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The AI data center build-out, as it currently stands, is dependent on two things: Nvidia chips and borrowed money. Perhaps it was inevitable that people would begin using Nvidia chips to borrow money. As the craze has gone on, I have begun to worry about the weaknesses of the AI data center boom; looking deeper into the financial part of this world, I have not been reassured. Nvidia has plowed plenty of money into the AI space, with more than 70 investments in AI companies just this year, according to PitchBook data. Among the billions it's splashed out, there's one important category: neoclouds, as exemplified by CoreWeave , the publicly tr … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/qDCAVMl

The upcoming “Wide Fold” will seemingly be shorter and wider when unfolded compared to Samsung’s Z Fold 7 (pictured). Apple's long-rumored foldable iPhone is set to arrive next year, and already faces some preemptive competition from Samsung. Korea's ET News reports that Samsung's upcoming " Wide Fold " is also set to launch in 2026, and will closely mirror the display size and 4:3 aspect ratio of Apple's first foldable. The machine-translated report says the Wide Fold is expected to feature an OLED display that measures 5.4 inches in its folded position, and 7.6 inches when unfolded. "It will be a 'passport' type with a 4:3 screen ratio when unfolded," according to an unnamed industry source cited by ET News . Last week, The Information reported that Appl … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/KLvS1FE

These days when you want to engage with some media, you can choose from podcasts, videos, games, live performances - or books, one of the oldest and most popular ways to learn something new or escape (at least temporarily) from today's troubled world. We polled the staff of The Verge to find out what books they read over the past year that really struck a chord - because the books were enlightening, educational, or just enjoyable. Here are some of the answers we got. (And please let us know what your favorite reads were in 2025 in the comments.) Brandt Ranj, commerce writer Screwing up is one of the inevitabilities of life, but dwelling … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/s0WtTUd

If you were an internet user around the turn of the century, there's a good chance I could play a one-second long sound of a door opening and memories would immediately come flooding back. Memories of running home from school and logging onto AOL Instant Messenger to chat with your friends or your crush. Maybe memories of how AIM changed the way your company did business. Certainly memories of your old screen name, and the angsty song lyrics you put into your away message. AIM was, for a time, the most important chat app on the internet. It also barely managed to continue to exist. The app was created by a semi-rogue team inside of AOL, and … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/Ag3sTZB

Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 110, your guide to the best and Verge -iest stuff in the world. (If you're new here, welcome, happy holidays, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage .) This week, I've been reading about mall Santas and malleable software and phone bans , wondering how I barely know any of the songs in DJ Earworm's annual mashup , waiting patiently for Ugmonk's Layflat notebooks to go back on sale, finally setting up my Switch 2 Camera for some holiday gaming, trying desperately to not come in last place in my fantasy football league, using MCP to build some really weird note-taking workflows … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/DL1BEVQ

The new Gulikit joysticks for Xbox Ally handhelds. | Image: Gulikit Even at $1,000, the Xbox Ally X handheld didn't ship with magnetic drift-resistant joysticks, and neither did the $600 model. But for an extra $20 at Amazon , you can change that today - with officially Asus-approved and sanctioned TMR joysticks from Gulikit, the company that's made a name for itself by supplying aftermarket drift-resistant sticks. The company says it worked with Xbox Ally manufacturer Asus to create these sticks, that they'll be "automatically recognized" when you swap them in, and that you can use the handheld's built-in Armoury Crate app to calibrate them afterwards. And while I haven't tried these ones (I do have a pa … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/NxVCY24

When a friend invited me to play a new game called REPO earlier this year, I thought I was wasting my money - not because the game looked bad, but because it looked like Lethal Company . The surprise-hit 2024 co-op survival horror game has players wander through unnerving ruined structures collecting trash while evading monsters. Lethal Company was popular with my friends ( and just about everyone else ), but its eerie liminal spaces spooked me too much. My friends swore REPO was different, though, that it was so funny it was hard to be scared, especially with its goofy robot avatars - and they were right. REPO has become one of my favorite ga … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/yOCZ35E

RJ Scaringe is sitting in Rivian's Palo Alto offices, explaining why the adventure-themed EV company suddenly decided to build its own self-driving cars, when an unexpected guest glides by the window outside: Waymo. A robotaxi from the Alphabet-owned company pulls up outside the office. The passenger, an analyst from Goldman Sachs, briefly takes a selfie before climbing inside. The Rivian founder and CEO chuckles at the scene. "That's amazing," he laughs. "So perfect." The arrival of the Waymo helps clarify the challenge that lies ahead for Rivian. A few hours earlier, Scaringe was onstage in front of an audience of hundreds of investor … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/7PqMkYg

If you told me last year the Nex Playground would outsell Microsoft's Xbox, even for two weeks , I would have laughed my way out of the room. It's a three-inch cube of a game console that's likely less powerful than your phone, one which uses a single camera to track your body. It only plays curated, certified kid-safe games. Though frequently compared to the Nintendo Wii and Microsoft Kinect, the Nex Playground is worse than either at tracking motion. Nor is it cheap: $250 upfront plus $89-a-year or $49-a-quarter annual subscription to get more than a basic sampler. If you like a game, you can't buy it separately. Many are little better … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/Lwlb3Ag

BMX’s SolidSafe 5K in that Apple orange color. | Image: BMX A new company called BMX, founded by accessory royalty, has emerged from Kickstarter to make its SolidSafe semi-solid state power banks available to the general public. Like the Kuxiu semi-solid state power banks I've recently reviewed, BMX's promise to have twice the longevity and be safer than traditional power banks, which have been the subject of recall after recall in 2025 , attracting the attention of the FAA and airlines . BMX, which stands for Better Mobile Xperience, is lead by Daniel Chin, the man who founded Sanho, the company behind those Hyper-branded batteries and accessories long adored by Apple users. Targus bought Sanho in … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/Iz8SiOQ

The cringe comes for us all, and for all our hot new turns of phrase. "Rizz" lost its luster when grandparents started asking about its meaning. Teachers who dressed up as "6-7" on Halloween drove a nail into the coffin of Gen Alpha's rallying cry. And tech CEOs who once trumpeted the quest for "artificial general intelligence," or AGI, are jumping ship for any other term they can find. Until recently, AGI was the ultimate goal of the AI industry. The vaguely defined term was reportedly coined in 1997 by Mark Gubrud, a researcher who defined it as "AI systems that rival or surpass the human brain in complexity and speed." The term still ty … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/tdhNkFL

Apple has announced the changes it's making to the iOS App Store in Japan in order to comply with recent legislation in the country. It will allow third-party app stores and payment processing options, though is introducing new commission fees for those transactions. Developers in Japan will now be able to distribute apps on alternative app stores, much like in the EU , with AltStore PAL already expecting to launch in the country before the year's end. As in Europe, Apple will collect a 5 percent commission for in-app purchases made in third-party stores. App Store apps will also now be permitted to use alternative payment options alongside … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/BiVZ69W

The year 2025 has been, to put it mildly, eventful. If you’re like me, you’ve felt as if it’s pretty much impossible to keep up with things; every day brings something new, much of it baffling or enraging. But that’s not the case for everything — and so, as with past years , we’re using this as a chance to reminisce. Over the next two weeks, we’ll be publishing stories from our reporters who cover the most important or weird trends in politics, tech, and culture. We’ll also have roundups to help you navigate 2025’s many, many releases across gaming platforms and streaming services. Perfect for those in-between-holidays days. So before we all head into 2026, take a moment to look back on the things you’ve forgotten — or catch up on those you missed altogether. In 2025, wearables made a hard pivot to AI What could’ve been Google’s worst year turned into one of its best The 10 best shows to stream on Disney Plus and Hulu from 2025 The best shows streaming on Apple TV in 2025 Th...

Years from now, I'll look back at 2025 as the year when a fundamental shift happened in wearable technology. Over the last decade, the category has been synonymous with health and fitness. In many ways, that association is still the primary one. But this year, I've seen an increasing number of tech companies pitch another trajectory for wearables: as vehicles for AI. The clearest example is what used to be known as smart glasses. During CES last January, it became clear that the unexpected success of Meta's Ray-Ban glasses was catching on. At the show, the floor was rife with both audio-only and display glasses that promised a future of han … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/zE3ePIt

Tesla could be temporarily locked out of its biggest US market if it doesn't change deceptive marketing that exaggerates the self-driving capabilities of its cars, the California Department of Motor Vehicles warned on Tuesday, adopting the ruling of an administrative law judge. The DMV said Tesla's use of terms like "Autopilot" and "Full Self-Driving" to describe its advanced driver assist systems "is misleading and violates state law." The agency ordered a 30-day suspension of Tesla's license to sell cars in the state if Tesla does not fix marketing concerns surrounding the term "Autopilot" within a 60-day window. However, the DMV decide … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/68y35qM

I never felt done with my Animal Crossing: New Horizons island. Despite playing every day for two years, and racking up 1,700 hours of playtime, I somehow never finished decorating. I had plenty of ideas for my island, sure, but actually implementing them was another story: The decorating and terraforming systems that helped make New Horizons a huge success are also slow, manual, and cumbersome, and my patience for decorating and redecorating had finally worn thin. Fast-forward a few years, and a very much unexpected update is coming to finally fix some of those pain points. Update 3.0 is launching on January 15th, 2026, alongside the Swit … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/h6LZ9rv

Mozilla is in a tricky position. It contains both a nonprofit organization dedicated to making the internet a better place for everyone, and a for-profit arm dedicated to, you know, making money. In the best of times, these things feed each other: The company makes great products that advance its goals for the web, and the nonprofit gets to both advocate for a better web and show people what it looks like. But these are not the best of times. Mozilla has spent the last couple of years implementing layoffs and restructuring, attempting to explain how it can fight for privacy and openness when Google pays most of its bills , while trying to fin … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/nXrv5ac

Ed Murray has been in the solar business long enough to remember the bloodbath of 1985. That's when President Ronald Reagan ended Jimmy Carter-era solar tax credits meant to decrease US reliance on fossil fuels following the 1970s oil crisis . "It was a sad time," says Murray, who is president of the trade group California Solar & Storage Association. Membership to the organization (which hadn't yet added "storage" to its name ) fell from 670 companies to just 37 "almost overnight," Murray says, as hundreds of businesses went under without the tax credit. "I hope that that doesn't happen to us again." (Then-California Gov. George Deukmejian a … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/6bHTFDY

William Basinski says the current system is “a mess.” | Image: Getty Images for Prada " Not ideal ." " Completely unacceptable ." " Shameless ." " Predatory ." " Some bullshit ." "Total bullshit." This is how musicians, producers, and others in the industry are describing the relentless spread of AI clones. Of course, AI fakes aren't new, but as the scammers have gotten more brazen, artists are responding with increasing furor. We got a taste back in 2023 with multiple AI Drake tracks . But, in the last two years, the problem has gotten worse. Everyone from Beyoncé , to experimental composer William Basinski have had fake songs, likely generated by AI, appear to be streaming next to their names. And this week King Gizzard and the Liza … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/h3XnFG0

When he was 19 years old, Brendan Foody started Mercor with two of his high school friends as a way for his other friends, who also had startups, to hire software engineers overseas. It launched in 2023 as essentially a staffing agency, albeit a highly automated one. Language models reviewed resumes and did the interviewing. Within months, Mercor was bringing in $1 million in annualized revenue and turning a modest profit.  Then, in early 2024, the company Scale AI approached Mercor with a big request: They needed 1,200 software engineers. At the time, Scale was one of the only well-known names in the historically back-of-house business of producing AI training data. It had grown to a valuation of nearly $14 billion by orchestrating hundreds of thousands of people around the world to label data for self-driving cars, e-commerce algorithms, and language-model-powered chatbots. Now that OpenAI, Anthropic, and other companies were trying to teach their chatbots to code, Scale neede...

Starlink satellites with solar arrays deployed. | Image: SpaceX A collision in space was narrowly avoided last week when a newly deployed Chinese satellite came within a few hundred meters of one of the roughly 9,000 Starlink satellites currently operating in low Earth orbit. SpaceX is laying the blame on the satellite operator for not sharing location data. "When satellite operators do not share ephemeris for their satellites, dangerously close approaches can occur in space," wrote Michael Nicolls , VP of Starlink Engineering. "A few days ago, 9 satellites were deployed from a launch from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Northwestern China. As far as we know, no coordination or deconfliction with … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/uJEiGBS

An Xbox Ally in front of an Xbox Ally X. I still wouldn't buy an Xbox Ally, and I still don't think the tweaked version of Windows that shipped with it is ready for primetime. The Xbox Full Screen Experience (FSE) needs work. But two months after I panned the cheaper $600 white Xbox Ally and wasn't quite sold on the $1,000 black one , one of my most-hated Windows issues is getting better. I didn't stop testing these handhelds after my October review ; I've been playing Hollow Knight: Silksong and Blue Prince on them. I installed FSE on an MSI Claw 8 AI Plus, too. And after too many updates to count, I'm finally beginning to trust two of these handhelds to save my game (and battery l … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/UPvR1nN

Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 109, your guide to the best and Verge -iest stuff in the world. (If you're new here, welcome, hope you're staying warm, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage .) This week, I've been reading about Google Maps and shopaganda and life as a pop star , finally getting to watch F1 now that it's streaming, rewatching the first two Avatars ahead of the next one's release, pretending the new Taylor Swift tour doc is a reasonable replacement for actually seeing the tour, buying a bunch of Ikea smart buttons now that they're on sale in the US, playing with the excellent new Obsidian up … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/tj9wZPW

A keyboard perfect for barside writing. As a writer, I take the tools of my trade relatively seriously. I’m not crazy enough to drop $3,600 on a keyboard, but I also find typing on a MacBook for extended periods of time deeply unsatisfying — and distracting. So this spring, I started looking into distraction-free writing setups, which included an e-reader / writer and a mechanical keyboard .  I started with the Boox Palma 2 because its E Ink screen and limited connectivity could make it a solid distraction-free solution if paired with a good keyboard. After a lot of research, the keyboard I settled on was the NuPhy Air60 V2 , with the company’s heaviest tactile Moss switches and the gorgeous NuFolio case in “nostalgic tan,” which is really more of a bold yellow.  Now, I am no connoisseur of mechanical keyboards, but I find the Air60 V2 to be delightful to type on. Its low-profile keys don’t have the same travel and feedback as my regular keyboard or my vintage IBM...

Sektori is an old-school twin-stick shooter. Created by a former developer at Returnal studio Housemarque, it puts you in the role of a little ship that blasts through swarms of enemies, and you have to weave through them to get upgrades to help you survive. Often, my runs end after less than a couple minutes, like a retro arcade game. But creator Kimmo Lahtinen brilliantly weaves modern ideas from roguelikes with pulsing visuals and music that make Sektori a mesmerizing experience. A key part of what makes Sektori good is how it puts you into a flow state. " Sektori is a place, a form of being, a method of transformation," reads the descrip … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/VHYROp2

Amazon Prime members may be eligible for free same-day delivery. | Photo: Justin Sullivan / Getty Images Let’s face it, the same thing happens year after year. Things get busy with work, school, and life in general until you’re suddenly up against the clock as you race your gifts to your local post office, FedEx store, or UPS location. We’ve all been there, but we’d like to help as you plan your next move and begin sending out your holiday packages. If you intend to send your gifts via traditional mail this year, we’ve compiled the domestic shipping deadlines for various carriers and major retailers, so you can plan ahead and ensure your packages arrive before the holidays. Hopefully, it will help you avoid some unwanted stress — well, assuming that’s even possible this time of year. Final day to ship Ships via this service December 19th UPS 3 Day Select December 22nd UPS 2nd Day Air December 23rd UPS Next Day Air With UPS, you have until Tuesday, December...

The Tetris : My Play Watch may look like an Apple Watch, but it eschews most of the functionality you'll typically find on a smartwatch to focus on two things: playing Tetris and celebrating the game through a UI that's thoroughly Tetris -themed. It's very good at making you want to play Alexey Pajitnov's iconic tetromino-stacking puzzler, just not on the watch because of frustrating touchscreen controls that require more focus than the game itself. The included straps are colorfully Tetris -themed (you can swap them with standard watch straps if you want to tone it down), as is the collection of nine different faces. There are both digital an … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/7QqgJln

If you’re not already seeing it, this is how the redesigned watch page is laid out. The YouTube watch screen has been given a new look on TVs. The redesign aims to provide a "more intuitive experience with easier navigation," according to YouTube's announcement , relocating the video title and several controls, and adding a new "Description" button to access creator information and other video features. I'm already seeing the update on my own Nvidia Shield Pro streaming box and native Phillips TV OS, and I do think it makes it easier to find specific video features and controls. My colleague Thomas Ricker says he isn't seeing the redesign in Apple TV's YouTube player, however, so they may still be rolling out. These changes … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/Mdem13K

Carlos-Manuel Vesga as Manousos. The theme of this week is isolation. That's always been a part of what makes Pluribus so unsettling, of course; in the show there are only a handful of human survivors left on Earth, while the rest of the population has turned into an interconnected hive mind, some 7 billion people strong. But watching Carol (Rhea Seehorn) and Manousos (Carlos-Manuel Vesga) struggle through that loneliness in episode 7 really drives that point home. Welcome to our weekly Verge -subscriber discussion of Pluribus , the new sci-fi series on Apple TV from Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan . The show follows Carol as one of the few "survivors" on Earth after a vi … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/O3IyoBD

Native Union’s Weighter managing one of up to three cables. | Photo by Thomas Ricker / The Verge Warning: I'm going to make an attempt to justify a $40 paperweight for cable management. I'm not sure how I ended up in this position, or who hurt me. All I can say is that I'm not proud of myself, so please, take pity. I've been using Native Union's 3-cable Weighter for about a week. It sits on my kitchen table, which also serves as my impromptu workspace on most days. It looks nice when I happen to notice it, and I can be assured that each time I return with my MacBook Pro in hand, I'll find the MagSafe connector right where I left it. Before Weighter, I'd just let the cable fall to the ground, requiring a middle-aged bend and audible gr … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/3LJeaBR

The Nex Playground is a motion-controlled, cube-shaped console for ages five and up that’s selling like hotcakes. It came in third for home console sales during Black Friday week, according to sales data shared on Bluesky from Mat Piscatella of Circana, falling behind only Nintendo’s Switch 2 and Sony’s PlayStation 5. That’s an impressive feat for Nex, and not a great look for Microsoft’s Xbox consoles, which saw two price hikes this year. If you missed your chance to pick one up at its 20 percent off sale price, you can do so now through December 14th. Best Buy and Walmart are selling it for $199.99. Nex Playground What if the dream of Microsoft’s Kinect lived on? It does in the Nex Playground, an all-in-one, motion-controlled console filled with kid-friendly games. Exhaust and entertain your little ones. You’re welcome. Where to Buy: $249 $199 at Walmart $249 $199.99 at Best Buy The Nex Playground includes the console itself, a remote for navigating its menus, a pow...