X is launching a marketplace for inactive handles

Premium Plus and Premium Business users will soon be able to browse and request inactive usernames on the X Handle Marketplace. Handles are going to be broken up into two broad categories. Priority handles will be free and “often include full names, multi-word phrases, or alphanumeric combinations.” Rare handles, on the other hand, will be … Read more

March of the frogs

By the time I arrived, the waterfront park in downtown Portland, Oregon was already awash with people as far as the eye could see. The No Kings protest in June had turned out around 10,000 people across the city; this one saw several times that number just downtown, with thousands more choosing to join localized … Read more

The Sony Watchman was must-see TV

To understand the Sony Watchman, you have to go back. Way back. Back to when “TV” wasn’t just a way to refer to any piece of content between 20 and 89 minutes, available on every screen everywhere for a few bucks a month. In 1982, when Sony first started selling its new device, “TV” was … Read more

Time to catch ‘em all again

Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 102, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome, happy spooky season, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.) This week, I’ve been reading about personal chefs and TikTok’s algorithm and deep sea divers, tearing … Read more

The AI sexting era has arrived

This is The Stepback, a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more on AI and the industry’s power dynamics and societal implications, follow Hayden Field. The Stepback arrives in our subscribers’ inboxes at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepback here. How it started Since ChatGPT became a household … Read more

TiVo won the court battles, but lost the TV war

TiVo could have been a contender. In the 2000s, TiVo reached heights few companies ever achieve. Like Google and Xerox, its name became a verb. People had to “TiVo” the new episode of Battlestar Galactica or game 4 of the Red Sox vs. Cardinals, not “record” it. While it didn’t invent the DVR, TiVo popularized … Read more

8BitDo’s new collection celebrates the NES’s 40th anniversary

As part of its NES40 collection, 8BitDo’s Ultimate 2 controller is getting its most dramatic makeover yet. | Image: 8BitDo Forty years ago today, the Nintendo Entertainment System launched in North America, and to help celebrate the anniversary, 8BitDo has announced a new NES40 collection. It features updated versions of three of 8BitDo’s existing products, … Read more

Easy Delivery Co. is a cozy, Lynchian dream

I have been a fan of David Lynch ever since a friend’s older brother interrupted a 13th birthday celebration to insist we all watch Eraserhead. In the realm of horror movies, it’s a common way to be introduced to a seminal film: be it in a friend’s basement, illicit underage viewings, or a stray recommendation … Read more

The lab where GM is cooking up new EV batteries to beat China

Battery development in the GM Wallace Battery Cell Innovation Center. | Image: Steve Fecht / General Motors Inside General Motors’ fast-growing battery labs in suburban Detroit, scientists and engineers are analyzing stresses on lithium-ion cells: desert heat, arctic cold, jungle humidity, enough charging and discharging for a half-dozen Frankenstein reboots. For The Verge‘s exclusive tour … Read more

The US has a new roadmap for fusion energy, without the funds to back it up

Guests await the beginning of a news conference at the Department of Energy headquarters to announce a breakthrough in fusion research on December 13, 2022 in Washington, DC. The officials announced that experiments at the National Ignition Facility at the LLNL achieved ‘ignition.’ | Photo: Getty Images The Department of Energy (DOE) released a new … Read more

Ex-lidar CEO makes a bid to reclaim his company

Ex-Luminar CEO Austin Russell is trying to wrest back control of his company. | Image: Andrew J. Hawkins / The Verge Earlier this year, Luminar founder and CEO Austin Russell abruptly resigned from his position after it was revealed he was the target of an ethics inquiry. Now, the 30-year-old billionaire is trying to wrest … Read more

Kelly Reichardt’s anti-heist movie

Kelly Reichardt has been called one of America’s greatest filmmakers, and also one of its quietest. But her latest, The Mastermind, centered on an art heist that goes off the rails, is probably her loudest movie yet and definitely her biggest budget to date. Reichardt even set out to make something different from her previous … Read more

Atari’s resurrecting the Intellivision, one of its biggest competitors in the ‘80s

The Intellivision Sprint features the same unique controllers as the original, but they’re now wireless and rechargeable. | Image: Atari Atari has announced yet another retro console revival, but this time it’s launching hardware from an old competitor. Atari and Plaion, a company that develops, publishes, and distributes games, have collaborated on the new Intellivision … Read more

These AI glasses promised to make me smarter, and all I got was Clippy for my face

There’s a display but you’ve got to lift your head up to activate it. This is Optimizer, a weekly newsletter sent every Friday from Verge senior reviewer Victoria Song that dissects and discusses the latest phones, smartwatches, apps, and other gizmos that swear they’re going to change your life. Optimizer arrives in our subscribers’ inboxes … Read more