The Verge

As The Verge's resident disaster writer, I'm tired of this nonsense. So let's just get into it. What is cloud seeding? Cloud seeding is basically an attempt to make precipitation fall from clouds. It targets clouds that have water droplets that are essentially too light to fall. Scientists at MIT learned in the 1940s that [...]

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey is threatening Google, Microsoft, OpenAI, and Meta with a deceptive business practices claim because their AI chatbots allegedly listed Donald Trump last on a request to rank the last five presidents from best to worst, specifically regarding antisemitism." Bailey's press release and letters to all four companies accuse Gemini, Copilot, [...]

I was told to be ready for anything before my daughter was born. I didn't realize that included being at the ready to constantly fix her electronic toys. Do you know the horrors of the eKids Disney Frozen toy microphone? Well, now I'm an expert at tinkering with it. It wouldn't have been as easy [...]

After recently admitting that it had a spectacularly terrible response" to Joy-Con grip detachment complaints with its Killswitch Nintendo Switch 2 case, Dbrand has some good news: it says its redesigned Joy-Con grips fix the issue and the company will be able to mass produce them. Dbrand had already promised it would be replacing the [...]

We just got a good, long look at PlayStation's next major exclusive. As promised, Sony held an event dedicated to Ghost of Ytei, the PS5-exclusive samurai game from Sucker Punch that launches on October 2nd. The stream was a deep dive exploring everything from combat to the world itself - and it's looking like an [...]

The release notes for the latest Kindle software update that launched a few weeks ago were vague, but some users have discovered a useful feature for anyone with cheaper ad-supported e-readers. In addition to more robust line and text spacing options, you now have the option to filter ads that may not be appropriate for [...]

Every model in Sony's WH-1000XM lineup has consistently ranked among the best headphones you can buy, and thanks to Amazon Prime Day, several of the latest entries are on sale. Right now, for instance, the brand-new WH-1000XM6 are available from Amazon, Best Buy, and Sony for around $428 ($22 off), which is the first cash [...]

Amazon's latest Prime Day sale has officially begun, and we've already highlighted nearly 200 of our favorite deals in our main roundup, including cheap charging accessories, robot vacuums, and some of the best prices we've seen to date on Apple's M3-equipped iPad Air. Unsurprisingly, there are also steep discounts available on a wealth of wireless [...]

Prime Day is one of the best times of the year to stock up on smart home gear. With big price drops on all of Amazon's many smart home brands, from Blink and Ring to Echo speakers and Eero Wi-Fi routers, plus a ton of other manufacturers getting in on the action, making your smart [...]

Tesla CEO Elon Musk is eyeing San Francisco for his next robotaxi city -to which I say, good luck to you, sir. Musk acknowledged that the company is still waiting on regulatory approval," which hints at the uphill company Tesla will face in pushing this process forward. (Get it? Uphill? San Francisco?) The company scored [...]

Bluesky is adding age verification to its platform in the UK as part of efforts to comply with the country's Online Safety Act. In an update on Thursday, the platform says it will let users verify their age by scanning their face, uploading an ID, or entering a payment card. Bluesky will perform age verification [...]

King of the Hill is finally coming back after 15 years, and in the revival's new trailer, the world has become a very different place, I tell you what. Set years after Hank (Mike Judge) has been working in Saudi Arabia on a propane project to secure his and Peggy's (Kathy Najimy) retirement, King of [...]

What you have on your desk and in your workspace at home can reveal a lot about you: how you work, what you like to distract yourself with, what kind of toys and other tchotchkes you like to have around you. That is why we have the What's On Your Desk? series, where we look [...]

Netflix's main Squid Game series may be over, but a second season of the Squid Game reality show is debuting in just a few months - and a third season is on the way. On Thursday, Netflix announced that season 2 of Squid Game: The Challenge will premiere on November 4th. In Season 2 of [...]

Google just launched a new Gemini AI feature that lets you transform photos into video clips. The new photo-to-video capability is powered by Google's Veo 3 video model, and it can transform reference images into eight-second videos complete with AI-generated audio, including background noises, environmental sounds, and speech. The Gemini video update is now available [...]

Nintendo is discontinuing vouchers for Switch games. The program, which lets Switch Online members save money on digital games, will come to an end on January 30th, 2026. Though players will no longer be able to purchase vouchers after this date, vouchers will still expire one year after they're purchased. Nintendo first introduced Switch game [...]

Welcome to Decoder! I'm Alex Heath, Deputy Editor at The Verge and author of the Command Line newsletter. This is the first in a series of Thursday Decoder episodes that I'll be hosting while Nilay is out on parental leave. I've been covering AI a lot at The Verge, and I'm excited to start sharing [...]

Keeping your floors clean feels like a second job, but it doesn't have to. Robot vacuums that can both suck up and mop them can make life easier, although many models out there need a fair amount of babysitting to ensure they're doing good work. The Dreame X40 Ultra is different. It delivers a nearly [...]

On a balmy night in October 2019, the defector rode his bike home. He'd just finished a long shift helping waiters serve yogurt-smothered kabobs at a restaurant in Yalova, a seaside town an hour from Istanbul, Turkey. By this time of night, many of the shops had closed. Most of Yalova was home watching TV; [...]

Following buildable versions of Optimus Prime and Bumblebee, Lego's latest collaboration with Hasbro is also its first Decepticon. The 1,505-piece Soundwave, which is three pieces smaller than Lego's 1,508-piece Optimus Prime, stands just shy of 13 inches tall and is Lego's first Transformers set to include a sound brick - but you may have to [...]

The creation of Donkey Kong Bananza started with destruction. "What we were really going for was this gameplay experience that comes from destruction," Bananza director Kazuya Takahashi says in an interview with The Verge. From that simple premise, Bananza's creators have built an entire game about breaking stuff. Bananza is the second major Switch 2 [...]

Let me try to read your mind. You're thinking of getting a new TV, yes, a 4K model with some sort of smart TV operating system that can provide instant access to your favorite streaming apps. Well then. With Prime Day underway, several TV models, as well as streaming devices and soundbars, are on sale. [...]

YouTube is trying to soothe concerns about an incoming update to its monetization policies following backlash from online creators. An announcement that YouTube would be updating restrictions around inauthentic" content under the YouTube Partner Program guidelines was interpreted by some to mean the platform was planning to demonetize a wider variety of videos, including those [...]

Yesterday's Galaxy Unpacked event came and went without a single onstage tease of the rumored Samsung trifold phone, but the head of the company's phone business says that it's on the way, and due this year." I expect we will be able to launch the trifold phone within this year," TM Roh, acting head of [...]

Aqara's successor to the popular G4 video doorbell is now available to buy. The $129.99 G410,announced in January, remains one of the few (only?) doorbells to support Apple's HomeKit Secure Video and both wireless and hardwired installations, while adding an absolute ton of new features to make it one of the most capable video doorbells [...]

Elon Musk's live demo of Grok 4, the latest big-ticket model from his AI startup, began with high-intensity music, claims of a ludicrous rate of progress," and a lot of chatter on X about Grok's scandal-filled week. Musk pronounced it to be the smartest AI in the world." The livestream, slated to start at 8PM [...]

Summer travel season is in full swing, and whether you're headed to the beach, a weekend getaway, or just staying home in the A/C, here are some good Prime Day deals for readers. The latest Kindle Paperwhite and the Kindle Colorsoft Signature Essential let you carry an entire library without the bulk, and right now, [...]

Microsoft's complicated relationship with OpenAI is about to take an interesting turn. As the pair continue to renegotiate a contract to allow OpenAI to restructure into a for-profit company, OpenAI is preparing to release an open language AI model that could drive even more of a wedge between the two companies. Sources familiar with OpenAI's [...]

Samsung's summer Galaxy Unpacked event has come to a close. As expected, the company unveiled next-generation Galaxy Z Flip and Fold smartphones, as well as three new additions to its smartwatch lineup. If you didn't get a chance to watch the event yourself, you can catch up with all of Samsung's major announcements below. The [...]

Samsung's latest clamshell-style foldable is officially here, and it brought a new, more affordable sibling to the party. The Z Flip 7 was announced at Samsung's summer Unpacked event this morning, and it's been updated with an edge-to-edge cover screen. Alongside the Flip 7, Samsung is also launching a new model: the Z Flip 7 [...]

Samsung just announced its seventh-generation folding phones, and it finally retired the long and narrow Z Fold design that it had stuck with for far too long. The Z Flip is also getting an overdue upgrade to a full-size cover screen rather than the file folder shape of the past couple generations. After years of [...]

One thing is immediately noticeable as I try on the new Galaxy Watch 8 and Galaxy Watch 8 Classic just ahead of Samsung Unpacked. The squircle has taken over. The circle-face-in-a-square-case design was introduced last year with the Galaxy Watch Ultra, and it has now made its way to the rest of the lineup. At [...]

Google is adding new AI features to Android's Circle to Search and Gemini Live tools. The update was announced today, alongside the launch of the next-generation Galaxy foldables, and it includes new Gemini Live capabilities for Samsung devices and integrates Google's search-centric AI Mode chatbot right into Circle to Search. AI Mode made its debut [...]

Ikea is relaunching its smart home line in a move that will make its low-cost products work with other brands, with or without Ikea's own hub. Starting in January, the Swedish furniture giant will release more than 20 new Matter-over-Thread smart lights, sensors, and remotes with "more new product types and form factors to come," [...]

Bluetooth and quick-to-music features like Spotify Tap are the future of sound at Ikea now that the Sonos partnership has fizzled. It's an approach that Ikea's David Granath says will make sound more affordable and easier to use for more people. Our aim is to make sound accessible, functional, and enjoyable - without adding complexity," [...]

Over the last two weeks, I've sought to uncover why the Nintendo Switch 2 didn't work with a host of USB-C accessories that worked perfectly fine with other devices, including third-party docks and some of the best-reviewed webcams. But today, I have first-hand confirmation that existing gadgets can work - as long as their manufacturers [...]

Prime Day 2025 is the best time this year to get a big-screen TV. Sure, there are deals in the weeks leading up to the Super Bowl, but those are generally on the previous year's TV because most new models haven't been released yet. Prime Day, however, comes after most major TV refreshes - including [...]

Apple CEO Tim Cook is about to take over one of the most significant parts of Apple's business: its design team. The team currently reports to COO Jeff Williams, but once Williams begins his just-announced retirement late in the year," the design team will then transition to reporting directly to Cook," Apple says. The company [...]

In a significant albeit preliminary win for the president, the Supreme Court is allowing the Trump administration to go ahead with its plans to drastically reshape federal agencies by laying off employees en masse. The unsigned decision lifts a lower court ruling that briefly stopped the Trump administration from cutting down the federal workforce while [...]

Apple has announced that Sabih Khan, the company's vice president of operations, will take over for Jeff Williams as chief operating officer later this month. In an announcement on Tuesday, Apple said the move is part of a long-planned succession" that has Williams retiring at the end of this year. Williams, who oversaw the introduction [...]

Before this year's Prime Day event began, there were already some great early deals on Apple products, allowing you to save on the Apple Watch, iPad, and the MacBook Air. Now we can add Apple's second generation AirPods Pro with USB-C charging case to the list, which is currently down to $149 ($100 off) at [...]

Microsoft's new 12-inch Surface Pro is awesome, and at $115 off at Best Buy, it's a fantastic deal to jump on during Amazon Prime Day. Both Amazon and Microsoft are selling it for $699.99. No matter where you buy it, you can use the discount to cover most of the cost of the $150 keyboard, [...]

Google is introducing a new Gmail feature for those feeling overwhelmed by an onslaught of subscription emails in their inboxes. The Manage subscriptions view shows a list of emails delivered through active subscriptions, automatically sorted with the most frequent senders at the top, next to individual one-click links that will unsubscribe you from their mailing [...]

It's a great time to buy a new TV during Amazon Prime Day (or, days, rather), but that doesn't mean you should only consider 2025 models. You can get huge discounts on last year's models without compromising on much. For example, the excellent 2024 Samsung S90D OLED is available for its lowest price ever. The [...]

For years, Warner Bros. Discovery has been playing a desperate game of catchup in hopes of recreating the success that Marvel achieved with its live action comics adaptations. DC movies had their moments, but they never managed to come together in a way that felt right or intentional. And for a long time, it seemed [...]

Zoom has rolled out a standalone app for Meta Quest headsets. With the app, you can join or host meetings in virtual reality while appearing as your Meta Avatar. Zoom launched an app for the Quest in 2023, but it was only available through Meta's Horizon Workspaces app, and users could also only host a [...]

By definition, flash floods are notoriously difficult to warn people about well in advance. They form rapidly, giving forecasters hours of lead time at best to figure out where they might hit with specificity. We've seen this with devastating effect in Texas, where flash floods over Independence Day weekend killed over 100 people - many [...]

Amazon finally has listings for the Nintendo Switch 2 in the US - though right now, you can only register your interest for an invitation to purchase a console. If you're interested, here are links to the console and Mario Kart World bundle and the console on its own. It's a big change following Nintendo [...]

A key pillar of post-9/11 airport security theater may finally be going away. Multiple outlets are reporting that the Transportation Security Administration will start allowing passengers at a few select airports to keep their shoes on while going through security checkpoints. No longer will we have to gaze upon our fellow travelers' weird socks or [...]