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Showing posts from December, 2025

Leaked video shows the Galaxy S26 Ultra’s new camera island

New photos and video seem to confirm previous leaks hinting that the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra will sport a new camera bump. OnLeaks posted images of what look like dummy phones on X, following renders it leaked back in September . #Samsung #GalaxyS26Ultra pic.twitter.com/0lzaFIxYev - Steve H.McFly (@OnLeaks) December 30, 2025 We've seen a similarly raised island on the Galaxy Z Fold 7 , which 9to5Google points out could lead to an annoying wobble when using the device on a table. #Samsung #GalaxyS26 #GalaxyS26Ultra pic.twitter.com/5wFb4aiZiL - Steve H.McFly (@OnLeaks) December 30, 2025 More leaked renders in November appeared to show t … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/f6KQjsG

The Dreame X40 Ultra robovac is about $700 off, nearly matching its best price

The Dreame X40 Ultra used to be one of our robot vacuums on the market before its successor took its place. With the year coming to a close, now’s a good time to set yourself up for a cleaner, more organized start in 2026. The Dreame X40 Ultra — one of our favorite robot vacuum deals from Black Friday — can handle most of the heavy lifting for you, and it’s once again on sale. You can currently buy it for $503 ($697 off) at Amazon at checkout, which is just $4 more than its record low price set during Black Friday. Dreame X40 Ultra Where to Buy: $1199.99 $503 at Amazon $1199.99 $649.99 at Dreame $1199.99 $549.99 at Best Buy Before the Dreame X50 Ultra took its place, the X40 Ultra was our favorite robovac / mop hybrid for hard floors and carpets . Like the X50 Ultra, it delivers excellent mopping performance, thanks to dual oscillating mop pads that can extend into edges and reach under consoles and cabinets. It can also automatically detach and reattach its mop pad...

The 11 best Nintendo Switch 2 games we played in 2025

2025 was a big year for gaming, and that includes gaming hardware. Nintendo launched its Switch 2 console in June, and since then, numerous Switch 2 titles and noteworthy updates for original Switch games have launched. These include brand-new Nintendo experiences like Mario Kart World and Donkey Kong Bananza , as well as some belated but welcome third-party titles, including Cyberpunk 2077 and Divinity: Original Sin 2 . Even classics like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild got some new life on the upgraded console. If you're considering buying a console, or you're getting one for someone else, there are 11 games that we think are a must … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/1yGIlDt

The FCC has probably killed a plan to improve smart home security

The US Cyber Trust Mark Program, an Energy Star-style certification for smart home security, could be winding down less than a year after it launched. Safety testing company UL Solutions has announced that it is stepping down as the program's lead administrator, just a few months after the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) began investigating it over ties to China. The Cyber Trust Mark Program hasn't been officially shut down yet, but the loss of its lead administrator leaves it in limbo. It wouldn't be the first security program the FCC axed this year. In November, the FCC rolled back cybersecurity regulations for telecom companies … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/P35ipNB

This smart garden turned my black thumb green

The Gardyn Studio is that rare piece of tech that looks good inside my home. I can't grow anything. Multiple attempts to create a cottage garden, first in Idaho and now in South Carolina, have brought disappointment. Both are challenging climates, but where others have succeeded, I've been left with little more than a pile of cherry tomatoes for my vast efforts (those things are bulletproof). I'd all but given up on the idea of ever successfully growing my own food - I can't even keep those pots of herbs you buy at the grocery store alive for more than a week - until I met the Gardyn Studio 2 . A smart indoor garden, the Gardyn Studio 2 is an automated growing platform that deploys AI to do what I failed to do: w … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/z48otuZ

The Canon EOS R6 Mark III is great, but this lens is amazing

An f/1.2 aperture is a beautiful thing. Canon's new EOS R6 Mark III is an excellent camera . It's not a groundbreaking upgrade to the 3-year-old R6 Mark II, but it takes the same body with great ergonomics and adds more resolution, video that now goes up to 7K with open-gate filming, and improved autofocus performance. If you're in need of an impeccably good all-around camera for anything from wildlife photography to weddings and videography, you can't go wrong. It's an easy recommendation, especially if you already shoot Canon and are due for an upgrade. (But a used R6 Mark II is also very appealing if the higher $2,799.99 price is too lofty.) But the lens Canon launched alongsid … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/XA8N4sJ

Free speech’s great leap backwards

In early December, Joshua Aaron, the developer behind the ICEBlock app - designed to let people alert others about the presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents - filed a federal lawsuit alleging his First Amendment rights were violated. The Department of Justice had urged Apple to remove Aaron's app from its App Store, which the suit called unconstitutional. And Apple had complied - in the process, setting its own precedent for suppressing anti-ICE speech. The year 2025 has marked perhaps the biggest leap back for American free speech in generations. The Trump administration's war on immigrants and civil liberties has le … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/SsxT8kK

I’m The Verge’s Senior Internet Typist, ask me anything while Nilay’s away!

Hello from the dead week of the year, when all sane people have logged off to spend time with their families. This is when I typically write at least one deeply weird post while I'm working over the holiday. One time I got left alone on New Year's Day and posted about cats all day and people got very mad! No one let me run the site alone anymore after that. I'm supposed to give you some inkling of what I am willing to talk about but even I don't know what my beat is anymore. I am somehow our business reporter, our in-house media critic, our heavy metal expert, our long-running (and long-suffering) Elon Musk personality disorder specialist, … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/KcEWZ8l

Google Photos is coming to Samsung TVs in 2026

The Google Photos Memories feature will be exclusive to Samsung for six months. Google Photos will finally be available on TVs next year, starting with an upcoming integration for Samsung TVs. Samsung announced that the planned integration will "seamlessly bring the photos people capture on their phones to Samsung TVs, where they can appear in a larger, cinematic format," and that it wants Google Photos to be "deeply woven into the TV experience." There currently isn't a native TV app for Google Photos, even on the company's own Google TV platform, though Samsung's announcement doesn't specify that this new integration will be launching as a dedicated app. Samsung says it's first aiming to bring a Memories feature that … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/aKDIMfE

You need to read the subversive cosmic horror novella The Ballad of Black Tom

Things that HP Lovecraft was good at: Creating a mythos. Building atmosphere. Things that HP Lovecraft was bad at: Writing dialog. Creating compelling characters. Not being a racist . As a fan of horror in general, I can't pretend that Lovecraft isn't an important touchstone . But the man's blatant racism is also impossible to ignore, especially since it often finds its way onto the pages of his stories. One of the most notorious is The Horror at Red Hook , which follows Detective Thomas Malone as he uncovers a sinister cult in the titular Brooklyn neighborhood. The Ballad of Black Tom is a retelling of that story, but from the perspective … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/bgdr918

The terrible Nintendo controller that helped make VR happen

The Nintendo Power Glove was not good. It's important that you know that. The Power Glove was ambitious, impressive, even important - one of the very first mainstream devices that let you control a game using your body instead of just your thumbs - but it was not good. In some ways, its not-good-ness is a key part of the story. The Power Glove showed up in the late 1980s, at a complicated time for the gaming industry, when Nintendo was a hugely powerful force for the future of fun. But the Power Glove wasn't really even a Nintendo product. It started as a research lark, became a toy, and only wound up with Nintendo's name on it after a part … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/kBYt07F

Ubisoft shuts down ‘Rainbow Six Siege’ servers following hack

Yesterday, Ubisoft confirmed that Rainbow Six Siege had been compromised and that it had shut down the game's servers and marketplace while it resolved the issue. The hackers managed to gain control over a significant chunk of the game's systems, including the ability to ban and unban users, sending custom messages to ban ticker, unlocking all in-game items, and granting every player 2 billion R6 Credits and Renown. Ubisoft sells R6 credits in its store, pricing 15,000 of them at $99.99. That means the actual cash value of 2 billion R6 credits is about $13.33 million. Ubisoft made it clear that nobody would be punished for spending any c … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/jgx6q0h

The best PS5 games from 2025

In this new era of console… inclusivity ? driven by Sony and mostly Microsoft bringing their exclusives to other platforms, it's getting harder to highlight games that make a singular console shine. Indeed, the top-performing games year after year on both PlayStation and Xbox are multiplatform releases, and often the best games of the year, like 2025 GOTY winner Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 , similarly launch on most everything . (Once again, like in all things, Nintendo is the exception.) But while lists like this will probably disappear as we get deeper into the era of everything being an Xbox, Sony still seems committed to high-quality exclu … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/Gylxvw7

Two new wireless Samsung speakers for 2026 lean into aesthetics

For years, Samsung has made products that try to camouflage what they are by displaying works of art. The Frame TV is the most famous example, but the company also released the Music Frame , a speaker disguised as a picture frame, at last year's CES. Now, instead of hiding a speaker with a piece of art, Samsung worked with designer Erwan Bouroullec to make a speaker into a piece of art. According to Samsung, the Music Studio line of speakers, debuting at CES 2026, draw inspiration from the "timeless dot concept" found throughout music and art. As a musician, the Music Studio 5 reminds me of a fermata, the symbol meant to hold a note or silen … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/rbIPHkg

Sam Altman is hiring someone to worry about the dangers of AI

ISO corporate scapegoat. OpenAI is hiring a Head of Preparedness . Or, in other words, someone whose primary job is to think about all the ways AI could go horribly, horribly wrong. In a post on X , Sam Altman announced the position by acknowledging that the rapid improvement of AI models poses "some real challenges." The post goes on to specifically call out the potential impact on people's mental health and the dangers of AI-powered cybersecurity weapons. The job listing says the person in the role would be responsible for: "Tracking and preparing for frontier capabilities that create new risks of severe harm. You will be the directly responsible leader for bui … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/EhWNJ5p

Pixel 10 phones and Switch 2 games round out this week’s best deals 

Google’s Pixel 10 phones are some of the best Android phones on the market. If you’re taking it easy during the slow, in-between week between Christmas and New Year’s, now’s a good time to catch up on deals you might’ve missed. Many of our favorite discounts from the past week are still hanging around, making this an especially convenient moment to shop. Whether you’re eyeing a new phone, gearing up for travel, or just looking to treat yourself before the year wraps up, we’re seeing notable price drops on Google’s Pixel 10 lineup , AirTags , and a wide selection of Nintendo Switch games , along with a handful of other Verge-approved picks worth grabbing now. Here are the best deals worth checking out before the year comes to a close. Google Pixel 10 This model touts a 6.3-inch 1080p OLED that supports up to a 120Hz refresh rate. It has the same Tensor G5 processor found in all Pixel 10-series phones, but with a slightly lower 12GB RAM count compared to 16GB on the Pro. Verge rev...

8 great games for your Steam Deck from 2025

I played a lot of games on my Steam Deck this year. It seemed like there was a never-ending list of incredible indie games to try - The Verge wrote about a lot of them! - and many worked brilliantly on Valve's handheld gaming PC. Some bigger games made a splash on Steam Deck, too, and while they may not look as good as on a beefy PC, I'm usually happy to deal with that simply because I can play them on the couch or out of the house. If you're unwrapping a Steam Deck for the holidays this year, or have some Steam gift cards burning a hole in your pocket, here are some of my recommendations of games released in 2025 that you might want to che … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/GnjQYcD

Google is letting some people change their @gmail address

If you've been saddled with some awful Gmail address you chose in high school (looking at you, LazySexyCool3030), help appears to be on the way. According to a Google account support page in Hindi the company is allowing some people to change their email address. According to the page (via Google Translate): If your Google Account email address ends with gmail.com, you can replace it with one that ends with @gmail.com. This appears to be more like adding a second address to your account than actually changing your email address, however. Email sent to your old address will still arrive in your inbox, and that address will still work to s … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/8kyGiu1

LG teases a new chore-completing home robot

LG is getting ready to take the wraps off a new robot it claims is capable of performing a "wide range" of household chores. The robot, called LG CLOiD, will make its debut at CES next month, featuring two articulated arms and five individually actuated fingers on each hand. Though we only have a description and two images showing LG CLOiD's five-fingered hands, it already seems a lot different from the two-wheeled home companion LG revealed last year, which came with a handle attached to its head rather than two arms. LG says CLOiD's motor-equipped arms operate with seven degrees of freedom , indicating a more humanlike range of motion and … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/wepcf3A

Hollywood cozied up to AI in 2025 and had nothing good to show for it

AI isn't new to Hollywood - but this was the year when it really made its presence felt. For years now, the entertainment industry has used different kinds of generative AI products for a variety of post-production processes ranging from de-aging actors to removing green screen backgrounds. In many instances, the technology has been a useful tool for human artists tasked with tedious and painstaking labor that might have otherwise taken them inordinate amounts of time to complete. But in 2025, Hollywood really began warming to the idea of deploying the kind of gen AI that's really only good for conjuring up text-to-video slop that doesn't ha … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/HPG2Eaj

Anker’s beefy Laptop Power Bank has returned to its Black Friday low

As you might expect, things have been relatively quiet on the deals front since Black Friday, particularly when it comes to discounts on charging accessories. Thankfully, Anker’s aptly titled Laptop Power Bank is once again on sale at Amazon and Walmart for $87.99 ($47 off), which matches the record-low price we last saw at the end of November. Anker Laptop Power Bank Where to Buy: $119.99 $87.99 at Amazon $119.99 $89.99 at Best Buy $119.99 $87.99 at Walmart Unless you’ve been living under a proverbial rock for the past several years, you’re probably aware that Anker makes an ungodly amount of charging accessories . The portable A1695 “InstaCord” has quickly become a favorite among Verge staffers , however, owing to the fact that it comes with a retractable USB-C cable and a second that doubles as a handle, both of which are bidirectional and allow for passthrough charging. The 25,000mAh / 90Wh power bank also sports a USB-A port and an additional USB-C port,...

Sony’s souped-up PlayStation 5 Pro is $100 off for the rest of today

Sony’s full suite of PlayStation 5 consoles jumped in price in August due to increased US tariffs, but now through Christmas, you can save $100 on several models. This discount is especially great if you planned to go big with Sony’s PS5 Pro, the company’s priciest, most powerful console yet. Normally $749.99, you can currently grab one at Amazon , Walmart , and Target for around $689.99. Sony’s PlayStation Direct storefront indicates that the PS5 Pro sale ends on December 25th at 3AM ET, although discounts may remain on cheaper models. PlayStation 5 Pro Where to Buy: $749 $648.99 at Amazon $749 $649 at Walmart $749 $649.99 at Best Buy The PS5 Pro plays many games at their best resolution, while making far fewer concessions than the standard PS5 when it comes to visual effects (particularly ray tracing and shadow quality). Some games simply look better or run faster on the Pro than the base-model PS5, while others look better and run faster. That said, it’s worth not...

In 2025, AI became a lightning rod for gamers and developers

2025 was the year generative AI made its presence felt in the video game industry. Its use has been discovered in some of the most popular games of the year, and CEOs from some of the largest game studios claim it's being implemented everywhere in the industry including in their own development processes. Meanwhile, rank-and-file developers, especially in the indie games space, are pushing back against its encroachment, coming up with ways to signal their games are gen-AI free. Generative AI has largely replaced NFTs as the buzzy trend publishers are chasing. Its proponents claim that the technology will be a great democratization force in … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/nleRm9J

Apple fined $116 million over app privacy prompts

Third-party developers have to show users two prompts like this to obtain consent for app tracking. Apple has been fined more than €98 million (about $116 million) by Italy's antitrust regulator over the "excessively burdensome" privacy rules it imposes on third-party apps. The Italian Competition Authority (AGCM) says that Apple abused its dominant app store market position by burdening developers with "disproportionate" terms around data collection that exceed privacy law requirements, compared to rules for native iOS apps. The fine specifically targets the App Tracking Transparency (ATT) policy Apple launched in 2021, which requires third-party developers to ask users for consent twice to track their data across other apps and websites … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/DVPdL7j

Dometic makes a better portable water faucet

The Dometic Recon 360 Faucet pumping water out of a Dometic Go Jug through a LifeStraw water filter. As a reluctant doomsday prepper and eager vanlifer , Dometic's battery-powered Go Faucet has, for the last few years, played a central role in my bougie bug-out kit and my camping rig's water system. So it took me all of two minutes with Dometic's new Recon 360 Faucet to realize it's an upgrade in every single way that matters - and then confirmed after a week of testing it. The Recon 360 Faucet lets you pump water out of a storage container like a typical faucet in places that lack traditional plumbing, be it inside a boat, cabin, or van, or at the beach, job site, or campground. A long silicone water hose attaches to the back of the faucet … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/CZoa1VU

Chipwrecked

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

Samsung ‘Wide Fold’ rumored to rival Apple’s foldable next year

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

The best books we read in 2025

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

How AIM taught the internet to chat

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

Our favorite stuff of 2025

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

You can buy your Xbox Ally an official pair of anti-drift joysticks

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

‘Friend slop’ made co-op gaming goofier than ever in 2025

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

Rivian’s AI pivot is about more than chasing Tesla

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

The sold-out Nex Playground made my kids laugh and cry

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

Semi-solid state MagSafe power banks arrive from the founder of Hyper

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

It’s the great AGI rebrand

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 opens iOS to third-party app stores in Japan

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 Verge’s 2025 in review

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...

In 2025, wearables made a hard pivot to AI

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