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Centering on a ghost as it haunts a family in a cozy suburban home, Presence might seem like a horror movie in the vein of Poltergeist, The Amityville Horror, or The Conjuring. But in their follow-up to the tech thriller Kimi, longtime friends director Steven Soderbergh and screenwriter David Koepp say that Presence was never conceived of as or intended to be a horror movie. "It's a ghost story," Koepp told Mashable in a joint in-person interview with Soderbergh, who concurred, adding that

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images Ever since Elon Musk closed his deal to buy Twitter he’s claimed the company, now called X, is in “a very dire situation from a revenue standpoint.” Now, the Wall Street Journal reports that banks are preparing a coordinated move to sell off some of the $13 billion in debt they loaned Musk to finance the deal. It mentions an email sent to employees this month, also confirmed by The Verge, where the Chief Twit said, “...we&rsq

Image: The Verge Nearly a week after it was removed, the TikTok app is still missing from Apple and Google’s app stores.
The app was pulled from both stores after the US’ ban-or-divest law went into effect last weekend, which resulted in the service going dark within the United States. While TikTok came back online shortly after the ban, the app didn’t return to either mobile store. Apple and Google are at risk of paying billions in fines if they make TikTok available, and it&r

Operator, OpenAI's new AI agent, will save your deleted data for two months longer than deleted data from ChatGPT. OpenAI has some noteworthy privacy policies nestled in the fine print of Operator's help page. One of which says that data from your Operator interactions — chats, browsing history, and screenshots — are kept in OpenAI's servers for up to 90 days after a user deletes them, per TechCrunch, which first spotted the discrepancy. ChatGPT retains deleted data for only 30 days.

The battery icon in Windows 11 is getting a colorful update. | Image: Microsoft Microsoft is releasing a new Windows 11 Insider Preview Build today with some welcome improvements to the operating system’s battery icon – possibly sparing you the realization that you’ve chosen a dead outlet, or improperly plugged in your power adapter, or let your battery drain too much, before it’s far too late.Windows’ battery icon, which has traditionally been black, is being updat

"Hi, are you doomscrolling? Our bodies were not designed to be anxious and stressed for this long." Back in the very anxious year of 2021, a friendly little bot on Twitter — the Doomscrolling Reminder Bot — came along to offer mindfulness reminders like this. Created just after doomscrolling became the 2020 word of the year, the Doomscrolling Reminder Bot soon became a kind of anxiety index. It gained its largest bump in followers during Elon Musk's chaotic takeover of Twitter. The B

Ayaneo builds the best-looking handheld PCs in the business, but they’ve always been boutique. The 2023 Ayaneo 2, for example, cost $1,300 for an arguably worse experience than the $400 Steam Deck. But that experience isn’t dampening my excitement for the new 7-inch Ayaneo 3.Not only does this one start at $900, within striking distance of the highest-end handhelds you’ll find at retail, it’s the most feature-packed portable I’ve seen — with two USB4 ports an

You don’t have to pay a lot for do-it-all robot vacuums like the SwitchBot S10. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge We’re in an age where you can realistically delegate tasks to smart hunks of metal, whether it’s a self-driving car or a robot that can clean on your behalf. Most of us probably won’t be able to afford the helpful sentient humanoids being developed in our lifetimes, but robot vacuums are an affordable way to experience that promised utopia right n

There's a new, quite common E-ZPass scam text making the rounds — don't fall for it. In case you haven't heard ofit, the scam text in question claims the receiver has unpaid tolls and that they need to pay their balance in order to avoid consequences such as fines or losing their license. It also leads out to a link, which you should not click. We've got the details on the scam and what to do if you get the text. What is the scam and how to spot it? The scam text shouldn't be hard to spot,

The Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 is finally here. Everyone in the tech space has at least heard something about Nvidia's most powerful graphics card yet. The company stole the show earlier this year at CES, the biggest technology conference in the world, when it announced the GeForce RTX 5090 GPU.Now, the reviews are coming out from outlets that have had a chance to give the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 a spin. While Mashable hasn't tested the GPU out ourselves, our sibling publication PC Mag did! And we

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge Rivian is planning to launch a hands-free driving assistant system for its electric R1T and R1S vehicles later this year, followed by an “eyes-off” version in 2026, reveals Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe in a press roundtable interview according to a post on Rivian Forums and reported by Electrek. The first part of the system sounds like it will work similarly to Ford’s Blue Cruise or GM’s Super Cruise software, which are Level 2 assistants that o

LinkedIn is facing a class-action lawsuit over allegations of using private messages to train its AI model. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of California, has accused the Microsoft-owned professional networking site of "unlawfully disclosing its Premium customers’ private messages to third parties" and "concealing" its practices by "stealthily altering its privacy policies and statements." A key part of the lawsuit accused LinkedIn of disclosing priva

SAVE $34: As of Jan. 24, new and returning subscribers can get a year of Starz for just $3 per month. That adds up to only $36 for the entire year (reg. $69.99) — about 49% in savings.Opens in a new windowCredit: StarzStarz annual subscription$36.00 $70.00 Save $34.00$3 per month Get DealSick of Netflix and Hulu? 2025 is the year you should diversify your streaming lineup. It doesn't need to cost a fortune, either. With the latest Starz streaming deal, you can add tons of movies and TV sho

Check out the best Amazon deals of the day as of Jan. 24:OUR TOP PICKSamsung Galaxy Tab S10+$839.19(save $280.80)Get DealBEST TV DEALAmazon 55-inch 4-Series Fire TV$359.99(save $100)Get DealBEST KITCHEN DEALInstant Pot Duo Plus$69.99(save $60)Get DealBEST HOME DEALRoborock Qrevo Plus$579.99(save $320)Get DealBEST PHONE DEALGoogle Pixel 8 Pro (Unlocked, 128GB)$599(save $400)Get Deal
It doesn't need to be a major shopping holiday like Prime Day or Black Friday for prices to drop to new record lows

SAVE $280.80: As of Jan. 24, get the Samsung Galaxy S10+ for $839.19, down from its usual price of $1,119.99 at Amazon. That's a discount of 25% and the lowest price we've seen. Opens in a new windowCredit: AmazonSamsung Galaxy S10+ $839.19 at Amazon $1,119.99 Save $280.80Get DealIf you're thinking about buying a tablet, you're going to want to head out into retail territory and think about dropping some cash now. There are plenty of great deals on offer that you won't want to miss, including sa

SAVE $200: As of Jan. 24, get a Microsoft Surface Pro 11 Copilot+ PC for $799.99, down from its usual price of $999.99, at Amazon. That's a 20% discount and the lowest price we've seen. Opens in a new windowCredit: AmazonMicrosoft Surface Pro 11 Copilot+ PC (Snapdragon X Plus, 16GB, 512GB SSD)$799.99 at Amazon $999.99 Save $200.00Get DealReady to invest in a new laptop? Whether you're interested in work or play, there's a Surface laptop that's versatile enough for all of your different needs on

The first Android 16 beta dropped this week — and it's ready for you to give it a whirl. If you're one of the folks who likes to have things first, it might be the perfect opportunity for you to test-run the latest operating system for Android. You'll get to test out new features such as Live Updates and video-editing upgrades.How to try the Android 16 betaFirst, you'll need to have a newer Pixel phone. Anything from a Pixel 6 and newer should work. From there, it's simple. Just go to goog

SAVE $90: As of Jan. 24, the Google Pixel Buds Pro are just $109.99 (reg. $199.99) at Woot. That's a 45% discount.Opens in a new windowCredit: GoogleGoogle Pixel Buds Pro $109.99 at Woot $199.99 Save $90.00Get DealEarbuds are like a protective shield or security blanket, even if we’re not listening to music. Without them, tasks like commuting, going to the gym, or just getting a little work done can make us feel a bit vulnerable and exposed. The only problem is that most earbuds worth thei

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge; Getty Images Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg expects to spend as much as $65 billion on AI in 2025 as part of a “massive effort” to further the company’s AI ambitions. Part of the plan includes a Louisiana data center that Zuckerberg says “is so large it would cover a significant part of Manhattan,” he wrote on Threads today.
The announcement reads like a response to the big AI data center news touted by competitors earlier this week. On T

Another episode of Severance means another collection of moments that make us go, "What in Kier's name just happened?"SEE ALSO:'Severance's Lumon LinkedIn page reveals Miss Huang's true identity
Severance Season 2, episode 2, titled "Goodbye, Mrs. Selvig," functions as the flip side of episode 1. Where the Season 2 premiere showed us the Innies' perspective on the events following Severance's Season 1 finale, "Goodbye, Mrs. Selvig" shows us what was going on in the Outie world during that time.

Illustration: Nick Barclay / The Verge Earlier this week, several posts on the Instagram page of Aid Access, an abortion pill provider, were inaccessible to the public. Some images were blurred out, with no option to click through and view the post. Others appeared simply as a gray square with nondescript alt text, as if the image didn’t load.Aid Access connects patients with doctors who provide abortion pills via telehealth appointments, and the posts that were blocked from being viewed i

Illustration: The Verge Your Threads feed will soon have ads. On Friday, Meta announced that it’s rolling out a “limited, early test of ads in Threads,” and the test will happen with a “handful of brands in the US and Japan,” according to Instagram boss Adam Mosseri.
Ads on Threads will appear as images between posts in your home feed. “As we learn from this test, we will monitor to see how it’s going before filling out more broadly,” Meta says.Ima

Connections is the one of the most popular New York Times word games that's captured the public's attention. The game is all about finding the "common threads between words." And just like Wordle, Connections resets after midnight and each new set of words gets trickier and trickier—so we've served up some hints and tips to get you over the hurdle.If you just want to be told today's puzzle, you can jump to the end of this article for today's Connections solution. But if you'd rather solve

Image: Ram Stellantis is reportedly canceling the 500-mile range version of the upcoming Ram 1500 Rev, leaving the electric truck with only one option that maxes out at an estimated 350 miles on a single charge. The news comes from Mopar Insiders, which got hold of internal emails telling suppliers to stop working on truck components for the larger 229kWh battery version of the vehicle, as reported by Motor Trend.
The all-electric Ram 1500 Rev was already delayed from the first half of this year

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge There’s a long-running joke in the Xbox community that Microsoft will finally hit its stride with Game Pass and Xbox releases “next year.” The joke has been going around since 2018, when Microsoft made a series of big studio acquisitions to create more Xbox games and make Game Pass more appealing. Year after year, Xbox fans have been waiting for a solid 12 months of new games to play, and it now looks like 2025 is going to be that “next ye

SAVE $55.01: As of Jan. 24, upgrade your mornings with a Nespresso Vertuo Next for just $123.99, down from $179, at Amazon. That's 31% off.Opens in a new windowCredit: Nespresso Nespresso Vertuo Next Coffee and Espresso Maker by De'Longhi$123.99 at Amazon $179.00 Save $55.01Get DealIf caffeine is the only thing that gets you going in the morning, you might want to invest in a coffee maker that can keep up. As of Jan. 24, you can get a Nespresso Vertuo Next for $123.99 at Amazon. That’s a 3

Live translations work decently well, but trip up on things like slang and faster speech. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge I was in middle school the last time I took a Spanish class. I remember enough for toddler talk — phrases like “Donde está el baño?” and “mi gato es muy gordo” — but having a meaningful conversation in Spanish without a translator is out of the question. So I was genuinely surprised the other day when, thanks to

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images When the Supreme Court upheld a law that banned TikTok from the US, it seemed well aware that its ruling could resonate far beyond one app. The justices delivered an unsigned opinion with a quote from Justice Felix Frankfurter from 1944: “in considering the application of established legal rules to the ‘totally new problems’ raised by the airplane and radio, we should take care not to ‘embarrass the future.’”
Last

2025 is going to be a big year for gaming (supposedly, we're getting Grand Theft Auto VI), so it's probably a good idea to start stocking up on all the accessories you'll need to set yourself up for success on the sticks. Thankfully, GameStop is hosting a limited-time buy one, get one 50% off sale on select gaming accessories for Pro members, and the included items are actually pretty amazing. Check out some of our top picks from the sale below. (Not already a Pro member? Go ahead and sign up.)S

Photo by Jun Sato / WireImage The release of Fantasian on Apple Arcade in 2021 was meant to be an end to the illustrious career of Hironobu Sakaguchi — but it seems like he can’t stay away.
Fantasian was a return to Sakaguchi’s roots, a throwback roleplaying game from the creator of the Final Fantasy series, which added some innovative gameplay ideas and an incredibly charming world made of handcrafted dioramas. And in December, his Mistwalker studio released a new version dubb

SAVE $60: As of Jan. 24, grab an Instant Pot Duo Plus for just $69.99, down from $129.99, at Amazon. That's a 46% discount on a 9-in-1 pressure cooker.Opens in a new windowCredit: Instant Pot Instant Pot Duo Plus 9-in-1 Pressure Cooker $69.99 at Amazon $129.99 Save $60.00Get DealI’ve already had so many soups, chilis, and pasta this year, and it’s only January. If you're also craving cozy comfort food but don't have time to spend hours in the kitchen, Amazon's latest deal on an Insta

Photo by Karl-Josef Hildenbrand/picture alliance via Getty Images Sony is officially ending production of recordable Blu-rays. In an announcement from Japan spotted by Tom’s Hardware, Sony Storage Media Solutions said it will stop manufacturing the discs in February, alongside recordable MiniDiscs, MD-Data, and MiniDV cassettes, adding, “there will be no successor models.”
This discontinuation doesn’t impact the Blu-rays you can buy with films or TV shows on them; it just

SAVE $200: As of Jan. 24, you can score a 13-inch MacBook Air (M3, 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD) for $899 at Best Buy. Opens in a new windowCredit: Apple 13-inch MacBook Air (M3, 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD)$899.00 at Best Buy$1,099.00 Save $200.00Get DealIf you thought you couldn’t get a laptop worth buying for less than $1,000, Best Buy has a solid deal that might change your mind. As of Jan. 24, you can get a 13-inch MacBook Air (M3, 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD) for $899 at Best Buy. That’s a $200 price c

Right now, there’s at least one nuclear-power, nuclear-armed submarine stealthily patrolling the waters off the UK. The sub is powered by a nuclear reactor, so it can cruise undetected for over 20 years without refuelling. Oh, and it’s also armed with eight nuclear warheads — each six times more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.  Since 1969, the Royal Navy has kept at least one of these fission-powered submarines in the water at all times. The vessels ar

Image: The Verge Samsung’s new phones will almost certainly be the most popular Android phones of 2025. They’ll probably also be among the best Android phones of 2025. And yet the Unpacked event this week felt like one of the most boring phone launches... ever. Are we entering a new phase of the smartphone industry, in which companies basically just launch the same thing over and over? Wait a second: have we been in that phase for a while now?
On this episode of The Vergecast, we tal

Photo by Tom Warren / The Verge Microsoft says it’s shutting down its UK “experience center” in London next month, nearly six years after it first opened as a 21,000-square-foot Microsoft store. “To better align with its focus on digital growth, Microsoft has decided to exit the lease at the Microsoft Experience Centre in London early,” says an unnamed Microsoft spokesperson in a statement to Windows Central.
The store originally opened in July 2019, just months bef

SAVE $30: As of Jan. 24, the JLab JBuds Lux ANC headphones are on sale for $49.99 at Best Buy. This is $30 off their list price of $79.99.Opens in a new windowCredit: JLabJLab JBuds Lux ANC Headphones$49.99 at Best Buy $79.99 Save $30.00Get DealFinding a good pair of noise-canceling headphones with an affordable price tag outside of big seasonal sale events can be tricky. Thankfully, Best Buy's offering a very nice deal on the JLab JBuds Lux ANC headphones, so you can invest in noise-canceling h