~theverge | Bookmarks (628)

Attorneys at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) asked a federal judge Wednesday to delay its consumer protection trial against Amazon by two months, saying that staffing losses and a possible office move could hinder its ability to prepare.  “We have lost employees in the agency, in our division and on our case team,” FTC attorney […]

Snapchat Platinum subscribers will now be able to use video lenses featuring AI generated animals or flowers, Snap announced today.  There will initially be three of the lenses, which Snap calls “AI Video Lenses.” The fox lens, for example, can have a fox snuggle on your shoulder, while the raccoon one can have raccoons scamper […]

Any ebook reader will let you cram a Beauty and the Beast-sized library’s worth of books in your pocket, but so will your phone. An ebook reader offers a more book-like reading experience, with fewer distractions and less eye strain, and many include extra features, like adjustable frontlighting. Some really are pocketable. Others are waterproof […]

After a tumultuous 2024, in which iRobot lost its founder and CEO, Colin Angle, Amazon abandoned its acquisition plans, and the company laid off a large portion of its staff, iRobot is back with a major shake-up of its robotic vacuum line. This week, the company that invented the robot vacuum over 20 years ago announced eight […]

“Big time” confusion has wracked the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) staff since last month, the agency’s chief operating officer, Adam Martinez, testified before a federal judge in Washington, DC, on Monday.  Martinez’s testimony — which will continue on Tuesday afternoon — is meant to address questions around what’s happening at the financial regulation agency, […]

Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) must comply with a request to disclose its internal records. In a ruling on Monday, US District Court Judge Christopher R. Cooper wrote that DOGE is likely covered by the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), adding that “the public would be irreparably harmed by an indefinite delay in […]

Even with uncertainty surrounding the TikTok ban, the platform is still trying to address safety concerns with a new reminder that tells teens to stop using the app at night and more controls for parents. If a teen under 16 is still using the app after 10PM, TikTok will interrupt their feed with a full-screen […]

Davey Wreden does not tend to make conventional games. He exploded onto the indie scene in 2013 with The Stanley Parable, a choose-your-own adventure story set in a workplace hall of mirrors. Its follow-up, 2015’s The Beginner’s Guide was a tour through a series of games created by an untraceable hobbyist developer. Both are undeniably […]

Agents are said to be the future of AI, and now OpenAI is trying to help developers build their own. The company is releasing a new Responses API that offers building blocks for developers to create agents capable of searching the web, digging through files, and performing tasks on a computer on their behalf. “There […]

The X social media platform has been up and down all morning, with brief but repeated outages preventing posts from loading across both mobile and desktop. The first widespread issue started at around 5:40AM ET this morning, according to Downdetector, leaving timelines consistently unable to refresh on mobile apps and some X users stuck in […]

Nintendo is still shipping the Switch with Joy-Con hardware that will potentially develop issues like joystick drift and false inputs over time. We’ll have to wait until April 2nd to find out if Nintendo is fixing the issue with the new Switch 2, but as iFixit discovered during a teardown of the Alarmo alarm clock, […]

The European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) has come into force, and it’s meant that some of the world’s biggest tech companies are having to make major changes to how they operate. The law, which is designed to increase competition in the EU’s digital markets, designates some large online companies and their services as “gatekeepers.” […]

Apple plans to significantly redesign the look of iOS, iPadOS, and macOS later this year, Bloomberg reports. The changes, which are set to arrive with iOS 19, iPadOS 19, and macOS 16, will touch many parts of the operating systems, including “updating the style of icons, menus, apps, windows and system buttons,” Bloomberg says. The […]

Do you want to drop a not-so-subtle hint that you prefer the analog sound of vinyl over digital music whenever someone asks you the time? AndoAndoAndo’s new Vinyl Record Automatic Watch looks like a tiny turntable strapped to your wrist – but not just any old record player. The timepiece’s designer, Yu Ando, drew inspiration […]

Sony is working on a prototype AI-powered version of at least one its PlayStation game characters. An anonymous tipster has shared an internal video from Sony’s PlayStation group with The Verge that demonstrates an AI-powered version of Aloy from Horizon Forbidden West. After we published this story, the video was pulled from YouTube due to […]

Microsoft has started sending out invites to a 50th anniversary and Copilot event at the company’s headquarters in Redmond, Washington. The April 4th event will take place on the day Microsoft marks 50 years since it was first founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen in 1975. The event on Microsoft’s campus will include an […]

Google has announced a new AI feature that uses Gemini AI bot to add events to your Google Calendar based on emailed details in Gmail.  Emails that Gemini thinks describe events will get a new “Add to Calendar button” that starts the interaction. When you click it, the Gemini prompt sidebar will open to confirm […]

Apple is expected to release its thinnest phone yet later this year with the iPhone 17 Air. Rumors have held that the phone will be thinner than the 6.9mm iPhone 6 was, but recent leaks give us a better idea than we’ve had before of what to expect. Rumors of the iPhone 17 Air’s dimensions […]

The PS5 version of Forza Horizon 5 will require you to link a Microsoft account to your PlayStation Network account in order to play the game, according to a FAQ on the game’s official website. The FAQ says that players will be prompted to link the two the first time they load the game. And […]

Late last week, Apple delayed its big Siri AI upgrade, and it seems that will take the company’s rumored smart display with it. According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman in today’s Power On newsletter, Apple has postponed the device because it at least partially “relies on the delayed Siri capabilities.” It’s been rumored for months now […]

Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 74, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome, sorry in advance for my terrible TV taste, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.)  This week, I’ve been reading about Bybit, Walmart, and sports analytics; […]

The Retroid Pocket Mini has an unfixable issue that’s causing certain graphical effects for emulated games not to work properly. Retroid, the China-based company that makes the Pocket Mini, announced on Discord that it will accept returns of the device but only during a limited March 8th to March 14th window — and capped at […]

Warner Bros. Discovery just released a new trailer for the second (and maybe last) season of The Last of Us, offering an action-packed view of the fraught world Pedro Joel Miller (Pedro Pascal) and his daughter Ellie (Bella Ramsey) are facing. Things look bleak for both of them, and the show’s fungal-based zombies don’t seem […]

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) is still pushing to break up Google, according to a revised proposal filed Friday with federal Judge Amit Mehta. As in its proposal last year, the DOJ says Google should be forced to sell its web browser, Google Chrome, and potentially Android, as punishment for being a monopolist, as […]