The Verge

Microsoft has suddenly shut its movies and TV store on Xbox consoles and Windows PCs. As of today, you can no longer purchase new movies or TV shows from the Microsoft Store on Xbox or Windows, but you will still be able to access previously purchased content on your devices. Downloads will continue to be [...]

When Nintendo first announced the Switch 2's slate of launch titles, people were very quick to cry foul about how few original, exclusive games the company had lined up for its latest console. There were ports from other systems and updated versions of original Switch games. But Mario Kart World was the Switch 2's only [...]

I can't open LinkedIn without seeing a new post from a Microsoft employee who lost their job in the company's latest round of layoffs. Around 15,000 jobs have been eliminated at Microsoft over the past couple months - the biggest cuts at the company in more than a decade. I've spoken to more than a [...]

Would you like Siri more if it had a face? Ever since Elon Musk added a weird anime girlfriend to Grok, I've been wondering if there's a not-so-distant future where all of our AI assistants are much more clearly personified. Grok makes it feel deeply uncomfortable, but I'm not so sure it has to be [...]

Perplexity has just launched its agentic answer to Google Chrome - it's called Comet, and it knocked out a slate of tasks on my behalf, though I think I could've done some faster myself. The new AI-powered browser is currently only available to Perplexity Max subscribers or through an early access waitlist, and it's supposed [...]

Delta Air Lines is leaning into dynamic ticket pricing that uses artificial intelligence to individually determine the highest fee you'd willingly pay for flights, according to comments Fortune spotted in the company's latest earnings call. Following a limited test of the technology last year, Delta is planning to shift away from static ticket prices entirely [...]

Apple has sued the well-known leaker Jon Prosser for the alleged theft of trade secrets related to iOS 26. Prosser has been accused of tasking another man, Michael Ramacciotti, with secretly accessing an Apple employee's development iPhone and using that information to report on Apple's planned changes in the then-unannounced iOS 26. According to the [...]

Late last year, Nintendo hosted a mysterious Switch Online playtest, and on Thursday, the company announced that it would be doing another test as part of the Nintendo Switch Online: Playtest Program" and that it will be opening applications soon. This second round will be a test of the same service" as before. Last time, [...]

Subaru doesn't have the deepest bench when it comes to EVs. There's the Solterra, now in its third model year, and the upcoming Trailseeker, which promises to be the Outback to the Solterra's Impreza when it comes out in 2026. Now we can add a new member to the lineup. The 2026 Subaru Uncharted is [...]

The crypto industry is beginning to see a return on one of its most prescient investments: Donald Trump. On Thursday, the House of Representatives passed three bills that industry supporters believe will bring more legitimacy and predictability to the digital currency space - and that critics warn could enrich the president's own family and hand [...]

Netflix says it's on track to double" its advertising revenue this year as the company continues ot build out its ad tech platform. The streaming giant shared the news as part of its second-quarter earnings results released on Thursday, which revealed that Netflix raked in $11.08 billion in revenue over the past few months, marking [...]

A company called iStore has issued a recall for its 5,000mAh Magnetic Wireless Power Bank (model IST-09991/W05) because its lithium ion battery can overheat and ignite while charging," posing a fire and burn risk. iStore has received three reports of the power banks exploding during charging, resulting in a minor burn for one user and [...]

We saw a ton of great Apple deals during Prime Day, most of which have disappeared. It's okay if you missed out, though, as some of our favorite deals like the M2 MacBook Air have either stuck around or have returned, like the low price on Apple's entry-level AirPods 4. Right now, you can pick [...]

The current trend in USB chargers isn't adding more power or ports, it's integrating charging cables that disappear when not in use. Anker was one of the first companies to release a charger with a built-in retractable USB-C cable last October, but its latest charger brings the same convenience to the desktop alongside three AC [...]

A subscription to Peacock is about to cost more. NBCUniversal announced on Thursday that it's raising the price of its ad-supported Peacock Premium from $7.99 to $10.99 per month, while its ad-free Premium Plus plan will go from $13.99 per month to $16.99 per month. News of the price hike was first reported by Vulture. [...]

Razer's new Pokemon collaboration is a missed opportunity. The four PC gaming peripherals in this lineup are simply reskinned versions of products that already exist, and which cost $20 to $40 more than their all-black counterparts. You really should be getting more for your money here. For example, the themed BlackWidow V4 X keyboard should [...]

Today is Donkey Kong Bananza launch day, and what better way to celebrate than with a discount? The Nintendo Switch 2-exclusive game is currently $62.99 ($7 off) at Costco for members. Nintendo games rarely go on sale, even after several months on shelves, so any amount off the retail price is a big win on [...]

For nearly two years, students at Columbia University have warned that they're being targeted - and put in serious danger - by right-wing Zionist organizations like Canary Mission and Betar US. Canary Mission's goal was initially to "expose" students it deemed antisemitic, ideally in the hopes that they'd be denied jobs and other opportunities. In [...]

I've been using the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 for the past week, and I think I can finally say it: I get folding phones. The Z Fold 7 so slim and so nice to use, that I'm looking at the whole category in a whole new light. It's great timing, because it looks like [...]

The massive budget bill signed into law by President Donald Trump on Independence Day didn't include everything on Big Tech's wishlist, but the industry's largest players stand to gain significantly from several provisions in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The Republican-backed legislation is best known for its tax cuts on tips, deduction caps that [...]

The News/Media Alliance, a trade association behind major news publishers, announced that it has successfully secured" the removal of 12ft.io, a website that helped users bypass paywalls online. The trade association says 12ft.io's webhost took down the site on July 14th following the News/Media Alliance's efforts." 12ft.io - or 12 Foot Ladder - also allowed [...]

OpenAI is going all-in on the most-hyped trend in AI right now: AI agents, or tools that go a step beyond chatbots to complete complex, multi-step tasks on a user's behalf. The company on Thursday debuted ChatGPT Agent, which it bills as a tool that can complete work on your behalf using its own virtual [...]

A California federal judge ruled Thursday that three authors suing Anthropic over copyright infringement can bring a class action lawsuit representing all U.S. writers whose work was allegedly downloaded from libraries of pirated works. The filing alleges that Anthropic, the Amazon-backed OpenAI competitor behind the chatbot Claude, violated the Copyright Act by doing Napster-style downloading [...]

Today is World Emoji Day, and the Unicode Consortium is sharing a preview of some of the new emoji that should hit your devices early next year as part of Unicode 17.0. If you ask me, it's a promising batch, especially the Bigfoot emoji - sorry, hairy creature." The list includes these emoji, according to [...]

It has been five years since Netflix first announced that it was working with Ubisoft to develop a live-action Assassin's Creed show inspired by the hit games series. For a long time, it seemed like the project might be dead in the water given how little news there was about it. But now it looks [...]

AMD's latest Zen 5-based Ryzen Threadripper Pro 9000 WX-Series of CPUs go on sale later this month, and the top option will be priced at $11,699. The 9000 WX-Series chips are designed for workstations, with the $11,699 Threadripper Pro 9995WX shipping on July 23rd with 96 cores and 192 threads. Dell, HP, Lenovo, and Supermicro [...]

Elgato has released four new color options for its Stream Deck and other streaming accessories as part of a new Dreamscape collection designed to better match the aesthetic of a studio or gaming room. The devices and accessories have previously typically only been available in white or black, but are now available in forest green, [...]

Valve's Steam Deck has dominated the handheld gaming PC space since its 2022 debut. But even as more powerful Windows handhelds arrived to keep up with more demanding games, none have beaten the Steam Deck's combination of ease-of-use, ergonomics, power, and battery life at an affordable price. That still hasn't changed. The Lenovo Legion Go [...]

Earlier this week, Elon Musk posted an image of Tesla's robotaxi service area in Austin, Texas, that was in the shape of a penis. Hilarious, I know, but more importantly: it appeared that Tesla's map was slightly larger than Waymo's service area, which covers just 37 square miles in Austin. Today, Waymo announced its own [...]

Wacom has announced the MovinkPad 11, an all-in-one Android-powered tablet for digital illustrators who want to draw on the go. Unlike other display drawing tablets in Wacom's lineup, the $449 MovinkPad doesn't need to be connected to a laptop or PC, placing it in direct competition with the Apple Pencil and iPad combo that's proved [...]

Ever since the New York Times acquired Wordle and went all-in on games, there's been something of a slow-brewing arms race in the space. The Times continues to release new games, and it's now up against intriguing competitors like Puzzmo, Netflix, The Atlantic, and even LinkedIn, while established games like Words With Friends have adjusted [...]

Hello, and welcome to Decoder! I'm Alex Heath, deputy editor at The Verge and author of the Command Line newsletter. I'm hosting our Thursday episodes while Nilay is out on parental leave. Today, we're talking about how AI is changing the way we use the web. If you're like me, you're probably already using apps [...]

Shadow Labyrinth didn't make the best first impression, though I'm not talking about the game itself. The concept of a gritty reboot of Pac-Man first reared its strange head in Secret Level, an anthology that turned notable video games into animated shorts that mostly felt like extended commercials. And that's exactly what the episode "Circle," [...]

Sony's new RX1R III camera looks awesome. Hardcore photo enthusiasts have wanted an updated version of its full-frame compact camera, the RX1, for nearly a decade. I'm not surprised it costs a whopping $5,100 (cameras and lenses have been trending more expensive), but what I do find surprising, and quite egregious, is that the RX1R [...]

A24 is known for its prestige arthouse films, but in its early days as a distributor, it made most of its money from elevated horror films like Ari Aster's Hereditary and Midsommar. Over a decade in, the ambitions of A24 and Aster have expanded beyond genre film. But for both, the more recent results have [...]

Adobe is launching new generative AI filmmaking tools that provide fun ways to create sound effects and control generated video outputs. Alongside the familiar text prompts that typically allow you to describe what Adobe's Firefly AI models should make or edit, users can now use onomatopoeia-like voice recordings to generate custom sounds, and use reference [...]

Dyson is expanding the range of ear caps and cushions it offers for its customizable OnTrac headphones, with two new colors launching today for each. That doesn't change the four default designs you're able to pick from when buying the $499.99 OnTracs, but it does give existing owners new options to mix up the design. [...]

Uber plans to make multi-hundred-million dollar investments" in both Nuro and Lucid as part of a massive new robotaxi deal that was just announced. The three companies are linking up to deploy 20,000 or more" robotaxis in the US over the next six years. The vehicles will be Lucid's new Gravity SUV, equipped with autonomous [...]

Slack is using AI to help business users quickly understand confusing company language and concentrate on their most important tasks. The communication platform announced that it will soon" be adding a feature that explains workplace jargon, and an AI writing assistant for Slack canvases that automates repetitive writing tasks like summarizing conversations and note-taking. The [...]

Roblox is introducing a way to let trusted friends chat more freely among themselves, but it will require that they use a new age estimation tool to verify that they're over 13. The platform is renaming Friends to Connections, and people can only use unfiltered text chat and the Party social feature with a more [...]

TikTok will now let songwriters highlight tracks they've written or co-written directly on their profiles. The list of songs will live within the Music" tab on their profile, similar to the one TikTok already offers for artists on the platform. Users who register as songwriters will also get a Songwriter" label beneath their account name. [...]

The battle between Subnautica 2 publisher Krafton and the three former executives at its developer Unknown Worlds continues. Ted Gill, Charlie Cleveland, and Max McGuire - the three executives who Krafton terminated earlier this year - have filed a lawsuit detailing the alleged attempts by Krafton to torpedo the early access release of Subnautica 2 [...]

Google is raising the price of its Nest Aware and Nest Aware Plus subscriptions starting in August 2025. According to emails sent out to subscribers today, the cost of the entry-level Nest Aware service is increasing from $8 per month or $80 per year to $10 per month or $100 when paying for a full [...]

Days after introducing an AI waifu' companion for Grok, Elon Musk is now officially teasing a male version for the ladies. So far we can tell it is broody and dark-haired, and according to Musk, his personality is inspired by Edward Cullen from Twilight and Christian Grey from 50 Shades." This is a decidedly different [...]

I like to drive without the distractions of my work life interrupting me, but if you're eager to stay connected then Mercedes-Benz is ready. You'll soon be able to join a Microsoft Teams call in some MercedesBenz vehicles and use the in-car camera to chat with colleagues while you're driving. MercedesBenz is the first car [...]

Nintendo just announced the two leads of its live-action Legend of Zelda film, and unlike the celebrity-packed Mario movie cast, Zelda will star two young, lesser-known actors: Bo Bragason as Zelda and Benjamin Evan Ainsworth as Link. You may not have heard of them, but there's a good chance they're going to be a part [...]

Earlier this week, xAI added what can only be described as an AI anime girlfriend named Ani to its Grok chatbot. Which is how I ended up on a virtual starry beach as an AI waifu avatar tried to give me a "spicy" kiss. You've probably seen screenshots, videos, and various writeups about Ani spread [...]

General Motors and Redwood Materials are joining forces yet again, this time with the intent to build energy storage units made out of new batteries and recycled EV packs. The two companies signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding to build energy storage out of US-manufactured batteries, as well as second-life" EV packs from GM's vehicles. [...]

Scale AI, the AI industry's chief data dealer, will lay off 14 percent of its workforce, or about 200 employees, just one month after Meta took a multibillion-dollar stake in the company and hired its CEO and other staff. The layoffs include 500 of its global contractors, Scale spokesperson Joe Osborne told The Verge, adding [...]

It's almost back to school season, and we're starting to see some great laptop deals trickle in as a result. Walmart continues to sell the M1-powered MacBook Air for $599, but if you want more power and a sleeker design, the 13-inch M2-powered MacBook Air starts at just $699 ($100 off) from Best Buy. That's [...]