The Verge

The US is investing $8.9 billion into Intel, but most of the funds come from money that the government was supposed to pay the embattled chipmaker anyway. In an announcement on Friday, Intel said the federal government will fund its investment using the remaining $5.7 billion in grants it hasn't yet received under the Biden [...]

Netflix has already faced backlash over the use of AI in What Jennifer Did, director Jenny Popplewell's 2024 true crime documentary that seemingly used AI-generated images in place of real archival photos. That documentary stood out as a shining example of gen AI's ability to distort reality in situations where people are specifically looking to [...]

Bluesky will block access from Mississippi IP addresses in response to a new state law requiring age verification and parental consent for underage users. The decision, outlined in a blog post, will stand until courts decide the fate of the law. Mississippi's approach would fundamentally change how users access Bluesky," says the post, in ways [...]

Meta is partnering with Midjourney to license their aesthetic technology" for use in its own models and products, Meta's new chief AI officer, Alexandr Wang, announced on Friday. The partnership involves a technical collaboration between our research teams," Wang said, suggesting the deal involves more than simply using Midjourney's existing product across Meta services. Wang [...]

Fidji Simo is wrapping up her first week at OpenAI, where she is expected to oversee most of the company's roughly 3,000 employees. To investors and partners, OpenAI leaders have been describing the former Instacart CEO as the kind of steady hand the company needs. Her mandate is clear: turn a chaotic, unprofitable startup into [...]

Expect record-breaking temperatures to change the workplace, the World Health Organization (WHO) and World Meteorological Organization (WMO) warned today in a new report. When workers don't have adequate protections from heat stress, their health and productivity suffer. It's a risk employers and lawmakers have to take more seriously if they want to keep workers safe [...]

In January, one of the wildest Intel prototypes I witnessed at CES was a giant handheld gaming PC with an 11-inch autostereoscopic (read: glasses-free) 3D screen, detachable controllers, an Intel Lunar Lake chip, and a dedicated toggle to switch between 2D and 3D modes. Co-developed by Intel and Tencent Games, it was called the Sunday [...]

Microsoft is testing a new Windows 11 feature that will let you resume using your Android apps right on your PC. The capability is gradually rolling out to Windows Insiders in the Dev and Beta Channels, and only supports the Spotify app for now. If you're in the test, you can try out the feature [...]

Noise-canceling earbuds are great productivity tools, blocking out noisy roommates and busy coffee shops so you can focus on studying or work. While there are a number of great options these days, few are as eye-catching like the translucent Beats Studio Buds Plus. And right now, you can buy the stylish wireless earbuds for just [...]

Yesterday, Hollow Knight: Silksong developers Team Cherry announced a September 4th release date for the long-awaited game, and indie developers are announcing delays to get out of the way of the launch. Silksong is a full sequel to the excellent Hollow Knight and is currently the most wishlisted game on Steam, so it's likely going [...]

After announcing certification from the Wireless Power Consortium (WPC) a month ago, Belkin is now debuting its first three devices that support the Qi2.2 standard and faster 25W wireless charging speeds. The most expensive and elaborate of the new accessories is the $129.99 Belkin UltraCharge Pro 3-in-1 Magnetic Charging Dock, which is a multi-device wireless [...]

Google has added a Drive shortcut for Workspace users that provides a quicker way to edit videos without having to manually open them in Google Vids. When previewing a video saved in their Drive, users will now see an Open" button at the top right corner that automatically opens the file in Google Vids, where [...]

The Pixel line has often been on the cutting edge of mobile photography. This year, that means baking AI straight into the camera app and making us grapple with all of the very messy things that means. I've been scouring the internet for sample images of the Pixel 10 Pro's AI-enhanced 100x zoom feature - [...]

A big reason that BoJack Horseman worked so well was contrast. It took place in a silly world of talking animals, and used that to explore deep human drama in relatable ways. It's part of what made its oddball jokes work so well, as they helped balance out the darker moments that explored topics like [...]

Digg is making a comeback. With the backing of people like Digg cofounder Kevin Rose and Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian, Digg has ambitions to once again be the homepage of the internet. The revival is still in its very early days - the platform is still invite-only - but Digg launched its new mobile apps [...]

Google announced plenty of new hardware at this week's Made by Google event, but halfway through we were distracted by the brief appearance of what appeared to be a new, previously unknown Gemini-powered smart speaker. Now Android Headlines claims that this speaker is real, and will launch with new colors and the ability to pair [...]

When Trump Mobile first unveiled the T1 Phone, we were confused by the mixed marketing, which included dubious renders of what at least appeared to be an original phone along with multiple appearances from what was quite clearly a gold-plated iPhone. Now we can add Samsung's Galaxy S25 Ultra into the mix. The Trump Mobile [...]

President Donald Trump signed a new executive order on Thursday to improve the usability and aesthetics" of US government services by creating first-class online and offline experiences for Americans." It is time to update the Government's design language to be both usable and beautiful," Trump said in the order, which establishes an America by Design [...]

The Splinter Cell: Deathwatch animated series finally has a release date and a proper trailer, but Netflix already wants you to start thinking about what else it has coming down the pipeline. During this year's Anime NYC convention, Netflix announced that Deathwatch is slated to debut on October 14th, and the series has added The [...]

So far, 2025 has been a great year for watching new, must-see TV shows and movies on subscription services. But if you, like many of us, have more concurrent subscriptions than you care to admit, you'll agree that keeping up with the latest stuff every month can get expensive. They may not cost as much [...]

Microsoft has started testing another handheld-friendly addition to its Xbox app, allowing PC gamers to quickly install and launch third-party apps like browsers, gaming utilities, and even rival storefronts. A new My apps" feature is being tested in the Xbox app for Windows 11, and it looks like another way to avoid having to launch [...]

Bungie CEO Pete Parsons has announced that he's leaving the company one decade after taking on the role. In an update on Thursday, Parsons wrote that he has decided to pass the torch" to longtime Bungie developer Justin Truman. Parsons has worked at Bungie for over 20 years and led the studio through the launch [...]

The NFL and Microsoft have extended their arrangement that makes Surface tablets a familiar fixture on gameday sidelines, but naturally, now there's an AI-powered twist on top. While Tom Brady is no longer actively putting those slates in danger of destruction, they do have something to offer to coaches and players. Microsoft touts a GitHub [...]

Google's new Pixel 10 and Pixel 10 Pro Fold and Pixel Watch 4 may compete with Samsung, but it's happy to let Samsung explore other parts of the Galaxy on its own. In interviews with Bloomberg, Google just revealed a lot of devices it isn't currently working on. Here's Bloomberg: Despite its partners Samsung and [...]

Jennifer Pattison Tuohy is a senior reviewer at The Verge covering the smart home, Internet of Things, and, as she puts it, as many kitchen gadgets as I can get my hands on." In her four years here, she's tested everything from smart locks, lights, and doorbells to robot vacuums (some with arms), robot lawnmowers, [...]

It actually happened: Silksong, the standalone sequel to Hollow Knight, has a release date. After seven years in development, and almost as many shrouded in silence, the game is coming out on September 4th. It's welcome news for the millions of Hollow Knight fans who have been impatiently waiting. But it's also part of a [...]

Google on Wednesday introduced its new Pixel 10 lineup during an event in New York - complete with a very strange keynote. In case you missed it, there are a lot of similarities across the latest Pixel models - and some key additions - including the MagSafe-style Pixelsnap, Google's new Tensor G5 chip, and a [...]

The first thing I did when I got my hands on the Xbox Ally was reboot it. I wanted to see exactly how Microsoft manages to hide Windows beneath the Xbox interface that's debuting on these handheld devices. After a short startup, I was met with the standard Windows login prompt. But I could use [...]

YouTube Music is launching shared playlists that evolve based on the listening habits of the people who join them. The platform announced the new taste match" playlists as part of its 10th anniversary on Thursday, and says it will refresh them with new music every day. It sounds similar to Spotify Blend, which lets you [...]

If you want to spend the rest of the year catching up on the movies, TV shows, and video games you missed over the summer, you should enjoy them on a really nice screen. Thankfully, you can get a 77-inch LG C5 OLED TV for around $2,496.99 ($1,203 off), its lowest price ever at Amazon, [...]

Tesla is under investigation for failing to report crashes involving its partially autonomous driving technology in a timely manner. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration requires automakers to report crashes involving advanced driver assist features within one or five days" of the incident, but Tesla was reporting crashes several months or more" after they occurred, [...]

Zero Zero Robotics has announced a new autonomous drone that pairs the simplicity of its HoverAir X1 with the improved video capabilities of its HoverAir X1 Pro and, for the first time, complete waterproofing. The new HoverAir Aqua has an IP67 rating and is designed to float, take-off, and land on water instead of an [...]

One of the most brilliant things about Pokemon Legends: Arceus was the way it dropped you into the wilderness to fend for yourself as wild monsters tried to kill you. It was a surprising deviation from the franchise's typically chill vibe that complemented the game's story about how humans once lived in constant fear of [...]

It was all just supposed to be a one-time thing. When Burning Man got canceled because of covid-19 in 2020, a number of attendees banded together to re-create the festival on the social VR platform Altspace. That virtual Burning Man experience not only attracted around 13,000 visitors, but also accolades from the Producers Guild of [...]

404 Media has a report out about an underground software market that enables the Flipper Zero to be used to unlock a wide variety of vehicles, including Ford, Audi, Volkswagen, Subaru, Hyundai, Kia, and several other models. The hack works by intercepting and cloning a key fob's radio signal using custom firmware built for the [...]

Apple is raising the price of its streaming service. The company announced on Thursday that its $9.99 per month subscription will now cost $12.99 each month, marking a $3 price increase. The price increase will go into effect immediately for new subscribers, while existing ones will see the changes reflected 30 days after their billing [...]

Hollow Knight: Silksong, the full sequel to Hollow Knight that has been in development for years, will be released on September 4th. The news was revealed as part of a special announcement" video that debuted on Thursday. In Silksong, you play as Hornet, a character that appeared in the original Hollow Knight. The game, which [...]

Hello, and welcome to Decoder! This is Alex Heath, your Thursday episode guest host and deputy editor at The Verge. One of the biggest topics in AI these days is agents - the idea that AI is going to move from chatbots to reliably completing tasks for us in the real world. But the problem [...]

Google is putting AI Mode into Search in 180 countries and territories, allowing the AI-powered search feature to expand beyond the US, UK, and India. The expansion means more people can search for topics using a chatbot-like interface, though it's still only available in English. Along with a global expansion, Google revealed that it's building [...]

Insta360 has announced the next version of its compact Go action camera, which helped the company differentiate itself from established competitors like GoPro several years ago. As Insta360 teased earlier this week, the new Go Ultra not only breaks from the numbered naming convention of previous iterations, but it also ditches the camera's distinctive pill [...]

Earlier this week, a bean moved into my phone. Their name is Billie Bean King, and when I'm working, they work too, knitting socks and scarves. Billie's knitted wares are more than just cozy clothes - they're currency, used to buy lo-fi decorations for their barren room. But there's a catch: Billie can only work [...]

GuliKit was the first company to address the original Switch's drifting issues with a Hall effect Joy-Con upgrade kit, and it released one of the first controllers that can remotely wake the Nintendo Switch 2. Its latest first, announced at Gamescom 2025 in Germany, is a pair of controllers with the ability to infinitely adjust [...]

Google has started rolling out its latest batch of Android 16 features to beta testers, including expanded support for dark mode and themed app icons. The QPR2 beta 1 was announced yesterday alongside Google launching the Pixel 10 series, and is expected to get a full public release sometime in December, according to Google's release [...]

Amid a fierce debate about the environmental toll of artificial intelligence, Google released a new study that says its Gemini AI assistant only uses a minimal amount of water and energy for each text prompt. But experts say that the tech giant's claims are misleading. Google estimates that a median Gemini text prompt uses up [...]

Honor has launched a new flip phone today, the Magic V Flip 2, and it arrives with a sparkly special edition in partnership with fashion designer Jimmy Choo. The former Huawei subsidiary has partnered with Choo before, for last year's V Flip, and has kept to a similar formula this year, swapping glittery green for [...]

Medical tech company Masimo is suing US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in an attempt to overturn the agency's decision to allow Apple to restore the blood oxygen tracking feature on Apple Watches. Apple has been embroiled in legal disputes over Masimo's blood oxygen sensor patent since 2020, disabling the feature on supported US Apple [...]

A Microsoft employee has been arrested as part of protests at the company's headquarters in Redmond, Washington this week. On Tuesday, a group of current and former Microsoft employees, as well as community members, took over a plaza at Microsoft's headquarters to protest against the company's contracts with Israel. The No Azure for Apartheid protest [...]

Sony announced a $50 price increase on all PlayStation 5 slim" models in the US starting tomorrow, August 21st. The upcoming prices for a PS5 Digital Edition, the standard PS5, and the PS5 Pro are $499.99, $549.99, and $749.99, respectively; however, you can avoid paying the higher prices by picking up a PS5 at Amazon, [...]

Ricoh is launching its GR IV compact camera in mid-September for $1,499.95, accompanied by a tiny new GF-2 add-on flash for $119.95. As initially announced in May, the GR IV will feature a 26-megapixel APS-C sensor, slightly redesigned 28mm-equivalent f/2.8 lens, new autofocus and stabilization systems, and 53GB of built-in storage to supplement its microSD [...]

Google is bringing a bundle of new features to Gemini Live, its AI assistant that you can have real-time conversations with. Next week, Gemini Live will be able to highlight things directly on your screen while sharing your camera, making it easier for the AI assistant to point out a specific item. If you're trying [...]