collages in shadowbox-style frames, which make for truly memorable gifts. And now through May 27th, many are currently steeply discounted in honor of Father's Day. From vintage [...]

Verizon has asked the Federal Communications Commission to get rid of the rule requiring it to unlock phones after 60 days. In a letter to the FCC spotted by LightReading, Verizon claims the current unlocking requirement benefits bad actors and fraudsters." The FCC first imposed an unlocking requirement following Verizon's purchase of C-Block spectrum in [...]

Xiaomi has unveiled its first in-house flagship chipset, the Xring O1, and it's got enough power to go head-to-head with Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Elite. The company also unveiled a 15S Pro phone and Pad 7 Ultra tablet that the new chip will power, plus a new version of the Watch S4 powered by another Xiaomi [...]

Today, I'm talking with Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi. We recorded this conversation the day Uber announced a big set of product updates, including new options for shared rides and some features to make commuting easier and more predictable. Dara was in New York for all that, so he came to our studio, and we did [...]

If you've been wanting to grab a subscription to Nvidia's GeForce Now cloud game streaming service, now's a good time to commit. That's because six-month subs to its mid-tier Performance subscription - which offers ad-free 1440p gameplay, short queue times, plus ray-tracing on supported games - is 40 percent off. Instead of $49.99, you'll pay [...]

More details are trickling out about Jony Ive and Sam Altman's new AI device. In a post on Thursday, Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo says his research indicates that the device could be larger than Humane's AI pin, but with a form factor as compact and elegant as an iPod Shuffle." Kuo adds that one of [...]

There are still plenty of Tamagotchi devices that have you focusing on raising just a single digital character, but the new Tamagotchi Paradise puts you in charge of a planet full of needy dependents. To make it a little easier to navigate its digital world, the device includes a full color screen and complements its [...]

Video game consultants like Laura Kate Dale came into 2023 with a lot of hope. Since 2020, accessibility in games had become a mainstream discussion, bolstered by high-profile releases like The Last of Us Part II, and it appeared things could only get better. Yet, as the year drew on, she says, "there started to [...]

Smart home company SwitchBot has announced a new version of its retrofit smart lock, and this one you can unlock with your face. The SwitchBot Lock Ultra ($159.99) works with the new SwitchBot Keypad Vision ($99.99), which uses 3D facial recognition technology to unlock your door. The company also launched the SwitchBot Hub 3, a [...]

Amazon is testing new AI-generated audio summaries that will let you listen to two AI hosts" chat about a product's features. Along with product details, the AI audio clips also draw information from user reviews and information from the web. The feature is currently available for select products on Amazon's mobile app, including the Ninja [...]

At last month's rapturously received Slate debut, it took an executive's quip that "Slate" and "Tesla" use the same five letters to shift my brain into high gear. I've covered the EV world for 15-plus years, and I virtually never spend time on counterfactuals. There's quite enough to cover in the real world. But ... [...]

After directing dozens of documentaries over his 60-year career, legendary filmmaker Martin Scorsese will now have his own life chronicled for Apple TV Plus. In its announcement, Apple says the five-part Mr. Scorsese documentary series will explore how themes like the place of good and evil in the fundamental nature of humankind" have shaped Scorsese's [...]

The mysterious device that OpenAI is cooking up with former Apple designer Jony Ive will be pocket-size, contextually aware, screen-free, and isn't eyewear. Ive and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman revealed details about the project in an internal staff call reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, after announcing the $6.5 billion acquisition of Ive's AI hardware [...]

Fujifilm has a new pint-size addition to its X-series cameras coming in late June: the X Half. It's an 18-megapixel half-frame" camera with a portrait-oriented sensor and viewfinder and a fixed 32mm-equivalent f/2.8 lens. Despite being digital, the X Half is all about the vintage film aesthetic. The $849.99 camera is so dedicated to an [...]

Dyson has announced what it's claiming is the world's slimmest vacuum cleaner." At first glance, its new PencilVac looks like a broom rather than a vacuum because the battery, motor, and electronics are all integrated into a thin handle that's just 38mm in diameter - the same thickness as Dyson's Supersonic r hair dryer. It [...]

Microsoft employees have discovered that any emails they send with the terms "Palestine" or "Gaza" are getting temporarily blocked from being sent to recipients inside and outside the company. The No Azure for Apartheid (NOAA) protest group reports that "dozens of Microsoft workers" have been unable to send emails with the words "Palestine," "Gaza," and [...]

A lawsuit against Google and companion chatbot service Character AI - which is accused of contributing to the death of a teenager - can move forward, ruled a Florida judge. In a decision filed today, Judge Anne Conway said that an attempted First Amendment defense wasn't enough to get the lawsuit thrown out. Conway determined [...]

Signal is taking proactive steps to ensure Microsoft's Recall feature can't screen capture your secured chats, by rolling out a new version of the Signal for Windows 11 client that enables screen security by default. This is the same DRM that blocks users from easily screenshotting a Netflix show on their computer or phone, and [...]

The trade association backing some of the biggest news publishers in the US slammed Google's newly expanded AI Mode, which trades traditional search results for an AI chatbot-like interface. In a statement on Wednesday, the News/Media Alliance said the new feature is depriving" publishers of both traffic and revenue. During Google I/O on Tuesday, the [...]

Microsoft has announced that a new Retro Classics" collection is now available to Game Pass subscribers. Reminiscent of the Nintendo Switch Online classic games library, the collection includes Pitfall, Grand Prix, and more than 50 other Activision titles from the 1980s and 1990s.It's not as many titles as the 1,300 retro games that Antstream, Microsoft's [...]

Artist and musician Brian Eno - who also composed the iconic Windows 95 operating system startup chime - called on Microsoft today to suspend all services that support any operations that contribute to violations of international law," saying the company plays a role in surveillance, violence, and destruction in Palestine." It's the latest high-profile instance [...]

The 2026 Chevy Silverado EV is going off road -way off road - with the addition of the Trail Boss trim to the electric pickup's lineup. The electric version of the automaker's popular off-road trim, Trail Boss offers more capability and - insanely - even more range for the already class-leading Silverado EV. The upgraded [...]

Google announced a new SynthID Detector tool at Google I/O that lets you check if content has been made with the assistance of Google's AI tools. In a blog post, Google DeepMind's Pushmeet Kohli describes SynthID Detector as a verification portal" that can quickly and efficiently identify AI-generated content made with Google AI." It's also [...]

Toyota is redesigning and electrifying" its Rav4 lineup for 2026 with models that aren't quite EVs, but could masquerade as one. The mega popular SUV will come standard with hybrid powertrains, including a plug-in version with a feature you'd expect in only pure EVs: fast charging. That's right, the 2026 Rav4 PHEV can now plug [...]