Latest Technology

Meteor caught by the GOES-19 weather satellite breaking up 40 miles above the ground. | Image: CIRA On Saturday, at around 2:06 pm ET, a meteor streaked over the northeastern US and exploded north of Cape Cod Bay. The fireball was caught on camera by several people , shook houses, and can even be seen clearly in satellite imagery , lighting up the sky. View this post on Instagram Some residents initially thought that the shaking and boom may have been an earthquake, but the United States Geological Survey (USGS) denied that , saying that it was a "widely felt sonic boom from a suspected bolide." In a statement posted on X, NASA described the event as a "bright fireball… accompanied by a loud noise." The meteor was t … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/lbKhR0c

The crypto weed vape found me on 4/20, the high holiday of cannabis enthusiasts everywhere. It arrived over Slack with the thumbnail of a man exhaling a plume of vapor, the words "every hit delivers Bitcoin" emblazoned across it. It claimed to be advertising a device called Gudtrip, and I thought everything about it sounded fake. So I went looking for it. What I eventually found, after weeks of searching, dozens of emails, and a reporting effort that spanned continents, was somehow even dumber than I'd imagined. My first port of call was Gudtrip's website , which only made the vape seem more like a prank. The company's description of the pr … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/LVT1bGn

This is The Stepback , a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more news about gadgets and smartphones, follow Dominic Preston . The Stepback arrives in our subscribers' inboxes at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepback here . How it started In 2023, the European Union agreed on two landmark pieces of legislation mandating how portable tech products with batteries must be designed, aiming to improve longevity, repairability, and recyclability. Commission Regulation (EU) 2023/1670 came into force last year and applies specifically to smartphones and tablets, while Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 takes effect next year … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/q4HCg1l

Despite headwinds from the current administration, automakers continue to release well-equipped EVs with bigger battery packs and increasingly faster charging speeds. For those who want to travel further between plugging in, the future is still bright, just slightly tinted. But there haven't been many sedans starting around or below $50,000, as crossover SUVs have largely taken up this territory. Now, Mercedes-Benz has released its CLA compact sedan which ticks every box above for the 2026 and 2027 model year, and throws in pleasant interior amenities and fun driving character for good measure. What's inside The CLA w … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/17EwNhY

Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 130, your guide to the best and Verge -iest stuff in the world. (If you're new here, welcome, don't forget to hydrate, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage .) This week, I've been reading about Victor Wembanyama and mahjong and Merlin Mann's pearls of wisdom , watching more of the Scripps National Spelling Bee finals than I expected, watching way too many videos about lighting a home studio, spending too many hours tweaking the settings in Vivaldi , belatedly cleaning up my Google Photos library, and finally - finally - getting my home office organized. Ish. I also have for … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/jqre83i

AI training startup Shift wants to clean your home for free. The catch - because, despite what its website says, there's always a catch - is that it will record cleaners as they scrub, vacuum, dust, tidy, and wash, and use that footage to train robots. Shift announced the unusual offer on social media on Thursday, explaining that the value of the training data generated from the cleanings is more than enough to fund the service. As its website puts it: "You get a spotless apartment. We get training data. Everyone wins." A promotional video shows a cleaner in a crisp white uniform and awkward-looking hat (more on that later) washing windows … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/DjMdz2G

It may only be available in this “Void Purple” color option. | Image: MSI MSI has unveiled a new Claw 8 handheld gaming PC ahead of the Computex 2026 show, and this model swaps out its predecessors' Intel Lunar Lake mobile chip for a specialized handheld processor. MSI describes the Claw 8 EX AI Plus as being the "world's first" handheld to contain the recently announced Intel Arc G3 Extreme processor , which features an array of Xe3 GPU cores to run games. We should note that the Acer Predator Atlas 8 and OneXPlayer 3 gaming handhelds are also expected to launch with these chips, but MSI may be the first out of the gate. The Claw 8 EX AI Plus also has a single NVME M.2 SSD slot for gaming and data storage, and su … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/JscM9NI

It explained the process of how it made these edits beautifully, I’m just not terribly impressed by the results. | Images by Jess Weatherbed / The Verge AI image tools rarely make me feel like I'm part of the creative process. They are, after all, mostly designed so that people with no design experience can type in a few words and get back a usable result. So I was pleasantly surprised by Adobe's latest take on an AI image assistant: it's a bot designed to take away some busywork, while still granting you creative control. Unlike AI generators that are specifically designed to make and edit images or video, Adobe's Firefly AI Assistant , which I've been testing in beta, is more like a multitasking middleman that can operate Adobe's design apps for you. On its website, Adobe says that you can … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/scW4Oyf

Temu has been fined €200 million (about $232 million) by the European Commission after it found that consumers are "very likely to encounter illegal items" on the popular Chinese e-commerce platform. According to the commission, Temu breached Digital Service Act (DSA) rules by failing to identify and assess the systemic risks of illegal products being offered on its platform and the resulting harmful impact on its customers. The EU launched its formal DSA investigation against Temu in October 2024, and issued a preliminary ruling in July 2025 that found Temu isn't doing enough to keep illegal products off its ultra-cheap marketplace. As par … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/hXUKukb

Your security cameras will watch for specific events and then trigger whatever actions you need automatically. | Image: Google Google Home is rolling out a new Gemini-powered automation feature that can trigger smart home routines based on what your security cameras can see . This is one of several updates announced yesterday for Gemini for Home, including enhanced voice command support and general stability improvements, following its early access launch in October. "We are introducing a brand-new starter that lets you design automations based on visual insights," Google said in its announcement. "Because your cameras can now actually understand what they see, your smart home can automatically react to almost anything happening around your home." The feature is cu … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/PTRtsM2

On Monday, Pope Leo XIV unveiled an encyclical letter addressing the societal implications of artificial intelligence. The letter, titled Magnifica Humanitas, warned that the "use of AI is never a purely technical matter: when it enters processes that affect people's lives, it touches on rights, opportunities, status and freedom." Alongside him was Anthropic cofounder and interpretability team lead Christopher Olah, representing a partnership between the Catholic Church and one of the biggest players in AI. The letter elicited a wide range of reactions from in and around the tech industry. Nearly everyone believed the document would be infl … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/8ManBDF

Would you listen to magazine articles on Spotify? The streaming platform certainly hopes so, as it's launching a new format for narrated long-form articles , alongside its usual array of music, podcasts, and audiobooks. Starting today, more than 650 articles from publications including Rolling Stone , The Atlantic , Vogue , Variety , Billboard , Vibe , GQ , Wired , Vanity Fair , and Pitchfork will be available in English in regions where Spotify's audiobooks are available. The narrated articles are all under two hours long, and available under the monthly audiobook allowance for Premium users. Spotify says that free users who don't pay for a subscrip … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/3YbtLkM

Uber president Andrew Macdonald (pictured) says its “hard to draw a line” between AI spending and deliverable features. | Photo: Zed Jameson/ Bloomberg via Getty Images After reportedly exhausting its annual AI budget just four months into 2026, Uber is now questioning whether it's actually seeing meaningful returns on its investments. In an interview with Rapid Response , Uber president and chief operating officer Andrew Macdonald said the company isn't seeing a connection between rising token consumption for Claude Code and more useful features being delivered to consumers. "That link is not there yet, right? I think maybe implicitly there is more that is getting shipped, but it's very hard to draw a line between one of those stats and, 'Okay, now we're actually producing 25 percent more useful consumer f … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/NZatX1i

The Ferrari Luce will start at €550,000 in Italy, but US pricing hasn’t been announced. | Image: Ferrari After months of teasers , Ferrari is offering the first full view of its Luce electric vehicle . The Luce is notable not just for being Ferrari's first EV, but for being designed in collaboration with Jony Ive and Mark Newson at their collective LoveFrom. It's also going to be Ferrari's second four-door car and its first five-seat one. We already knew Ive and Newson were working on the Luce's interiors, which were shown off earlier this year. Now Ferrari says LoveFrom was allowed to "define the design direction of the project from the outset," inside and out. Tim Stevens reporting for Engadget offers a few firsthand impression … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/nawiq2l

An exceptionally weird controversy has come back to haunt Cox Media and a pair of marketing firms, which claimed they were secretly listening to users via phones and smart devices - despite little evidence they actually could. On Thursday the Federal Trade Commission announced that Cox, MindSift, and 1010 Digital Works would pay a total of $930,000 to settle allegations that they were in fact lying about spying on people to target ads. As chronicled by Techdirt a couple of years ago, Cox publicly boasted about a system called Voice Data back in 2023, telling potential digital marketing clients they could ensure "every casual conversation be … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/4VuhqSm

REI’s annual Anniversary Sale — the retailer’s biggest of the year — is still going strong , letting you save on all kinds of outdoor essentials. If you’ve got a camping trip coming up, now is a good time to stock up on the basics, whether it be a tent , sleeping pad , or stove . If your summer plans involve hiking or heading into the backcountry, there are also savings to be had on everything from Garmin watches to water filters , some of which are also discounted at retailers like Amazon. The sale runs through the end of today, May 25th, and to save you time scrolling, we’ve rounded up the best deals you can still grab below. Additionally, as in previous years, REI members ge t 20 percent off one full-price item or one REI Outlet item with code  ANNIV26 , giving those who pay for a lifetime membership ($30) even more ways to save through the end of Memorial Day. Smartwatches and fitness trackers Garmin Fenix 8 The Garmin Fenix 8 is a pr...

Pope Leo XIV attends the presentation of his first Encyclical Letter "Magnifica humanitas" on May 25, 2026 in Vatican City, Vatican. | Getty Images Pope Leo XIV warned of the risks of AI and unconstrained technological power in his first major papal document released on Monday. Magnifica Humanitas is the pope's manifesto on "safeguarding the human person in the time of artificial intelligence," in which he discusses the dangers of AI-powered warfare, the effects of AI on labor, and the need for new legal and ethical frameworks to govern technology. In his papal encyclical - a kind of open letter from the Catholic Church - Pope Leo stressed the economic and social upheaval that rapid AI adoption is creating, with inadequate protections for individuals that threaten human dignity. He com … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/Va5Q2An

If you’re looking for a laptop that’ll still perform well several years from now, Apple’s latest MacBook Air is hard to beat. Now, in particular, is a good time to pick one up, as you can currently buy the 13-inch MacBook Air at Amazon in the run-up to Memorial Day with an M5 chip, 16GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD for $899.99 ($200 off), which is a new low price. The 15-inch model, meanwhile, is also on sale at Amazon for $1,099.99 ($200 off) in select colors, or at Best Buy for $1,149. Apple 13-inch MacBook Air (M5) Where to Buy: $1099 $899.99 at Amazon $1099 $949 at Best Buy Apple MacBook Air 15 (M5) Where to Buy: $1299 $1099.99 at Amazon $1299 $1149 at Best Buy Unless you need a laptop for intensive gaming or demanding workloads like 3D modeling, the M5 Air is the laptop we recommend to most people. Apple’s latest model is faster and better at handling everyday workloads than the new MacBook Neo , whether that means juggling dozens of t...