Technology news

A new stipulation in the Team Pixel influencer program is causing a stir among creators. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge The tech review world has been full of murky deals between companies and influencers for years, but it appears Google finally crossed a line with the Pixel 9. The company’s invite-only Team Pixel program — which seeds Pixel products to influencers before public availability — stipulated that participating influencers were not allowed to feature Pixel produ

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Instagram is testing a potentially major change to profile pages: making the squares in your profile grid vertical rectangles. Some users recently spotted the test, and there have been indications from at least 2022 that the company has toyed with a rectangular grid.
“The vast majority of what is uploaded to Instagram today is vertical,” Mosseri says in an Instagram story from Friday discussing the test. “It’s either 4 by 3 in a pho

Marvel After dismissing X-Men ’97’s former showrunner Beau DeMayo just before the show’s season one premiere, the studio seemed ready to move on with a new creative team. But following DeMayo’s recent claims that Marvel unfairly pulled his credits from X-Men ’97’s upcoming second season, the company says he was fired over the “egregious” findings of an internal investigation.
Though DeMayo was fired before X-Men ’97 aired, his name was still

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge A federal judge in New York blocked the upcoming live sports streaming service from Disney, Fox, and Warner Bros. Discovery, siding with streamer Fubo that the package likely violates antitrust law. Fubo argued in an antitrust complaint that the partnership was the culmination of “a years-long campaign to block Fubo’s innovative sports-first streaming business.”The three entertainment companies had sought to create a new streaming service called

Are you looking for travel tips? Debating whether the extra cost for a first-class ticket is worth it? Or perhaps you're unsure which airline to choose? Don’t worry — YouTuber Will Davis, known as Trek Trendy, might have the answers you seek.On Aug. 11, Davis uploaded a 38-minute video titled "Flying First Class on Every US Airline (Back to Back)" to his YouTube channel, which has over 1 million subscribers. It's already racked up nearly half a million views in less than a week.In th

Why does it look so mean? | Image: Acura Acura has a new EV concept debuting today at Monterey Car Week, featuring an all-new electric vehicle platform developed by parent automaker Honda. Dubbed the Acura Performance EV concept, the vehicle is a crossover SUV with a boat-like front end that resembles the Precision EV concept from 2022, but with a sportback-style rear.
The new Acura concept is a representation of an upcoming electric model that is planned for production next year at Honda’

Why do you look so mean? | Image: Acura Acura has a new EV concept debuting today at Monterey Car Week, featuring an all-new electric vehicle platform developed by parent automaker Honda. Dubbed the Acura Performance EV Concept, the vehicle is a crossover SUV with a boat-like front end that resembles the Precision EV concept from 2022, but with a sportback-style rear.
The new Acura concept is a representation of an upcoming electric model that is planned for production next year at Honda’s

The Gaming Pillow features a cushioned base supporting a device mount on top. | Image: Mechanism Doomscrolling isn’t going away any time soon, but there’s no reason you can’t be comfortable while doing it. Mechanism’s $59 Gaming Pillow is designed to shift the weight of gadgets like handheld consoles, tablets, XL smartphones, and e-readers from your arms to your lap.With a 12-inch pillow made from lycra fabric filled with foam granules as its base, the Gaming Pillow looks

Illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photos from Getty Images OpenAI has banned a string of ChatGPT accounts tied to an Iranian influence campaign that generated and shared content related to the US presidential election, among other topics. The operation mainly used ChatGPT to create long-form articles and social media comments for platforms like Instagram and X, according to OpenAI.
OpenAI linked the accounts to Storm-2035, a covert Iranian influence operation that has attempted to enga

UPDATE: On June 4, 2024, at 7:57 a.m. EDT, OpenAI resolved the incident at 12:28 p.m. PT. All ChatGPT systems are now operational.If you tried to use OpenAI or ChatGPT in the past few minutes and received the digital equivalent of a blank stare, you're not alone. OpenAI is experiencing a "partial outage."The company posted that there are "elevated error rates for ChatGPT and Platform API. At 11:53 PDT on August 16, it wrote: "We are currently investigating elevated error rates on ChatG

Image: Walmart Walmart is ending drone deliveries made with partner DroneUp in Phoenix, AZ, Salt Lake City, UT, and Tampa, FL, because the services in those cities weren’t sustainable, according to Axios. This is after Walmart and DroneUp announced in 2022 that they would be bringing drone delivery to those states as part of a broader expansion.Right now, it costs about $30 to use a drone to deliver a package, but DroneUp wants to bring the cost down so that it’s less than $7, DroneU

Image: Apple The multiverse of Apple TV Plus’ Dark Matter is about to get bigger as the show heads into its second season. Apple announced on Friday that Dark Matter, Blake Crouch’s adaptation of his own 2016 novel about a physicist who gets sucked into multiple alternate realities, has been renewed for a new batch of episodes.In a statement about the renewal, Crouch thanked the city of Chicago (where the series is set and was filmed) and described how “in the process of writin

The latest version of Google's text-to-image model is now available to the masses. Teased back in May at Google I/O, Imagen 3 is the tech giant's most advanced AI generator that rivals other models like Midjourney, DALL-E 3, and X's very uncensored Grok-2. Speaking of which, Google has taken a different approach than Grok-2, which has swiftly become known for generating copyrighted images and deepfakes of public figures. Unlike Elon Musk's AI model, Google says it "used extensive filtering and d

Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photo from Getty Images A federal appeals court in California upheld part of a district court ruling on Friday that blocked a landmark online safety bill for children from taking effect.The panel of judges on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals objected to a portion of the California Age-Appropriate Design Code Act — specifically, a requirement that online businesses “opine on and mitigate the risk that children may be exposed to harmful or potentially harm

An inside view of a bedroom during the media visit of Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Village on July 2nd, 2024, in Paris, France. | Photo by Aurelien Meunier / Getty Images Now that the Paris Olympics are over, the temporary air conditioning units shipped in for athletes are poised to have a second — and hopefully third — life.There was a good amount of drama around these units. Planners initially didn’t include them in their design for competitors’ housing, opting ins

Google design director Claude Zellweger holds up a Pixel 9 series phone in a form-fitting case. “It’s the first time we’ve designed the phone and case hand in hand,” he says. | Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge There’s one thing about the just-announced Google Pixel 9 that’s hard to convey in photos — its camera bar is prominent. Bigger than ever before. It’s roughly as thick as two US quarters stacked together — nearly a third as thick as

iPhone owners can finally download and play Fortnite again – if you live an Europe and use a separate app store.Yes, one of the weirdest sagas in recent video game history is over. After years of spats between Apple and Epic Games, you can cleanly and legally install Fortnite on an iPhone without any strange workarounds. Well, almost, anyway. Epic had to put out an instructional YouTube video for the process, which involves installing a separate Epic Games Store app from Safari and then do

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Prices are going up everywhere you look. That cart full of groceries? It's more expensive than you think. The dollar doesn't stretch as far as it used to, a

This has to have really thin components and batteries — but there’s plenty of space to spread it out. | Photo: Whylab / Weibo Spy photos of a thin triple-folding phone held by consumer group CEO Yu Chengdong have surfaced again. The images were posted by Weibo user Whylab on Thursday, reports Android Authority.
The device looks as if could get as thin as current single-hinged foldables like the Samsung Galaxy Fold 6 when held like a regular smartphone (of course, there’s still

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Whether you want to squeeze in one last getaway before back-to-school or summer's wind-down has you already thinking ahead to the winter vacations, now is a good time to take advantage of travel deals. This week, we're seeing deals on everything from vacation packages to travel essentials like luggage sets and noise-cancelling headphones. This week's best travel deals: Best luggage set dealCoolife Expandable Suitcase Luggage set $189.99 at Amazon(save $110)Get DealBest noise-cancelling headphone

Metalheads rejoice. Rumors of a new bronze colorway for the iPhone 16 Pro are taking shape.Per 9to5Mac, consumer tech reviewer Sonny Dickson posted a photo on X of iPhone 16 Pro dummy units in the expected colorways: Natural Titanium, White Titanium, Black Titanium, and a rumored new bronze option. SEE ALSO:iPhone 16 Pro will break a world record with this new feature, according to new reports Tweet may have been deletedThe current generation of iPhone 15 Pros also have four colorways, but based

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Unlike last-gen models that relied on the slower Qi standard, Anker’s latest MagGo stand offers MagSafe speeds without MagSafe pricing. | Image: Anker Of all the features Apple has introduced to the iPhone over the last several years, few of them have been as convenient in my day-to-day life as StandBy mode. This docking mode is fantastic if you want to use your phone as a clock or ad hoc smart display — that is, assuming you own the right desk accessory. Fortunately, Anker’s l

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German-Finnish internet anti-hero Kim Dotcom is perhaps one of the most eccentric, and divisive, figures in tech history. A serial cybercriminal to some, a large-than-life legend to others. You either love him or you hate him. Either way, boy does he know how to generate headlines. News broke this week that Dotcom is being extradited to the US to face criminal charges related to his defunct file-sharing service Megaupload. In 2012, US authorities accused Dotcom of conspiracy to commit racketeer

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Summer is almost over, and we're coping in the one way we know how: eating our feelings. If you feel like joining us in the end-of-summer blues, you should probably stock up on some kitchen a

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If you’re a pet parent, then you know just how expensive keeping your fur baby happy and healthy can be. I have two beagles, and the money I’ve spent on pet food, toys, treats, and

Image: Alex Parkin / The Verge At Google’s gadget launch this week, it took almost half an hour before Google actually talked about its new gadgets. There’s a lot to be excited about inside the new Pixel 9 lineup and the Pixel Watch 3, but Google’s event made its true priorities clear. AI matters more to Google than Pixel, more than Android, more than just about anything.
On this episode of The Vergecast, we talk about all of Google’s AI announcements, and what they might

UK fintech Revolut has been valued at $45bn following a share sale by employees, making it Europe’s most valuable private tech company and shaking up the world of traditional finance.  An employee share sale is when staff sell their company shares either to the company they work for, external investors, or on the open market. In Revolut’s case, its employees sold a portion of their shares to investors including Coatue, D1 Capital Partners, and Tiger Global, among others. &

Image: Verity Ikea has launched an upgrade to its stock-counting drone system — and now it’s coming to the US, too. The Swedish furniture chain announced that the autonomous drones will soon operate alongside workers in its Perryville, Maryland distribution center, where Ikea started installation this summer.
The Verity-branded drones also come with a new AI-powered system that allows them to fly around warehouses 24/7. That means they’ll now operate alongside human workers, he

Kids just learning to ride a scooter can use a power assist mode that doesn’t require them to master the throttle controller. | Image: Segway Segway’s new Ninebot eKickScooter C2 Lite is targeted at kids who have not yet mastered operating a throttle control and nervous parents who want to limit the top speed for a young rider who’s still learning.
Designed for kids between six and 10 years old and who are under 110 pounds, the eKickScooter C2 Lite has a smaller frame that&rsqu

TL;DR: Watch Connecticut Sun vs. Dallas Wings in the WNBA with WNBA League Pass. Avoid blackouts and watch the WNBA from anywhere in the world with ExpressVPN.Fans of the WNBA won't want to miss the next match as Connecticut Suns and Dallas Wings prepare to go head-to-head. The Connecticut Sun have been competitive throughout the 2024 season, but they'll face fierce competition from the Dallas Wings.It's going to be a great game, so if you want to watch Connecticut Sun vs. Dallas Wings in the WN

TL;DR: Watch Phoenix Mercury vs. Indiana Fever in the WNBA with WNBA League Pass. Avoid blackouts and watch the WNBA from anywhere in the world with ExpressVPN.The Phoenix Mercury vs. Indiana Fever are set to take to the court as the WNBA season continues. It's a great line-up too, with players such as Caitlin Clark for Indiana Fevers and Natasha Cloud for Phoenix hitting the court.It's going to be a great game, so if you want to watch Phoenix Mercury vs. Indiana Fever in the WNBA from anywhere

TL;DR: Watch Seattle Storm vs. Atlanta Dream in the WNBA with WNBA League Pass. Avoid blackouts and watch the WNBA from anywhere in the world with ExpressVPN.Seattle Storm and Atlanta Dream are set to take to the court as the WNBA season continues. Taking place in Georgia, it's set to be another great match of the season with Jewell Loyd and Allisha Gray set to appear in the lineup.There's plenty of coverage of the match, so if you want to watch Seattle Storm vs. Atlanta Dream in the WNBA from a