The Verge

Google will be able to keep making search deals like its $20 billion agreement to be the default option in Apple's Safari browser, a federal district court judge ruled in the US v. Google antitrust case on Tuesday. Executives from both Apple and Firefox-made Mozilla have defended their search deals with Google, with Mozilla's CFO [...]

Amazon will now let you shop for products by pointing your camera at them. On Thursday, the company announced Lens Live, a new feature that uses your camera to scan things in the environment around you, while surfacing matching product listings. This feature, which is only rolling out to the Amazon Shopping app on iOS [...]

Google will not have to sell its Chrome browser in order to address its illegal monopoly in online search, DC District Court Judge Amit Mehta ruled on Tuesday. Over a year ago, Judge Mehta found that the search giant had violated the Sherman Antitrust Act; his ruling now determines what Google must do in response. [...]

After years of development and pent-up anticipation from fans, Hollow Knight: Silksong, the full sequel to the indie classic Hollow Knight, will finally be released on September 4th. It will cost $19.99 and include new zones, more than 200 enemies, over 40 bosses, and an orchestral score from the composer of the first game. Silksong [...]

Hello and welcome to Regulator. Today, I will attempt to regulate my own apoplexy. Recently, Wired published an article revealing the existence of a secret Democrat influencer incubator that trained liberal and progressive content creators to push coordinated messaging across their shared social media platforms and paid them handsomely to do so. The fallout has [...]

President Donald Trump is moving US Space Command's headquarters from Colorado to Alabama, he announced during a press conference on Tuesday. The change reverses former President Joe Biden's 2023 decision to leave it in Colorado Springs, where its temporary headquarters have been established. During the press conference, Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL), chair of the House [...]

As President Donald Trump's August 29th deadline for new tariffs rolled around, the first thing that I thought of was 2026 planners. In July, Trump signed an executive order essentially killing a little-known but highly consequential trade rule, which meant that purchases coming from abroad - like $100 in planners and accessories - could enter [...]

In July, Microsoft's sweeping layoffs hit Xbox hard, and shuttered the entire game studio that was building Perfect Dark. Officially, the game was canceled. But unofficially, reports Bloomberg's Jason Schreier, Microsoft gave Perfect Dark's other set of developers - Tomb Raider studio Crystal Dynamics - a chance to revive the game. Here's where it gets [...]

OpenAI has started to build out its Applications team under Fidji Simo, its new CEO of Applications, who left her former position as Instacart's CEO to start in the executive role on August 18th. On Tuesday, the company confirmed it's shuffling executive roles, bringing on a new CTO of applications, and acquiring a product analytics [...]

Critics of Big Tech and President Donald Trump are on high alert as Google and Trump's legal teams are engaged in what look like potential settlement discussions. Lawyers for Trump and Google's YouTube recently told a federal judge they continue to engage in productive discussions regarding next steps" in a lawsuit Trump filed over YouTube's [...]

Tesla's latest "Master Plan" makes a few things clear right out of the gate: the company that was once known for accelerating the push toward a brighter future by popularizing electric vehicles and renewable energy is no longer interested in that quotidian stuff. Now, it's all about artificial intelligence, humanoid robots, self-driving cars, and the [...]

Uber Eats is teaming up with Best Buy to offer deliveries of the store's selection of tech products, like headphones, chargers, laptops, gaming gear and small appliances. Starting today, you can order a product at Best Buy through the Uber Eats app and have it delivered to your doorstep the same day, adding to store's [...]

Anthropic, the AI startup behind Claude and one of OpenAI's chief competitors, emerged from the holiday weekend with big news: A completed funding round of $13 billion, awarding the company a $183 billion post-money valuation. The company said in a press release that between the start of 2025 and August -less than nine months - [...]

Call of Duty is being adapted into a live action film as part of a new deal signed by Activision and Paramount. Paramount, the film studio behind Top Gun: Maverick, will develop, produce, and distribute a live-action feature film" based on the franchise, and both companies are committed to honoring the brand's rich narrative and [...]

It's not an entirely new idea given Nomad's Universal Cable from earlier this year can charge an Apple Watch and an additional device at the same time, but Zens' new Pro 2 and Pro 3 USB-C cables offer additional functionality and some welcome future-proofing as chargers become more powerful. The cheaper of the two is [...]

Hooked on LinkedIn's Queens? Gotta extend your Wordle streak in the New York Times games app before you start your day? You're in good company on today's Vergecast episode. Allison Johnson is joined by Simon Anthony and Mark Goodliffe, world-class puzzle champs and hosts of the delightful Cracking the Cryptic, a YouTube channel where they [...]

Labor Day weekend is over, which means the symbolic end of summer has passed. On a more positive note, dozens of the best Labor Day deals are still around, so you still have time to take advantage of them if you spent the long weekend offline. For a limited time, you can save on a [...]

If you've ever thought it'd sure be nice to have just one controller to use between my phone, tablet, and TV," then the Backbone Pro might be made for you. Backbone's newest gamepad has the same phone-hugging design as its 2020 predecessor, but comes with a handful of distinct features - the most notable being [...]

Amazon is axing the program that lets Prime members share their free shipping perk with people outside their household. In an update to its support page, Amazon says it will cut off Prime benefit sharing on October 1st, 2025, prompting invitees who don't live with the account holder to sign up for their own subscription [...]

I've owned a Thermomix TM6 for about five years, and I use it multiple times a day for everything from making smoothies in the morning to steaming veggies for dinner, whipping up a sauce, or cooking some rice. It's the most versatile smart gadget in my kitchen. Now its successor, the Thermomix TM7, has arrived [...]

We know officially that Samsung is planning to launch its first trifold phone this year, and recent rumors suggest that might mean either this month or next. Just don't expect it to appear at this week's Unpacked event, which promises products ranging from premium AI tablets to the newest member of the Galaxy S25 family." [...]

More than 10 years after the launch of Dolby Vision, the next generation of the HDR format is here, and it aims to do more than just optimize tone and brightness level for different scenes. The new version, called Dolby Vision 2, has new Content Intelligence" tools that use AI to automatically optimize your TV [...]

Google is updating user profiles for its Play Games service on Android devices to display gaming stats, achievements, and social features. The changes include a suite of new capabilities for showcasing and tracking your game progress and stats, new ways to build your gaming community, and allowing you to tailor your profile to your liking," [...]

Labor Day weekend marks the unofficial end of summer, which is a bit sad, but it's a great time to get a deal on a fancy, new TV. The US holiday is happening just before the start of the 2025-2026 NFL season, the World Cup qualifiers, and the lead-up to the MLB post-season games. This [...]

Labor Day has finally arrived, and after a week of early discounts trickling in, the sales are now in full swing. We've put together an expansive guide detailing nearly 100 deals we think are worth the money - including everything from big-screen OLED TVs to back-to-school essentials like the latest MacBook Air - but we [...]

The first time I used ChatGPT to code, back in early 2023, I was reminded of "The Monkey's Paw," a classic horror story about an accursed talisman that grants wishes, but always by the most malevolent path - the desired outcome arrives after exacting a brutal cost elsewhere first. With the same humorless literalness, ChatGPT [...]

Hollow Knight: Silksong, Team Cherry's sequel to Hollow Knight that has been in development for seven years, is releasing later this week for just $19.99. Silksong's highly-anticipated launch on September 4th comes with a modest $5 bump over Hollow Knight's original $14.99 price tag. While Team Cherry could have charged more for Silksong, it's essentially [...]

The opening hours of Hell Is Us are brilliantly confusing. The game tasks you with getting up to speed on a complicated civil war between the Palomists and Sabinians. A deluge of proper nouns is unleashed: Lymbic weaponry, Guardian Detectors, and more. But the clearest way the game communicates that you should feel utterly dumbfounded [...]

Generally, AI chatbots are not supposed to do things like call you names or tell you how to make controlled substances. But, just like a person, with the right psychological tactics, it seems like at least some LLMs can be convinced to break their own rules. Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania deployed tactics described [...]

What do you gift somebody who loves books? The obvious answer is "a book," but since true bibliophiles are probably sitting on a stack already, it's worth getting a little more creative. Luckily for you, many of us at The Verge are big bookworms ourselves, which is why we rounded up a bunch of clever, [...]

Meta is changing some of the rules governing its chatbots two weeks after a Reuters investigation revealed disturbing ways in which they could, potentially, interact with minors. Now the company has told TechCrunch that its chatbots are being trained not to engage in conversations with minors around self-harm, suicide, or disordered eating, and to avoid [...]

This is The Stepback, a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more on all things AI, follow Hayden Field. The Stepback arrives in our subscribers' inboxes at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepback here. How it started It all started with J.A.R.V.I.S. Yes, that J.A.R.V.I.S. The one from [...]

Verizon has confirmed to customers in stores and online that its network is having an issue on Saturday. Many people have been unable to connect and make or receive calls for hours, while DownDetector's tracker peaked in the afternoon at around 3:30PM ET with more than 20,000 reports. Some customers report their service has continued [...]

For the last week or two, reports have been circulating that recent Windows 11 updates (specifically KB5063878 and KB5062660) were causing some SSDs using Phison controllers to fail. Tech influencers on YouTube and TikTok were quick to jump on the reports of corrupted data and disappearing drives, laying the blame squarely at Microsoft's feet. We're [...]

There's a pleasing rhythm to cozy life sims. The virtual days pass, filled with chores of tending crops or running a business, punctuated by strange mysteries or evolving relationships. At their best, these games merge busywork with exploration and storytelling, in a way that makes them hard to step away from. Discounty, from developer Crinkle [...]

When a Waymo pulls up and parks in front of her home on a residential street in West Los Angeles, 10-year-old Morgan rushes to the window. "The Waymo is home!" she says, calling to her parents, Lisa Delgin and Zach Tucker. It is by no means the first time a Waymo has come "home" to [...]

As one of the cofounders behind Oculus Story Studio, Edward Saatchi knows how hard it can be to sell people on new tech that bills itself as revolutionary. Even though Story Studio snagged an Emmy for one of its three animated features, a general lack of public interest in VR movies led Meta to shutter [...]

Every platform wants to be the place you hang with friends - even Spotify as of this week - so it's apparently time for TikTok to shore up its direct messaging feature! It told TechCrunch that over the next few weeks, all users should see voice messages and image sharing options arrive in their DMs. [...]

The schedule of annual updates for Windows 11 that arrive in the second half of the year will hold steady for 2025, and today, Microsoft announced that the 25H2 package is available now for testing in the Release Preview Channel. So, will you see new UI features or more AI tweaks included on your desktop [...]

There's already been a number of leaks of upcoming Philips Hue products that are expected to be announced next week ahead of IFA. But one thing that hasn't been mentioned was support for Matter-over-Thread. While there's no confirmation that support is coming, there's compelling evidence to suggest it might be. First off, packaging for two [...]

On Tuesday, I told you how the modular computer company Framework was finally fulfilling its promise of the "holy grail for gamers" - a laptop with modular, swappable discrete graphics cards so easy to swap, practically anyone can do it at home. The first futureproof gaming laptop, perhaps? Today, I can confirm the system actually [...]

Lawyers for Tesla filed a motion in court Friday to throw out a jury verdict that found the company's Autopilot software had contributed to the death of a woman in a crash from 2019. Earlier this month, a jury found Tesla partially responsible for the death of 22-year-old Naibel Benavides, who was killed by a [...]

I dream of a gadget that can do it all. Instead, when I leave for the office, I pack one or two phones, a portable battery bank, a laptop, a Kindle, a new product I'm testing, and at least one pair of earbuds. In my backpack, there's a pouch full of cords and adapters. On [...]

It's hard to realize that Labor Day weekend - signalling the end of summer - is already here. It would be a bit depressing, except that the weekend also brings with it some really good deal. For example, you can nab a Hisense S7N 55-inch TV at Best Buy and Amazon for $699.99, a solid [...]

When you watch KPop Demon Hunters, it is easy to see why it has become the most popular movie that Netflix has ever released. The animated musical's story about a trio of pop stars tasked with protecting humanity from monsters is familiar, but refreshingly different and infinitely more stylish than other narratives like it. The [...]

Tesla is offering a new performance version of its Model Y crossover for the European market. The new variant is aimed at boosting the company's sales on the continent, which have been in free fall for most of the year thanks to growing competition from China and brand damage from Elon Musk's fascist antics. The [...]

Valve has started to comply with the UK's Online Safety Act, by rolling out a requirement for all Brits to verify their age with a credit card to access mature content" pages and games on Steam. UK users won't even be able to access the community hubs of mature content games unless a valid credit [...]

More than 450 game developers on Blizzard's Diablo team have formed a union, making them one of the largest and latest groups of Microsoft workers to do so. The new union includes game developers, artists, designers, engineers, and support staff across the Diablo franchise, according to the Communications Workers of America (CWA) press release, which [...]

This seems to be the year that Google's AI features are actually starting to add up to something useful. After a week testing the Pixel 10 Pro, my colleagues Allison Johnson and Vee Song say some of the new features are legitimately useful - at least when they work, which isn't always as expected. Case [...]

Lenovo is gearing up to show off its latest products at Europe's IFA tech tradeshow next week, but leaks may have just given us a first look at what's being announced. The most notable gadget shared by reputable leaker Evan Blass shows an image of a concept laptop design with a display that rotates between [...]