Microsoft has been testing its ad-supported Xbox Cloud Gaming service over the past few months, as I exclusively revealed in October. Now, the software giant is getting close to testing the free streaming option with Xbox Insiders. Over the weekend, Microsoft updated its Xbox app with loading screens for Xbox Cloud Gaming that mention “1 … Read more
If the partnership goes ahead, TCL will have input into the development of future Sony Bravia TV models. Sony has announced plans to spin off its TV hardware business, shifting it to a new joint venture with TCL. The two companies have signed a nonbinding agreement for Sony’s home entertainment business, with TCL set to … Read more
I’m sure that single extra milliamp-hour will make all the difference. After teasing 10,000mAh and 15,000mAh concept devices, Realme is ready to make those big batteries reality with the P4 Power, which launches in India on January 29th with a 10,001mAh capacity. Realme says the P4 Power will last for three and a half days … Read more
Roland now offers a more capable audio mixer for phones and tablets with the launch of the Go:Mixer Studio. The Go:Mixer audio interface lineup has always been a bit limited, better suited for scrappy live streams and capturing quick demos on their phones than professional recording. The Go:Mixer Studio is an attempt to actually reach … Read more
OpenAI plans to focus on “practical adoption” of AI in 2026, according to a blog post from CFO Sarah Friar. As the company spends a huge amount of money on infrastructure, OpenAI is working on “closing the gap” on what AI can do and how people actually use it. “The opportunity is large and immediate, … Read more
I live in Minneapolis. I grew up not far from here, in a suburb of St. Paul; after stints on both coasts, my wife and I settled here to raise our daughters in a freezing state that had always welcomed us warmly. As the ongoing occupation by over 3,000 ICE agents stretches into its third … Read more
Sphere Entertainment, the company behind the eye-catching interactive venue in Las Vegas, has announced its “intent to develop” another Sphere in Maryland that will be located 15 minutes south of Washington, DC. A timeline and exact location haven’t been finalized, but the Maryland Sphere would be the company’s second venue in the US, following plans … Read more
Bungie is putting an official date on Marathon today, its delayed extraction shooter. The slick-looking shooter from the makers of Halo and Destiny was originally set to release in September, but will now launch on March 5th. Bungie will launch Marathon on Xbox Series S / X, PS5, and PC, priced at $39.99. Bungie initially … Read more
We’re back to start the year off with a very special live interview with Razer CEO Min-Liang Tan, which we taped in front of a terrific audience at Brooklyn Bowl in Las Vegas during CES. Razer is obviously best known for making mice, keyboards, and gaming PCs in its signature black and bright green, with … Read more
The Bic Lamp can be hung, mounted, or used as a vertical standing lamp. | Image: Seletti Seletti, an Italian design brand known for everything from furniture to tableware, has debuted an unusual tribute to an icon of design: the Bic Cristal pen. To celebrate its 75th anniversary, Seletti has supersized the pen and replaced … Read more
The Zenfone 12 Ultra is Asus’s latest — and perhaps final — flagship phone. Asus chairman Jonney Shih told Taiwan’s Inside that the company is done making phones for now, marking the end of its Zenfone and ROG Phone lines. “Asus will no longer add new mobile phone models in the future,” Shih reportedly said … Read more
Animal Crossing has always been anti-instant gratification. By design, you have to take your time, wait for days to pass in real time, and complete a seemingly endless list of chores to build a meaningful life with your animal friends. The slowness is part of its appeal. But with New Horizons, some of that slowness … Read more
After launching almost three years ago, Meta’s Threads is now reportedly attracting more daily mobile users than rival platform X. According to Similarweb data shared by TechCrunch, Threads has 141.5 million daily active iOS and Android global app users as of January 7th, compared to 125 million users for Elon Musk’s mobile platform. Similarweb reports … Read more
It’s relatively rare for a podcast to last 14 years, especially a fiction one. In fact, as far as I can tell, Welcome to Night Vale is the longest continually running fiction podcast out there. (Some will argue it’s actually We’re Alive, but that has taken a few significant breaks between seasons.) The story of … Read more
Microsoft released its first security update of 2026 for Windows 11 on January 13th. Just four days later, it was forced to release an emergency out-of-band update to fix some pretty serious bugs, the first one introduced. The security patch was stopping some systems from shutting down or hibernating properly, and also preventing some users … Read more
Sony’s terrific Bravia 8 II is $900 off for a limited time. Good deals are often hard to come by at the beginning of the year — which is precisely what makes Best Buy’s Winter Sale worth checking out. The ongoing sales event features discounts on everything from big-ticket OLED TVs to smaller electronics, including … Read more
The Kaoss Pad has seen many different iterations, but the mainline effect unit and sampler hasn’t received an update since the launch of the KP3+ in 2013. Korg has finally given it the attention it deserves with the release of the Kaoss Pad V. Rather than a dramatic reimagining of what a Kaoss Pad is, … Read more
Brian Armstrong, chief executive officer of Coinbase Global Inc., speaks to members of the media on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, US, on Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. | Aaron Schwartz/Bloomberg via Getty Images. January was going to be a landmark month for the crypto industry. The Senate would start negotiating the finer details of the … Read more
This is The Stepback, a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more on dystopian developments in AI, follow Hayden Field. The Stepback arrives in our subscribers’ inboxes at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepback here. How it started You could say it all started with Elon Musk’s AI … Read more
“Share a Disney quote that sums up how you’re feeling right now!” That’s what Disney posted on Threads the other day, and people immediately replied with lines from Star Wars, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and even Mary Poppins. The throughline between all the quotes: they were pretty pointedly anti-fascist and clearly aimed at the … Read more
Setapp Mobile seemed like one of the many alternative app markets with promise that launched in the wake of the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA). While the law may have forced Apple to allow third-party app stores on its devices, it couldn’t make users actually embrace them. MacPaw, the Ukrainian developer behind the subscription-based Setapp, … Read more
Small footprint. Speedy performance. | Image: The Verge Happy Saturday, folks! This week, Best Buy kicked off its so-called “Winter Sale,” introducing a whole host of price cuts that range from not-so-good to legitimately great, at least for this time of year. We’ll be publishing many of the highlights in a dedicated news post tomorrow, … Read more
While Hollywood has repeatedly tried adapting stories from Japanese manga, vanishingly few of them have been as good as Edge of Tomorrow – Warner Bros.’ 2014 live-action film based on Hiroshi Sakurazaka’s sci-fi light novel All You Need Is Kill. Edge of Tomorrow wasn’t a one-to-one translation of All You Need Is Kill‘s original story … Read more
While playing Big Hops, a new 3D platformer starring an adorable frog, I kept feeling like I was breaking the game – and, like with The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, breaking it is kind of the point. In Big Hops, you play as a frog named Hop. Early on, Hop is taken … Read more
As masked and armed men in combat armor swarmed throughout the Twin Cities, Gov. Tim Walz took to primetime television to ask Minnesotans to film ICE. The videos, he said, would “create a database of the atrocities against Minnesotans – not just to establish a record for posterity, but to bank evidence for future prosecution.” … Read more
During a chaotic multiday event, I found myself working anywhere. And always in a rush. At CES, I did what you’re not supposed to do: I brought a pre-production laptop to use as my primary workhorse during a hectic event. The unproven rifle in question is the new Arm-based Asus Zenbook A16. It’s a 16-inch … Read more
Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 112, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome, I hope your home is warmer than mine right now, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.) This week, I’ve been reading about WhatsApp and Gavin … Read more
Twisting the PlayCube angles the image without a tripod. The best all-in-one portable projector is the one that makes all the right compromises. It needs to balance image and sound quality with battery life and responsiveness in a device that’s not too expensive and small enough to take anywhere. TCL’s fun little PlayCube delivers the … Read more
Google is appealing a federal court’s decision ruling it an illegal online search monopolist. The company filed a notice to appeal on Friday, requesting a pause on the court-ordered remedies meant to restore competition to the online search market. “As we have long said, the Court’s August 2024 ruling ignored the reality that people use … Read more
An Amazon Web Services data center in Ashburn, Virginia, US, on Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025. | Photo: Getty Images The Trump administration and a bipartisan group of governors are pressuring the PJM Interconnection, the biggest electricity market in the US, to hold a power auction meant to spur a massive buildout of new power plants. … Read more