Technology news

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge If you’ve ever seen a Steam Deck playing a Legend of Zelda game, chances are you were seeing the Yuzu emulator at work. Now, Nintendo has sued the developers of Yuzu in US federal court, with the intent of squashing Yuzu for good.
In the lawsuit, spotted by Stephen Totilo, Nintendo alleges that Yuzu violates the anti-circumvention and anti-trafficking provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) as well as accusing the creators of copyri

Apple was working on an electric vehicle (EV) to rival Tesla and its ilk, but according to Bloomberg, which cited anonymous sources "with knowledge of the matter," the Cupertino-based tech giant is now, er, steering away from the project.Apple's car plans were in development for a decade, but in a shock announcement from Apple COO Jeff Williams and Vice President of Technology Kevin Lynch, the iPhone maker told nearly 2,000 employees that the EV project is now scrapped.Apple reportedly ditches E

Universal Music Group is back for more music. The music company will pull even more songs from TikTok, TechCrunch reports. At the beginning of the month, the deal between UMG and TikTok expired, and negotiations dissolved over royalties resulting in UMG removing all the music it owned or distributed from the platform. SEE ALSO:Universal Music is set to pull its songs from TikTok
Now, TikTok must take down all the songs controlled by Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG), which includes any son

Illustration: The Verge OpenAI has claimed in a motion filed Monday that The New York Times used “deceptive prompts” to get ChatGPT to regurgitate its content. For that and other reasons, the company is asking the US District Court in southern New York to dismiss several of the claims in the outlet’s copyright infringement lawsuit.
OpenAI asserts that the Times exploited a bug that it’s currently working to fix and that the outlet fed articles directly to the chatbot to g

SAVE $502: A 55-inch Samsung QLED 4K The Frame TV is just $997.99 at Amazon, down from the MSRP of $1,499.99. That's a discount of 34% or a savings of $502 as of Feb. 27. Opens in a new windowCredit: SamsungSamsung 55-Inch Class QLED 4K The Frame TV$997.99 at Amazon $1,499.99Save $502.00Get DealWith so many streaming options these days, TV is life. But if you're less than thrilled about the overall look of a TV taking center stage in your living room or rec room, Samsung has come up with a solut

Twist on your trainer’s cap and try to catch these deals before they sell out. | Image: The Pokémon Company Oh, would you look at that. It’s Pokémon Day, an annual celebration commemorating the game’s launch on this very day in 1996. Fun fact: Pokémon was first a video game, but it was quickly adapted as a trading card game and anime, both of which are arguably equally as responsible as the Game Boy titles for its success in becoming a global craze.
Today,

The Orion smart glasses would be a totally different product from the Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses pictured above. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge It’s been long rumored that Meta is working on a pair of augmented reality smart glasses — and it’s possible we could finally get a glimpse of them later this year.Citing unnamed Meta sources, a Business Insider report claims that the company plans to demo a pair of true AR smart glasses later this fall at Meta Connect. T

Illustration: The Verge The owner of Tumblr and WordPress.com is in talks with AI companies Midjourney and OpenAI to provide training data scraped from users’ posts, a report from 404 Media alleges. The report, based on an anonymous source inside the company, says that deals between Automattic and the two AI companies are “imminent.” It follows nebulous rumors that have spread on Tumblr over the past week, suggesting a deal with Midjourney could provide a new revenue stream for

Android and iOS users can test out the Galaxy AI experience before shelling out for a brand new phone. This week Samsung announced a way to try the new Galaxy AI features that come with the Galaxy S24 Series without actually owning one. Galaxy AI is part of the Samsung One UI 6.1 update, which is pre-loaded on the Galaxy S24 Series and coming soon to the S23 series.SEE ALSO:Galaxy AI won't be free for long. Here's when you'll start paying for it.
The Try Galaxy app lets users play around with Ga

Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge Apple has halted its long-rumored “Project Titan” work on developing an electric car, according to Bloomberg. The company reportedly announced the news internally on Tuesday and said many people in the 2,000-person team behind the car will shift to generative AI efforts instead.
Apple chief operating officer Jeff Williams and Kevin Lynch, a vice president in charge of the project, informed employees of the project’s discontinuation, Bloo

If you grew up going to sports games, then you've probably considered TikTok's latest trend. No, it has nothing to do with actual sports. It has to do with hot dogs. You see, in stadiums across America, hot dog vendors walk the aisles, yelling out to sell their wares. And there's an art to it. Every vendor has their little spin on it. The standard is likely something like "hot dog, get ya hot dogs here." But you've got some sellers who amp up the volume. Or laid-back sellers who mix up the phras

Image: The Verge This is Hot Pod, The Verge’s newsletter about podcasting and the audio industry. Sign up here for more.Hello! I am very excited to see so many of you at Hot Pod Summit and On Air Fest this week. I’ll be back on Tuesday with a recap of the events. But first, I’ve got a look at the layoffs at WAMU, the IAB’s new podcast guidelines, and the ticking clock on union contract negotiations at Spotify.WAMU shuts down DCist and lays off 15 staffersAnother NPR membe

Don McClean has always had to share “American Pie.” Since its release in 1971, the hit song has re-emerged in covers by Madonna, parodies by Weird Al Yankovic, serenades by South Korean presidents, subplots in Marvel movies, and even CIA torture techniques. But these days, McClean’s leading imitators aren’t even human. You can interrogate the culprits for yourself. Just load OpenAI’s ChatGPT and prompt the text generator to “write the lyrics to a song about t

The company’s most recent new product was the Move 2 portable speaker. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Sonos plans to release its first pair of wireless headphones in June after dealing with some late-stage software setbacks, according to a new report from Bloomberg. The headphones will tie into the company’s ecosystem of speakers and home theater soundbars and are expected to be priced at $449, putting them firmly in the premium market of mainstream consumer headphones.
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Aqara’s U200 smart lock is a retrofit, Matter-over-Thread door lock, with support for Apple Home Key promised. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge Aqara has launched its Smart Lock U200 on Kickstarter, where you can currently nab the device for $209, down from the $249.99 it’ll cost you when it goes on sale later this year. According to the Kickstarter page, it will ship to backers in April.The company debuted its new retrofit lock at the IFA 2023 tech show last summer; sh

Generative AI developers at Google DeepMind have taken on the world's highest grossing entertainment industry by introducing something called "Genie." The new artificial intelligence system from Google researchers can create playable worlds resembling video games from images and text prompts. Announced in a paper Friday, Genie is not available to the public yet.SEE ALSO:What was Sora trained on? Creatives demand answers.
Similar to Sora, Genie's creators call it a "world model," but unlike Sora,

Starting the day with the perfect cuppa joe is a daily essential. Whether you're trying to spend less at your local Starbucks or simply want to explore the joy of crafting your own brew at home, Keurig coffee makers are here to help. Today's best Keurig deals as of Feb. 27:Best commercial-grade Keurig dealKeurig K-2500 Commercial Coffee Maker$399.99(save $150) Get DealBest budget Keurig dealKeurig K-Express Coffee Maker,$69.99(save $20) Get DealBest Keurig for small spaces dealKeurig K-Compact C

The Supreme Court is trying to decide how far the First Amendment reaches when it comes to social media.On Monday, the nine justices heard a pair of cases that question if states can force social media platforms to abide by censorship rules — even when the platforms deem those posts hateful or otherwise objectionable. Here's what we know.SEE ALSO:US Supreme Court warns of dangers of AI in legal profession
Which cases did the Supreme Court hear?A relatively recent pair of laws in Texas and

UPDATE: Feb. 28, 2024, 5:00 a.m. EST We've rounded up the best Apple deals this week from Amazon, Best Buy, Walmart and more. Best Apple deals this week:Best Mac deal2023 15-inch MacBook Air (M2, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD)$999 at Best Buy(Save $300) Get DealBest iPad dealiPad Air (WiFi, 64GB)$449 at Amazon and Walmart(Save $150) Get DealBest iPhone dealiPhone 15 at Verizon$0 on a new line with select unlimited plans (Save $829.99) Get DealBest Apple Watch dealApple Watch SE (44mm, GPS)$199.99 at Amazo

Sure, the iPhone 16 is exciting, but let's talk about the iPhone 17 instead.According to a report by the Korean tech site The Elec, the base iPhone 17 and 17 Plus models launching in 2025 will have the same display tech as the current Pro iPhone models. In other words, 120Hz refresh rates and always-on displays are potentially in the cards for non-Pro iPhones next year, which would be a first for Apple. Pro models started getting these advanced features in the last few years, but base models hav

If watching Ryan's Toy Review is part of your children's morning routine, get ready to rethink how you access YouTube Kids. And you'd better do it before the inevitable meltdown when you can't access the app when you need it.That's because Google is shutting down the standalone YouTube Kids app for televisions this July, according to a notice published by the tech giant.SEE ALSO:Too much TV screen time for kids: 5 things to know about the risks
"YouTube Kids is moving," reads Google's announceme

Life beyond a phone screen? Or just a neat gadget? Look, I’m a Humane AI Pin doubter as much as the next person. And I still think the wearable, AI-powered assistant suffers from a case of this-thing-could-have-been-an-app. But I finally got to spend a little face-to-face time with the pin this morning, and you know what? It’s a darn cool gadget. It’s just buried under a layer of marketing so thick that it’s hard to appreciate what it actually could be if Humane wasn&rsqu

The PlayStation 5 version of Persona 5 Tactica is down to just $29.99. | Image: Atlus Spring may be just around the corner, but it’s still cold and rainy in many parts of the US. If you’re looking for ways to keep yourself entertained while indoors, GameStop is currently taking up to 50 percent off select titles as a part of its ”OMG” sale. The ongoing promotion includes steep 50 percent discounts on newer hits like Persona 5 Tactica for the PlayStation 5 ($29.99) and Son

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has sued the company behind Pornhub for not complying with state-level age verification rules. The suit, filed in Travis County District Court against Pornhub parent Aylo, accuses Aylo of failing to implement “reasonable age verification methods” on Pornhub and other adult sites that it owns. It seeks millions of dollars in damages under a law that was initially blocked as unconstitutional, then allowed to take effect last year.
Texas is one of nume

I have been working from home since March 2020. I’m very particular about my work setup — I prefer to have an external monitor for a second screen and I like my laptop to sit on a stand at eye level. The only issue is that I also hate being tied to my desk all day. That’s just one of many scenarios the minds at Logitech considered when designing the new Casa Pop-Up Desk, which launched in North America Feb. 27. It’s a work-from-anywhere solution that’s basicall

Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photos by Amelia Holowaty Krales and Getty Images The bright promise of streaming and digital stores has given way to a darker reality: we rarely have ownership over the art we love, and much is getting lost in the process. Only a fraction of movies released over the last century are available on streaming services, while a staggering 90 percent of classic video games are considered “critically endangered” by archivists. As these platforms continue to domi

Image: Lego The transformation of Fortnite into a gaming platform continues with the addition of some new games from Lego. Following the release of the Minecraft-like survival game Lego Fortnite in December, Lego has launched two more titles inside of Fortnite. One is a multiplayer title called Lego Raft Survival; the other is an obstacle course called Lego Obby Fun. Both games were built with the Unreal Editor for Fortnite tool.
The launches come as Epic is attempting to expand Fortnite beyond

SAVE $42: The 2-camera Blink Indoor home security bundle is on sale today at Amazon for $97.99. With a typical list price of $139.99, today's deal saves you 30%.Opens in a new windowCredit: Blink Blink Indoor 2-camera bundle (3rd gen)$97.99 at Amazon $139.99Save $42.00Get DealSophisticated home security systems can be expensive, but you don't always need something so elaborate. If you're looking for a way to watch over what's going on at home when you're out and about and you need to check on yo

Save $250: As of Feb. 27, the Roomba Combo i5+ is on sale for $299.99 as Best Buy's Drop of the day. The limited-time record-low price is only available in the Best Buy app. Opens in a new windowCredit: iRobotiRobot Roomba Combo i5+$549.99 Get DealThe Roomba Combo i5+ on sale for $349.99 at Amazon and iRobot's own website would be a noteworthy price drop... if the same Roomba wasn't also featured as a Best Buy Drop for $299.99 on the same day.Before Feb. 27, the Combo i5+ had never dropped

SAVE $60: The Amazon Echo Show 8 (3rd generation) is just $89.99 at Amazon, down from the normal price of $149.99. That's a 40% discount or a savings of $60. Opens in a new windowCredit: AmazonAmazon Echo Show 8 (3rd generation)$89.99 at Best Buy $149.99Save $60.00Get DealIf you've ever stood in the kitchen feeling annoyed that you need to check the online recipe you're following on your phone which is now under a dusting of flour, it might be time for a solution. Or if you often wish there was

Image: Wendy’s Imagine waiting in line at your local Wendy’s drive-thru during the lunch rush, only to pull up to the menu board and realize that the spicy chicken nuggets you’ve been craving all day will cost you a dollar extra. That nightmare may soon become a reality, because Wendy’s plans on testing surge pricing that will increase the price of its spicy nuggets, burgers, Frostys, and other favorites during its busiest times.
During an earnings call earlier this month

Image: Hugo Herrera / The Verge Crypto miners have successfully blocked the Department of Energy’s (DOE) survey ofBitcoin’s energy consumption in the US. A federal judge has issued a temporary restraining order that prevents the DOE from moving forward with data collection.
More Bitcoin is mined in the US than anywhere else in the world, a trend that has sparked legal battles over the impact energy-hungry crypto mines have on the power grid, nearby communities, and the environment. T

SAVE $50: Sign up for NFL Sunday Ticket on YouTube for just $399 per year, down from the normal price of $449; that's $50 off an annual subscription or an 11% discount. Another option is to add the NFL Sunday Ticket to your existing YouTube TV plan for $299 per year, down from $349; that's a savings of $50 or a 14% discount. Opens in a new windowCredit: YouTubeNFL Sunday Ticket on YouTube$399.00 at YouTube $449.00Save $50.00annual subscriptionGet DealWhile the world of streaming gives us unlimit

Photo by JEFF KOWALSKY/AFP via Getty Images Ford, Mercedes-Benz, and Tesla occupy the top three spots in a new ranking of 18 global automakers based on their efforts to eliminate carbon emissions, environmental harms, and human rights violations from their supply chains. US automakers in particular made the most progress in cleaning up their supply chains, with Tesla showing the biggest increase of all the automakers.The rankings were compiled by Lead the Charge, a global coalition of leading cl

Following almost 30 years of service, the European Space Agency’s ERS-2 satellite re-entered Earth’s atmosphere at approximately 18:17 CET on February 21. Launched in 1995 and with an original mission life of just three years,  ERS-2 set new standards for Earth observation, collecting valuable data on the ozone layer, ocean temperature, and mankind’s overall impact on the planet. In 2011, ESA decided to initiate the satellite’s deorbiting process amid concerns over

SAVE $50: As of today, Feb. 27, you can get a pair of Samsung Galaxy Buds 2 for just $99.99 at Amazon. That takes 33% off the noise-cancelling earbuds' list price of $149.99.Opens in a new windowCredit: SamsungSamsung Galaxy Buds 2$99.99 at Amazon $149.99Save $50.00Get DealIf you're a Galaxy phone, tablet, watch, or PC user, today's limited-time deal allows you to round out your media experience with a pair of noise-cancelling headphones that effortlessly connect with your devices and shift the

Collage by Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photos from Getty Images Super Sushi Pinball, a game that does not prominently feature sushi, never actually launched. It was meant to be Sony’s second game in the US, intended for the NES during a time when such news would not have melted the brains of console diehards, and was marketed in video game magazines for over a year. “This is a game that was last seen by anyone in 1990 at a trade show,” said Frank Cifaldi, founder of the Video G

Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photos via Getty Images During Monday’s Supreme Court arguments in a pair of consequential social media cases, the justices prodded for ways they could rule without giving either side everything they asked for.
The justices seemed largely skeptical of the most sweeping provisions in Florida’s and Texas’ social media laws, which would force certain tech platforms to carry speech even when they don’t want to. But they also looked for the boundari

TikTok has hyped up car dates, so much so that Mashable recently broke down how to have sex in a car. According to a new trend called "hamstering," though, people are taking that a step further."Hamstering" or the "thirsty hamster" on TikTok describes the sexual act of one partner with a penis going atop a car with a sun roof and a partner inside the car fellating them through the open roof. The name evokes a hamster drinking water through a spout that's typical in hamster enclosures. SEE ALSO:I

Following the runaway success of Game of Thrones, it seems like everyone in TV wants their own Big Epic Series. Prime Video hit fantasy hard with shows like The Wheel of Time and The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. AppleTV+ opted for a sci-fi approach with Foundation. Netflix keeps trying to build franchises with the likes of Shadow & Bone (gone too soon) and Avatar: The Last Airbender. Plus, who could forget HBO dipping its toes back into the Thrones pool to deliver House of the Drag

In 2021, Xiaomi launched the CyberDog, endearingly calling it an "open source quadruped robot companion." To say that the robotic beast looked menacing is an understatement; let's just say it wouldn't be out of place in a dystopian movie in which robots rule over humans with an iron fist (paw?). Now, the company has a new robotic dog, and it's thankfully a less scary than the original, with a head that sort of resembles a real dog's head, pointy ears and all. It's called the CyberDog 2, and whil

Photo by Kate Medley for The Verge The future for physical video games looks bleak. Major console hardware makers seem to be inching toward removing ways to play discs at all: leaked Microsoft documents revealed a potential disc-less Xbox Series X (though the company says it isn’t completely giving up on the format), while the “slim” PS5 has a detachable disc drive that requires an internet connection to pair with a new console. You can get most games digitally nowadays, but th

Image: The Pokémon Company The big news out of today’s Pokémon Presents is that the next major Pokémon game is in the works — and it’s launching next year. There aren’t many details yet, but the game is called Pokémon Legends: Z-A (yes, that’s the real title), and it takes place in Lumiose City, where 2013’s Pokémon X and Y were set. The game is expected to launch in 2025 with a simultaneous global release, and it’s com

If you've been online in the past year or so (we know you have), you've probably seen some jaw-dropping examples of artificial intelligence generating images based on text prompts. Typically, it takes some time for the image to be generated, but what if this could happen instantly, as you type?Turns out, it can. At this year's Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, chip maker Mediatek showcased several impressive AI demos. I've seen a couple, but the one that impressed me the most was the dem