If you’ve been itching to get a handheld, but the Switch 2 isn’t quite up your alley, now you can get your hands on a Steam Deck OLED. As spotted by @Wario64, Valve has started selling the device on its online store again after it was out of stock in the US and Canada for … Read more
The all-Republican Federal Trade Commission agreed to approve a $13.5 billion ad merger if it includes a ban on steering ad dollars away from platforms or publishers based on “political or ideological viewpoints.” The order, which was reported by The New York Times earlier this month, would prevent ad giant Omnicom from wholesale avoiding platforms … Read more
The next generation of Hue’s smart button is bigger, but is it better? Smart lighting company Hue has released a new version of its Smart Button, one of the simplest ways of controlling Hue’s colorful smart lights. The new Smart Button has a bigger design and a bit of price hike — in the U.S., … Read more
My biggest complaint with Liquid Glass in the first iOS 26 developer beta was that it sometimes made Control Center nearly unreadable, but Apple has seemingly fixed that with the second beta, which is out now. In the first beta, the glassiness of everything meant that you could still see a fair amount of what … Read more
General view of the nuclear power plant Indian Point seen from Tomkins Cove, New York before it powered down in April 2021. | Photo: Getty Images New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced plans today to develop a new nuclear power plant, the first to be built in the state in decades. It’s the latest signal … Read more
Last year, I lost my old AirPods in my apartment and relied on my old-school Lightning EarPods for months before upgrading to an iPhone 16. Honestly, aside from missing wireless connectivity, I hadn’t noticed much difference. That’s why I still think they’re a good investment in 2025, and why I’m considering picking up the newer … Read more
Microsoft is rolling out a new update to its Xbox Home UI that allows Xbox owners to pin apps and games on the homescreen. It’s part of a number of customization changes to the Xbox Home UI, including the ability to hide system apps and reduce the number of apps and games listed in the … Read more
The House of Representatives has banned staff members from using WhatsApp on government devices, according to a report from Axios. In an email viewed by the outlet, the House’s chief administrative officer (CAO) tells staffers that the Office of Cybersecurity “has deemed WhatsApp a high-risk” because of a “lack of transparency in how it protects … Read more
Update, June 23rd: Best Buy has sold out of the standalone console, but it still has stock of the $499.99 Mario Kart World bundle. The Nintendo Switch 2 has been difficult to find in stock since its June 5th launch, though restocks are beginning to ramp up. If you’re looking for one, head over to … Read more
Many people gravitate toward compact laptops for their convenience, but there’s a subset of gamers who want a big ass gaming laptop that offers desktop-class performance. If you fall into the latter bucket, you may appreciate knowing that HP is offering 20 percent off its latest Omen gaming laptops, which are equipped with Nvidia’s powerful … Read more
New strains of misinformation about climate change are spreading, meant to slow the growth of renewable energy needed to fix the problem. Rather than flat-out denying the mountains of evidence that show that humans are causing climate change, more recent talking points aim to mislead people by casting doubt on potential solutions. Renewable energy has … Read more
JLab’s new Pop Party speaker is small enough to fit in your pocket but still includes RGB accent lighting. | Image: JLab JLab has announced a new Party line of wireless speakers that continues an industry trend of adding animated RGB lighting to anything that plays music. That even includes the new budget-minded JLab Pop … Read more
Microsoft is starting to test its new aggregated gaming library in its Xbox PC app on Windows. Xbox Insiders will now be able to see their Steam and Battle.net games all within the Xbox app this week — making it a single launcher for most installed PC games. This new consolidated library will roll out … Read more
Comedian Martin Herlihy tells students how to get their parents to buy them a Mac. Apple has taken down a new ad just one day after posting it, making it the fourth one removed in just over a year, as spotted earlier by MacRumors. The nearly eight-minute-long ad, titled “The Parent Presentation,” featured comedian Martin … Read more
Today, I’m talking with Hinge founder and CEO Justin McLeod. Hinge is one of the biggest dating apps in the United States — it’s rivaled only by Tinder, and both are owned by the massive conglomerate Match Group, which has consolidated a huge chunk of the online dating ecosystem. A fair warning here: I’ve never … Read more
As part of his appearance on the Decoder podcast, Hinge co-founder and CEO Justin McLeod says that the company would like to introduce an alternative payment service by the end of this year. With a Hinge-run alternative payment service, Apple won’t be able to take a cut of any purchases, and that “changes the equation” … Read more
The new Chromebook Plus 14 was light enough for me to lift with just three fingers. Google announced a handful of new Gemini AI features for Chromebook Plus laptops, including a sleek, new 14-inch flagship device from Lenovo that I got to handle recently. The new AI functions include select to search, which allows you … Read more
In the online world of fanfiction writers, who pen stories inspired by their favorite movies, books, and games, and share them for free, there are unspoken codes of conduct. Among the most important: never charge money for your fanfic, and never steal other people’s work. It makes sense then that fanfic writers were among the … Read more
It took me a long time to appreciate Death Stranding. I’m not even sure I fully got it after my initial playthrough, which was equal parts mesmerizing and dull. The game, in which you play as a postapocalyptic delivery man in a world ravaged by a breach with the afterlife, demands a lot from players. … Read more
Its certainly an aquired taste. | Image: nothing_fan_account While Nothing is gearing up to officially unveil its first over-ear headphones next week, leaked images and videos have given us a good idea of what they look like. The Nothing Headphone 1 sports an unusual design that appears consistently across leaks from multiple sources, featuring a … Read more
A vehicle Tesla is using for robotaxi testing purposes on Oltorf Street in Austin, Texas, US, on Sunday, June 22, 2025. Tesla finally did the damn thing. The company launched its hotly anticipated robotaxi service in Austin, Texas, on Sunday, June 22nd — and we’re now starting to see some of the first reactions roll in. … Read more
Andru Marino is an audio and video producer at The Verge. “I make videos on our YouTube / TikTok / Instagram channels, and have produced our podcasts like Vergecast, Decoder, and Why’d You Push That Button?” He also keeps a lot of notes, and his latest favorite places to keep them are the Triangle and … Read more
Monotype is keen for you to know what AI might do in typography. As one of the largest type design companies in the world, Monotype owns Helvetica, Futura, and Gill Sans – among 250,000 other fonts. In the typography giant’s 2025 Re:Vision trends report, published in February, Monotype devotes an entire chapter to how AI … Read more
Image: The Verge I jumped on the smartwatch bandwagon a bit late, but now I can’t go a day without mine. Beyond delivering helpful notifications, it’s perfect for setting timers, tracking workouts, and monitoring my sleeping habits (which are terrible). If you haven’t yet joined the smartwatch party or you’re looking to upgrade, Samsung’s Galaxy … Read more
The Final Fantasy Magic: The Gathering set is here, and there’s never been a more perfect assemblage of Magic cards. The set features cards taken from every mainline Final Fantasy title, including the two MMOs, so there’s something for every generation of Final Fantasy lovers. And while Magic has featured other video game crossovers in … Read more
Amazon’s mega sale is nearly upon us. This year, Prime Day will kick off on July 8th and run through July 11th, which, for those counting, is twice as long as previous years. Most everything else will likely be the same — well, aside from Amazon’s so-called “Today’s Big Deals” feature — making it a … Read more
I wouldn’t have preordered a Nintendo Switch 2 just for myself. The price is high, there’s no new Smash Bros. or Metroid Prime (yet), and I’ve got a perfectly good original Nintendo Switch and Steam Deck that keep me plenty busy. At first, I could only justify the $450 because I write about gaming tech … Read more
The music industry’s nightmare came true in 2023, and it sounded a lot like Drake. “Heart on My Sleeve,” a convincingly fake duet between Drake and The Weeknd, racked up millions of streams before anyone could explain who made it or where it came from. The track didn’t just go viral – it broke the … Read more
The E. Barrett Prettyman Courthouse in Washington, DC. The future of the internet will be determined in one building in Washington, DC – and for six weeks, I watched it unfold. For much of this spring, the E. Barrett Prettyman Courthouse in downtown Washington, DC, was buzzing with lawyers, reporters, and interested onlookers jostling between … Read more
At this point, it’s becoming easier to say which AI startups Mark Zuckerberg hasn’t looked at acquiring. In addition to Ilya Sutskever’s Safe Superintelligence (SSI), sources tell me the Meta CEO recently discussed buying ex-OpenAI CTO Mira Murati’s Thinking Machines Lab and Perplexity, the AI-native Google rival. None of these talks progressed to the formal … Read more