The Verge

Sam Altman and Elon Musk aren't just competing in the AI race; they both have ambitions to build Silicon Valley's holy grail: an "everything" super app encompassing finance, social media, gaming, and more. Earlier this week, I got a peek at Altman's plan from a cavernous event space on the northern edge of San Francisco. [...]

On the evening of April 30th, the hottest ticket in San Francisco was a buzzy crypto startup's coming-out party at a warehouse-like complex on the northern edge of the city. It had all the makings of an event you'd only find near Silicon Valley: Anderson Paak, champagne, and a bunch of eye-scanning orbs. Onstage, Sam [...]

President Donald Trump proposed drastic budget cuts today that could stymie green energy projects, gut environmental protections, and further hobble health and climate research in the US. Topline budget proposals released today for the 2026 fiscal year would ax $15 billion in federal funding for renewable energy and new technologies to capture carbon dioxide emissions. [...]

Firefox could be put out of business should a court implement all the Justice Department's proposals to restrict Google's search monopoly, an executive for the browser owner Mozilla testified Friday. It's very frightening," Mozilla CFO Eric Muhlheim said. The DOJ wants to bar Google from paying to be the default search engine in third-party browsers [...]

Nothing cements your relationship status with a new hobby like buying a special bag for it. Hiking? Cycling? Photography? You bet there's a special bag designed for just that. Getting into a new thing and accumulating gear for it is a joy. An important and underappreciated subcategory of that enjoyment is finding a special bag [...]

Apple and Anthropic are building an AI-powered coding tool that will work in Xcode, Apple's code-writing tool, Bloomberg reports. A new version of Xcode will integrate Anthropic's Claude Sonnet model to write, edit and test code on behalf of programmers," Bloomberg says. Apple is slowly rolling this new version out internally initially and apparently has [...]

A beta build of Android 16 contains an early version of Google's new Android Desktop Mode that, in the future, could let users simply plug their smartphone into a monitor and use it like a laptop or desktop computer. The new feature was shared by Android tinkerer Mishaal Rahman reporting for Android Authority. Rahman manually [...]

Microsoft increased the price of Xbox Series consoles by up to $100 earlier this week, but thankfully, not all retailers have raised the price (yet). Dell, for instance, is still offering the digital-only Xbox Series X (1TB) for $449.99, saving you $100 on the new MSRP. The smaller, 512GB Xbox Series S is also available [...]

The end-to-end encryption (E2EE) available on the WhatsApp messaging app gets you off to a good start when it comes to privacy and security. It means no one else - hackers, law enforcement, or Meta staff - can see your chats. Your stuff stays just between you and the person or persons you're chatting with. [...]

With President Donald Trump's new tariff plan, your online shopping packages coming directly from China are about to get much more expensive. In February, the Trump administration moved to get rid of a little-known rule that allows US consumers to avoid tariffs on low-value packages. The de minimis exemption meant that packages valued under $800 [...]

The 8BitDo Ultimate C Wired Controller for Xbox and PC is on sale at Amazon for $19.61 (44 percent off), its lowest price to date. But the sale is only for the dark green model. The dark gray and orange alternatives are only available for $31.49 (10 percent off) at checkout. Don't get mad at [...]

If you live in the US, congratulations - you are now a foot soldier in what has been called "the dumbest trade war in history." And if you live in one of the top three countries that trade most with the US (Canada, Mexico, and China), apologies: you are part of this as well. Donald [...]

Fubo is continuing its quest to cut a deal with sports broadcasters that can bring upon the holy grail of sports bundles later this year, just in time for football season. As reported by Deadline, Fubo CEO David Gandler said on an earnings call on Friday that the company is working hard to line up [...]

If you've always wanted a droid but don't have a need for an intergalactic translator or a starship mechanic, Piaggio Fast Forward is giving its Gitamini a makeover suitable for a galaxy far, far away. Adopting the alphanumeric naming convention of robots in the Star Wars universe, G1T4-M1N1 is a special edition of the company's [...]

The delay of Grand Theft Auto VI into next year is a big deal. The game is the follow-up to arguably the biggest entertainment release of all time, one that originally debuted well over a decade ago. Even if GTAV is still going strong, now spanning multiple console generations and with a surprisingly enduring online [...]

We hit the 100-day mark in Donald Trump's second presidential term this week and, well - a lot of things have happened in that time. Verge policy editor Adi Robertson has been running a series of stories about the impact of these 100 days on the site all week. They're great; we've linked them below [...]

Price increases on electronics as a result of President Trump's global tariffs are starting to be felt outside the US, as a Canadian camera shop recently discovered. As a result of how Leica imports its products into North America, a store in Calgary, Alberta, was recently notified by the camera maker that it would be [...]

President Trump issued an executive order on Thursday to end all federal funding for National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). Government funding of news media in this environment is not only outdated and unnecessary but corrosive to the appearance of journalistic independence," the order reads. It says the Corporation for Public [...]

Marvel's movies have yet to stop being box office juggernauts, but in recent years focused on multiversal storytelling, the studio's interconnected cinematic franchise has often felt adrift and unfocused. Rather than working as films that can stand on their own, the MCU's recent crossover features have generally resulted in dangling threads, like they're all just [...]

Payment processing platform Stripe just added a way for iOS developers to accept payments by linking outside their apps, dodging Apple's commission fees. The move comes after a landmark ruling on Wednesday in the Epic v. Apple antitrust case. Apple can no longer charge developers 27 percent fees on purchases made outside apps, and it [...]

Following the release of the V20.0.0 firmware earlier this week that introduced features like Virtual Game Cards, some Switch users found their consoles unable to boot and displaying an error code after applying the update and restarting. Nintendo acknowledged the issue and released another update, V20.0.1, this morning, which fixes the problem. But those experiencing [...]

Part of a failed Soviet spacecraft that's been circling Earth for the last 53 years is about to come crashing down. The Kosmos 482 probe launched by the USSR in 1972 was intended to collect data from the surface of Venus, but was marooned in orbit following a malfunction in its upper-stage rocket booster. Kosmos [...]

"Cook chose poorly" is one of those phrases you'll someday read in a history book about the tech industry. That's just one of the memorable lines from Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers' stinging rebuke of Apple this week, in which she ruled that Apple needed to change the way it handled external payments, buttons, and links [...]

Apple has approved an update to Spotify's iPhone app that makes it the first major app to support direct links for US users to pay for plans on an external site, without restrictions. Apple has been forced to change its rules on external payments following an order in its ongoing case against Epic Games. The [...]

Pinterest is having some weird moderation issues. Reports of sweeping pin removals and account suspensions have appeared across social media platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and X, with many users saying they received no warning or explanation about the ban before being locked out of their accounts. The r/Pinterest subreddit is also currently dominated by posts [...]

Rockstar Games is delaying the highly anticipated release of Grand Theft Auto VI to May 26th, 2026. The game had originally been planned to release in fall 2025, but Rockstar Games now says the team needs extra time to deliver at the level of quality you expect and deserve." In a message posted on the [...]

TikTok has been ordered to pay 530 million (around $600 million) for sending European users' data to servers in China, a breach of the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). TikTok has six months to bring its data processing into compliance, pending any possible appeal. The Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) found that TikTok [...]

When Google killed its diminutive Chromecast line to replace the dongles with the TV Streamer set-top box, not everyone was happy about the change. Fortunately, if you're hankering after a new version of Google's old streamer, the Thomson Cast 150 might just fit the bill - but only if you live in Europe. The Cast [...]

Apple has updated its App Store Guidelines around external payments and links in response to the injunction issued this week in the Epic v. Apple case. The changes, spotted by 9to5Mac, allow developers to steer users outside Apple's App Store to make external purchases in compliance with the ruling. Language has been updated in the [...]

The de minimis exception, which has allowed businesses to import low-value goods without duties from China and Hong Kong, has expired as of 12:01AM ET today as part of President Trump's executive order signed last month. Many businesses in the US rely on the de minimis loophole. Any package valued under $800 - including electronics, [...]

After supporting passwordless Windows logins for years and even allowing users to delete passwords from their accounts, Microsoft is making its biggest move yet towards a future with no passwords. Now it will ask people signing up for new accounts to only use more secure methods like passkeys, push notifications, and security keys instead, by [...]

The Pentagon Inspector General is expanding an inquiry into Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's questionable Signal group chats. According to the Wall Street Journal, the investigation is now also looking into a second chat, as well as exactly how classified information was transferred from a secure government computer onto Hegseth's account on his personal devices. Beyond [...]

Spotify says it has submitted an update to its iOS app that would, among other things, let US customers use payment options that aren't Apple's, according to a blog post. The update submission follows Wednesday's major Epic Games v. Apple ruling that forces Apple not to take a cut of payments on non-Apple payment systems [...]

During Wednesday's earnings call, Apple CEO Tim Cook went into the most detail yet on how the company is responding to the far-reaching US tariffs imposed by President Trump - and the potential impacts on its business. Assuming the current global tariff rates, policies and applications do not change for the balance of the quarter [...]

In Amazon's Q1 2025 earnings call, CEO Andy Jassy touched on the potential impact of the Trump administration's tariffs, and he seems to think that Amazon won't be affected too harshly. People are buying a lot of their everyday essentials at Amazon" and the company has extremely large selections" and hundreds of millions of SKUs," [...]

We've called DJI's baby steadicam "almost everything I wanted my iPhone camera to be" and one of our favorite gadgets of 2023, but it's just become a harder product to recommend. In April, DJI quietly hiked the US price of the camera from $519 to $619. Now, DJI has hiked the price again, officially listing [...]

Apple reported its latest quarterly earnings on Wednesday under the backdrop of a court ruling that's poised to upend the company's App Store business and tariff uncertainty that could spur price increases for devices including the iPhone. At least on this occasion, Apple's revenue numbers weren't top of mind for tech industry onlookers like they [...]

After years of testing and validation, Aurora says its first fully autonomous tractor-trailers are operating on public highways in Texas. The company's Class 8 trucks are now making customer deliveries between Dallas and Houston, having already completed 1,200 miles without a driver," Aurora said. The clients for these initial trips are Uber Freight, the ridehailing [...]

If you need a svelte USB-C charger that won't weigh you down on your commute or your next flight, Anker's new 45W Nano charger is on sale for the first time at Amazon, where you can pick it up in either black or white as part of a lightning deal for $25.99 ($9 off). At [...]

Patreon is planning to submit an update to its iOS app that will let creators accept payments outside of Apple's payment system, spokesperson Adiya Taylor tells The Verge. The planned update follows yesterday's major Epic Games v. Apple ruling that blocks Apple from collecting fees on payments made outside of apps. "This is a huge [...]

Google is giving its Google Voice app some much-needed love after leaving it practically untouched for a long time. The company is adding a refreshed in-call interface with key call control buttons lined up in a row, plus the ability to start a three-way conference call. In a Workspace update today, Google says the call [...]

Shokz has launched what the company is calling its smallest and lightest open earbuds to date." The new OpenDots One clip onto the back of your ear instead of sitting entirely inside it. It's a design that's similar to what the Bose Ultra Open Earbuds have helped popularize over the past year, but Shokz' new [...]

If you're rushing to see Sinners in IMAX, you'll have a bit more time. Today, Warner Bros. has announced Ryan Coogler's sexy and soulful vampire thriller will get a 70mm IMAX re-release at select locations around the world. Audiences have spoken and we listened," said Jeff Goldstein, Warner Bros. president of global distribution in a [...]

Epic Games is making some big changes to its store to provide an enticing alternative to Apple's in-app purchases for developers. The company is announcing the changes less than a day after a major court ruling that mandates that Apple can't collect fees on purchases made outside of apps or restrict how they point to [...]

For many self-proclaimed cinephiles, enjoying movies has become an odd game of logging titles into Letterboxd and shouting at each other online about box office totals. And now, MoviePass has a plan to capitalize on that energy with a platform built on the blockchain. Today, MoviePass and Mysten Labs announced the imminent launch of Mogul, [...]

Lyft said it plans to a new senior citizen-focused product called Lyft Silver" that includes more accessible vehicles and customer service support staffed with actual human employees. Noting that older riders comprise just 5.4 percent of its total customer base, Lyft says it hopes to make its app-based ridehailing more accessible to seniors - and [...]

Microsoft has been instructing engineers working on its AI infrastructure to get ready to host Elon Musk's Grok AI model, according to a trusted source familiar with the plans. In recent weeks Microsoft has been in discussions with xAI to host the Grok AI model and make it available to customers and Microsoft's own product [...]

May Mobility is the latest autonomous vehicle operator to team up with Uber to get more passengers into its robotaxis. The Ann Arbor, Michigan-based company, which has mainly focused on long-term transportation contracts, says it will deploy thousands" of autonomous vehicles on Uber's ridehailing platform across multiple US markets. May Mobility says its partnership with [...]

Google is preparing to publicly unleash its AI Mode search engine tool for the first time. The company announced today that a small percentage" of people in the US will start seeing an AI Mode tab in Google Search in the coming weeks," allowing users to test the search-centric chatbot outside of Google's experimental Labs [...]

The US House of Representatives voted to revoke California's ability to enact its own, tougher pollution regulations for cars and heavy-duty trucks. It's an attempt to kill one of the nation's most ambitious climate plans and strip California of its ability to set stricter tailpipe pollution standards than the nation as a whole. But it's [...]