~theverge | Bookmarks (636)

YouTube is tightening its policies on gambling content. The platform has announced that it will soon prohibit creators from verbally referring to gambling services not approved by Google, as well as displaying their logos and linking to them in videos. The new rules, which go into effect on March 19th, may also put age restrictions […]

Though only out for a grand total of four days, Monster Hunter Wilds has sold an astonishing 8 million copies. That’s according to Capcom, reporting that the monster hunting action RPG has become the company’s fastest selling title ever. The Monster Hunter franchise has racked up a number of superlatives for its publisher with 2018’s […]

Apple is pushing back against the UK’s secret order to give the government access to encrypted iCloud files. The company has filed an appeal with the Investigatory Powers Tribunal, which deals with complaints about the “unlawful intrusion” of UK intelligence services and authorities, according to a report from the Financial Times. As noted by FT, […]

The Nintendo Switch is now eight years old and the company is announcing what could be its final retail bundle push before the introduction of the Switch 2. The new bundle includes the Nintendo Switch OLED system with a digital copy of Super Mario Bros. Wonder and a 3-month Nintendo Switch Online individual membership for […]

The Verge is heading to Barcelona, Spain, for Mobile World Congress 2025. We’re fresh off CES, where we saw plenty of new gadgets, from TVs to gaming handhelds and smart glasses. But, as it says right in the name, MWC 2025 is more focused on… mobile stuff. And it’s for a global audience, which means […]

In a pair of social media posts today, President Donald Trump named some cryptocurrencies he says will be part of a Crypto Strategic Reserve being created by an executive order he signed in January. Those include Bitcoin and Ether, which he says “will be the heart of the Reserve.” Trump said in the first of […]

Officials at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on Friday ordered staff “to begin finding tens of millions of dollars for a Starlink deal” to upgrade air traffic control communications, anonymous sources have told Rolling Stone. The story follows reports that Starlink may be taking the job from Verizon, which already has a multibillion-dollar contract with […]

Just days after revealing the 15 Ultra in China, Xiaomi has announced a UK and European launch for its latest flagship phone, together with the base Xiaomi 15. There’s no sign of the Pro model, but there is an array of tablets, earbuds, and fitness trackers appearing alongside the phones. The 15 and 15 Ultra […]

Apple Intelligence was supposed to finally deliver a more natural version of Siri, but now, people who work in Apple’s AI department believe the company won’t release a ”true modernized, conversational version of Siri … until iOS 20 at best in 2027,“ writes Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman in today’s Power On newsletter. Apple is expected to roll […]

HMD announced a new set of earbuds today with a case that doubles as a backup phone battery. The aptly named wireless Amped Buds come in a Qi2 charging case that uses reverse wireless charging to boost your phone’s charge. With a slim design and a 1,600mAh battery, it’s a portable case that offers just […]

Xiaomi has given a European launch to its Buds 5 Pro, the first earbuds to use Qualcomm’s S7 Pro chip to stream audio over Wi-Fi, in addition to Bluetooth, with no increase in power consumption. Qualcomm announced the technology in October 2023, and this is the first hardware to launch. The Buds 5 Pro were […]

After two years telling anyone who’d listen that Chinese manufacturer Vivo made the best cameras in any smartphone, last year’s Xiaomi 14 Ultra changed my tune. It became my favorite phone and camera, handling everything from holiday snaps to product review photoshoots.  With the 15 Ultra, Xiaomi took the best and made it better with […]

Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 73, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome, belated happy Pokémon Day, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.)  This week, I’ve been reading about the Zizians and fancy suits and Heavyweight, watching Suits […]

Ikea has registered its first Thread device, a new Matter-supporting temperature and humidity sensor called the “Timmerflotte,” with the FCC, reports HomeKit News. A diagram from the filing, which was spotted by CybermodStudios, shows a circular device that’s powered by two AAA batteries and features a QR code and 11-digit number for Matter setup. The […]

Since its founding in 2007, the Mumbai-based collaborative studio CAMP has used surveillance, TV networks, and digital archives to examine how we move through and record the world. In addition to their film and video projects, the wildly prolific studio runs a rooftop cinema in Mumbai and maintains several online video archives, including the largest […]

Federal workers started getting emails on Friday night, “asking them to provide a list of accomplishments from the week,” reports The New York Times. According to the outlet, the message told workers they’ll now be expected to provide such a list every Monday by 11:59PM ET. This time around, the Times writes that “employees who […]

Planning on spending your Sunday watching the 97th annual Academy Awards or catching up on the latest episode of Severance? If you don’t already own a smart TV, Amazon’s latest Fire TV Stick 4K Max can make setup easy and inexpensive, especially now that it’s down to just $39.99 ($20 off) at Amazon, Best Buy, […]

Google Photos makes backing up photos and videos from your phone pretty seamless: set it to work in the background and all your precious memories are saved to the cloud without you having to do anything else.   The smoothness of this process does tend to mean you can find yourself with a rather gigantic collection, […]

The internet is filled with awesome stuff to read, and there’s new awesome stuff to read being published every day! That’s the good news. The bad news is that finding the good stuff feels harder than ever. You either find your favorite writers or sources and check them religiously or just hope that the algorithm […]

Cricut has announced new versions of its crafting machines designed to print, cut, and emboss various materials using a collection of swappable tools. The new Cricut Maker 4 and Cricut Explore 4 are the first updates to both machines in nearly four years and offer faster cutting speeds for some materials, improved accuracy, and cheaper […]

Apple announced in a whitepaper that it plans to introduce a bunch of new child safety features, including letting parents share their kids’ age ranges with apps, refreshing the App Store’s age ratings system, and making it easier for parents to set up Child Accounts for their kids. The company says it will introduce the […]

The wait is over — kind of. Apple’s iPhone 16 series is out, including the kinda affordable 16E, and its much-hyped Apple Intelligence has arrived courtesy of iOS 18.1. But if you’re expecting an entirely new kind of iPhone experience, well, I have some bad news for you. The AI features in iOS 18.1, including the writing […]

Microsoft is releasing a native Copilot app for macOS today. Much like the Windows app, the Copilot version for Mac will provide access to the web-based version of Microsoft’s AI assistant, where you can upload images and generate images or text. The macOS version of Copilot also includes a dark mode and a shortcut command […]

OpenAI is launching GPT-4.5 today, its newest and largest AI language model. GPT-4.5 will be available as a research preview for ChatGPT Pro users to start. OpenAI is calling the release its “most knowledgeable model yet,” but it’s warning that GPT-4.5 is not a frontier model and might not perform as well as o1 or […]