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Instagram boss Adam Mosseri is closing out 2025 with a 20-images-deep dive into what a new era of "infinite synthetic content" means as it all becomes harder and harder to distinguish from reality, and the old, more personal Instagram feed that he says has been "dead" for years. Last year, The Verge's Sarah Jeong wrote that "…the default assumption about a photo is about to become that it's faked, because creating realistic and believable fake photos is now trivial to do," and Mosseri eventually concurs: For most of my life I could safely assume photographs or videos were largely accurate captures of moments that happened. This is clearly … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/FQao5ux

The Dreame X40 Ultra used to be one of our robot vacuums on the market before its successor took its place. With the year coming to a close, now’s a good time to set yourself up for a cleaner, more organized start in 2026. The Dreame X40 Ultra — one of our favorite robot vacuum deals from Black Friday — can handle most of the heavy lifting for you, and it’s once again on sale. You can currently buy it for $503 ($697 off) at Amazon at checkout, which is just $4 more than its record low price set during Black Friday. Dreame X40 Ultra Where to Buy: $1199.99 $503 at Amazon $1199.99 $649.99 at Dreame $1199.99 $549.99 at Best Buy Before the Dreame X50 Ultra took its place, the X40 Ultra was our favorite robovac / mop hybrid for hard floors and carpets . Like the X50 Ultra, it delivers excellent mopping performance, thanks to dual oscillating mop pads that can extend into edges and reach under consoles and cabinets. It can also automatically detach and reattach its mop pad...

In a good and just society, it would have been possible to bury Charlie Kirk without either threatening mass violence toward his enemies or making light of his death with a furry sex meme. But America in 2025 did not remotely resemble a working society, let alone a civil one, and Kirk's killing came prepackaged with its own desecrating shitposts. There was, briefly, an attempt at a national mood of somberness. The president ordered flags across the nation to be lowered to half-staff. Politicians, celebrities, and other public figures - even those not aligned with Kirk on the right - rushed out with condolences and grief, painting completely … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/gx7cifW

2025 was a big year for gaming, and that includes gaming hardware. Nintendo launched its Switch 2 console in June, and since then, numerous Switch 2 titles and noteworthy updates for original Switch games have launched. These include brand-new Nintendo experiences like Mario Kart World and Donkey Kong Bananza , as well as some belated but welcome third-party titles, including Cyberpunk 2077 and Divinity: Original Sin 2 . Even classics like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild got some new life on the upgraded console. If you're considering buying a console, or you're getting one for someone else, there are 11 games that we think are a must … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/CZtc0zo

Two former employees at cybersecurity firms - one of whom was a ransomware negotiator - have pleaded guilty to carrying out a series of ransomware attacks in 2023. The Department of Justice announced the guilty pleas on Tuesday, saying 40-year-old Ryan Goldberg and 36-year-old Kevin Martin extorted $1.2 million in Bitcoin from a medical device company and targeted several others. Goldberg, Martin, and an unnamed co-conspirator were indicted for the attacks in October , which involved using ALPHV / BlackCat ransomware to encrypt and steal data from their victims. As reported by the Chicago Sun-Times , Martin and the third conspirator worked as … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/1jF9Zlg

An f/1.2 aperture is a beautiful thing. Canon's new EOS R6 Mark III is an excellent camera . It's not a groundbreaking upgrade to the 3-year-old R6 Mark II, but it takes the same body with great ergonomics and adds more resolution, video that now goes up to 7K with open-gate filming, and improved autofocus performance. If you're in need of an impeccably good all-around camera for anything from wildlife photography to weddings and videography, you can't go wrong. It's an easy recommendation, especially if you already shoot Canon and are due for an upgrade. (But a used R6 Mark II is also very appealing if the higher $2,799.99 price is too lofty.) But the lens Canon launched alongsid … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/F0Yu7pd

In early December, Joshua Aaron, the developer behind the ICEBlock app - designed to let people alert others about the presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents - filed a federal lawsuit alleging his First Amendment rights were violated. The Department of Justice had urged Apple to remove Aaron's app from its App Store, which the suit called unconstitutional. And Apple had complied - in the process, setting its own precedent for suppressing anti-ICE speech. The year 2025 has marked perhaps the biggest leap back for American free speech in generations. The Trump administration's war on immigrants and civil liberties has le … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/X8lMVzq

In just the past couple years, the art TV category that's been dominated by Samsung's The Frame has seen growth, with additions from both TCL and Hisense. Now LG has announced its own entry, the LG Gallery TV. The TV will leverage the Gallery+ service that LG released earlier this year, which includes thousands of display visuals ranging from pieces of art to cinematic images to gaming scenes. Much like Samsung's Art Store, Gallery+ has a limited free option, but its full capability requires a subscription. The new Gallery TV shouldn't be confused with the G Series OLED TVs, like the LG G5 , even though the G Series used to be called the Gal … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/i6K7hv2

GOG is splitting from CD Projekt, the game company that launched the preservation-focused PC gaming marketplace in 2008. In an update on Monday , GOG announced that its co-founder, Michał Kiciński, has acquired the digital storefront and its online gaming platform GOG Galaxy from CD Projekt - which he also co-founded - for $25.2 million. The acquisition isn't changing anything about GOG's mission to keep games DRM-free, according to the announcement that says it's "more central to GOG than ever:" GOG has always been built on strong values and clear principles. When Marcin Iwiński and Michał Kiciński first came up with the idea for GOG in 2 … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/HC649XZ

The Google Photos Memories feature will be exclusive to Samsung for six months. Google Photos will finally be available on TVs next year, starting with an upcoming integration for Samsung TVs. Samsung announced that the planned integration will "seamlessly bring the photos people capture on their phones to Samsung TVs, where they can appear in a larger, cinematic format," and that it wants Google Photos to be "deeply woven into the TV experience." There currently isn't a native TV app for Google Photos, even on the company's own Google TV platform, though Samsung's announcement doesn't specify that this new integration will be launching as a dedicated app. Samsung says it's first aiming to bring a Memories feature that … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/juxP2AE

LG unveiled a whole new line of gaming monitors ahead of CES on Friday. The UltraGear evo line are all high-end monitors covering a range of technologies, but united by 5K resolution and AI upscaling. The three flagships under the new branding are the 39GX950B, the 27GM950B, and the 52G930B. The first number in the model name indicates the size. The rest of the letters and numbers, well, I'm sure they mean something to someone. The 39-inch GX9 is an ultrawide 21:9 5K2K dual-mode OLED screen. It can run at its full resolution at 165Hz, or jump to 330Hz for fast-twitch games at WFHD. The 27-inch GM9 uses "New" MiniLEDs, which promise to del … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/4n51ENQ

Things that HP Lovecraft was good at: Creating a mythos. Building atmosphere. Things that HP Lovecraft was bad at: Writing dialog. Creating compelling characters. Not being a racist . As a fan of horror in general, I can't pretend that Lovecraft isn't an important touchstone . But the man's blatant racism is also impossible to ignore, especially since it often finds its way onto the pages of his stories. One of the most notorious is The Horror at Red Hook , which follows Detective Thomas Malone as he uncovers a sinister cult in the titular Brooklyn neighborhood. The Ballad of Black Tom is a retelling of that story, but from the perspective … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/HSiPVRt

The Nintendo Power Glove was not good. It's important that you know that. The Power Glove was ambitious, impressive, even important - one of the very first mainstream devices that let you control a game using your body instead of just your thumbs - but it was not good. In some ways, its not-good-ness is a key part of the story. The Power Glove showed up in the late 1980s, at a complicated time for the gaming industry, when Nintendo was a hugely powerful force for the future of fun. But the Power Glove wasn't really even a Nintendo product. It started as a research lark, became a toy, and only wound up with Nintendo's name on it after a part … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/CUDbR4Z

Yesterday, Ubisoft confirmed that Rainbow Six Siege had been compromised and that it had shut down the game's servers and marketplace while it resolved the issue. The hackers managed to gain control over a significant chunk of the game's systems, including the ability to ban and unban users, sending custom messages to ban ticker, unlocking all in-game items, and granting every player 2 billion R6 Credits and Renown. Ubisoft sells R6 credits in its store, pricing 15,000 of them at $99.99. That means the actual cash value of 2 billion R6 credits is about $13.33 million. Ubisoft made it clear that nobody would be punished for spending any c … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/mSad8j1

In this new era of console… inclusivity ? driven by Sony and mostly Microsoft bringing their exclusives to other platforms, it's getting harder to highlight games that make a singular console shine. Indeed, the top-performing games year after year on both PlayStation and Xbox are multiplatform releases, and often the best games of the year, like 2025 GOTY winner Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 , similarly launch on most everything . (Once again, like in all things, Nintendo is the exception.) But while lists like this will probably disappear as we get deeper into the era of everything being an Xbox, Sony still seems committed to high-quality exclu … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/EkqeWyS

For years, Samsung has made products that try to camouflage what they are by displaying works of art. The Frame TV is the most famous example, but the company also released the Music Frame , a speaker disguised as a picture frame, at last year's CES. Now, instead of hiding a speaker with a piece of art, Samsung worked with designer Erwan Bouroullec to make a speaker into a piece of art. According to Samsung, the Music Studio line of speakers, debuting at CES 2026, draw inspiration from the "timeless dot concept" found throughout music and art. As a musician, the Music Studio 5 reminds me of a fermata, the symbol meant to hold a note or silen … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/weECuz5

ISO corporate scapegoat. OpenAI is hiring a Head of Preparedness . Or, in other words, someone whose primary job is to think about all the ways AI could go horribly, horribly wrong. In a post on X , Sam Altman announced the position by acknowledging that the rapid improvement of AI models poses "some real challenges." The post goes on to specifically call out the potential impact on people's mental health and the dangers of AI-powered cybersecurity weapons. The job listing says the person in the role would be responsible for: "Tracking and preparing for frontier capabilities that create new risks of severe harm. You will be the directly responsible leader for bui … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/duCrxQi

Google’s Pixel 10 phones are some of the best Android phones on the market. If you’re taking it easy during the slow, in-between week between Christmas and New Year’s, now’s a good time to catch up on deals you might’ve missed. Many of our favorite discounts from the past week are still hanging around, making this an especially convenient moment to shop. Whether you’re eyeing a new phone, gearing up for travel, or just looking to treat yourself before the year wraps up, we’re seeing notable price drops on Google’s Pixel 10 lineup , AirTags , and a wide selection of Nintendo Switch games , along with a handful of other Verge-approved picks worth grabbing now. Here are the best deals worth checking out before the year comes to a close. Google Pixel 10 This model touts a 6.3-inch 1080p OLED that supports up to a 120Hz refresh rate. It has the same Tensor G5 processor found in all Pixel 10-series phones, but with a slightly lower 12GB RAM count compared to 16GB on the Pro. Verge rev...

I played a lot of games on my Steam Deck this year. It seemed like there was a never-ending list of incredible indie games to try - The Verge wrote about a lot of them! - and many worked brilliantly on Valve's handheld gaming PC. Some bigger games made a splash on Steam Deck, too, and while they may not look as good as on a beefy PC, I'm usually happy to deal with that simply because I can play them on the couch or out of the house. If you're unwrapping a Steam Deck for the holidays this year, or have some Steam gift cards burning a hole in your pocket, here are some of my recommendations of games released in 2025 that you might want to che … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/qRUoO89

Dominion Energy, an offshore wind developer and utility serving Virginia's "data center alley," filed suit against the Trump administration this week over its decision to pause federal leases for large offshore wind projects. The move puts a sudden stop to five wind farms already under construction, including Dominion's Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project. The complaint Dominion filed Tuesday alleges that a stop work order that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) issued Monday is unlawful, "arbitrary and capricious," and "infringes upon constitutional principles that limit actions by the Executive Branch." Dominion wants a fede … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/UukLBaK

There are plenty of dating apps out there, and apps that turn your chaos of work obligations into easily actionable lists. There is also a growing number of apps that help you make new friends. The pitch for Rodeo is a bit different in that it uses AI to help you schedule activities with your existing friends. The company was started by a pair of former Hinge execs who felt it was more difficult than it should be to make plans with friends. Parenting, work, 37 different group chats - all of this can lead to things like maintaining your relationships falling by the wayside. Rodeo can take social media posts for events or restaurants, or e … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/wExBspZ

If you've been saddled with some awful Gmail address you chose in high school (looking at you, LazySexyCool3030), help appears to be on the way. According to a Google account support page in Hindi the company is allowing some people to change their email address. According to the page (via Google Translate): If your Google Account email address ends with gmail.com, you can replace it with one that ends with @gmail.com. This appears to be more like adding a second address to your account than actually changing your email address, however. Email sent to your old address will still arrive in your inbox, and that address will still work to s … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/U83iEvJ

LG is getting ready to take the wraps off a new robot it claims is capable of performing a "wide range" of household chores. The robot, called LG CLOiD, will make its debut at CES next month, featuring two articulated arms and five individually actuated fingers on each hand. Though we only have a description and two images showing LG CLOiD's five-fingered hands, it already seems a lot different from the two-wheeled home companion LG revealed last year, which came with a handle attached to its head rather than two arms. LG says CLOiD's motor-equipped arms operate with seven degrees of freedom , indicating a more human-like range of motion an … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/DJ7awEy

Buddy’s in space. When your kid starts showing a preference for one of their stuffed animals, you're supposed to buy a backup in case it goes missing. I've heard this advice again and again, but never got around to buying a second plush deer once "Buddy" became my son's obvious favorite. Neither, apparently, did the parents in Google's newest ad for Gemini . It's the fictional but relatable story of two parents discovering their child's favorite stuffed toy, a lamb named Mr. Fuzzy, was left behind on an airplane. They use Gemini to track down a replacement, but the new toy is on backorder. In the meantime, they stall by using Gemini to create images and vid … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/rNVx6nE

AI isn't new to Hollywood - but this was the year when it really made its presence felt. For years now, the entertainment industry has used different kinds of generative AI products for a variety of post-production processes ranging from de-aging actors to removing green screen backgrounds. In many instances, the technology has been a useful tool for human artists tasked with tedious and painstaking labor that might have otherwise taken them inordinate amounts of time to complete. But in 2025, Hollywood really began warming to the idea of deploying the kind of gen AI that's really only good for conjuring up text-to-video slop that doesn't ha … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/W2xAeTK

If you’re in the market for a new Android smartphone — or on the hunt for a solid last-minute gift — Google’s Pixel 10 is a great place to look. We consider it the best Android phone you can buy, and right now, you can grab it at Amazon starting at $449 ($350 off) when you use promo code PIXEL10 , which drops Google’s entry-level flagship to its lowest price to date. If you prefer a better cameras or a bigger screen, Amazon is also offering the Pixel 10 Pro and the Pixel 10 Pro XL for $649 ($350 off) and $799 ($400 off), respectively, using the same code. Google Pixel 10 (128GB) Where to Buy: $799 $449 at Amazon (with code PIXEL10) $799 $599 at Best Buy $799 $599 at Google Google Pixel 10 Pro Where to Buy: $999 $649 at Amazon (with code PIXEL10) $999 $749 at Best Buy $999 $749 at Google Store In her review , Verge senior reviewer Allison Johnson called the Pixel 10 a great, basic Android phone that offers some notable upgrades over its predecessor . It...

IO Interactive has delayed the release of 007 First Light , its upcoming James Bond origin story game, by two months. 007 First Light will now be released on May 27th, 2026. According to an announcement about the delay : 007 First Light is our most ambitious project to date, and the team has been fully focused on delivering an unforgettable James Bond experience, bringing together breathtaking action, globe-trotting, spycraft, gadgets, car chases, and more. As an independent developer and publisher, this decision allows us to ensure the experience meets the level of quality you players deserve on day one. The game is progressing well and … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/M5hJLEv

Ahead of CES 2026 getting underway in early January, Birdfy has announced two new camera-equipped smart bird feeders that can identify and capture visitors in slow motion. The Birdfy Hum Bloom is specifically designed to attract and record hummingbirds using a nectar bulb that mimics flowers they're naturally attracted to, while the Feeder Vista introduces a 360-degree camera and a bottom-up feeding system that doesn't obstruct views. Both feeders are expected to be available in Q2 of 2026 but pricing hasn't been announced. The Birdfy Hum Bloom is built around an 8MP camera that can capture 4K video of hummingbirds at 20fps. Capturing 120fp … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/8b6cjpu

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 had earned another Game of the Year award by the Indie Game Awards last week, but the organization has since announced that the award would be retracted because developer Sandfall Interactive used generative AI during development. The Indie Game Awards also rescinded the Debut Game award given to Expedition 33 . Here is the Indie Game Awards' explanation, from an FAQ : The Indie Game Awards have a hard stance on the use of gen AI throughout the nomination process and during the ceremony itself. When it was submitted for consideration, a representative of Sandfall Interactive agreed that no gen AI was used in the … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/pTOWQml

According to YouTube's 2025 Recap feature , the podcast I consumed the most on its platform was Seth Meyers' recurring segment "A Closer Look" on his show Late Night. Last year, I would have argued that this is not a podcast. That it is, in fact, a clip of a TV show. But in 2025, with almost every major podcast now having a video component, the definition of the word "podcast" has become pretty meaningless. A decades-old TV show talk show format is now almost indistinguishable from podcasts like Good Hang with Amy Poehler , Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard, Club Shay Shay with Shannon Sharpe , and other shows at the top of Spotify's podcast c … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/orCyQv1

These days when you want to engage with some media, you can choose from podcasts, videos, games, live performances - or books, one of the oldest and most popular ways to learn something new or escape (at least temporarily) from today's troubled world. We polled the staff of The Verge to find out what books they read over the past year that really struck a chord - because the books were enlightening, educational, or just enjoyable. Here are some of the answers we got. (And please let us know what your favorite reads were in 2025 in the comments.) Brandt Ranj, commerce writer Screwing up is one of the inevitabilities of life, but dwelling … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/zl5LwPO

PayPal’s Honey browser extension has been lauded for years as an easy way to find coupons online. But some are calling it a “scam” after a deep dive from YouTuber MegaLag, who accused Honey of “stealing money from influencers,” and returned one year later with a second video that says Honey targeted minors, collected data on people who never signed up for its service, and exploited small businesses. The first video shines a light mostly on Honey’s use of last-click attribution, swapping its tracking cookie in for others’ when you interact with it. The second video tracks a series of emails between Honey and small businesses that lost revenue from its use of private coupon codes and how it attempted to squeeze them to sign up as partners, as well as its approach of sponsoring YouTubers with large audiences of younger viewers, like Mr Beast. PayPal issued statements after the first video in 2024 saying that it follows “industry rules and practices” like last-click attribution. But...

Waymo driverless car is not able to detect traffic lights after a major power outage in San Francisco, California, | Photo by Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu via Getty Images A power outage struck San Francisco on Saturday that blacked out about 130,000 customers at its peak, according to Pacific Gas and Electric Company , but also caused another problem: stranded Waymo vehicles. Posts all over social media showed the company's autonomous SUVs sitting still in the streets and causing traffic jams. Some people posted videos of Teslas using the FSD feature to navigate the same streets, and Elon Musk tweeted that "Tesla Robotaxis were unaffected by the SF power outage." Power out in SF and the @Waymo 's are causing a MASSIVE jam in North Beach 🤣 pic.twitter.com/fuvhprlyma - Iago Maciel (@_iagomaciel) December 21, … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/FILdquo

Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 110, your guide to the best and Verge -iest stuff in the world. (If you're new here, welcome, happy holidays, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage .) This week, I've been reading about mall Santas and malleable software and phone bans , wondering how I barely know any of the songs in DJ Earworm's annual mashup , waiting patiently for Ugmonk's Layflat notebooks to go back on sale, finally setting up my Switch 2 Camera for some holiday gaming, trying desperately to not come in last place in my fantasy football league, using MCP to build some really weird note-taking workflows … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/KMD8U9B

The holidays have a way of sneaking up on us. One minute you're trick-or-treating with your kids, and the next you're panic shopping in a Buc-ee's gift aisle. But it doesn't have to be that way. With the right cheat sheet, you can keep the holiday spirit high and stress levels low. Fortunately, we did some planning on your behalf. As much as we love playing with the latest gadgets and gizmos here at The Verge , we also love recommending them. That's why, after consulting with our expert team of writers and editors, we've compiled a medley of gift ideas that won't be regifted come this time next year - from noise-canceling earbuds and e-reade … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/wvcdE8A

If you’re feeling the stress of having procrastinated on your holiday shopping — and you missed out during Black Friday and Cyber Monday — we’ve got you. We’ve found a variety of gadgets on sale that make for great gifts, many of which will ship in time for the holidays. One of the standouts is the current promo on Sony’s noise-canceling WH-1000XM5 headphones , which are on sale with a free pair of wireless earbuds. Other deals you may have missed include steep discounts on Amazon’s latest entry-level Kindle and the new Echo Dot Max . Sony WH-1000XM5 Where to Buy: $399.99 $248 at Amazon (with WF-C700N) $399.99 $248 at Best Buy $399.99 $249.99 at Target Sony’s last-gen WH-1000XM5 have consistently impressed us with their audio quality, active noise cancellation, and comfort. And right now, Amazon is offering them with a free pair of Sony’s WF-C700N earbuds for $248 ($152 off). The headphones have an updated design that includes a thinner headband, more memory foam in...