Technology news

Illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge Google will have to face a class action lawsuit that accuses it of collecting users’ data through Chrome without their consent. In a decision on Tuesday, a federal appeals court reversed a December 2022 ruling that dismissed the case, saying the lower court should’ve reviewed Google’s disclosures and determined “whether a reasonable user reading them would think that he or she was consenting to the data collection.”
The clas

Illustration: The Verge Today Google announced it’s making assigning group work in Google Classroom easier and faster with a new feature called Student Groups. Teachers will now be able to add individual students to pre-defined groups before creating and assigning group work.
Google is entering this school year with a bunch of new updates for the now 10-year-old Classroom platform, like a new Education Navigator, a Read Along feature, and Dark Mode to the mobile app. But teachers have been

How many of those $5 skirts do these retailers have to sell to pay their lawyers? | Image: The Verge The Shein complaint about Temu kicks off with a bang, accusing Temu of being “an unlawful enterprise built on counterfeiting, theft of trade secrets, infringement of intellectual property rights, and fraud” in just the first sentence. But I guess you have to go big when the lawsuit against you accuses you of using “Mafia-style” intimidation tactics.
It gets worse, Shein al

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge If you want the old Sonos app back, it’s not coming. In a Reddit AMA response posted Tuesday, Sonos CEO Spence says that he was hopeful “until very recently” that the company could rerelease the app, confirming a report from The Verge that the company was considering doing so. But after testing that option, rereleasing the old app would apparently make things worse, Spence says.
Since the new app was released on May 7th, Spence has issued a form

It’s great for a desk, bedside table, or just about anywhere around a home. | Image: Noamd Nomad may run its fair share of deals on its various phone cases and Apple Watch bands, but we rarely see steep discounts on its fancy, premium multi-chargers. But right now, the second-gen Base One Max is on sale in black or silver for $119 ($51 off) when you use coupon code VERGEB1M on Nomad’s site. The 30 percent discount is good through August 25th at 11:59PM PT.If you have a MagSafe-compat

Image: Tesla A Tesla Semi truck crashed into trees and caught fire off the side of a highway in California early Monday, causing road closures on I-80 for almost 16 hours. As reported by KCRA 3 News, Cal Fire crews first headed to the crash site near the Nevada border after 3AM local time.
Firefighters doused the Tesla Semi with thousands of gallons of water to cool its lithium-ion EV battery pack down to a manageable target temperature of around 100 degrees Fahrenheit while waiting for its cell

Image: Bethesda Microsoft and Bethesda are officially bringing Indiana Jones and the Great Circle to PS5 after it debuts first on Xbox. During gamescom opening night live, Bethesda confirmed Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is coming to Xbox and PC first on December 9th, before launching on PS5 in spring 2025.
The confirmation comes months after The Verge exclusively revealed Microsoft was considering launching Indiana Jones and the Great Circle on PS5. I wrote in February that Bethesda’

Image: The Verge You’ll soon be able to access your saved passwords, bookmarks, and addresses in Chrome by simply signing in to your Google account on the browser. The change lets you skip the extra step of toggling on Chrome sync — and it’s coming to Chrome on Android and desktop following last year’s rollout on iOS.
Google says it will give you the option to sign in to Chrome for a “customized browsing experience,” allowing you to send tabs and use your save

Image: Bethesda Softworks Earlier in the summer, Bethesda officially unveiled Shattered Space, the first major expansion for its sci-fi roleplaying game Starfield. Now, we finally have a date: the update will be launching on September 30th. It’s coming to both Xbox and PC.
Along with the date, the studio also revealed a (brief) trailer for the expansion, which shows off some more of its darker tone (at least compared to most of the base game). The story is centered on the mysterious factio

Image: Firaxis Games You’ll be able to rewrite the course of history in Civilization 7 next year. Firaxis Games showed up during Opening Night Live 2024 with a new trailer and some news — Civilization 7 will launch on just about everything you can play a video game on February 11th, 2025.Civilization 6 released eight years ago but has received a steady flow of updates and DLC in the intervening years. Firaxis Games announced it was working on a new Civilization game in February of la

Image: Gearbox Software Gearbox is planning to launch Borderlands 4 sometime in 2025, the company announced at the Gamescom Opening Night Live show on Tuesday. The game is set to launch on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X / S.
The reveal trailer was pretty mysterious, and the trailer’s description on YouTube doesn’t offer much in the way of specifics, either. “In this next installment of the definitive looter shooter, players will assume the role of a legendary Vault Hunter as they b

Photo by Victoria Song / The Verge If you happen to crack the screen on your brand-new Pixel Watch 3, Google won’t repair it; the new smartwatch is “replacement only,” a Google representative told Android Authority. That means this is the third smartwatch in a row where Google won’t offer repairs.
That’s a shame, especially when you consider how Pixel Watch screens have held up in our reviews of the last two. Replacements are $49 if you happen to have bought Preferr

Photo by Victoria Song / The Verge If you happen to crack the screen on your brand-new Pixel Watch 3, Google won’t repair it; the new smartwatch is “replacement only,” a Google representative told Android Authority. That means this is the third smartwatch in a row where Google won’t offer repairs.
That’s a shame, especially when you consider how Pixel Watch screens have held up in our reviews of the last two. Replacements are $49 if you happen to have bought Preferr

Who among you are going to run and actually read at the same time? Please, tell me who you are. | Image: Amazon If you’ve ever thought, “Man, I wish I could read while sweating on the Peloton”, then good news. You can now access your Kindle library straight from the Peloton Bike, Bike Plus, Tread or Tread Plus.“No more awkwardly holding a book or Kindle ereader while trying to maintain proper form,”reads Amazon’s press release, which notes you can read anythin

The Verge Microsoft is finally launching a single unified Microsoft Teams app that will allow you to switch between personal and work accounts. The new app has been in testing for most of the year and Microsoft is now rolling it out for Windows and Mac users today.
This app update not only supports work, personal, and education accounts in a single Teams app, but it also improves the experience of switching between different Teams tenants. “You can also join as a guest without signing in,&

Image: The Verge A group of authors has sued Anthropic, accusing it of training its models on pirated books, as reported by Reuters. The proposed class action lawsuit was filed in a California court on Monday and alleges Anthropic “built a multibillion-dollar business by stealing hundreds of thousands of copyrighted books.”
In the lawsuit, the authors say that Anthropic used a sprawling, open-source dataset known as “The Pile” to train its family of Claude AI chatbots. Wi

Image: The Unwell Network Call Her Daddy host Alex Cooper has signed a multi-year advertising and distribution deal with SiriusXM. The press release doesn’t spell out the specific terms of the deal, but Variety reports that it’s worth as much as $125 million and will be in place for a bit more than three years.Call Her Daddy used to be exclusive to Spotify, and it remains one of the most popular podcasts on the platform, but Spotify let the show get wide distribution earlier this yea

Image: Microsoft Microsoft is starting to test its new Xbox Game Pass Standard tier with Xbox Insiders today. The new Game Pass Standard subscription includes the usual Game Pass library for Xbox but with online console multiplayer, too. Crucially, it doesn’t include immediate access to day one game releases, though.
During the test period, Xbox Insiders will be able to access Xbox Game Pass Standard for just $1. “Any renewals during the preview period will also be $1 per month,&rdqu

Illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photo from Getty Images Iran is behind attempts to hack into Republican and Democratic presidential campaigns and has already succeeded in compromising Donald Trump’s campaign, intelligence officials said in a statement issued Monday.The joint statement from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) says:We have observed in

The Echo Hub is a smart home controller that’s simple to use and set up, and is currently $35 off at multiple retailers. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge
If you’re looking for a simple and intuitive smart home controller even the most tech-averse family members or roommates can use, Amazon’s Echo Hub is an excellent solution. And right now, it’s down to an all-time low price of $144.99 ($35 off) at Amazon, Best Buy, and B&H Photo.The Echo Hub lets you co

Mecha BREAK lets you ask for advice from in-game characters. | Screenshot: YouTube Nvidia ACE, the company’s AI-powered system for giving voices and conversation skills to in-game characters, is set to debut in Mecha BREAK, a new multiplayer mech battle game coming to PC, Xbox X / S, and PlayStation 5 in 2025.
In Mecha BREAK, players can choose from a variety of mechs across categories like assault, melee, and sniper, for online matches where they’ll fight both on the ground and in t

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images The Olympics weren’t just good for streaming — they boosted traditional TV viewership, too. Even though the Games in Paris accounted for just three days of Nielsen’s July 2024 report, they led to a 2.3 percent boost in overall TV viewing compared to June and a 3.5 percent increase compared to the same time last year.
During the month, broadcast TV captured 20.3 percent of all viewership, marking a slight increase from last month. I

The HyperX QuadCast 2 S features 100 RGB lights that can be controlled through its Ngenuity software. | Image: HyperX HyperX announced new versions of its QuadCast USB gaming microphones today. The QuadCast 2 and QuadCast 2 S now include a streamlined multifunction control dial and welcome upgrades to their recording quality.
The original versions of the HyperX QuadCast mics delivered a lot of functionality at a sub-$200 price point, including multiple pickup patterns and programmable LED lighti

The HyperX QuadCast 2 S features 100 RGB lights that can be controlled through its Ngenuity software. | Image: HyperX HyperX announced new versions of its QuadCast USB gaming microphones today. The QuadCast 2 and QuadCast 2 S now include a streamlined multifunction control dial and welcome upgrades to their recording quality.
The original versions of the HyperX QuadCast mics delivered a lot of functionality at a sub-$200 price point, including multiple pickup patterns and programmable LED lighti

In 2004, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger announced plans for a “hydrogen highway.” It called for a new kind of fuel station, built to support a new kind of electric vehicle. Cars powered by hydrogen fuel cells could help clean up the air and free the US from foreign oil — and California could lead the way.
That’s not what happened. Twenty years later, the American auto industry is shifting overwhelmingly to electric vehicles... but they run on batteries, not hy