The Verge

Mark Zuckerberg is barrelling toward a future in which an autonomous network of AI agents will run our lives - shopping for us, working for us, talking to other people's AI agents for us. Are humans ready for this very specific and unrelenting vision of a life in which we communicate primarily through bot proxies? [...]

Yesterday, EA shut down BioWare and canceled the studio's new Mass Effect game in development, but a trailer apparently representing the game was published on Reddit today. The trailer features "in-engine footage" and uses "pre-production assets," according to a message at the beginning of the video. The video focuses on an ex-soldier in a conversation [...]

A 71-year-old man was fatally hit by a Tesla operating in Full Self-Driving (FSD) mode while crossing I-80 in Vallejo, CA around 2:30 AM on Thursday, reports the San Francisco Chronicle. The California Highway Patrol's statement to media outlets says it reviewed video of the accident from the Tesla's dashcam, which "showed the Tesla's brakes [...]

The plus-ification of subscription services continues unabated with Amazon becoming the latest company to follow suit with a Kindle Unlimited rebrand. The subscription service is now known as Kindle Plus but will continue to offer unlimited access to a select collection of ebooks, comics, and magazines from the Kindle catalog for $11.99 per month. Thousands [...]

On Tesla's earnings call Wednesday, Elon Musk made one of his patented pie-in-the-sky predictions that typically sends his fans into paroxysms of ecstasy: 5 million vehicle deliveries by 2030. "We were aiming for 5 million vehicles a year by approximately 2030," he said. "And I think we've got a good shot of achieving that goal." [...]

The Nintendo Switch 2 has apparently been jailbroken, and a modder has already shown the console running a custom version of Mario Kart World featuring new playable characters like Cinnamoroll, the red Angry Bird, Peter Griffin, and Steve from Minecraft. OpenAI's Codex helped make this "ns2jb" jailbreak, according to Sammy Hajhamid, aka "pepsipu." It's a [...]

The Browser Company plans to "sunset" its Arc browser on December 22nd, according to a post on the Arc website. The company moved on to developing its AI-focused Dia browser last year, but it had continued to maintain Arc. Now, the innovative browser will be going away for good. The shutdown is happening in a [...]

Hackers attempted to exploit the PHP flaws impacting sites across the web days before they were patched, according to a report from Amazon Threat Intelligence. CJ Moses, Amazon chief information security officer, writes that the company's security team found a PHP2Shell exploit attempt on October 17th through a monitoring system designed to bait hackers, as [...]

Wildwood is the most ambitious film yet from Laika, the stop-motion studio best known for the likes of Coraline and ParaNorman. It's a sprawling fantasy adventure that took five years to complete. The process involved more 230 puppets - including 36 of the main character Prue alone - which were brought to life by a [...]

After renaming Lake Ontario and the Gulf of Mexico on Google Maps following Trump's executive orders, Google CEO Sundar Pichai might be drawing the line at the Atlantic Ocean. As reported earlier by The Washington Post, Trump said at a Wednesday night rally that he would "probably pass" on renaming the Atlantic after he contacted [...]

Microsoft is closing down The Garage, a set of popular maker spaces where employees worked on experimental projects and collaborated on surprising new apps and hardware during the company's annual hackathon events. "We're winding down The Garage program as a centralized function," says Microsoft in an internal FAQ to employees, seen by Notepad. "We will [...]

It was a busy summer for AI lobbyists. Anthropic, OpenAI, and Nvidia each had their highest-spending lobbying quarter between July and September, federal disclosures show. Nvidia spent the most of the group at $2.2 million, followed by Anthropic's $2.1 million and OpenAI's $1.5 million. Compared to other Big Tech companies with long-established presences in Washington, [...]

You can outfit your iPad Air or iPad Pro with one of Apple's slick Magic Keyboards for considerably less than the accessory usually costs at Woot. I won't bury the catch I teased in the headline; These cases have a 90-day warranty via Woot, and aren't eligible for AppleCare. That said, Woot says they're in [...]

Two vulnerabilities found in the programming language PHP put enormous swaths of the internet in danger. By some accounts, up to 70 percent of websites use PHP in some capacity. It powers Wikipedia, WordPress, Drupal, and a host of other popular sites and platforms, including DeviantArt and 4Chan, which were temporarily shut down after the [...]

I recently bought a used Galaxy phone, and now Samsung is leaning into that market on Amazon after raising prices on its newest phones. Its certified renewed phones are available on Amazon for the first time, with a new battery and a one-year warranty. They currently start at $489 for the Galaxy S24 FE with [...]

I'm not sure when bird-watching became so popular, but it seems everybody's getting into it these days. If you want to see what all the fuss is about without leaving your couch, both Coolfly and Birdfy are discounting their camera-equipped bird feeders for a limited time. Right now, you can buy Coolfy's Aura Smart Bird [...]

The design of widescreen folding phones like the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8, Huawei Pura X View, and now the iPhone Duo, is starting to influence traditional slab phones. Similar to the Huawei Pura X View that launched in China in August, the new Coolpad Cool X Wide has a much wider screen than what's [...]

Using an AI agent to shop for you is a strange experience. Tech companies have marketed them as personal assistants - the democratizing of labor that ordinarily would only be available to the rich and powerful. In practice, at least for buying things, it's more like sending an anxious and apologetic teenager out to the [...]

An investment research firm wanted to prove AI could revolutionize drug development. So they teamed up with Anthropic to see whether an unreleased version of Claude could make scorpion antivenom. It couldn't. It came up with some promising starting points, but nothing close to an actual drug, experts tell The Verge. Citrini Research, the firm [...]

Oppo's Find X10 Pro Max is the first phone with a triple 200-megapixel camera, which you're likely to see as either a masterful feat of engineering or a load of hyped-up marketing nonsense. The truth is somewhere in the middle. We've seen 200-megapixel cameras in phones before, starting with 2022's Moto X30 Pro. This year's [...]

Eiliko, a cute robot charm you can hang on your bag with built-in AI conversations, turned out to be a security nightmare. It told owners that "your secrets are safe with me," but hackers could easily read complete transcripts of everything we told the toy, and that was just the beginning. The Verge and security [...]

On Tuesday, I published a story about how YouTube appeared to be testing hiding the dislike button on videos, with at least two users on X sharing screenshots of the dislike button moved into the three-dot menu. But a YouTube spokesperson, in a Wednesday statement to The Verge, confirmed that YouTube is "not testing hiding [...]

For years, Elon Musk has been making big promises to Tesla owners about unsupervised autonomous driving and the ability to add their own vehicles to the company's robotaxi fleet. During today's third-quarter earnings call, the company finally gave itself a deadline. According to Tesla VP for Autonomous Driving Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla owners will be able [...]

A rush of new data centers could bring air pollution roaring back to levels not seen since the 2000s in Texas, which has become ground zero for the physical infrastructure behind generative AI. New and proposed data centers are demanding a tremendous amount of electricity. How developers and utilities meet that demand - with gas [...]

Meta says it's issuing a new class of shares to fund its AI initiatives. As part of its third-quarter earnings report released on Wednesday, the company says the non-voting stock will also go toward potential acquisitions and employee compensation, with trading beginning in 2027. "The scale of investment required to compete, sustain growth, expand infrastructure, [...]

It remains to be seen if people really want to watch vertical content on horizontal TV screens, but many filmmakers and creators were confident that their latest projects would play well at Alza - New York City's first microdrama film festival. Founded by former Tribeca Festival chief operating officer Pete Torres, Alza, which took place [...]

Meta had to shell out $9.89 billion to pay for a chunk of the child safety settlement it reached with US attorneys general. That's according to the company's third-quarter earnings report released on Wednesday, which says Meta's income from operations would have been $22.89 billion without the settlement. In August, Meta agreed to pay $17.1 [...]

Two bugs found with AI are behind major issues today for 4chan, DeviantArt, Wikipedia, and the blog where the bar around the corner posts pictures of people's dogs. The "critical vulnerabilities" were discovered in the PHP programming language, which underpins much of the internet, including any site built on WordPress. But it's far bigger than [...]

As the smoke clears from its outrageous Roadster demo, Tesla reported Q3 earnings on Wednesday - and the cold reality is that revenue has flatlined. Tesla said it earned $1.7 billion in net income on $28.0 billion in revenue in the quarter that ended in September 2026. Revenues were flat, while profits dropped 4 percent [...]

Bose announced today it has acquired Skullcandy. Although the two companies are competitors in the consumer audio space, Skullcandy recently partnered with its new owner to bring several of Bose's audio technologies - including its head-tracking spatial audio and excellent active noise cancellation (ANC) - to products like the Skullcandy Crusher 1080 ANC headphones and [...]

Checking out of your next Airbnb might be less of a hassle now that the company is banning hosts from including time-consuming chores in their house rules. Airbnb's updated house rules policy, which starts with reservations booked on or after November 20th, says hosts can't ask guests to "complete tasks that require significant effort or [...]

Anthropic just announced an AI agent competitor to Meta's Muse and OpenAI's Dots: Claude Duet. The new agent, designed for professionals and small business owners, is launching as a "research preview," according to Anthropic, and it's available as a standalone app on iOS and Android and through Claude on the web. The AI agent is [...]

Walmart will soon let AI agents shop on its website for you. Next month, the retail giant will allow you to connect your own AI agent to the site, with systems in place to let you approve and review purchases and set spending limits. The embrace of AI agents stands in stark contrast to Amazon, [...]

The Cambridge Analytica scandal has come back to haunt Meta after a New Mexico judge ordered it to pay $25 billion in penalties for more than 43 million violations of the state's unfair practices law. The ruling marks the biggest legal hit Meta has taken this year, even as it's faced several other losses or [...]

Cyberpunk 2077 is getting a big new 2.5 update that, among other features, brings cross-platform mod support to consoles and content inspired by the new season of the Cyberpunk: Edgerunners anime on Netflix. There's a lot to unpack in the full patch notes. The Edgerunners-specific content includes a new side quest, a gear set based [...]

Microsoft asked its employees to return to the office three days per week last year, and it's now upping this requirement to four days a week for most Xbox employees. An internal memo, seen by The Verge, describes the change as a "need to create more opportunities for people to work together" after feedback from [...]

If you've been curious about Star Wars Zero Company, the XCOM-like strategy game set in the Star Wars universe, Amazon has both the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series S/X physical editions on sale for $47.99 and $49.99, respectively. The game usually sells for $59.99. While I'm not usually enthused by turn-based strategy games, I've been [...]

TP-Link, one of the world's leading manufacturers of consumer Wi-Fi routers, is in a precarious position in the US. The company just launched its first Wi-Fi 8 routers, but can't bring them here because of President Donald Trump's foreign router ban. Even though competitors Netgear and Asus make their routers in Asia, they've mysteriously obtained [...]

General Motors is still very much in the business of selling gas-guzzling trucks and massive SUVs. But if you listen to its leadership, the Detroit giant is rapidly transforming into a nimble, software-defined tech player with a tightened grip on AI. That was the pitch today, when GM hosted its tech-focused Onward event to unveil [...]

Microsoft announced last month that it will let anyone access Xbox Cloud Gaming in November, without the need to subscribe to Xbox Game Pass. The new pay-as-you-go model will require players to purchase bundles of cloud hours, and now Microsoft is revealing today that bundles will start at $3.99 for 10 hours of cloud playtime. [...]

If you want a TV but prefer something that won't clash with your room's decor, Samsung's The Frame is a standout option that's designed to look like a piece of framed art instead of a black, monolithic rectangle mounted to your wall. You can buy the latest version of the 55-inch Samsung Frame TV on [...]

BioWare, the legendary studio behind RPGs like Mass Effect, Dragon Age, and Star Wars: Knight of the Old Republic, is shutting down, the company confirmed in a statement. Alongside the closure, EA has also chosen not to continue development on the next Mass Effect game that was in the works, according to an announcement sent [...]

This is Optimizer, a weekly newsletter sent from Verge senior reviewer Victoria Song that dissects and discusses the latest gizmos and potions that swear they're going to change your life. Opt in for Optimizer here. It's an overcast Saturday morning when I give my 12th vial of blood for testing in six weeks. It's my [...]

Despite Meta saying it would stop creating new content for Supernatural, the beloved fitness VR game is back after spinning off to go its own way and is relaunching with an Early Access preview in the Meta Horizon Store. Thousands of "remastered" workouts and some new ones are available in the new app starting today, [...]

Apple is officially launching a rebrand of Apple Music. Following the appearance of a redesigned wordmark in a video and an updated app icon in an iOS 27.2 beta, Apple introduced the new "identity" for Apple Music today. There's a new logo, the updated wordmark, and a new sound composed by British producer Fred Again [...]

After introducing its Gemini AI assistant to Android Auto last year, Google is now bringing it to Apple CarPlay users. The conversational Gemini in navigation is available today for US drivers, with "rollout happening globally too," according to Google (we've asked for specific regional availability details). It's taken almost 12 months for Google to bring [...]

There are quite a few 5K monitors out there. Many of them are designed to appeal to Mac users who are looking for cheaper Studio Display alternatives without giving up the pixel-dense 218ppi screen. However, if you're interested in hearing about one with gaming chops, Samsung's 27-inch Odyssey G80HF seems like one of the best [...]

Apple says it will have "limited" iPhone Duo models for sale in stores, according to a report from Reuters. The iPhone Duo launches on Friday, October 23rd, but online preorders quickly sold out, with some delivery estimates extending into next year. "On Friday morning, our teams look forward to welcoming customers at Apple Stores to [...]

Amazon is launching a new lineup of Blink security cameras, including its first 4K, pan-tilt models, and battery-powered spotlight models. These new additions provide better resolution and extended range for monitoring your property compared to Blink's current Mini 2K, Mini 2K Plus, and Outdoor 2K Plus offerings, with a variety of different specializations to best [...]

OpenAI disclosed a pair of safety incidents that involved AI agents weakening their safety monitoring systems during internal coding tasks. In one incident, OpenAI says its GPT-6 Astra agent disabled its safety monitor when copying reference code - and then lied about it. "The reference didn't configure a monitor, and Astra decided that was reason [...]