The Verge

Microsoft is testing a feature for Copilot Voice that will let Windows 11 users start a conversation with the app by saying Hey Copilot!" Windows Insiders who have the updated app can try it out once they opt in and activate the feature. Similar commands have been available for years with Siri, Google, Alexa, and [...]

A foldable phone isn't for the faint of heart. They're generally heavier, pricier, and have less capable cameras than a standard slab-style phone. And while they're far less fragile than when they first debuted, foldables are still susceptible to the kind of damage a regular smartphone can shrug off. You really don't want any dust [...]

Netflix is adding an important category to its live offerings: talent competition. The streamer announced that it will be reviving Star Search, the classic American Idol and America's Got Talent precursor that has been off the air since 1995. The modern iteration will air live twice a week on Netflix, and viewers will be able [...]

Grok, the AI model from Elon Musk's xAI, was sending strange responses to people on X earlier on Wednesday. In responses to a number of people, Grok focused on debunking claims of white genocide in South Africa - even when tagged into a post about totally unrelated topics. Check out this thread to get an [...]

Netflix has more than doubled the number of people watching its ad-supported tier over the last year. At its upfront presentation for advertisers on Wednesday, the company revealed that the $7.99 per month plan now reaches more than 94 million users around the world each month - a big increase from the 40 million it [...]

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake was originally supposed to arrive on January 21st, 2021. Since then, it's been delayed three times, got shipped to a different studio, reportedly started over from scratch, and may have lost the original writer and amazing performances of its English voice actor. But Ubisoft has revealed the [...]

Nintendo's Switch 2 specs page is light on details. However, Digital Foundry has shared what it says are rock solid" specifications for the upcoming console in an article and a video, offering new information about its processor and a testing tool for developers for GameChat. On its specs page, Nintendo only describes the Switch 2's [...]

The US Energy Department says it's rolling back long-standing efficiency standards for appliances, which advocates are calling a clear violation of the law. Continuing the Trump administration's assault on federal water and energy efficiency programs, the department announced today what it's calling its largest deregulatory effort in history." The agency is trying to rollback 47 [...]

Plugable has announced a new docking solution for Windows and Mac users that supports up to five simultaneous displays, including a mix of 4K and 8K. The new $279.95 UD-7400PD dock actually supports more displays than the pricier Thunderbolt 5 docks that have recently launched which max out at three 4K screens. But Plugable's latest [...]

Max, formerly HBO Max, is now HBO Max again. Warner Bros. Discovery announced the change today, rolling back one of the clumsiest rebrands in history from a streaming service that's had more than its share of clumsy ideas. Right from the start, it seemed like everyone outside of Warner Bros. Discovery knew the change was [...]

Another glimpse at James Gunn's Superman just dropped - and this time things aren't looking so great for the hero. While previous looks at the movie had a more inspirational tone, the latest has the Man of Steel defending his heroic actions in an interview with Lois Lane. There's clearly going to be some conflict [...]

Square Enix has announced that it is cancelling the mobile spinoff Kingdom Hearts Missing-Link. In a statement on the game's website, Square Enix apologized to fans who were anticipating the game. The announcement also mentioned that Square was still hard at work on Kingdom Hearts IV perhaps to allay fears that this cancellation might indicate [...]

Uber announced a new type of ride that travels along a set route, comes every 20 minutes, includes up to two other passengers, and costs up to 50 percent less than an UberX ride. In other words, a bus. For years, Uber and its smaller rival Lyft have been gently mocked online for occasionally releasing [...]

TikTok is introducing new accessibility features that make it easier for people with visual impairments to see text and use screen readers on the platform. After adding alt text support for still images in April, TikTok is now testing a feature that automatically adds an AI-generated alt text description to photographs when a creator hasn't [...]

Warner Bros. Discovery is changing the name of its streaming service back to HBO Max. During its Upfront event on Wednesday, the company announced that it will rebrand Max this summer, a change HBO head Casey Bloys said better represents" its offering. HBO Max launched in 2020, but Warner Bros. Discovery relaunched the service three [...]

WiiM has announced three new wireless audiophile devices including the brand's first smart speaker called the Sound with a design that looks inspired by the Apple HomePod. The speaker is joined by the company's first sub-woofer called the Sub Pro that pumps out 250W of bass, and the WiiM Amp Ultra, a new amplifier that [...]

Rewind a few years, and it looked as if offshore wind might take off in the US. The Biden administration moved to open up much of the nation's coastlines to development, blue and even a couple swing states agreed to work with the White House to speed things up, and Congress passed sweeping tax incentives [...]

The Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), a bill imposing sweeping obligations on tech platforms to protect children that use them, has been revived in the Senate after a failed sprint to become law late last year. The bill's lead sponsors, Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), reintroduced the bill roughly five months after [...]

What initially appeared to be a power play by Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to take over the US Copyright Office by having Donald Trump remove the officials in charge has now backfired in spectacular fashion, as Trump's acting replacements are known to be unfriendly - and even downright hostile - [...]

As promised, Marvel just released the first proper trailer for its upcoming Ironheart series on Disney Plus. Ironheart takes place after the events of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, and follows Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne) as a genius inventor with a badass mech suit (she also made her first appearance in Wakanda Forever). The new trailer [...]

Google is preparing to add a new section to restaurant and bar search profiles. The new section will let owners include timely deals or events in search results in a way that they can control, either manually or by linking to a social media profile, the company says in a post spotted by Search Engine [...]

Finnish studio Remedy is best known for its single-player action games, like the survival horror of Alan Wake and the supernatural thriller Control. With FBC: Firebreak, the developer is going in a different direction. It's the studio's first multiplayer release: a three-player co-op shooter set in the universe of Control. But while it won't have [...]

Eight Sleep is launching the Pod 5, the fifth generation of its expensive smart sleeping system. It packs two main upgrades: a temperature-controlled blanket and speakers that can play soothing soundscapes." The Pod 5 builds on top of Eight Sleep's existing tech, shipping with the same temperature controlled mattress cover and height-adjustable base that Eight [...]

Toyota confirmed today that the all-electric C-HR, previously only available in Europe, will arrive in the US next year. You might recall the C-HR as the gas-powered compact crossover sold in the US from 2018-2022. But now it has been resurrected as a battery electric vehicle with an estimated driving range of up to 290 [...]

Nvidia's efforts to suck up to the Trump administration have seemingly paid off, with the US now lifting export limits on US-made AI chips and cracking down on anyone using Huawei's emerging alternatives. The announcements come as Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang joined President Trump in Saudi Arabia this week to solicit AI investments for US [...]

Sony just announced its financial forecast for the next year, and it's expecting to be impacted by tariffs to the tune of 100 billion yen (about $680 million). To compensate, the company says it's considering options including moving manufacturing to the US and increasing prices for consumers. Speaking to investors during the company's earnings call, [...]

Universal appears to have confirmed that the next Mario film will be titled Super Mario World. The title was included in a press release about upcoming movies, but apparently by mistake, since it was removed shortly after publication. The title first appeared in a press release about NBCUniversal's upcoming content slate, listed as part of [...]

I recently took up travel journaling as an honest alternative to performative social media. My kit cobbles together the best pen, paper, and photo printer I could find to document vanlife adventures for my spawn and some version of my future self that I've yet to meet. My father left behind a typewritten memoir that [...]

Long-simmering tension between Silicon Valley and the press that covers it is surfacing during the Federal Trade Commission's antitrust trial against Meta. During a heated cross-examination of the FTC's key economic expert, Scott Hemphill, Meta's lead attorney, Mark Hansen, noted that Hemphill joined Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes and former Biden official Tim Wu in pitching [...]

By the time you read these words, it's quite possible that Adorama will be out of stock of the new DJI Mavic 4 Pro. But when I wrote them, the US-based retailer was still selling a drone that wasn't supposed to go on sale in the US at all, with roughly 70 left in stock. [...]

A California judge slammed a pair of law firms for the undisclosed use of AI after he received a supplemental brief with numerous false, inaccurate, and misleading legal citations and quotations." In a ruling submitted last week, Judge Michael Wilner imposed $31,000 in sanctions against the law firms involved, saying no reasonably competent attorney should [...]

Apple is pushing a new software update for Apple TV today that includes a useful feature for home theater setups: the ability to automatically calibrate the synchronization of Dolby Atmos surround sound audio with your speakers. The new tvOS 18.5 update enhances Apple's existing Wireless Audio Sync feature, introduced in 2019, that lets you use [...]

Last week, Paul McCartney, Dua Lipa, Ian McKellen, Elton John, and hundreds of others in the UK creative industry signed an open letter backing an effort to force AI firms to reveal the copyrighted works used to train their models. They support an amendment to the UK's Data (Use and Access) Bill proposed by letter [...]

Republicans want to stop states from regulating AI. On Sunday, a Republican-led House committee submitted a budget reconciliation bill that proposes blocking states from enforcing any law or regulation" targeting an exceptionally broad range of automated computing systems for 10 years after the law is enacted - a move that would stall efforts to regulate [...]

Robot vacuums that can both mop and sweep your floors have improved significantly in recent years. While they are still not as effective as good ol' manual labor, if you run them regularly, they will help keep your floors cleaner with much less effort on your part. The difference is that newer combo" robot vacuum [...]

Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra, the new Marvel action-adventure game, has been delayed. The game was originally slated to release this year but Skydance New Media, the studio developing the game, has announced it will instead come out some time in early 2026. Taking this additional time will allow us to add more polish," Skydance [...]

TikTok has a new AI-powered tool called AI Alive" that will let you turn photos into video with a prompt to describe what you want the video to look like. It's a little different from other You can access the tool from TikTok's Story Camera, and it uses intelligent editing tools that give anyone, regardless [...]

YouTube is exclusively streaming an NFL week 1 game for free worldwide to kick off the 2025 season. The game will take place in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on Friday, September 5th, and will feature the Los Angeles Chargers taking on a yet-to-be-named opponent. As with other streaming NFL games, it will also be available to [...]

After farmers filed suit, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has agreed to restore climate information to webpages it took down soon after President Donald Trump took office this year. The US Department of Justice filed a letter late last night on behalf of the USDA that says the agency will restore the climate-change-related web [...]

BMW has been on a roll lately, selling more EVs in North America than most of its competitors, including fellow luxury brands like Mercedes and Audi. But while most of the automaker's lineup is soaring, its flagship iX SUV has been struggling to find an audience. BMW only sold 15,383 iX vehicles in 2024, down [...]

Airbnb has announced a major redesign of its app, expanding its offerings well beyond private home rentals to include new Airbnb Services alongside the company's Airbnb Experiences. And you don't have to book a stay to use the new offerings. At the moment, these new services cover ten categories, including personal chefs, catering, massages, personal [...]

Samsung may not be the first (or perhaps not even the fifth) company that springs to mind when you consider the major players in smart speakers, but it's tough to argue with the appeal of a speaker that's also a mountable frame. Similar to the discontinued Ikea x Sonos Symfonisk, Samsung's Music Frame can play [...]

Amazon's Audible has announced that it's planning to expand its audiobook catalog by giving select publishers access to its new fully integrated, end-to-end AI production technology" that will let them more easily convert titles to audiobooks with their choice of AI-generated voices. The initiative will also help expand global access to audiobooks with the introduction [...]

German iPhone users are starting to report that they're now able to use PayPal's tap-to-pay feature at in-store payment terminals, according to German tech site iPhone Ticker. The new capability, which PayPal announced earlier this month, is a result of the EU forcing Apple to open iPhone NFC chips up for third-party contactless payments under [...]

Google just announced a bold new look for Android, for real this time. After a false start last week when someone accidentally published a blog post too early (oh, Google!), the company is formally announcing the design language known as Material Three Expressive. It takes the colorful, customizable Material You introduced with Android 12 in [...]

Google is bringing its Gemini AI assistant to devices with Google TV, cars with Android Auto and Google built-in, Wear OS smartwatches, and Android XR. But Google isn't saying exactly when the AI assistant will come to those devices - right now, the company is giving more general timelines about when it might arrive. On [...]

After a few years of iterative updates, Wear OS 6 is shaping up to be a significant leap forward. For starters, Gemini will replace Google Assistant on the wrist alongside a big Material 3 Expressive redesign that takes advantage of circular watch faces. Oh, and for the third year running, the latest Wear OS will [...]

Google is rolling out several new features to protect Android users from falling victim to phone call scams. Now, Android will automatically block users from sideloading an app for the first time from a web browser, messaging app, or other service while on a call with an unknown contact. Google will also stop users from [...]

A year after launching its Find My Device location tracking network, Google is adding support for ultra wideband (UWB) for more precise tracking using compatible phones and trackers. The network and its Android app are also getting a new name: Find Hub. Google says that UWB will be enabled later this month." UWB provides more [...]