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I never knew how easy it was to die in an orgy. But that's just one of the many threats facing Geralt of Rivia in his latest adventure. The studio behind the Reigns series of Tinder-like choose-your-own-adventure games has now adapted The Witcher , following a handful of original titles and a take on Game of Thrones . And for Francois Alliot, creative director at Reigns studio Nerial, the series' structure actually makes it an ideal way to ease players into sprawling fantasies like this. "There's something about the way you can bring really complex universes, lore, and storylines to simple actions," he says. "It can work in a lot of contexts." … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/lxP95Rf

Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 117, your guide to the best and Verge -iest stuff in the world. (If you're new here, welcome, please send Android tips, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage .) This week, I've been reading about Eileen Gu and Ozempic and fancy grocery stores , trying out the beautiful Shiori bookmarking app, trying to temper my expectations for the Scrubs reboot, continuing my test of the Pixel 10 Pro , building my dream to-do list app with Claude Code (it's almost done!), enjoying the beginnings of The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins , recording the next season of Version History , watching a … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/Fc1MW3i

The Verge is heading to Barcelona, Spain, for Mobile World Congress, the biggest phone show of the year. CES may dominate the headlines when it comes to TVs, computer components, and AI inanity, but for all things mobile, MWC has it beat. Since it’s a global show, that includes all manner of announcements of phones, tablets, and wearables that won’t necessarily release in the US. Xiaomi has already teased a European launch for its 17 and 17 Ultra flagships, Honor is promising not only its Robot Phone but a full pivot to humanoid robotics , and Nothing is almost certain to drop more details on its Phone 4A ahead of a planned London launch on March 5th. The likes of Samsung and Google will be there too, but mostly to talk about the already-announced 10A and S26 models, while Apple is launching something during the same week as MWC, but not actually in Barcelona. We’ll also be looking out for oddities. Last year featured camera phone concepts with detachable lenses , a Lenov...

A Galaxy smartphone using tap-to-unlock on a keypad for a Nuki smart lock. A new smart lock standard, Aliro, is bringing this functionality to all smartphones. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge Aliro has officially arrived. The smart lock standard, first announced in 2023 , finally has a 1.0 spec , meaning companies can now get hardware certified and roll out support. Aliro is an open standard designed to let any smart lock be unlocked by any smartphone , regardless of manufacturer. It stores a digital key in your phone's wallet that you can tap to a compatible lock - just like you tap to pay. If you've used Apple's Home Key , you already understand the idea - but instead of being locked into Apple's ecosystem, Aliro is cross-platform, working on both Android and iOS, and with the major mobile wallet ecosystems - Apple, Google, and … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/I27zthk

The alerts will start rolling out to Teen accounts with parental supervision protections next week. | Image: Meta / The Verge Starting next week, Instagram will notify parents to check on their teen searching for terms related to self-harm or suicide. Meta says a similar alert system for its AI chatbots is coming later this year. The new Instagram feature sends parents an alert when their child "repeatedly tries to search for terms clearly associated with suicide or self-harm within a short period of time." It's rolling out in the US, UK, Australia, and Canada starting next week, but it's only for parents and teens who opt in to supervision . It's expected to expand to other regions later this year. "The vast majority of teens do not try to search for suicide and … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/9iTrMnl

Google is folding Alphabet's AI robotics "moonshot," Intrinsic, into the company after five years as an independent unit. The move marks a strategic shift as Google doubles down on physical AI and pulls experimental projects closer to its core business. Intrinsic " graduated " into an independent company inside Alphabet's Other Bets division in 2021, a portfolio of high-risk, speculative ventures that also includes robotaxi firm Waymo and healthcare company Verily. It pitches itself as an Android-like layer for robotics, building software and tools that make it easier to create robot applications. Details of the purchase are not clear but t … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/CeYNVsh

Amazon continues to scale back its gaming efforts, this time by ending a notable publishing deal. The Game Business reports that Amazon will no longer be the publisher of an upcoming open-world racing title from Maverick Games, a new studio made up of former Forza developers. The deal was originally announced in 2024 . The news comes as Amazon continues to pull back after years of trying to break through as a gaming company . As part of its mass layoffs last year , Amazon announced that it would be getting out of MMOs and focusing primarily on party games and its Luna streaming service . So far those changes have included offloading the multipl … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/9zZ12WH

The new MagicPad 4 is a full millimeter thinner than last year’s model. | Image: Honor Honor has announced a new version of its already slim MagicPad tablet that's now even thinner. Last year's MagicPad 3 was just 5.8mm thick , but the new MagicPad 4 squeezes that down to 4.8mm. That's thinner than the 6.1mm thick iPad Air and 5.1mm iPad Pro , or the 5.1mm thick Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 , and only bested by E Ink tablets like the reMarkable 2 , at 4.7mm. The MagicPad 4 has a slightly smaller 12.3-inch screen than its 13.3-inch predecessor. But that's a minor trade-off given the new tablet now uses a 165Hz OLED display instead of LCD. Its battery is, not surprisingly, also a bit smaller at 10,100mAh, and while Honor hasn't shared ba … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/qX1MFlt

The recent blizzard gave me a touch of Shadow Moses vibes. | Photo: Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge The Asus ROG Flow Z13 was already a unique beast. It's a chunky gaming tablet with impressive AMD Strix Halo integrated graphics. I was really into it when I reviewed it around this time last year. But just look at it now, clad in the stylings of Hideo Kojima's game studio and his longtime collaborator, artist Yoji Shinkawa. This is the Asus ROG Flow Z13-KJP , a collaboration between Asus and Kojima Productions announced at CES . It's officially inspired by Kojima Productions' mascot Ludens , though it feels very Death Stranding , which makes sense, since Yoji Shinkawa designed both. Shinkawa is famed for designing legendary characters and gadg … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/7bFahcC

TORONTO, ONTARIO - NOVEMBER 01: Shohei Ohtani #17 of the Los Angeles Dodgers reacts after hitting a single against the Toronto Blue Jays during the fifth inning in game seven of the 2025 World Series at Rogers Center on November 01, 2025 in Toronto, Ontario. (Photo by Emilee Chinn/Getty Images) Major League Baseball wants more of a footprint on TikTok. Just in time for spring training, the two companies announced Tuesday they were partnering to expand baseball content on TikTok, including creating an MLB hub in the app and, of course, bringing in more influencers. Baseball is coming back after a season that was especially culturally relevant . The World Series last fall had its highest viewership in years, and an increasingly international audience tuned in to watch the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays after seven games and extra innings. There was a surge in interest on TikTok, too: The company says posts that includ … Read the full story at The Verge. from The V...

Anthropic's weekslong battle with the Department of Defense has played out over social media posts, admonishing public statements, and direct quotes from unnamed Pentagon officials to the news media. But the future of the $380 billion AI startup comes down to just three words: "any lawful use." The new terms, which OpenAI and xAI have reportedly already agreed to, would give the US military carte blanche to use services for mass surveillance and lethal autonomous weapons, AI that has full power to track and kill targets with no humans involved in the decision-making process. The negotiations have turned ugly, with Pentagon CTO Emil Michael … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/EXl4vqV

Uber is moving aggressively into robotaxis, striking deals with new partners and promising big investments to support future fleets - basically everything it can do except design and build the vehicles itself. (It tried that once, unsuccessfully.) Now, the ridehail giant is launching a new initiative to support its third-party robotaxi partners called Uber Autonomous Solutions. Basically, Uber is taking many of the things it does for its drivers and couriers - vehicle financing, fleet management tools, regulatory assistance - and making them available for its third-party AV partners, companies like Wayve , WeRide , Nuro , Waabi , and others. I … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/0YKPZRM

Image: Kristen Radtke / The Verge Last November, the House Oversight Committee had just released 20,000 pages of documents from the estate of Jeffrey Epstein, and Luke Igel and some friends were clicking around, trying to follow the threads of conversation through garbled email threads and a PDF viewer that was, frankly, "gross." In the coming months, the Department of Justice would release its own batches of files, more than three million of them - again, all PDFs. This was a problem. While the Department of Justice had run optical character recognition over the text, it was not very good, Igel said, rendering the files more or less unsearchable. "There was no interface … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/kfLKTAI

Former Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice at the State Department on September 26, 2023. | Photo: Alex Wong / Getty Images Donald Trump threatened that there would be "consequences" for Netflix if it didn't fire board member Susan Rice. Rice served in both the Obama and Biden administrations, and recently appeared on Preet Bharara's podcast , where she said corporations that "take a knee to Trump" are going to be "caught with more than their pants down. They are going to be held accountable." Right-wing influencer and conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer was quick to jump on the appearance and accused Rice of "threatening half the country with weaponized government and political retribution." She also pointed out that Netflix , whose board Rice is on, is trying to me … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/io3l2A1

The world’s first playable gaming magazine? Tetris has been immortalized in a playable McDonald's plastic chicken nugget , a playable fake 7-Eleven Slurpee cup , and a playable wristwatch . But the most intriguing way to play Tetris yet is encased in paper. Last year the Tetris Company partnered with Red Bull for a gaming tournament that culminated in the 150-meter-tall Dubai Frame landmark being turned into the world's largest playable Tetris installation using over 2,000 drones that functioned as pixels . Although the timing was a coincidence, Red Bull also published a 180-page gaming edition of its The Red Bulletin lifestyle magazine around the same time as the event, with a limite … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/vmBuTx1

Fun vibes. Okay-ish photos. | Photo: Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge There's been a surge of interest over the last few years in inexpensive digital cameras. Younger folks are snapping up old point-and-shoots because they view the aesthetic as more authentic and more appealing than smartphone images. Companies are even rereleasing old tech at new prices . And there are cameras like the original Camp Snap : a $70 single-button point-and-shoot with no screen, designed as a modern take on a disposable film camera. It's cheap enough to send off with a kid to summer camp and accessible enough for just about anyone to enjoy its lo-fi aesthetic. I've been testing two charming examples of this formula: the $99 Camp S … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/3xBetXH

Welcome to the weekend, folks! The Reviews and Guides team here at The Verge is gearing up for all things Unpacked , but Samsung isn’t the only one readying new phones. Google just announced the Pixel 10A, which, for you early adopters, is already up for preorder with a $100 gift card. Elsewhere in deal land, you’ll find steep discounts on mopping vacuums , slight discounts on Soundcore’s cheap ANC headphones , and a rare discount on a new PC controller with swiveling sticks. So, let’s get to it, shall we? We finally have a release date for the Pixel 10A : March 5th. What’s more, if you’re thinking about picking up Google’s latest phone, you can already preorder the base-model configuration at Amazon and Best Buy with 128GB of storage and a $100 gift card for $499. Alternatively, Amazon is offering it with a free pair of the Pixel Buds 2A , a fantastic set of recently released earbuds that typically retail for $130. Despite being a pretty minimal update, Google’s forthcoming...

I've always wanted to go skydiving. Aerial_Knight's DropShot , from indie developer Aerial_Knight, lets me live out that dream - at least in a safe, virtual kind of way. It also lets me shoot bullets from finger guns, wield laser skulls, and wear cool sunglasses while I'm falling through the air. So maybe it's better than the real thing. Playing as a character named Smoke Wallace, who was bitten by a dragon that gave him the finger gun that can actually shoot bullets, you plummet toward the ground and try to pick off bad guys with that finger gun or by punching them up close. It's a first-person game, and the perspective really helps sell th … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/28ywUpG

Antonio Filosa attends the presentation of the new Fiat 500 Hybrid at the Stellantis FIAT Mirafiori plant in Turin, Italy, in November of 2025. | Elisa Marchina/NurPhoto via Getty Images Demand for EVs has gone glacial, and one automaker after another is running aground: General Motors threw $7.6 billion overboard. Ford washed $19.5 billion off its books. Leave it to Stellantis to face the most titanic charge yet, a $26.5 billion bill for its own misplaced bet on EVs. The Jeep, Dodge, and Chrysler parent company hasn't said how much of that unfathomable sum is explicitly due to EV losses, as the write-down wiped away about 25 percent of the company's stock value overnight. Every automaker faces the same cooling EV demand and whipsawing political climate, yet Stellantis appears the most exposed, due in part to longstanding … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/fcoykjV

I've written about a lot of different video game hardware over the years, from new consoles to retro gadgets to whatever you want to call the Playdate . But I can't remember ever being perpetually sore from testing a device; such are the joys of the Virtual Boy. Nintendo has turned its biggest flop into an accessory for the Switch, but the costs involved - to your wallet, eyes, and neck - make it a tough sell. Much like the original, this is a novelty for Nintendo sickos only. First released in 1995, the original Virtual Boy looked like a VR headset but wasn't actually VR or a headset. Instead, the console offered stereoscopic 3D games that … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/jXzMqWK

Tesla has announced a new all-wheel drive Cybertruck that starts at $59,990, the cheapest the controversial truck has been sold for yet - though still well above the $40,000 price tag Elon Musk had initially promised. It's been joined by a $15,000 price cut for the high-end Cyberbeast variant, as Tesla doubles down on its efforts to turn slow Cybertruck sales around. The new dual motor AWD variant is available now from Tesla's site . It's cheaper than the rear-wheel drive version that was launched last year and discontinued a few short months later, but includes features not seen on that model like a powered tonneau cover, bed outlets, and a … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/yOaUu7r

Will Stancil | Photo by Jack Califano / The Verge I met Will Stancil two days before he got booted from his neighborhood Signal chat. We were at the Uptown Minneapolis VFW at an event hosted by Rep. Ilhan Omar, a thank-you party for Minnesotans who fought ICE in ways big and small. There were tacos and drinks, and dancing, though I never saw Stancil dance, which is not to say it never happened. A friend of mine who knows of Stancil from his work on school desegregation was surprised I knew who he was. She had no idea he was a combative, divisive online personality. She didn't know about his arguments with leftists on Bluesky or his fights with white supremacists on X, or about the fact that … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/7XGusTj

Snapseed’s new camera includes pro controls, preset film effects, and a range of color themes for the UI. | Screenshots: Snapseed Google has updated the iPhone version of its photo editing app Snapseed with its own camera, including a suite of manual controls and retro film emulation effects. It's the second major update to the app in less than 12 months, after it had previously been left to languish by Google for years. The Snapseed camera defaults to an automatic mode, but also includes optional controls for ISO, shutter speed, and focus, along with flash and zoom. It allows you to shoot using saved looks and edit stacks from the app, which can be altered after the shot is taken, along with a range of preset film effects inspired by specific films from Kodak, Fujifi … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/rVlMk8G

Maybe you've heard: Memory is expensive now. The price of RAM has tripled, quadrupled, even sextupled depending on the type of chip , all because AI companies are gobbling it up. But maybe you've thought: I don't buy memory sticks! I don't build my own PCs! It won't affect me, right? I'm here to tell you RAM is coming for your wallet anyhow. Do you have a phone in your pocket you'd like to upgrade in the next few years? Fancy a game console or handheld? A laptop, perhaps? Will you need a new router, whether you're purchasing outright or renting from your ISP? Each of these devices is expected to have shortages, price hikes, or both in 2 … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/dKM5eka

Last summer, Bria Sullivan was getting ready to launch her app, an adorable companion called Focus Friend meant to help people manage their screen time. Her outlandish dream was to get 100,000 downloads. She'd been building the app with Hank Green, a creator with a huge audience, so she thought maybe, maybe, Focus Friend could be a top-10 app in the productivity category. Even that felt like a stretch, though. "Our category has ChatGPT, it has Google," she says. "I mean, productivity includes Gmail!" Sullivan initially dropped the app into the iOS App Store without really telling anyone. But in August, thanks to a lot of promotion from Gr … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/dah1ty5

Google's midrange Pixels have been our top pick for budget Android phones for a while. They offer good cameras and most of what you need at a budget-friendly price. But this year's upgrade feels so minimal, I'd liken it more to a Pixel 9A+. Or a Pixel 9B. The $499 Pixel 10A is supposed to be a slightly worse Pixel 10 . But it's more like a slightly better Pixel 9A . And that's a bit of a bummer. Very few of the features that make the Pixel 10 series compelling trickled down to the 10A this year. You don't get all the good stuff that makes the Pixel 10 series more compelling. There's still last year's Tensor G4 chip and 8GB of RAM, which is … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/G5SCIWJ

Mark Zuckerberg. | Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images Lori Schott didn't care what it took to haul her way from her small town in Eastern Colorado to show up to a Los Angeles courtroom where Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is set to testify Wednesday. "I don't care if I had to hire a pack mule to get me here, I was going to be here," she told The Verge outside the courthouse Tuesday. Schott's daughter Annalee died by suicide at age 18 in 2020, after struggling with body image issues that her mother says were heightened by social media. After her death, Schott found journal entries where Annalee disparaged her own looks and compared herself to other girls' profiles. "I was so worried about what my ch … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/DIwVs5c

AI search startup Perplexity is distancing itself from ads amid fears users won't trust chatbots with an agenda to upsell. The move highlights an emerging crossroads for the AI industry as the sector's biggest players hunt for stable sources of income to bankroll massive spending, with giants like OpenAI leaning into ads and others like Anthropic promising to keep them out. Perplexity began phasing out ads late last year and isn't exploring any new ad deals at the moment, executives said on Monday at a roundtable event, according to Business Insider and the Financial Times . It is a noteworthy U-turn for the US startup, which became one of … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/xUeZKXy

Tesla is no longer using the term "Autopilot" to describe the self-driving capabilities of its vehicles in California, avoiding a 30-day sales suspension in the state. The California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) announced that Tesla has taken corrective action after finding in December that the EV manufacturer's marketing was violating state law and misleading customers into thinking its cars would drive autonomously. The DMV's complaint is connected to written marketing materials for Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS) features that Tesla started publishing in May 2021, which later led to the EV maker appending "(Supervised)" … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/Pq8Lc2f

After rejecting Paramount's latest acquisition bid, Warner Bros. Discovery says it's giving the David Ellison-led entertainment giant seven days to make its "best and final" proposal. Though WBD is reopening negotiations with Paramount, the company makes it clear in a press release that it still favors Netflix's $82.7 billion deal to purchase its studio and streaming service. As noted in the press release, a Paramount representative told WBD that it would agree to pay $31 per share if WBD reopens negotiations, adding that this isn't Paramount's "best and final proposal." Paramount has been upping its bid to purchase the entirety of WBD for … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/50cxC6S

From Bell Labs to Macs, Laurie Spiegel has pushed musical boundaries. | Image: Irina Prosser / Eventide In 1986, electronic music pioneer Laurie Spiegel created Music Mouse , a way for those with a Mac, Atari, or Amiga computer to dabble in algorithmic music creation. Music Mouse is deceptively simple: Notes are arranged on an XY grid, and you play it by moving a mouse around. Back in 1986, the computer mouse was still a relatively novel device. While it can trace its origins back to the late '60s, it wasn't until the Macintosh 128K in 1984 that it started seeing widespread adoption. By then Spiegel, was already an accomplished composer. Her 1980 album The Expanding Universe is generally considered among the greatest ambient records of all tim … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/hIB7zo1

Name a more iconic duo. The first rule of Purse Computer is to check your bag before you leave the house. A few days ago, I took a 15 minute walk to a nearby coffee shop thinking I had my new folding keyboard in my bag - the key ingredient that would turn the Galaxy Z Fold 7 into a mobile workstation. I spent the whole trip congratulating myself on how light it felt compared to carrying my MacBook. "It's almost like it's not there," I thought. This was because it wasn't there, which I discovered only once I was at my destination. I tapped out a few emails with my thumbs, drank a latte, and walked back home in shame. After using every major phone of 2025 in su … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/zgTlUyp

Even if the AI wasn’t being disclosed, its usage in these videos isn’t exactly subtle. | Image: Samsung / The Verge After cramming AI into every inch of its smartphones, appliances, and other devices, Samsung is now increasingly slapping it across social media. Several videos posted to the company's YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok accounts in recent weeks were made or edited using generative AI tools, including its latest teaser for the upcoming Galaxy S26 series. The " Brighten your after hours " video features two people skateboarding at night, and supposedly shows off the low-light video capabilities of the upcoming Galaxy S26 devices. Fine print appears at the bottom of the screen towards the end of the video, flagging that it was "generated with the as … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/FbMpGUv

It may take Sony another three years to give the PS5 (pictured) a successor. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Sony and Nintendo are reportedly feeling squeezed by RAM shortages as demand from AI data centers takes up an increasing share of memory chip production. In response to rising costs and dwindling chip supplies, Sony is considering pushing back the release of its next PlayStation console "to 2028 or even 2029," according to industry sources cited by Bloomberg , while Nintendo may increase the $450 price of its Switch 2 console this year. That delay would be a considerable divergence from Sony's usual release schedule, having launched a new console generation every six to seven years since the original PlayStation debuted in 1994. As the curre … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/V0CD3aI

Last year’s Galaxy S25 Ultra. | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge Samsung has released a new advertisement for its upcoming Galaxy S26 launch that all-but confirms rumors of a new display with a built-in privacy mode. Leaked videos show that the feature could be capable of entirely blacking out content from specific apps or parts of the display when viewed at an angle. The new advert shows a woman reading a racy romance novel on a subway, while curious passengers look over her shoulder. An overlay shows a quick flick of a "Zero-peeking privacy" toggle, which blacks out the titillating content for the nosy onlookers. That might sound similar to existing privacy filters, which have been available as after … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/kGJn0hj

Two hours before one of the most important live events in Netflix's history, LA's sprawling CBS Radford Studio Center is abuzz with the strangest combination of things. As I walk through one cavernous soundstage on a Tuesday afternoon, I hear multiple people warming up their voices to sing. I pass a man carefully waving a hair dryer in front of a piano. Outside, a man and a woman, both in scant black leather, walk past with a wave. I'm told they're aerialists. Somewhere in this enormous rehearsal space, there's also a 74-year-old budding standup comedian, an 11-year-old gospel singer, and a dancing border collie. Such is the wondrous, bizar … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/6dsQFRa

The first-gen AirTag remains a good tracker, though remember you’ll need to buy a separate accessory to attach it to your belongings. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge With Apple’s second-gen AirTags now widely available, we’re already seeing inventory of the first-gen model begin to dwindle. Case in point? Amazon is no longer selling a single AirTag, and it’s unclear when — or if — the retailer will restock the first-gen model. Thankfully, you can still grab a four-pack of the first-gen location trackers for around $64 ($35 off) at Amazon , Walmart , and Best Buy for Presidents Day, which is $2 shy of the bundle’s best price to date. If you just want one, you can also buy a single tracker at Walmart for $17 ($12 off). Apple AirTag (first-gen) Where to Buy: $99 $64 at Amazon (four-pack) $99 $64 at Walmart (four-pack) $99 $64.99 at Best Buy (four-pack) If you’re an iPhone owner, you’d be hard-pressed to find another tracker that’s as precise or as helpful as Apple...

This is The Stepback , a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more news about video game industry's pushback against generative AI, follow Jay Peters . The Stepback arrives in our subscribers' inboxes at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepback here . How it started Long before the generative AI explosion, video game developers made games that could generate their own worlds. Think of titles like Minecraft or even the original 1980 Rogue that is the basis for the term "roguelike"; these games and many others create worlds on the fly with certain rules and parameters. Human developers painstakingly work to make s … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/NS6ZjJ4

Monday, February 16th, is Presidents Day, and there are plenty of good deals happening on tech in the run-up to the holiday. Even if you don’t snag any huge upgrades, though, you likely already own multiple gadgets that you need to recharge each and every day. It would sure be nice to be able to charge two devices at once, and you can do just that with Anker’s braided, two-headed USB-C cable — which is available from Amazon or Anker in black or white for $15.99 ($4 off). Anker 2-in-1 USB C to USB C Cable 140W (six-foot) Where to Buy: $19.99 $15.99 at Amazon (black) $19.99 $15.99 at Amazon (white) $19.99 $15.99 at Anker (with code WS7DV2LASIFH) The six-foot cable’s usefulness speaks for itself, but I’ve been surprised by how much of a game-changer it’s been for me at home. My wife and I stow our laptops and iPad Air near an outlet, and it’s nice not to have to argue over who gets to charge their gadget first. We can plug the two ends of the cable into the devices we d...

The most striking thing about Ring's statement that it had parted ways with Flock Safety is what the home security company didn't say. There was no mention of the public backlash around ties to ICE , or any promise to address users' concerns about the company's relationships with law enforcement . In an increasingly authoritarian political climate, the threat of mass surveillance fueled by AI-powered cameras is what many people fear. Yet Ring's statement made no attempt to address this. Instead, the company claims it canceled Flock's integration with its Community Requests tool because it would "require significantly more time and resources t … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/aGOzJ75

The OPT100 camera comes in three retro designs. | Image: Kakaku Following the popularity of the Kodak Charmera , it was inevitable that other retro-inspired digital toy cameras would start popping up. While the Charmera's design was inspired by the '80s single-use Kodak Fling camera, the OPT100 Neo Film crams a basic digital camera into a 35mm film roll that comes inside a plastic canister and a small box with a matching aesthetic. Priced at 5,940 yen, or just shy of $40, the OPT100 is currently only available in Japan. If you can't resist cute digital cameras with terrible specs, you can find them on eBay for a significant markup, but Amazon Japan also appears to stock them. The OPT100's 1-megapixel sen … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/DKbPpV5

Nice laptop. It’d be a shame if someone were to, say, lock you into some convoluted terms and conditions for it. | Photo: Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge There's been some hullabaloo over HP's laptop subscription service, recently brought to light by a Linus Tech Tips video . And for good reason: it feels like everything is a subscription these days . But it's not just the dystopian feeling that companies are happy to sell you access to movies, music, games, phones, printers , and now even laptops without you actually owning them. HP's subscriptions for its consumer and gaming laptop lines are just a bad deal. HP offers subscriptions for four productivity laptops and four gaming laptops, starting at $34.99 per month and $49.99 per month, respectively. There's no starting fee or down payment, ju … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/ECX804z

Amazon's rolling out a new "Send to Alexa Plus" feature to the latest Kindle Scribe and Kindle Scribe Colorsoft owners starting February 12. The feature lets you send your notes or documents to Amazon's AI-powered Alexa Plus assistant, which can then summarize them, turn them into to-do lists, calendar events, or reminders, as well as help brainstorm, and offer project guidance. I spent about a day or so testing it primarily to help with caregiving tasks, and it was mostly helpful despite some limitations. It works best when asked to digest information into something actionable. It accurately summarized my handwritten notes and PDF document … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/r8YIV71