The Verge

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 [...]

Editor's note:Amazon Prime Day 2025 is officially underway. If you're looking to make the most of the four-day shopping extravaganza, we've put together a guide to thebest Prime Day dealsyou can get. With a smart video doorbell, your front door's communication skills go from 1980s landline to a modern smartphone. Combining a motion-activated camera with [...]

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 [...]

Twitter co-founder and Block Head Jack Dorsey launched a new peer-to-peer messaging app over the weekend called Bitchat that runs entirely over Bluetooth. Bitchat relies on Bluetooth Low Energy mesh networks to send encrypted communications directly to nearby devices without requiring internet or cellular service. Bitchat addresses the need for resilient, private communication that doesn't [...]

Lately, it has been difficult to ignore a tendency at The New York Times to make astonishingly bad news judgments. The paper's obsession with a view from nowhere is long-standing, but as Republicans increasingly circulate insane conspiracy theories and racist nonsense, the cult of centrism has taken a self-destructive turn. The most recent - and [...]

Editor's note:Amazon Prime Day 2025 is officially underway. If you're looking to make the most of the four-day shopping extravaganza, we've put together a guide to thebest Prime Day dealsyou can get. Fitness trackers have come a long way from the simple bands that tracked steps and little else. Modern trackers can monitor everything from [...]

Smartwatches aren't for everyone. Maybe you don't want to wear a screen-equipped gadget to bed, or you're just after something that's less obtrusive. Subtlety is where smart rings like the Oura Ring 4 shine, and Prime Day has knocked down its cost. It costs $296.65 ($52.35) from Amazon, which is both its best price and [...]

Microsoft's latest Windows AI features arrived first on new Copilot Plus PCs last year, but they were limited to a special range of laptops. That looks set to change thanks to Intel refreshing its existing Arrow Lake desktop CPUs later this year, that might just deliver Copilot Plus PC features in desktop PC form factors [...]

Apple's new Liquid Glass design language just got a little more... frosted. In the third iOS 26 developer beta, Apple dialed back the transparency of navigation bars, buttons, and tabs that once allowed you to clearly see the content beneath them. Apple already toned down the glassiness of Liquid Glass after many users complained that [...]

Grok, the chatbot developed by Elon Musk's xAI, was updated over the weekend with instructions to "assume subjective viewpoints sourced from the media are biased" and "not shy away from making claims which are politically incorrect" - part of Musk's ongoing attempt to shape the bot's point of view. Musk announced on Friday that xAI [...]

In a new post shared to its Windows blog, Microsoft says that it has reached a major milestone" when it comes to improving the speed of Edge's user interface. It now takes Microsoft's browser less than 300 milliseconds to start rendering the first parts of a website for users, whether it's text, images, or parts [...]

Since its launch, the Nintendo Switch 2 has been notoriously difficult to buy, with many retailers selling out of their allotted stock within minutes. Luckily, there's good news: starting at 7PM Eastern today, Walmart Plus members will be able to purchase Nintendo's latest handheld console - either the standalone Switch 2 or the Mario Kart [...]

President Donald Trump plans to impose a 25 percent tariff on goods imported from South Korea and Japan. The levy will go into effect on August 1st, which is when the Trump administration will begin enforcing sweeping tariffs on a wider swath of countries that fail to reach a trade agreement with the US. The [...]

One thing that has been missing from Bluesky until now was the ability to turn on notifications for specific accounts, but now Activity Notifications are live. If you want to know every time The Verge or ESPN, or one of your friends posts, you can, just by toggling the bell icon on their profile page, [...]

Tesla used to be the envy of the auto world, with sky-high valuations, a relentless focus on tech, and a CEO that commanded unprecedented loyalty from his customers. Now the company's reputation is in shambles, its financial future looks increasingly grim, and its costly bets on AI and robotics are unlikely to pay off anytime [...]