~theverge | Bookmarks (617)

After stranding former US Agency for International Development (USAID) workers with devices holding sensitive information, the Trump administration says it will no longer physically collect their government-issued phones, laptops, and tablets. An email sent by USAID to workers on Thursday and obtained by The Verge says the devices will be wiped remotely, and then “marked […]

Chrome could eventually be up for sale, if the US Department of Justice gets its way in the remedies trial for US v. Google. And there are already buyers lining up at Google's door. Any potential sale might not happen for a very long time. The remedies trial is still ongoing, a decision in that […]

Aravind Srinivas is battling Google to get his Perplexity AI assistant preinstalled on Android phones. At the same time, the CEO is refocusing his startup on what he predicts will be the next battleground in the AI race: your web browser. Perplexity plans to release its own browser called Comet next month, Srinivas tells me. […]

On paper, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 doesn't seem to stand out amidst a recent wave of prestige RPGs, from the newly polished high fantasy of the Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion remake to the medieval warfare of 15th century Bohemia in Kingdom Come: Deliverance II. For one, its fantastical conquests are set in a world reminiscent […]

Last night, a new company called Slate Auto unveiled its first product, a spartan two-seat electric truck with a mere 150 miles of range and a world of possibility. There's no paint, no distracting infotainment screen, and no stereo or even radio. It doesn't tower over your average 12-year-old, and it may sell for under […]

Japan’s YKK, the world’s largest zipper manufacturer (go ahead, grab the nearest zipper, it probably says YKK on the pull), has announced a prototype self-propelled zipper with a built-in motor and gear mechanism it can use to zip itself up at the push of a button on a wired remote. The days of being embarrassed […]

Chromebooks on Arm processors are about to get a big boost as developers prepare new versions of ChromeOS with support for Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon chips, reports Chrome Unboxed. According to a new developer commit message posted in the Chromium project Gerrit code review, the SoCID for a Qualcomm X1P42100, aka the Snapdragon X Plus, is […]

Infinity Nikki’s next update will add some major new features. Bubble Season starts April 29th and will include a new area, new activities, and, of course, new (and returning) outfits. But the biggest addition is one that fans have been asking for since launch: co-op. Check out the trailer above. In the new season you’ll […]

If you’re like me and you have a bit of an uncontrollable potty mouth, Microsoft has got you covered with its latest Windows 11 feature. The software maker is changing the way its profanity filter for voice typing works on Windows 11 soon, so you can disable the filter and let all your nasty swear […]

Trump administration senior officials are facing harsh criticism after it was revealed that they had used the personal messaging app Signal to discuss highly classified military intelligence in a group chat. The chat, in which Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth laid out plans for an upcoming military strike in Yemen, inadvertently added Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor-in-chief of The […]

Perplexity Chief Business Officer Dmitry Shevelenko said he didn't want to testify in a trial about how to resolve Google's search monopoly because he feared retribution from Google. But after being subpoenaed to appear in court, he seized the moment to pitch a business opportunity for his AI company: buying Chrome. If Judge Amit Mehta […]

It was really great seeing all the excitement from fans when Oblivion shadow dropped earlier this week. For a lot of people, the fourth installment in the Elder Scrolls series is the game, the experience that either was the impetus for their career in video games, instilled in them an everlasting love for the format, […]

Lexus’s mid-sized ES luxury sedan is getting a redesign for its eighth generation that includes some edgier styling and a significant platform change that accommodates both an all-electric drivetrain and a regular hybrid one. Revealed at the Shanghai Auto Show today, the 2026 ES is Lexus’ second electric vehicle after the RZ, which was just […]

iRobot just launched its ninth new robot vacuum of the year. That’s a record number for the company, which is struggling to dig itself out of the giant financial hole it was left in after Amazon’s bid to buy it fell through. The new Roomba Max 705 has the same design and lidar navigation as […]

I find something weirdly captivating about tech products that come with transparent cases that let you see the works inside. We all know that there are all sorts of chips and wires in there that make the product do what it does, but unless we plan to break the thing open (and void the warranty), […]

WhatsApp is launching a new “Advanced Chat Privacy” feature that aims to prevent people from taking conversations outside the app. When the setting is turned on, you can block others from exporting your chat history and automatically downloading photos and videos sent in the app. The feature will prevent people from using messages for Meta […]

A Democrat has entered the manosphere. Pete Buttigieg, the former Secretary of Transportation in the Biden Administration and a presidential candidate in 2020, sat for a three-hour appearance on Andrew Schultz's Flagrant on Wednesday to discuss current events, the state of politics, and the culture wars - his latest foray into breaking outside of the […]

Discord co-founder and CEO Jason Citron is stepping down and will be replaced by former Activision Blizzard and King exec Humam Sakhnini, according to a press release. Sakhnini takes over on April 28th. Citron will stay on the board of directors and serve as an advisor to the CEO. “As we enter our next phase, […]

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, […]