its ur expert

Google just announced that Gemini will soon be able to take care of some multi-step tasks on your phone, like ordering food or hailing a car, starting first with the Pixel 10, Pixel 10 Pro, and the just-announced Samsung Galaxy S26 phones. It all sounds a bit like features Apple announced for Siri way back at the 2024 Worldwide Developers Conference - before Apple delayed those planned features in March 2025 and which still aren't released . Onstage, Sameer Samat, Google's president of Android, showed off a demo of how Gemini's new agentic features would work to help wrangle a pizza dinner order from his busy family group chat. Samat asks Ge … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/mIVvPje

Kalshi, the prediction betting market, has disclosed its first fines for insider trading, as reported earlier by The Wall Street Journal . In addition to handing down a $20,000 fine to a MrBeast editor, Kalshi also charged a California gubernatorial candidate over $2,000 after a video on X "appeared to show him trading on his own candidacy." In a notice on Wednesday, Kalshi claims MrBeast editor Artem Kaptur traded about $4,000 on YouTube streaming markets, violating its insider trading rules. "Our surveillance systems flagged his near-perfect trading success on markets with low odds, which were statistically anomalous," Bobby DeNault, legal … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/ATwyxHK

Age verification is a reality on a growing number of social media platforms, requiring an ID or facial scan for full access to everything from YouTube to Roblox . The age-gating wave is coming along with calls for stronger child safety measures online , despite concerns about privacy, security, and censorship.  In the US, lawmakers are pushing forward bills like the App Store Accountability Act and Parents Over Platforms Act to have app stores themselves verify users’ ages.  Discord has delayed plans to roll out age verification globally after user backlash until later in 2026, but it hasn’t completely shelved them, even after a breach of a former vendor last year that leaked some users’ scanned IDs. Meanwhile, other platforms, like ChatGPT and Google , are applying AI models to identify and lock down accounts suspected of being underage until some form of identity verification can prove the user is an adult. Follow along below for the latest updates on age verificati...

Discord won't roll out age verification globally on its platform next month as previously announced , and says in a blog post that it's delaying the launch until the second half of 2026. "The way this landed, many of you walked away thinking we're requiring face scans and ID uploads from everyone just to use Discord. That's not what's happening, but the fact that so many people believe it tells us we failed at our most basic job: clearly explaining what we're doing and why," writes Discord CTO Stanislav Vishnevskiy. Discord says that before it rolls out age verification globally, it will add more options for users to verify their age (inclu … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/iJelMPk

When Irish filmmaker Ruairi Robinson began uploading a series of short clips created with Seedance 2.0 - TikTok developer ByteDance's newest video generation model - it was hard to deny that the footage was much more impressive than what we've seen from other gen AI outfits. The clips' star (a digital duplicate of Tom Cruise) looked a lot like the real thing as it fought Brad Pitt, humanoid robots, and zombies. And the characters moved with a complex fluidity almost passing for choreography and amplified by kinetic "camerawork." Gen AI enthusiasts love to proclaim that the traditionally produced entertainment industry is cooked, and some of … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/lys2ILx

Anthropic's weekslong battle with the Department of Defense has played out over social media posts, admonishing public statements, and direct quotes from unnamed Pentagon officials to the news media. But the future of the $380 billion AI startup comes down to just three words: "any lawful use." The new terms, which OpenAI and xAI have reportedly already agreed to, would give the US military carte blanche to use services for mass surveillance and lethal autonomous weapons, AI that has full power to track and kill targets with no humans involved in the decision-making process. The negotiations have turned ugly, with Pentagon CTO Emil Michael … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/H65qDxK

Anthropic claims DeepSeek and two other Chinese AI companies misused its Claude AI model in an attempt to improve their own products. In an announcement on Monday , Anthropic says the "industrial-scale campaigns" involved the creation of around 24,000 fraudulent accounts and more than 16 million exchanges with Claude, as reported earlier by The Wall Street Journal . The three companies - DeepSeek, MiniMax, and Moonshot - are accused of "distilling" Claude , or training a smaller AI model based on a more advanced one. Though Anthropic says that distillation is a "legitimate training method," it adds that it can "also be used for illicit purpose … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/PNtDXR3

Image: Kristen Radtke / The Verge Last November, the House Oversight Committee had just released 20,000 pages of documents from the estate of Jeffrey Epstein, and Luke Igel and some friends were clicking around, trying to follow the threads of conversation through garbled email threads and a PDF viewer that was, frankly, "gross." In the coming months, the Department of Justice would release its own batches of files, more than three million of them - again, all PDFs. This was a problem. While the Department of Justice had run optical character recognition over the text, it was not very good, Igel said, rendering the files more or less unsearchable. "There was no interface … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/ruNbgdS

I wish I could talk to my Plex server… | Image: Samsung. In addition to summoning Bixby or Gemini , Galaxy S26 users will be able to call on Perplexity by saying " hey, Plex ." The integration of Perplexity into Galaxy AI is just one element of the company's embrace of a "multi-agent ecosystem." Often, people will use different AI agents for different tasks, depending on where their strengths lie. So Samsung is opening up the ability to integrate different agents into the OS. Hey, Plex isn't just some transparent version of the app baked into a Galaxy phone to quickly get answers to questions. Perplexity will have access to Samsung Notes, Clock, Gallery, Reminder, and Calendar, as well as select thi … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/Wl8oIJ3

I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Laurie Spiegel for the site. As preparation for the interview, I spent a lot of time over the last couple of weeks revisiting Spiegel's records, most notably The Expanding Universe , her 1980 masterpiece that blends synth experimentalism with early examples of what would eventually be called ambient music , and algorithmic composition techniques. It's a marvel that sounds both nostalgic and cutting-edge at the same time. Tracks like "Patchwork" and "A Folk Study" dabble in the sort of bouncy arpeggios that beg comparisons to The Who's "Baba O'Riley," while "Old Wave" and "East River Dawn" conjure ea … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/6TWL3Ov

The world’s first playable gaming magazine? Tetris has been immortalized in a playable McDonald's plastic chicken nugget , a playable fake 7-Eleven Slurpee cup , and a playable wristwatch . But the most intriguing way to play Tetris yet is encased in paper. Last year the Tetris Company partnered with Red Bull for a gaming tournament that culminated in the 150-meter-tall Dubai Frame landmark being turned into the world's largest playable Tetris installation using over 2,000 drones that functioned as pixels . Although the timing was a coincidence, Red Bull also published a 180-page gaming edition of its The Red Bulletin lifestyle magazine around the same time as the event, with a limite … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/uMYty5P

Fun vibes. Okay-ish photos. | Photo: Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge There's been a surge of interest over the last few years in inexpensive digital cameras. Younger folks are snapping up old point-and-shoots because they view the aesthetic as more authentic and more appealing than smartphone images. Companies are even rereleasing old tech at new prices . And there are cameras like the original Camp Snap : a $70 single-button point-and-shoot with no screen, designed as a modern take on a disposable film camera. It's cheap enough to send off with a kid to summer camp and accessible enough for just about anyone to enjoy its lo-fi aesthetic. I've been testing two charming examples of this formula: the $99 Camp S … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/QyjACOH

Arturia launched a new version of its flagship effects suite, FX Collection, which includes two new plugins, EFX Ambient and Pitch Shifter-910. FX Collection 6 also marks the introduction of an Intro version with a selection of six effects covering the basics for $99. That pales in comparison to the 39 effects in the full FX Collection Pro, but that also costs $499. Pitch Shifter-910 is based on the iconic Eventide H910 Harmonizer from 1974, an early digital pitchshifter and delay with a very unique character. Arturia does an admirable job preserving its glitchy quirks. Pitch Shifter-910 is not a transparent effect that lets you create natu … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/QjPxCWc

Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr is urging broadcasters to air "patriotic, pro-America content" in celebration of the US's 250th anniversary. The initiative, called the "Pledge America Campaign," encourages broadcasters to run public service announcements, short segments, or specials to promote "civic education, inspiring local stories, and American history." Carr says broadcasters can "voluntarily choose to indicate their commitment" to the campaign by doing things like starting the day with the "Star Spangled Banner" or Pledge of Allegiance, broadcasting daily programming to highlight historical events, as well as show … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/M0HXOQk

Where's the Trump phone? We're going to keep talking about it every week . This week, we explain how the presidential phone company connects to an older company that's really running the show. We've long known that Trump Mobile was linked to Liberty Mobile, a carrier that's traded for years using freedom-themed branding to sell cheap mobile plans to a conservative crowd. Turns out, the two businesses are even closer to one another than it had initially appeared. And as we wait for the launch of the Trump phone - potentially as soon as next month, having been delayed from August - it's worth understanding who's actually behind the device, reg … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/wLvRDbV

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is suing TP-Link over claims that the router-maker is misleading customers about its ties to China. In a lawsuit filed this week , Paxton claims TP-Link is "masking its Chinese connections," while serving as "an open window for Chinese-sponsored threat actors and Chinese intelligence agencies." TP-Link was founded in China, but has attempted to distance itself from the country in recent years. In 2018, the company established a manufacturing facility in Vietnam, and then centralized its global headquarters in the US in 2024, forming TP-Link Systems. Though TP-Link markets its routers and other products as " … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/5SfcITQ

A set of bellwether cases alleging that social media platforms harmed teens’ safety and mental health is going to trial this year, putting executives like Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg on the stand to answer questions about what they’ve done or not done to protect kids. Unlike many earlier legal challenges against social media companies, these cases managed to overcome the companies’ attempts to get them dismissed based on objections citing Section 230 , a law that protects online platforms from being held liable for their users’ speech. They accuse companies like Meta, Snap, TikTok, and Google-owned YouTube of designing their platforms in ways that, the plaintiffs claim, they knew could contribute to addiction, depression, and anxiety.  Follow along below for all of the latest updates from the trials we’re currently following. Zuckerberg enters the courthouse to testify about safety on Instagram. Mark Zuckerberg is taking the stand as social media goes on trial The social medi...

A leaked internal email obtained by 404 Media shows that Ring has bigger plans for its AI-powered neighborhood search capability than just looking for lost dogs. The outlet reports the email, sent last October by founder Jamie Siminoff to all Ring employees, says that with Search Party, "You can now see a future where we are able to zero out crime in neighborhoods." Ring, the Amazon-owned home security company, has come under intense criticism in recent weeks following a Super Bowl commercial for its Search Party feature that showed Ring cameras surveilling a neighborhood for lost dogs. The ad, which details how AI can be used to search … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/Ojun4bW

Polestar says it will release four new electric models over the next three years , including a new SUV and a revamped version of its Polestar 2 sedan. The Swedish automaker, which is owned by China's Geely, said it will start delivering its Polestar 5 grand tourer to customers this summer, followed by a new long-roof variant of its Polestar 4 in the fourth quarter. In early 2027, a "new successor" to the Polestar 2 will go into production. And in 2028, the company is planning to release a compact premium SUV as the Polestar 7 . The news comes after Polestar reported strong sales growth in 2025, with the automaker's full-year sales reaching … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/bFZ3uiX

The second-gen Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Apple is pushing ahead with plans to launch its first pair of smart glasses, along with an AI-powered pendant and camera-equipped AirPods, according to a report from Bloomberg 's Mark Gurman . The three devices come with built-in cameras and will connect to the iPhone, allowing Siri to use "visual context to carry out actions," Bloomberg reports. Apple is reportedly aiming to start production of its smart glasses in December, ahead of a 2027 launch. The new device will compete directly with Meta's lineup of smart glasses and is rumored to feature speakers, microphones, and a high-resolution camera for taking photos and videos, in addition to … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/58QymTD

Starting on Tuesday, WordPress users can edit their websites using the new AI assistant built into the platform's site editor and media library, TechCrunch reports. The AI has a sidebar in the WordPress site editor where users can ask it to edit and translate text, generate and edit images using Google's Nano Banana, and make adjustments to their sites like creating new pages or changing fonts. Users can also interact with the AI through the new block notes feature WordPress added in its 6.9 update in December, which allows users to leave comments in the site editor. By tagging the AI assistant with "@ai" in block notes, users can give it p … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/tceh3aM

Even if the AI wasn’t being disclosed, its usage in these videos isn’t exactly subtle. | Image: Samsung / The Verge After cramming AI into every inch of its smartphones, appliances, and other devices, Samsung is now increasingly slapping it across social media. Several videos posted to the company's YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok accounts in recent weeks were made or edited using generative AI tools, including its latest teaser for the upcoming Galaxy S26 series. The " Brighten your after hours " video features two people skateboarding at night, and supposedly shows off the low-light video capabilities of the upcoming Galaxy S26 devices. Fine print appears at the bottom of the screen towards the end of the video, flagging that it was "generated with the as … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/n4i3Hcm

Valve has updated the Steam Deck website to say that the Steam Deck OLED may be out of stock "intermittently in some regions due to memory and storage shortages." The PC gaming handheld has been out of stock in the US and other parts of the world for a few days , and thanks to this update, we now know why. The update comes shortly after Valve delayed the Steam Machine, Steam Frame, and Steam Controller from a planned shipping window of early 2026 because of the memory and storage crunch. "We have work to do to land on concrete pricing and launch dates that we can confidently announce, being mindful of how quickly the circumstances around bot … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/SPEZOns

iPhone 17 Pro Apple is starting to test end-to-end encrypted (E2EE) RCS messages with the developer beta of iOS 26.4 released Monday. Apple announced plans last year to support the feature, and once fully available, it will let iPhone and Android users send encrypted RCS messages to each other across platforms. However, with this initial implementation, Apple is only testing RCS encryption between Apple devices. It's "not yet testable with other platforms," Apple says. The company also doesn't plan to ship E2EE RCS messages with iOS 26.4; the feature will actually ship publicly in a "future update," Apple says. RCS messages significantly improve the exp … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/cvEayUJ

Apple is upgrading its Podcasts app to let users "seamlessly" swap between audio and video podcasts using its HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) technology. While listening to a show, users will be able to switch to a horizontal video version of the podcast and download the video versions of a podcast for offline viewing. By giving users the option to quickly change between audio and video, Apple might be able to keep users from jumping to other platforms to watch episodes of their favorite shows. Video is becoming an increasingly popular way to consume podcasts, with YouTube saying last February that more than 1 billion people watch podcasts on the … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/AGXB3Kv

Hollywood groups have spoken out against Seedance 2.0 since generated videos like fight scenes between Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt went viral. | Image by Dave Benett / WireImage via Getty TikTok creator ByteDance says that it is working to improve safeguards on its new AI video generator after Disney, Paramount, and Hollywood trade groups accused the tool of violating copyright protections. Concerns were raised after hyperrealistic videos generated by the Seedance 2.0 model went viral last week, with the likeness of actors, such as Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt, and characters from Dragon Ball Z , Family Guy , and Pokémon . "ByteDance respects intellectual property rights and we have heard the concerns regarding Seedance 2.0," a ByteDance spokesperson said in a statement shared by CNBC . "We are taking steps to strengthen current saf … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/aQLM4cF

Two hours before one of the most important live events in Netflix's history, LA's sprawling CBS Radford Studio Center is abuzz with the strangest combination of things. As I walk through one cavernous soundstage on a Tuesday afternoon, I hear multiple people warming up their voices to sing. I pass a man carefully waving a hair dryer in front of a piano. Outside, a man and a woman, both in scant black leather, walk past with a wave. I'm told they're aerialists. Somewhere in this enormous rehearsal space, there's also a 74-year-old budding standup comedian, an 11-year-old gospel singer, and a dancing border collie. Such is the wondrous, bizar … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/NQ2ISPE

Sam Altman announced on X that Peter Steinberger, the man behind the trendy AI agent OpenClaw , was joining OpenAI. He said that Steinberger has "a lot of amazing ideas" about getting AI agents to interact with each other, saying "the future is going to be extremely multi-agent." He also said that this ability for agents to work together will "quickly become core to our product offerings." OpenClaw, previously known as Moltbot and Clawdbot, exploded on the scene earlier this year and became the darling of the tech world . Its rise was swift, but not without its bumps along the way. Earlier this month, researchers found over 400 malicious skil … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/Du6q03i

The first-gen AirTag remains a good tracker, though remember you’ll need to buy a separate accessory to attach it to your belongings. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge With Apple’s second-gen AirTags now widely available, we’re already seeing inventory of the first-gen model begin to dwindle. Case in point? Amazon is no longer selling a single AirTag, and it’s unclear when — or if — the retailer will restock the first-gen model. Thankfully, you can still grab a four-pack of the first-gen location trackers for around $64 ($35 off) at Amazon , Walmart , and Best Buy for Presidents Day, which is $2 shy of the bundle’s best price to date. If you just want one, you can also buy a single tracker at Walmart for $17 ($12 off). Apple AirTag (first-gen) Where to Buy: $99 $64 at Amazon (four-pack) $99 $64 at Walmart (four-pack) $99 $64.99 at Best Buy (four-pack) If you’re an iPhone owner, you’d be hard-pressed to find another tracker that’s as precise or as helpful as Apple...

This is The Stepback , a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more news about video game industry's pushback against generative AI, follow Jay Peters . The Stepback arrives in our subscribers' inboxes at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepback here . How it started Long before the generative AI explosion, video game developers made games that could generate their own worlds. Think of titles like Minecraft or even the original 1980 Rogue that is the basis for the term "roguelike"; these games and many others create worlds on the fly with certain rules and parameters. Human developers painstakingly work to make s … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/AByL9uk

Lesley Groff, Epstein’s executive assistant. | Image: Jmail The folks behind Jmail are at it again with a clone of Wikipedia that turns the treasure trove of data in Epstein's emails into detailed dossiers on his associates. Entries include known visits to Epstein's properties, possible knowledge of Epstein's crimes, and laws that they might have broken. The reports are dense, listing how many emails they exchanged with Epstein, basic biographical information, and details about how they're connected. Beyond that, there are entries for the properties Epstein owns , detailing how they were acquired and the alleged activities that took place there. There are also entries for his business dealings, incl … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/aHtLliW

The DJI Romo robot vacuum in its translucent dock. | Image: DJI Sammy Azdoufal claims he wasn't trying to hack every robot vacuum in the world. He just wanted to remote control his brand-new DJI Romo vacuum with a PS5 gamepad, he tells The Verge , because it sounded fun. But when his homegrown remote control app started talking to DJI's servers, it wasn't just one vacuum cleaner that replied. Roughly 7,000 of them, all around the world, began treating Azdoufal like their boss. He could remotely control them, and look and listen through their live camera feeds, he tells me, saying he tested that out with a friend. He could watch them map out each room of a house, generating a complete 2D floor plan. He … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/2PalHOR

The close timing of Jeffrey Epstein coming into contact with 4chan founder Chris 'moot' Poole and the launch of the "politically incorrect" message board /pol/ that became a breeding ground for QAnon and the white supremacist alt-right movement was coincidental, says Poole. In a statement given to The Verge , Pool writes, "The decision to add the board was made weeks beforehand, and the board was added almost 24 hours prior to a first, chance encounter at a social event." Speculation about the timing arose after emails found in the millions of documents released by the Department of Justice showed Epstein and venture capitalist Boris Nikolic … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/zCnOWZs

If you like how well AirPods work with iPhones but want something more colorful and flexible, the Beats Studio Buds Plus are a nice middle ground. They’re platform-agnostic and are on sale for $99.95 ($70 off) at Amazon , Best Buy , Target , and Walmart for Presidents Day. The deal includes the eye-catching translucent option and is just $10 shy of the buds’ best price to date.  Beats Studio Buds Plus Where to Buy: $169.95 $99.95 at Amazon $169.95 $99.95 at Walmart $169.95 $99.99 at Best Buy Unlike Apple’s AirPods , the Beats Studio Buds Plus play well with both iOS and Android devices, which is why they’re among our favorite wireless earbuds . You don’t get every ecosystem perk, but you do get a lot of the essentials. Apple iPhone owners, for example, get hands-free Siri, Find My support, one-step pairing, and Control Center integration. You miss out on AirPods-exclusive features like automatic device switching and spatial audio head-tracking, but in exchange, And...

User reviews on Steam may get more informative after a Steam Client Beta update released on Thursday , which adds an option for users to attach their hardware specs to game reviews. Steam users have always been able to share their specs in the text of their reviews, but the option to automatically include that data could encourage more users to add it, potentially making reviews more useful. When a user posts a negative review or reports having performance issues, the attached hardware specs could reveal why, highlighting when performance issues might be caused by a player's hardware rather than a problem with the game itself (such as specs … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/HsWctiA

Exhaust billows out of a car tailpipe on January 2nd, 2008, in San Francisco. | Photo: Getty Images The Trump administration just eliminated the landmark finding that has underpinned federal regulations on planet-heating pollution since 2009. For nearly the past two decades, the " endangerment finding " has allowed the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to craft rules limiting greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act. Rather than repealing those rules individually, the Trump administration can undermine them all at once by attacking the endangerment finding. Today, the EPA finalized its plans to overturn the endangerment finding as part of its attempts to overhaul tailpipe pollution standards. The move could also affect efforts … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/fAabNsg

The Epstein files have revealed more about the pedophile’s relationship to 4Chan. | Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images On October 24th, 2011, Jeffrey Epstein was emailing back and forth with Boris Nikolic, a biotech venture capitalist who would later be named as a backup executor of Epstein's will. The two appeared to be discussing a meeting Nikolic had helped arrange between Epstein and "moot," the screen name for Christopher Poole, who created the platform 4chan in 2003. Nikolic asked Epstein if he liked moot, and Epstein wrote back that he liked him a lot, thought he was very bright, and had driven him home. All of these emails were published for the first time alongside 3.5 million other documents in the latest (delayed) release of Epstein files by the … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/CBDYpna

Aurora, the driverless truck firm founded by former members of Google's pioneering self-driving car team, is branching out. In advance of its quarterly earnings report today, the company announced that a new software update would enable it to triple its driverless network to a total of 10 routes across the Southern US. Currently, Aurora has 10 autonomous trucks without safety monitors driving routes between Dallas, Houston, Fort Worth, and El Paso. The company has issued three previous software updates: the first to authorize driverless trips between Dallas and Houston; the second to authorize driving at night; and the third to expand its … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/TYkdgwR

iPhone 17 Pro Max | Image: The Verge Apple had been reportedly pushing to introduce some big changes to Siri with iOS 26.4, but now the company is planning to introduce them in later versions of iOS, including iOS 26.5 and iOS 27, Bloomberg reports . Nearly a year ago, Apple delayed planned features for Siri that would let it understand your personal context and take action for you based on what's on your screen. Apple had planned to launch those features with iOS 26.4, which is set to launch in March, but "​​testing uncovered fresh problems with the software," according to Bloomberg . Apple has apparently told engineers to use iOS 26.5, scheduled for May, to test new Siri featu … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/BQKdHcy

Samsung’s next Unpacked event is happening on February 25th, and we anticipate the company will announce the Galaxy S26 lineup of phones . There may be some new wearables and earbuds announced, too. In addition to the showing off the new hardware, Galaxy AI software is likely to be a big part of the show, since that’s the focus of the Unpacked sizzle reel. If you’re hyped for the new devices — enough to consider trading in your phone — Samsung is hosting some special trade-in perks, but only if you register interest in a preorder ahead of the event and follow through with a purchase after the unveiling later this month. Registering through Samsung’s site or its Shop Samsung app now will unlock a $30 use-it-or-lose-it credit that can be applied toward accessories at preorder. However, it can’t be used to reduce the cost of the new device. The company is also offering up to $900 in trade-in value for your phone if you preorder one of its new phones in the same transaction. This amou...

On Tuesday, Discord released an update clarifying that the "vast majority of people can continue using Discord exactly as they do today," without needing to use a face scan or ID to verify their age so they can use the platform without restrictions. Discord states in the post that "age prediction" using information Discord already has will likely be sufficient for many users: We've seen some questions about our age assurance update and we want to share more clarity. We know how important these changes are to our community. Here's what we want you to know: • Discord is not requiring everyone to complete a face scan or upload an ID to … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/nUPQc2A

More than a week after Nancy Guthrie disappeared, the FBI has released footage from a Nest camera by Guthrie's front door. FBI Director Kash Patel says on X that law enforcement has been working with "private sector partners" and that the video was "recovered from residual data located in backend systems." Google spokesperson Patrick Seybold tells The Verge that the company is "assisting law enforcement with their investigations." The FBI has released two videos and a few still images. In the first video , a masked individual with a backpack walks up to the camera and holds a glove in front of it while appearing to touch something below the … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/4Senw8j

The power bank’s aluminum shell features two cutaway sections revealing its electronics, batteries, and a screen. | Image: Sharge Sharge has made a name for itself amongst the tech-obsessed with chargers and power banks featuring eye-catching designs and extra functionality . Power bank feature creep is more often than not a bad thing, but Sharge is unabashedly leaning into the trend with its new Shargeek 300. We first went hands on with it over a year ago at CES 2025 , but the power bank is finally available for preorder. The earliest backers of Sharge's latest Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign can preorder the power bank for $149, while its full price is expected to be closer to $199 once delivery starts as early as May 2026. Inside the Shargeek 300 is a 24,000 mAh ba … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/bu4MNUX

A screenshot of a demo from the Fluorite engine. Using a game engine in a "digital cockpit" can be useful for things like step-by-step 3D tutorials about a car, mapping the environment around your car, and offering more natural controls, Jamie Kerber, the lead engineer of a new game engine developed by Toyota Connected North America, said in a recent presentation at the FOSDEM 2026 conference . That's why the company is showing off the solution it's developed, called Fluorite , that could work in its vehicles, as reported on by Eurogamer and Game*Spark . Epic Games has made a big push for car companies to use Unreal Engine to power those in-car interfaces and visualize them for design and ma … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/aoXliZ6

If you haven't yet updated to the new Apple Home, your smart home devices may no longer work in the Home app on your iPhone, iPad, Mac, or Apple Watch starting tomorrow. On February 10, 2026, Apple will end support for the original HomeKit architecture . The biggest impact of the change will be felt by anyone still using an iPad as their Apple Home Hub (which allows you to control devices remotely and create automations). In the new Apple Home, iPads are no longer supported as hubs. You'll need a HomePod or Apple TV to serve that role. The new architecture also requires your phone and any devices connected to your Home to be running iOS 16. … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/q7IoO4Y

Whistles for Minneapolis and beyond. Kit Rocha and Courtney Milan have a knack for drawing attention to a cause. The bestselling romance novelists helped raise half a million dollars for Georgia voting rights in 2020. Now, their cause is whistles, because whistles let neighbors alert each other when they see ICE agents abducting people. They've helped create a group that's shipped a half million free 3D-printed whistles to 49 US states - 200,000 of them in the first week of February alone. Even I print whistles now. It's the first thing I do each morning after dropping kids at school, and the very last before bed. Usually, I squeeze in a hundred more after dinner. I print wh … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/Ljr2lh3

As if OpenAI didn't have enough drama around the Super Bowl and advertising , as the game wound down, word spread of a "leaked" ad that actually wasn't leaked at all; it was just a fake. Screenshots of a now-deleted Reddit thread told the tale of a frustrated employee who, while posting about how upset they were because the ad they'd worked on didn't run, accidentally leaked the entire advertisement video , seemingly showing Murderbot star Alexander Skarsgård with what could have been OpenAI's first hardware device , portrayed as a shiny orb that went with some wraparound earbuds. OpenAI president Greg Brockman commented on X with a tweet cal … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/13RYeJT