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Content creators drop the ball

The USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. | Getty Images During Naomi Osaka's match against Anastasia Zakharova at this year's US Open earlier this week, a gaggle of ring light-wielding influencers who were packed in a luxury suite became enough of a distraction that the umpire paused the match and repeatedly asked them to quiet down. Elsewhere in the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, other creators could be seen asking US Open staffers to take full-flash photos of them while Osaka and Zakharova were playing. Last month, United States Tennis Association (USTA) media operations director Jeanmarie Daly said that the US Open was "almost doubling" the number of content creators it was app … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/h6a7IgH
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The weird and wonderful headphones of CanJam 2026

A collection of headphone manufacturers and fans come together for their love of great sound. | Image: CanJam Global I've been reviewing headphones for a long time, and I've listened to everything from the barely serviceable to multi-thousand-dollar open-back headphones. But recently I've been uninspired by the state of mainstream options. Most are perfectly good - great, even - but they lack a distinct character. Something to remind me why I fell in love with headphones to begin with, landing me in this crazy career. I needed some revitalization. I needed to see something cool. I needed to be around other people with an emotional connection to headphones. I needed to go to CanJam. CanJam is a small audio show produced by Head-Fi.org , the largest audio-fo … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/105BTqN

Robotaxis enter their villain era 

It's Bullitt meets Christine meets Waymo. A new short film imagines a San Francisco car chase where the other driver isn't human - and the car may be trying to kill you. That a robotaxi can now be cast as the villain with almost no explanation says something about the present moment. Autonomous cars have gone from sci-fi curiosities to fixtures in some American cities, where they've become stand-ins for anxieties about AI job displacement, Big Tech surveillance, and machines making decisions once left to humans. Road Rage , the planned short film awaiting $40,000 on Kickstarter to fund production, leans into all of it. The film pits Joa, a … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/A9JgSRq

Sam Altman apologizes for ‘messy’ GPT-6 Astra rollout that’s locked out paying users

Just hours after OpenAI launched GPT-6 Astra , CEO Sam Altman was already apologizing for what he describes as a "messy rollout" after paying users expecting access to the new frontier model were left waiting. The company hailed the model as a "generational leap in capability" on Thursday and described it as the start of "the AGI era," a fuzzy and poorly-defined term tech executives nevertheless insist on using to promote their products. It said Astra would roll out to some enterprise customers - specifically those with access to its Daybreak cybersecurity platform - that day. This would expand to include all Plus, Pro, Business, and Enter … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/mFZ2ITA

This NAS company wants to run your local smart home

Ugreen’s HomeAgent H100 Pro hub combines local storage, on-device AI, and a new voice assistant, Uliya, to run your smart home. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge Ugreen, known for its phone power banks, chargers, and NAS storage solutions, is moving into the smart home - in a big way. This week at the IFA tech show, the company launched its HomeAgent smart home platform that combines security camera storage, on-device AI, and smart home control in one system, managed by a voice assistant called Uliya, with the promise that everything runs locally. At the core of Ugreen's HomeAgent system is a hub that acts as the brain of your smart home, running a local-first AI (with some caveats) that you can interact with using natural language via Uliya. There are three hub configurations to choose from, each … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/ydl1LVE

DJI’s new robovac can climb obstacles, vacuum quietly, and claims much improved privacy

DJI has announced a second generation of its Romo robovac. The Romo 2 series is quieter, more powerful, and better at climbing over small steps and other obstacles. But more importantly for DJI, a new local-only data mode should go some way to reassuring anyone concerned by the first Romo's serious security flaws . There are actually two new Romo models, the transparent P2 and the opaque A2. Both benefit from improved navigation, apparently able to avoid cables and other obstacles as small as 2mm in size, as well as transparent objects like mirrors or glass. There's also "human-like reasoning and concept transfer" that supposedly allows Romo … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/Hqgl6Xi

These new robot lawnmowers trim your edges

Mammotion’s Luba 4 AWD can clean up the sides of your driveway and flower beds with its edger attachement. | Image: Mammotion Anker's new robot lawnmower might take over for your weedwacker, too. Announced at IFA 2026, the Eufy Robot Lawn Mower S2 Max comes with an extendable trimming arm to clean up the grass around your driveway and flowerbeds. The dual-blade mower offers vSLAM navigation that uses built-in cameras to build a 3D map of your yard, eliminating the need to set up boundary wires or a Real-Time Kinematic (RTK) base station. Anker says the Mower S2 Max can map and mow up to 3.7 acres, while handling yards with up to 80 percent (38-degree) slopes. The robot mower is AWD and will launch in May 2027 for €3,999. There's no word on US pricing or availabili … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/fHumgJF