Latest Technology

According to a Wall Street Journal investigation, Polymarket has been paying people to film themselves placing fake bets and celebrating fake wins on social media. WSJ identified over 1,100 deceptive clips and talked to creators who, despite not stating as such in their videos, confirmed the company paid them to create the clips . The videos posted on social media look legit at first, but there are subtle clues that betray them as fraudulent. For instance, when examined closely, one clip shows someone visiting "poiymarket.com" rather than polymarket.com. According to the Journal's investigation, none of the bets placed in the over 1,100 vide … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/2qgREdB

Joby flight at JFK airport. | Image: The Verge This is The Stepback , a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more on aviation, air taxis, and Wi-Fi speeds at 30,000 feet, follow Andrew J. Hawkins . The Stepback arrives in our subscribers' inboxes on Sunday at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepback here . How it started Last year, two of the leading air taxi companies in the US, Joby Aviation and Archer Aviation, sued each other , with Joby accusing Archer of corporate espionage and Archer claiming that Joby was concealing its ties to China. Then, in February of this year, Archer filed a patent infringement suit against a different air taxi rival, Vertical A … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/wno5T6g

The 1 VIII doesn’t look much like any Xperia that’s come before. The Xperia 1 VIII marks an attempt at a step change for Sony's flagship phone line. Not only has it had an aesthetic overhaul, but Sony has also revamped the camera system, dropping the continuous optical zoom telephoto that's defined the last four generations of Xperia phone . It's not all different. Sony staples like a 3.5mm headphone jack and microSD card slot remain, and a few specific design touches, like a thick front bezel that fits stereo speakers, have stayed intact. Sony's ambitious pricing hasn't changed either: The Xperia 1 VIII isn't launching in the US, but in the UK and Europe, it starts from £1,399 / €1,499 (about $1,850), r … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/iVRZum0

Atlantic reporter Alex Reisner recently uncovered four datasets of music being used to train AI models and made them fully searchable for the public. Two of the sets are absolutely enormous at 12 million and 9 million tracks. The other two are much smaller, but still represent a significant amount of training data at over 100,000 songs each. According to Reisner, the sets have been downloaded thousands of times and, while it's impossible to know exactly who has used them, Google and Stability have both confirmed they have in research papers. Some of the sources, like the Free Music Archive dataset, are free to stream for personal use but re … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/r0TL4FJ

Indulging in the “Dark Souls of synthesis.” | Image: Aleksander Stojanov / Hainbach Stefan Paul Goetsch, better known as Hainbach, is a German experimental composer, artist, and YouTuber who is perhaps most famous for making music with laboratory equipment and scientific instruments. He describes it as being like the " Dark Souls of synthesis ." Despite using "hard mode" production techniques that often rely on telephone line testing equipment and gear salvaged from nuclear testing facilities, Hainbach is also incredibly prolific , releasing six albums in 2025 alone, along with a handful of singles and EPs. His latest, Gentle Hum , is a collaboration with Ah! Kosmos (Turkish composer, Başak Günak). The album is a melancholic co … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/qfrnw73

From its opening minutes, Moves of the Diamond Hand is upfront about what it offers: You're going to have a lot of strange conversations, and you're going to roll a lot of dice. Get on board with this proposition, and the reward is one of the most creative roleplaying games I've seen in years, even if its many mysteries won't be resolved until 2027. Moves of the Diamond Hand is an Early Access videogame available on PC, macOS, and steamOS (including the Steam Deck, where I played it) from musician and game designer Cosmo D. The game looks and feels like a 2000s-era first-person RPG or immersive sim: environments are grimy, stark, and blocky … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/JEy0ljh

Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 133, your guide to the best and Verge -iest stuff in the world. (If you're new here, welcome, happy belated Juneteenth, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage .) This week, I've been reading about Sam Bankman-Fried and PE Guy and admin nights (which we should totally all do together one of these days), listening to Paul McCartney on Song Exploder , trudging through the bugs of the iOS 27 beta in order to use the good new Siri, once again trying and failing to switch to YouTube Music , free trial-hopping my way through the World Cup, finally upgrading my camera setup with the E … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/Zb7Eq5m

You need a quarter teaspoon for your face alone, a half teaspoon if you include the neck (which you should!) This is Optimizer , a weekly newsletter sent from Verge senior reviewer Victoria Song that dissects and discusses the latest gizmos and potions that swear they're going to change your life. Opt in for Optimizer here . On TikTok, the tanned youths are explaining why they no longer wear sunscreen. In one video, a young man films himself in the ocean while describing how you can naturally build up a "solar callus" or sun tolerance to getting burned. ( You can't .) In another, a young woman confidently states that eating healthy foods full of polyphenols and other antioxidants will help make your body more resilient to sunburn. (Antioxidants help w … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/mjOLsxQ

Where's the Trump phone? We're going to keep talking about it every week . We don't have the phones we preordered yet, but this week we received unexpected news from Trump Mobile's media relations manager. If you've been following my reporting on the Trump phone, you'll know that Trump Mobile doesn't exactly keep open lines of communication with the media. That doesn't look to be changing, with the company no longer working with its long-term media relations firm. Poplar Group has represented Trump Mobile since at least last June, when the company's founding partner Chris Walker gave a statement to USA Today , insisting at the time that "T1 … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/FPWxfDd

The Strato E player (here with a Mini Terra Prime server on top of it) is smaller than a Blu-ray disc collection, but you can get a lot of 4K discs for $3,000. We've lost something in the past 15 years. Netflix, Amazon, Disney, Apple; they've all convinced us that streaming is the best way to watch movies and shows at home. With everything at our fingertips, there's no need to run to Blockbuster for the weekend's entertainment, or wait for a DVD rental to arrive in the mail. And going to the movie theater is a luxury - one that keeps getting more expensive. But we were, all of us, deceived. We traded quality for convenience. And while TVs have improved drastically , we feed them inadequate, bitrate-starved, internet-throttled streams that won't let our fancy screens show their full potential. Blu-r … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/124Cref

Give your characters, objects, and backgrounds a name to easily replicate them without changing the design. | Image: Adobe Adobe is introducing some new capabilities for its Firefly AI assistant, alongside a "reimagined" AI studio that lets you edit and generate new designs from a single interface. The new Firefly experience launching today in private beta is designed to give you "persistent context, reusable assets, and organized workflows" across your projects, according to Adobe, making it easier to go from ideation to production-ready designs without switching between apps. This is the latest of several design overhauls to Adobe's all-in-one Firefly AI hub since it was first launched in September 2023. In addition to the UI updates, the new Firefly AI studi … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/6t0Z3Bf

These keyboards stand alone. Complex. | Photo: Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge Anime collaborations are everywhere, from Gundam watches and Naruto nights at Major League ballparks to just about anything Evangelion . But these Ghost in the Shell keyboards from Iqunix are some of the coolest examples I've seen of anime-inspired everyday tech. They look sick and they type and play great. At $249 they're a hefty upcharge over the regular $169 version, but that's still a decent price for such excellent build quality and unique designs. The standard Iqunix EV63 that the Ghost in the Shell Edition is based on is a 65-percent Hall effect keyboard aimed at gamers. It's got a compact layout, an 8,000Hz polling rate, and ultra-se … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/nzgkcK9

Let's be real: There's no shortage of Zelda -style games to play right now. That's true even if you've exhausted all there is to see in Tears of the Kingdom or Echoes of Wisdom . Indie developers keep finding new ways to refresh the formula, whether it's fusing it with a Soulslike , making it cozier , or simply shrinking it down into something more manageable. Now we have Square Enix and The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales , a curiously named RPG that mixes the classic Zelda structure with something that resembles Final Fantasy . And it's a combination I can't seem to get enough of. The Adventures of Elliot is the latest in Square Enix … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/U7z2Sar

I'll admit it. I was wrong . Wildly colorful lighting is delightful for your smart home - well, outdoors, at least. Smart lighting is one of my favorite features of the smart home - it combines convenience with ambiance, letting you change the entire look of your room with just a press of a button. But, other than the occasional pop of color , mostly in my kids' rooms and outdoors around the holidays, I've never found much use for color-changing lights. I prefer the subtler effects of tunable white light combined with dimming to set the scene indoors, and that preference also extended to outdoor lighting. Until this summer. With an influx o … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/4HjnVZz

The next humanoid robot might not have a head. It might not have legs. It might even sit on a wheeled base and fold down like a deck chair. But, as Genesis AI puts it , "humanoid robots don't need to look human." That explains the look of Eno, the new robot from the French startup backed by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt. Genesis says Eno is designed "around human capability" rather than human appearance and is intended as a fully "general-purpose" robot rather than a machine built around a single task, like folding laundry . One part is still very human though: its hands, which the company says are designed to "exactly match the form and fu … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/QNzmnU8

Threads has surpassed 500 million monthly active users, Meta announced on Tuesday , hitting the milestone just shy of the platform's third birthday . Threads got off to a hot start in 2023, reaching 100 million users even faster than ChatGPT, and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said that he thinks Threads could hit 1 billion users. Meta says that daily active users on Threads continue to "increase strongly across the globe," with "all" of it driven by communities, which allow users to see and make posts about different topics . The company is bringing them out of beta and adding features like a communities hub in the Threads menu and giving communitie … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/OMxeC05

On Friday Google announced it was making a relatively unknown feature of Google Earth available to a wider audience. The desktop version of Google Earth has had a hidden flight simulator mode since 2007, but it's now easily accessible through a web browser without having to download or install any apps. To take to the virtual skies you'll need to open the Google Earth website and then click on the "Explore Earth" button found near the top right corner of the page. From there you'll find the "Flight Simulator" mode accessible as the last option in the Tool's section of the site's top menu bar. For the best experience you'll first want to fin … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/HL0Gzwc

Fox has announced that it's acquiring Roku outright, in a deal that values the streaming company at $22 billion. The deal will see Fox's TV networks and Tubi streamer combine with Roku's network of streaming devices, smart TV software, and The Roku Channel. The companies say in a press release that by combining they'll become the third-largest player in the US TV industry by viewing share. It doesn't sound like the plan is to build Roku and Fox into a walled ecosystem. Roku founder and CEO Anthony Wood, who will stay on in the company and join Fox's board of directors, said in an investor call that Roku "will continue to operate as an open … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/gyPJj6N

The crease isn’t quite invisible, but otherwise this feels like the complete foldable package — on the hardware side at least. On paper, the Honor Magic V6 sounds like a tremendous leap forward for foldable phones: It's the thinnest one yet, with the biggest battery, and the best water-resistance ever. In practice, only the bigger battery feels like a meaningful improvement. The other upgrades are only fractionally superior to what came before. This isn't entirely Honor's fault. It's getting harder to make a foldable phone stand out; even last year's offerings felt like complete flagship phones. Huawei's Pura X Max stood out for its odd new aspect ratio, which we're expecting to see both Samsung and Apple replicate later this year. Then there are the trifolds , whic … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/8qHpN2I

GUADALAJARA, MEXICO - JUNE 11: In-Beom Hwang #6 of Korea Republic scores his team's first goal past Matej Kovar #1 of Czechia during the FIFA World Cup 2026 Group A match between Korea Republic and Czechia at Guadalajara Stadium on June 11, 2026 in Guadalajara, Mexico. (Photo by Lars Baron/Getty Images) | Getty Images Hoping to catch some World Cup matches while spending as little money as possible? You have a few options for finding a few days of free streaming, although you may choose to eventually pony up some money. That, or get creative by combining multiple offers to make it through the whole tournament. We found a handful of streaming services that are showing all of the World Cup matches. Most of these free trials require you to be a new subscriber, though you might just be able to use a different email address than before. FuboTV All FuboTV plans can stream every World Cup match, and each includes a five-day free trial for new members....

You don't really ever have to explain why a universal remote is a good idea. You have a bunch of stuff that needs controlling; this thing controls them all. Many companies have set out to build a product worthy of this idea, and one product came much closer than most. It was called the Harmony, and for many years it was the best universal remote on the market. Maybe the only one that mattered. And still, even the Harmony couldn't make it work. On this episode of Version History , we tell the story of the Harmony. The Verge 's David Pierce, Nilay Patel, and John Higgins are joined by Matt Rogers , the CEO of Mill and former co-founder of Nest, … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/iw6EL1z

This is The Stepback , a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more on e-bikes, power stations, and how to work anywhere , follow Thomas Ricker . The Stepback arrives in our subscribers' inboxes at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepback here . How it started Lithium-ion batteries are everywhere as we enter the second quarter of the 21st century, and that's a problem. From exploding e-bikes in stairwells to lithium-ion power banks combusting midflight , the volatile nature of traditional liquid electrolytes has become an undeniable public safety hazard. In 2025, the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) i … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/1Ql52zo

Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 132, your guide to the best and Verge -iest stuff in the world. (If you're new here, welcome, happy soccer, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage .) This week, I've been preparing for a month of getting absolutely nothing done during the World Cup. I've also been reading about Steven Spielberg and wearables and the Boeing 747 , overloading on computer nostalgia thanks to The Virtual OS Museum , watching that Knicks game winner over and over and over, listening to the fabulous new This Was SportsCenter podcast and the fabulous old The Renner Files podcast, and trying to tame my … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/bO8Rlsf

Concept art from Dear Upstairs Neighbors that used to train custom builds of Google’s Veo and Imagen models. | Image: Google DeepMind For all the noise that's been made about how generative AI is poised to revolutionize the filmmaking industry, there haven't really been any projects created with the technology that felt like the sort of entertainment people would pay to see. Most AI firms' video models are still only capable of churning out short bursts of visually inconsistent footage . And some of Hollywood's biggest AI partnerships have suddenly evaporated in ways that make it seem like studios might not be able to rely on the new technology coming out of Silicon Valley. For the most part, short-form video slop appears to be the only thing that major production houses ar … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/qXI4nEY

The sun is out, the sky is clear. It’s time to get outside and disconnect — from work, at least. This summer, we’re looking at all the ways to upgrade our free time indoors and out, from smart lights for the backyard to great gadgets to bring camping to ways to wind down at the local library. The Nintendo DS is still the best gaming handheld for travel This portable light is great for way more than camping So you want to buy a gaming handheld PC I went to the woods to drink surprisingly great espresso The library rules (and so do library streaming services) from The Verge https://ift.tt/bsmNI0G

It's intended for camping, but BougeRV's T1 light is so versatile that it also makes for a great summer travel companion that'll continue to light the dark corners of your life long after you return. I used it for a few months during a recent road trip in my camper van, and it's the light I keep reaching for again and again now that I'm home. The telescoping light features three articulating LED arms that together direct up to 3,000 lumens of white, warm, or red light in any direction you want. It can illuminate an area over 1,000 square feet and function as a flashlight, a mood light, and a 57Wh USB-C power bank that can deliver up to 30W … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/N6odRkP

Anthropic has apologized for stealthily throttling its new AI model, Claude Fable 5 , with hidden guardrails that undermine both researchers and rivals using it to develop competing systems. The company says it is reversing course and will be more transparent about when the restrictions kick in, even if that means Fable refuses more queries. Fable is the first widely available model in Anthropic's Mythos class of AI systems, a group the company has spent months warning are too dangerous for public release . Anthropic says it has addressed some of those risks by launching Fable with safeguards that prevent it from responding to certain "high-r … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/RzaMown

This is the Trump phone, but it could just as easily be an HTC. | Image: Trump Mobile After getting its hands on a Trump phone and tearing it apart, iFixit has confirmed what I first reported back in February : the T1 Phone is an almost exact duplicate of the HTC U24 Pro. iFixit partnered with NBC to get hold of the network's media sample of the Trump phone, along with a U24 Pro. They ran the phones through a CT scanner, tore them down to parts, and even put them back together into a functional Frankenstein phone with the U24 Pro's board inside the T1 Phone's chassis, confirming along the way that the two phones are functionally identical. There are minor differences: The flash has been moved slightly, the speaker grille was … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/o2XkQIn

You have to be over 18 and already be connected with the person you want to chat with on other messaging platforms. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge YouTube is reintroducing private messaging after testing new ways for users to share videos and "have conversations about them" last year. In an announcement on its official blog , YouTube says it's now starting to expand the in-app video sharing and messaging feature to users in the US and " other global regions " who are 18 or older. The video sharing platform had previously introduced private messaging in 2017, before discontinuing it just two years later to focus on public conversations like the Instagram-like Stories feature - which it also killed in 2023 . When it started testing its latest in-app messaging capabilities in November 2025 , … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/awszhU6

The Luna Ultra could be an excellent option for creators working without a dedicated camera operator. | Image: Insta360 Following months of teases , leaks , a secretive debut at NAB 2026 , and an initial launch in China , Insta360 finally announced global availability for its first handheld stabilized camera. The Luna Ultra features a pair of 8K cameras atop a 3-axis gimbal, offering an upgrade to DJI's Osmo Pocket 4 and Pocket 4P, which both max out at capturing 4K footage. While the latest versions of DJI's baby steadicams still aren't sold in the US, the new Luna Ultra is available starting today for $769.99 through Insta360's online store and other retailers including Amazon, B&H , and Best Buy . The Luna Ultra's primary camera features a 1-inch 8K sensor pair … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/OI8Q9bk

I listen to a lot of earbuds, but these three I actually use all the time. | Photo: John Higgins / The Verge I have been an audio reviewer for 20 years. My time as a freelance headphones panelist at Wirecutter , and the multitude of reviews I’ve written for sites like Reviewed , Digital Trends , IGN , and now The Verge , have given me the chance to listen to hundreds of earbuds. Some were truly excellent, and some were pretty hideous. Honestly, they tend to blur together as I move from new earbud to new earbud. But when something worthwhile comes around, it gets and holds my attention. These are the three sets that I reach for most often right now. Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro Score: 8 Pros Cons Incredible call quality Great ANC Useful case screen Default sound profile needs tweaking Where to Buy: $169.99 at Amazon $169.99 at Anker $169.99 at B&H Photo For ages I relied on the Apple AirPods Pro — first the Pro 2 and then the Pro 3. But the new $17...

The RAMageddon crisis has got Microsoft rethinking its Xbox console hardware business. Xbox CEO Asha Sharma and Xbox strategy chief Matthew Ball have both revealed this week that Microsoft is reevaluating plans for its next-generation Project Helix console and exploring "radically different" console business models in the meantime. "We are working very hard to rethink everything that we can about Helix, which is a console we are committed to shipping, and we are very cognizant of the ways in which we need to change as a company to make sure it is affordable, to make sure that it's flexible," said Ball in an interview with The Game Business … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/bEAt01k

Apple says its cloud processing is as private as on-device, despite expanding to run on Google’s servers. | Screenshot: Apple WWDC 2026 keynote As expected, yesterday's WWDC keynote was mostly about AI. And also as expected, Apple tried to turn its late arrival into its sales pitch: it didn't rush into AI because it was taking its time to do things right. In this case, "right" means "with more privacy than anyone else." It's a good pitch - the question will be how well it holds up. The new Apple Intelligence features and the updated Siri AI have been designed to work across iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and Vision Pro. There's a dedicated Siri AI app, with a ChatGPT-esque chatbot experience, new AI-powered camera and photo editing features, and the beginnings of an agentic exper … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/6sCFY2L

The Stockwell III is Marshall’s next product with a replaceable battery. | Image: Marshall Marshall has announced a new version of its stylish Stockwell Bluetooth speaker, putting a new focus on repairability. The Stockwell III, the brand's first update to this model since early 2019 , features a similar design to its predecessor with a large carrying handle and speakers that pump sound in all directions, not just out the front like the iconic Marshall amps that inspired it. It will be available for purchase starting on August 4th through the company's online store and Costco for $249.99. Battery life has been doubled from 20 hours to over 40 for the Stockwell III, but the speaker's overall potential life has been prolonged even f … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/I1zSoZb

Adding the new Bridge Pro breathed new life into my Hue setup. | Photo: Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge I've been a fan of Philips Hue smart lights since the early days. It's one of the few staples in my ever-changing smart home. However, when the Bridge Pro launched late last year , it wasn't immediately obvious why I should upgrade. The signature feature, MotionAware - which turns your lights into motion sensors - is neat, but I already have motion sensors. While I run two of Hue's standard bridges to accommodate all my lights and accessories, I'm not at a point where I need the Pro's higher device capacity. I like the idea of faster response times thanks to the advanced processing power, but that wasn't quite enough. Then in April, SpatialA … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/nx5A9eW

On Tuesday, the Seattle City Council will vote on whether to enact a one-year moratorium on new data centers - just two months after several companies proposed building five large-scale centers in the city. Among the moratorium's fiercest supporters are current employees from the city's biggest tech giant, Amazon, who joined others to testify in support of the policy last week. Data centers have sparked protests across the country over concerns about water consumption, local electricity prices, and noise. In Seattle and the surrounding King County, the issue is coming to a head. If the city council votes in favor of a moratorium on June 9th … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/PCEgBF5

Two years ago, when Microsoft first revealed that it was bringing four Xbox-exclusive games to the PS5 and Nintendo Switch, it made the announcement far more complicated than necessary. That's not likely to improve anytime soon. In fact, things now seem more confusing than ever as the company tries to appease both fans and the bottom line. When making the experimental move away from exclusives in 2024, Microsoft initially refused to name the games - Hi-Fi Rush , Pentiment , Sea of Thieves , and Grounded - going cross platform, but was happy to shoot down rumors of Starfield and Indiana Jones coming to the PS5. Some Xbox fans thought the annou … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/Bl3OyRq

Apple's biggest event of the year is nearly here. The company's Worldwide Developers Conference will spotlight updates to iOS, macOS, and all of Apple's other operating systems, and this year's event could also include a major overhaul for Siri. Here's how you can watch along live. When WWDC will happen and where you can watch it WWDC lasts a few days, but Apple's biggest announcements will be in the keynote presentation on June 8th at 1PM ET / 10AM PT. The full presentation usually lasts a couple of hours. You can watch it live on YouTube or from Apple's website . What to expect from Apple's WWDC keynote Apple's annual OS updates. WWDC … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/oXyYk4g

Back from the dead. | Photo: Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge The 2026 XPS 14 is the best premium laptop we've seen from Dell in a while, with incredible build quality in a thin machine and good performance thanks to Intel's Core Ultra Series 3 "Panther Lake" chips. A bonus: Dell killed its lame "Premium Plus" naming scheme . XPS is so back! I can't believe how much of a turnaround this new model is from the XPS 13 I reviewed last year, which at the time was set to be the line's depressing swan song. The new XPS has improved in just about every way, with an actual physical F-row, better speakers, and remarkable battery life. Too bad it's wildly expensive. Dell XPS 14 (2026) Score: 7 Pros Cons Exceptional … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/t8dzMGR

Constantly being plugged into the news grind is mentally exhausting. Sometimes we just need to take a break, unwind, and do something fun. That’s why we’ve built up a collection of distracting time-wasters for when we need a break from being obsessively online. We figured you might enjoy these harmless rabbit holes, mildly addictive browser games , and internet curiosities , too, so we’ve been writing about them when we find them. Can you beat our score in I’m Not a Robot or did you find a gem of an academic paper on motherhood and body horror on Horror Lex ? Tell us in the comments. The goal here isn’t to get engrossed in a game that you’ll lose hundreds of hours to, or become an expert on dialectical materialism. It’s to have a little fun on your lunch break, decompress between emails, or give you an interesting repository of art to dig through on a slow Sunday afternoon. So check back often to see the latest light-h...

Aitana Lopez, AI avatar by creative agency The Clueless. | Image: The Clueless This is The Stepback , a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more on AI confusion, follow Robert Hart . The Stepback arrives in our subscribers' inboxes at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepback here . How it started At first, AI influencers were relatively easy to identify - and to ignore. Aside from the occasional bursts of hype, they didn't seem to change much about the way social media worked. The earliest virtual influencers - Lil Miquela with her blunt fringe and freckles, Imma with her bubblegum pink bob, and Shudu Gram with her flawless complexion - were obviously digital productions. Collaborations … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/ZapFcI8

An AI-generated image of the royal family featuring two Queen Elizabeth IIs. | Image: Meta AI Facebook has long been filled with feeds of clickbait articles. Now, Meta is making its own clickbait articles with AI. The standalone Meta AI app now has a "For You" section that populates a list of clickbait-style stories for you to read. But the topics, images, and text are all AI-generated - and as questionable as you'd expect from AI-created works. The Meta AI app first launched in April 2025 with its focus on a public "Discover" feed that showed AI-generated images and conversations from other users (who frequently seemed unaware that they were being made public). That's all disappeared. The app now has a standard chatbot interface, … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/HU5YFMi