~theverge | Bookmarks (638)

Last month, Roku ensnared itself in controversy after customers quickly complained about a limited test where an advertisement for Moana 2 started playing as soon as the company's products were powered on. Across Reddit and other social media channels, people threatened to ditch their devices if Roku repeated such an experiment. The message, at least […]

OpenAI’s upgraded image generator in ChatGPT brought a surge of users to the AI service thanks to its ability to create Studio Ghibli-style images and really dull dolls, and now it’s coming to other apps. The company says the same “natively multimodal model” powering the image generator will be accessible in its API via “gpt-image-1,” […]

Nintendo’s soon-to-be-released amiibo just went up in price at Walmart, GameStop, and Best Buy in the US. The three retailers have increased the price of Street Fighter 6 amiibo from $29.99 to $39.99, while the new Legend of Zelda amiibo have gone from $19.99 to $29.99, as reported earlier by Nintendo Life. Nintendo’s upcoming amiibo, […]

How much will Trump’s threatened 245 percent tariffs truly impact Chinese goods and the prices we pay in the US? Some Chinese companies aren’t waiting to see. Anbernic, which makes excellent and controversial Nintendo Game Boy clones, is already suspending US shipments indefinitely. “Due to changes in U.S. tariff policies, we will be suspending all […]

CATL, the world’s largest battery manufacturer, previewed several breakthroughs in electric vehicle battery tech that is sure to wow EV makers across the world — even if the tech never makes it to the US. The company teased the innovations at an event in Shanghai timed to precede the city’s auto show. According to local reports, […]

Near the beginning of his opening arguments, David Dahlquist, a lawyer for the US Department of Justice, showed a slide that he described as Google’s “vicious cycle.” It goes like this: Google pays billions of dollars to be the default search engine practically everywhere, thus it gets more search queries, thus it gets better data, […]

Anker’s newest Qi2-compatible chargers might be faster, but if you’re looking for a reliable — and relatively inexpensive — charger to keep you powered on the go, Anker’s last-gen 622 Magnetic Battery (MagGo) is still a solid choice. Thankfully, it’s on sale through April 25th as part of Woot’s Anker Power Mania sale for a […]

Sony has published a new teardown of the PlayStation 5 Pro, highlighting improvements that it made to the cooling apparatus of the machine. They include tweaks to the PS5’s liquid metal cooling design aimed to give the console “more stable” cooling.   The changes follow unproven claims that the liquid metal used in the first PS5 […]

Kia’s most popular electric vehicle is getting a bit more expensive in the US for the 2025 model year. The automaker’s re-styled EV6, announced in November, will start at $42,900 — a $300 increase from the 2024 “Light” rear-wheel drive version, with bigger hikes on the higher-end models. The GT model is getting the biggest […]

Uber is being accused of using a “deceptive billing and cancellation process” for its Uber One subscription service, according to a lawsuit filed by the Federal Trade Commission Monday. The ridehailing company would enroll people in its subscription service and then charge them without consent, making it more difficult to eventually cancel the service, the […]

Bluesky is rolling out blue checks of its own for “authentic and notable accounts,” the platform announced on Monday. For now, the decentralized network says it will “proactively verify” these accounts, granting them a checkmark in a blue circle next to their account name. Bluesky is also giving some organizations “Trusted Verifier” status, allowing organizations […]

Airbnb will now display how much you’ll pay for a stay – cleaning fees and all – as soon as you start your search. The update, which is rolling out globally, means you’ll see the total cost of a reservation (excluding taxes) before you reach the checkout page. The company first started showing the full […]

Star Wars is once again descending on Fortnite. This time, it’s through the Star Wars-themed Galactic Battle, a new Battle Royale season that starts May 2nd and features Darth Jar Jar and the debut of Force Lightning, a new in-game ability. The news was appropriately revealed at Star Wars Celebration in Japan. As with most […]

Though the larger Star Wars franchise has seen better days, Disney Plus’ Visions animated series has been consistently excellent for the past two seasons, and the creative teams behind its next chapter make it sound like it’s going to be another knockout. The anthology series will see three storylines from previous episodes continue in this […]

When Henk Rogers first read the script for the Tetris movie, he was shocked. “There was so much Hollywood in the movie,” he tells The Verge. “It just drove me nuts.” The film largely follows a pivotal period in Rogers’ life, when he traveled to the Soviet Union to navigate the complex rights issues for […]

Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 79, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome, RIP your free time, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.)  This week, I’ve been reading about dire wolves and Neuralink and the history of the […]

Synology is preparing to roll out new restrictions on third-party hard drives in its future network attached storage (NAS) devices later this year, the company confirmed to Ars Technica. The changes could make it much harder to use third-party drives in Synology’s devices for typical use cases, like backing up household computers or as local […]

More protests against President Donald Trump are taking place today as part of “A National Day of Action” largely spearheaded by the decentralized 50501 movement. Events are scheduled in all 50 states, two weeks after millions of people attended more than 1,300 “Hands Off!” protests across the US and the world. This time, over 700 […]

Star Wars Outlaws will get its next story DLC, called A Pirate’s Fortune on May 15th, Ubisoft announced during Star Wars Celebration Japan yesterday. The company also revealed that the Nintendo Switch 2 version of the game will come out on September 4th. The expansion, free for Outlaws Season Pass holders and $14.99 otherwise, picks […]

If you’ve been waiting for the right moment to pull the trigger on the Apple Watch Series 10, you’d be hard-pressed to find a better time than now. That’s because Apple’s latest flagship is on sale at Amazon, Walmart, and Best Buy right now in its 42mm base configuration starting at $299 ($100 off), matching its lowest price to […]

Haste: Broken Worlds takes the relaxing loop of sliding down and leaping off hills from iOS classic Tiny Wings and turns it into a thrilling, high-speed, and 3D roguelike. In Haste, you play as Zoe, a girl who typically delivers letters but has found herself mysteriously transported to the new worlds you run through. When […]

After half a decade fighting to keep its empire together, Google’s defenses are wearing thin. The company is facing a two-front war that could fundamentally reshape its business, and, the US Department of Justice argues, open new opportunities for its competitors. Last year a federal judge deemed Google an unlawful monopolist in the online search […]

Nintendo announced today that Switch 2 preorders will begin on April 24th, and now Target and GameStop have shared when you can try to buy one. Target’s Nintendo Switch 2 preorders in the US will kick off on April 24th at 12AM ET, according to Target’s website. The preorder time applies to consoles, games, and […]

A federal judge in Nevada has ruled that it’s unconstitutional to obtain swaths of cellular records through “tower dumps” — but will still let police get away with using it as evidence, as reported earlier by 404 Media and Court Watch. With tower dumps, authorities can dig through the cell records that pinged off a […]