The Verge

Samsung warned us last month that ads were coming to the giant Android tablets embedded in its Family Hub smart fridges. I've been eyeing mine ever since - and the first ones are about to arrive. Starting November 3rd, the $2,000-plus connected fridges will get a new widget that serves up ads, Shane Higby, head [...]

There are only a handful of albums that I think qualify as genuinely scary. You Won't Get What You Want by Daughters, and Swans To Be Kind both immediately come to mind. But those records come with... let's say, baggage. I've Seen All I Need to See lacks some of the atmospheric spookiness of To [...]

Adobe's computational photography app, Project Indigo, had a bit of trouble adapting to the new square-format selfie sensor in the iPhone 17 series. For the last month or so, the app simply didn't support Apple's latest phones at all. Adobe was working behind the scenes to get things up and running, and posting occasional updates [...]

"Sharp Dressed Man," by ZZ Top. Hard on a good day, Medium when my friends were over, Expert once and then never ever again. That was my Guitar Hero sweet spot. And for years, it seemed like everybody had one. The plastic guitar controllers became a staple of living rooms everywhere, and the songs - [...]

This is The Stepback, a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more on the legal morass of AI, follow Adi Robertson. The Stepback arrives in our subscribers' inboxes at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepback here. How it started The song was called "Heart on My Sleeve," and [...]

Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 103, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you're new here, welcome, sorry everything's so expensive this week, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.) This week, I've been reading about gooning and Costco and protein bars and [...]

Right now, there are robots stocking convenience store shelves in Japan. We haven't embraced that tech here in America yet, but it's hard to imagine 7-11 or Walmart won't at least experiment with it soon. Walmart gave up on its shelf-scanning robots in 2020, but machine vision and AI have improved a lot in the [...]

Apple's AirTags have become one of my essentials while traveling, namely because they let me check whether my luggage is in the right place instead of panicking at the baggage claim. And right now, you can get a four-pack of AirTags at Amazon and Walmart for $64.99 ($35 off), which is just a few cents [...]

It's easy to get into the weeds on a hobby, especially if you're into PC gaming and dreaming of the highest levels of graphical performance. But how much is too much for hardware? Spending top dollar on graphics power, processing, RAM, storage, etc. - like many things - eventually leads to diminishing returns. When it [...]

As Immigration and Customs Enforcement carries out raids across the country, the agency is working rapidly to expand an online surveillance system that could potentially track millions of users on the web. Federal records uncovered by The Lever reveal that ICE is paying $5.7 million to use an AI-powered social media monitoring platform called Zignal [...]

It took me a while to get into Ball x Pit. The new roguelike blends elements from games like Breakout, Vampire Survivors, and even city builders, creating a complex mix of ideas. But as is the case with many roguelikes, once I figured everything out well enough to get a taste of my first win, [...]

During a recent all-hands meeting, Waymo's chief winter weather expert laid it out for all the company's engineers and product managers: if Waymo wants to expand to new cities and new markets, it's robotaxis will need to be able to confidently and safely handle the snow. In its first few years of operation, Waymo has [...]

When people sign up for a dating site like Tinder, they don't expect their profiles and personal information to be searchable - especially by a scorned lover, or worse. But that's what popular apps like Cheaterbuster or CheatEye seem to be doing under the guise of being able to "catch cheaters." Last week, 404 Media [...]

It's dusk, and bugs are chirping all around me. I'm wandering through the middle of a big, virtual swamp toward the sound of thumping bass off in the distance. There isn't much else nearby - some trees, a couple of other players. It's mostly just me and the sound emanating from a large wooden structure [...]

This is an excerpt of Sources by Alex Heath, a newsletter about AI and the tech industry, syndicated just for The Verge subscribers once a week. Sam Altman has tapped Mikhail Shapiro, an award-winning biomolecular engineer, to join the Merge Labs brain-computer interface startup he's set to announce soon with co-founder Alex Blania. While Shapiro's [...]

Earlier this week, Jon Prosser, who is being sued by Apple for allegedly stealing trade secrets, told The Verge that he has been in active communications with Apple since the beginning stages of this case." But Apple, in a new filing on Thursday that was reported on by MacRumors, said that while Prosser has publicly [...]

Want to flex your Wordle habit beyond just keeping your streak? The New York Times has added badges to recognize certain achievements in Wordle, Spelling Bee, and Connections. Have you achieved the infamous Wordle in 1? What about the Perfect Connections Puzzle? How many Pangrams are under your Spelling Bee belt? Badges are rewards you [...]

Halo Studios has created something special for the 25th anniversary of Halo next year. Halo: Campaign Evolved is a full remake of the original Combat Evolved that launched alongside Microsoft's first Xbox console in 2001. It has a fully rebuilt campaign with 4K visuals, new weapons and vehicles, a four-player online co-op mode, and brand-new [...]

I use a DJI Osmo Pocket 3 every single week to help film Today I'm Toying With, and I love it to pieces. The baby steadicam's one of the most popular gadgets the company's ever sold, because it's so good at automatically capturing stabilized video of whatever I want, far better than a phone. What [...]

Halloween parties are fun. The preparation and cleanup? Not so much. Luckily for those looking to make life a little easier next week, Eufy's X10 Pro Omni is available from Amazon for $499.99 ($300 off) when you clip the on-page coupon, which matches the all-time low we last saw during Amazon's October Prime Day event. [...]

Two years after US-based Neato Robotics closed up shop in 2023, its robot vacuum cleaners have reached the end of the road (or rather, hallway). Users are receiving emails notifying them that their Neato robovacs will no longer have access to cloud services, meaning they can't be controlled through the robots' MyNeato app anymore. In [...]

The latest Nintendo Direct on October 23rd brought us an hour-long dive into Kirby Air Riders, as well as a surprising accessibility announcement. Hosted by game director Masahiro Sakurai, the Direct showed off more features, gameplay, and modes for the racing game releasing for the Switch 2 on November 20th. Tucked toward the end of [...]

When the Epomaker P75 launched last year, it impressed us with its build quality and laundry list of features, especially for a board that retails for less than $100. And while the mechanical keyboard has since been discontinued, it remains an excellent choice you can still pick up with either the linear or tactile switches [...]

Netflix has shut down Boss Fight Entertainment, the studio behind the mobile game Squid Game: Unleashed, according to posts from staffers on LinkedIn. Netflix acquired Boss Fight in March 2022, with an executive saying at the time that the studio's extensive experience building hit games across genres will help accelerate our ability to provide Netflix [...]

Nike's new neuroscience-based footwear" is designed to activate an athlete's brain before and after a big game. The two shoes, a mule (the $95 Mind 001) and a lace-up sneaker (the $145 Mind 002), feature a distinctive array of 22 orange foam nodes embedded in each sole. Nike says the nodes each move up and [...]

Outlook users have only just got over the webification of Microsoft's email client in recent years, and already there are major changes on the horizon. Sources familiar with Microsoft's plans tell me that the company recently reorganized its Outlook team under new leadership with a focus on rebuilding the email client for the AI era. [...]

Alongside a powered footwear system called Project Amplify and new performance apparel with improved airflow, Nike yesterday debuted a new jacket allowing athletes to regulate their body temperature without having to add or remove layers of clothing. Leveraging the company's longtime use of air bladders to improve the cushioning in its shoes, the Nike Therma-FIT [...]

Just eight months after introducing the Osmo Mobile 7 Pro, DJI has already announced a follow-up. The new Osmo Mobile 8 doesn't reimagine the now well-established design of the company's smartphone stabilizers. But it introduces new functionality, including the ability to rotate and pan a smartphone a full 360 degrees, and support for Apple's DockKit, [...]

Verizon is launching a new Lite" home internet plan for people in areas previously not covered by its fiber and 5G internet. The new plan offers download speeds of up to 25Mbps, but it costs as much as $60 per month without any discounts. Verizon says its Lite plan is best for light" internet usage [...]

We are saturated with superhero media to the point where even self-criticism has been done to death with franchises like Watchmen and The Boys. But with its debut choice-driven narrative adventure, AdHoc Studio has managed to find a unique angle for the superhero genre. In Dispatch, the story focuses on an office-based lackey and corporate [...]

OpenAI has launched a new ChatGPT feature that makes it easier to search for workspace information without switching between apps. The company knowledge" ChatGPT update for Business, Enterprise, and Education users is powered by a version of GPT5 that directly connects with tools like Slack, SharePoint, Google Drive, and GitHub, allowing the chatbot to sift [...]

Snacking giant Mondelez is using generative AI to slash marketing costs and is preparing to release AI-generated TV ads next year, a senior executive told Reuters. Jon Halvorson, Mondelez's global senior vice president of consumer experience, said the company has spent more than $40 million on an AI video tool that can halve production costs. [...]

Web browsers have looked and worked basically the same way for more than a decade, to the point where they all have roughly the same features, in the same places, and are often even built around the same engine. But just about every company in tech suddenly wants to change them, all spurred by AI [...]

Trump is demolishing the East Wing of the White House to make way for a gilded grand ballroom. The president says taxpayers won't be footing the $300 million bill and that private donors, himself included, will pick up the tab. Big Tech will be paying for a lot of it, if the list of donors [...]

Facebook and Instagram are breaching Europe's Digital Services Act (DSA) rules related to the handling of illegal content, moderation, and transparency, according to a preliminary decision issued by the European Commission. TikTok and Meta have both also been found to be violating transparency obligations under the DSA. The Commission says that Meta is imposing confusing" [...]

With Windows 10 on its last legs, Intel is looking forward to the PC industry growing more than it has in years - the most since 2021, when the covid-19 pandemic revived industry growth by creating a huge surge in demand. But it seems the struggling Intel, which just received lifelines from Nvidia, Softbank, and [...]

After the self-induced tumult Sonos has gone through this year, I can understand why some people are reluctant to spend money on the company's products. But newly appointed CEO Tom Conrad has shown that he's determined to get back on track and revitalize Sonos as the leading whole-home audio brand. The contentious mobile app is [...]

Microsoft is joining the AI browser wave with the official launch of a new Copilot Mode" in Edge. The option, first announced in July, turns Copilot into your portal to the web, with each new tab opening a chat window where you can either ask a question, conduct a search, or enter a URL. Copilot [...]

The race to make the Lego Game Boy play actual Game Boy games ended before it even began. The same day Lego officially launched the set, Natalie the Nerd revealed she'd already transformed it to play real Game Boy cartridges on real Game Boy chips. Turns out she's not stopping there! Natalie is now working [...]

Nike is showing off new performance apparel today that it says it designed with climate change in mind. It introduced its new Aero-FIT performance cooling technology, which it says will make its debut in football kits Nike federations wear in 2026. The company claims the technology boosts sweating efficiency by allowing for more air movement [...]

If you're too tight on time to read through your backlog of books, audiobooks might be a more convenient way to get caught up. Amazon is offering a steep discount on Audible Premium Plus that lets new and lapsed subscribers pay $.99 (usually $14.95) per month for three months. The subscription includes one credit per [...]

Google's latest pledge to support a new clean energy technology is... a gas project? To be precise, it's a gas-fired power plant outfitted with filtering devices to capture its planet-heating carbon emissions. Is this just a polluting fossil fuel project in sheep's clothing? Google just inked an agreement to support the development of a new [...]

EA is partnering with Stability AI, the company that develops the Stable Diffusion AI image model, to help infuse AI into its development processes. The two companies will co-develop transformative AI models, tools, and workflows that empower our artists, designers, and developers to reimagine how content is built," EA says. The company says that humans [...]

On Thursday, Nike announced Project Amplify, the world's first powered footwear system," which it says isn't intended for pros - in fact, quite the opposite. Much like e-bikes provide pedal assistance, Project Amplify uses a lightweight robotics system to boost running and walking speed. The first-generation product, created alongside robotics partner Dephy, isn't designed for [...]

Fallout 4 will turn 10 on November 10th, and to celebrate the milestone, Bethesda is releasing a new anniversary edition of the game that same day on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X / S. With Fallout 4 Anniversary Edition, you'll get the base game, six official expansions, more than 150 pieces [...]

As much as I love decorations, it's the music that really gets me into the holiday spirit. Luckily for those looking to capitalize on the upcoming holiday season, JBL's newer Charge 6 is on sale at Walmart for $154 (about $46 off), which is one of the lowest prices we've seen for the portable Bluetooth [...]

Changpeng Zhao, the founder of crypto exchange Binance, was pardoned by President Trump today, according to the Wall Street Journal. The move comes after months of lobbying by the company and Zhao's own efforts to boost the Trump family's crypto venture, World Liberty Financial. In April of 2024, Zhao was sentenced to four months in [...]

Krafton, the company behind games such as PUBG: Battlegrounds and the Sims-like InZOI, is making a big push into using AI within the company. Under this new AI First" strategy, Krafton plans to use agentic AI to help automate work and implement an AI-centered" management system, according to a translation of a press release. The [...]

Three of the rumored potential buyers for entertainment titan Warner Bros. Discovery are tech companies. Netflix, Amazon, and Apple are all interested in buying Warner Bros. Discovery as a whole or acquiring pieces of the company, like its content libraries and production assets, according to Bloomberg. Earlier this week, Warner Bros. Discovery announced it was [...]

Anthropic is rolling out an update for Claude that will let the AI chatbot remember" past conversations without prompting. The upgrade for all paid subscribers should make Claude more useful and convenient. Max subscribers will be able to turn on Claude's memory" in their settings from today, Anthropic said. The feature, which has been available [...]