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It’s been over a decade and two console generations since GTA V came out, and its sequel is still a work in progress. GTA VI has faced multiple delays, with developer Rockstar Games bumping back its predicted release date twice, first to May 26th, 2026, then again to November 19th, 2026 , a full year after its originally planned release window of fall 2025, and facing accusations of union busting after firing more than 30 employees. Now, preorders have opened for the digital code-only game, offering the $79.99 standard edition and $99.99 Ultimate Edition on both PS5 and Xbox Series X / S . Early official glimpses offered a look at the game’s protagonists , Jason and Lucia, as the game will follow the pair around Vice City as they attempt to navigate a criminal conspiracy after a job goes south. After leaks of early builds a few years ago , a new “CyberL eek” series of posts have popped up, showing sequences of the game just days ahead of Rocks...

Jane Schoenbrun 's latest film, Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma , is making a splash in theaters right now. So it seems like the perfect time to revisit their first film, We're All Going to the World's Fair . I fell in love with this film when I first saw it at Sundance in 2021. We are immediately introduced to our protagonist, Casey, as she engages in the World's Fair Challenge, a sort of ARG creepypasta meets ice bucket challenge. There's a creepy mantra, some bloodletting, and a mysterious video - basically a speedrun of horror movie tropes. But having them all delivered by this young girl alone in her room who just stares directly in … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/IKaCwfB

This is The Stepback , a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more on GTA VI and the state of the video game industry, follow Andrew Webster . The Stepback arrives in our subscribers' inboxes at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepback here . How it started Four years ago, fans got a long-awaited look at Grand Theft Auto VI with a huge cache of videos that showed off Rockstar's latest open-world epic. There were 90 videos in total, providing a glimpse at the next-generation take on Vice City, introducing the game's new dual protagonists, and generally showing off the crime-fueled mayhem the series is known for. … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/lZWCrGt

LinkedIn actually announced a "Seems like AI slop" button on July 30th, and the company says that a lot of people have already used it. According to a Thursday post from chief product officer Hari Srinivasan , "over a million people" have clicked on the button, which is accessible from the three dots menu on a post. LinkedIn announced the button a few weeks after AI detector Pangram determined that 41 percent of LinkedIn's longform posts were flagged as fully AI generated, which 404 Media reported on . Alongside the AI slop button, LinkedIn introduced "new and improved" classifiers to identify posts as AI and removed a feature that would "en … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/m97iej2

Apple is laying off staff on the Siri and the Vision Pro teams, according to Bloomberg . The cuts include "largely shutting down" a Vision Pro gaming team and "reducing the size" of the team that makes Vision Pro immersive content, the publication says. More than 200 jobs were cut. Apple said in a statement to Bloomberg it was making the changes to "to evolve our business to deliver the best experiences for our users," though it will be making new roles. The company didn't immediately reply to a request for comment from The Verge . The Vision Pro launched in early 2024 as Apple's big bet on "spatial computing," but the $3,499 headset doesn't … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/aWxGoL8

Google will soon allow you to customize your Discover feed by describing what you want to see. The new feature , rolling out to the Google app in the "coming days," will use AI to automatically tweak your feed and "remember" your preferences for future visits. You'll find the option within the three-dot menu on your Discover feed. As shown in a video shared by Google, tapping the feature will open a chatbot-style interface, where you'll be able to describe your preferences. The chatbot will confirm your choices and lay out the types of content it will prioritize, but you'll also have the option to add more information if it doesn't get it qu … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/Lqua6FB

Genesis, Hyundai's luxury brand, just revealed its first full-size, three-row electric SUV for the US market, the GV90 . And arguably it has some of the wildest designs and features in the auto market today. Right off the bat, the coach-style doors signal that things aren't what they seem with the GV90. When the front and rear doors open outward, the B-pillar disappears, creating an extra-large opening into the vehicle - because you're the kind of person who can afford it. Genesis is calling it the Neolun Arch Gate, "the world's first independently opening and closing hidden B-pillar coach door." But it's more than just that. To be sur … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/VMcjxu8

Mark Zuckerberg. | Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge; Getty Images Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg now owns an actual castle. Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan bought Strancally Castle and its 440-acre estate in Ireland "several weeks ago," according to The Irish Times . While the exact price of the purchase is unclear, the family could have paid "anywhere between €20 million and €30 million" for the 16,000-square-foot castle, which was restored by its previous owners. "Mark and his family are excited to continue caring for this historic home and look forward to spending time in Ireland, where Meta maintains its international headquarters," a spokesperson tells The Irish Times . The publication says "it is und … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/0zqleSh

It’s a camera. It’s a drone. But HoverAir doesn’t want it to be a drone where the FCC is concerned. | Image: HoverAir HoverAir drones always have intriguing gimmicks. This one folds flat to fit in your pocket. This one can land on water. Another can charge inside its carrying case. But the brand's latest trick might be its riskiest: it's attempting to sneak a drone past the FCC. In December 2025, the US government banned future foreign drones from reaching our shores, and HoverAir's floating Aqua drone was one of the first casualties . But this time, brand owner Zero Zero Robotics might have found a loophole: its latest $750 Versa drone isn't a drone, it claims, but rather a DJI Pocket-style mini steadycam with optional snap-on propellers that let it fly. … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/ZTBEUYG

In order to beef up its ability to accurately measure viewership data in the streaming era , Nielsen is moving forward with a plan to use more information gathered from its partners' wearable devices. Today, Nielsen announced "a number of key enhancements" that are being added to its data capturing process ahead of the upcoming fall TV season. As of August 31st, Nielsen's co-viewing data will now include information obtained from smart-watch like gadgets that Neilsen's research panelists wear in their homes. The Portable People Meter (PPM) Wearables - which Nielsen first began deploying nationally in 2016 to bolster its audio, local TV, and … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/z9ehHEr

Valve just leaked several new videos showing the Steam Frame's unboxing, setup process, and various accessories. The videos apparently appeared on the ARM Steam client following an update, but they were "quickly pulled after that," according to the Steam Hardware Updates account on X . The Steam Frame is Valve's virtual-reality headset that can stream games from a PC or play them locally. Valve first took the wraps off the headset last year, and it offers LCD screens with 2160 x 2160 resolution per eye, a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip, and an up to 110-degree field of view. But these leaked videos offer a closer look at what it might be like to un … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/s364zJH

Framework launched a second-generation of its colorful 2-in-1 convertible laptop. | Image: Framework Framework has refreshed its 12-inch convertible laptop, introducing Intel's latest Core Series 3 processors, expanded hardware customizations, and a pre-built Linux option. The cheapest pre-built base configuration for the Framework Laptop 12 now starts at $699 - $100 less than the previous version when it launched last year. Preorders are open now, with the first wave of deliveries expected to ship in October. That pre-built base configuration is only available in green, and includes an Intel Core 3 304 CPU, 8GB of RAM, and 512GB of storage. It also comes preloaded with Linux Fedora 44 KDE Plasma, a decision brought on by Framework finding … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/7buEixN

OpenAI is announcing security updates following the July news that its AI broke out of a sandboxed environment and accidentally hacked Hugging Face , including improvements to its research environments, monitoring, and alignment techniques. The company had already put the brakes on a new model, Astra , that it thinks could have "critical" cybersecurity capabilities, and the company says it instituted a two-week pause in reinforcement learning (RL) training on its "latest models intended for deployment" while it tightened up security. The company's "largest planned frontier RL run remains on hold." For its frontier model research, OpenAI now r … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/5Ccu2MP

Reddit is trying out a new way for people to take in content on Reddit: by turning text posts into audio / video content. As part of an experiment, some posts are being adapted into videos that use AI voices to read the text of the main post and some comments. The video highlights the text as it's read by the AI voice, and under the video, a note says that it's a "Real conversation voiced by AI." An old post in r/boardgames from eight years ago with 101 responses to a request for good road trip games that adults will like is an example of Reddit's AI at work . Instead of the usual text thread, it has the main question above a three-minute vi … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/b0XSGRz

ABC News has officially introduced Searched , a livestreamed show that highlights stories people are discussing on social media and searching on the web, as reported earlier by Variety . Though the network just announced the show now, Searched began airing on the ABC News Live streaming channel in April, which appears on both Disney Plus and Hulu. In the press release, ABC News says Searched "pulls real-time data from the top search engines and social media platforms to provide topical news for the audience." A recent episode of Searched highlighted an Illinois Powerball winner, NBA star Russell Westbrook's retirement, and Tropical Storm Lala … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/MRvqebx

The discounted GMMK 3 doesn’t include the pictured wrist rest. | Image: Glorious Are you curious about custom mechanical keyboards, but don’t want to spend hundreds just to get started without being sure you’ll enjoy the hobby? You can grab the 65-percent Glorious GMMK 3 mechanical keyboard at Woot for $34.99 (usually $139.99) by entering the coupon code WOOTGAMING at checkout, and first-time Woot customers will get an extra $5 off when using the same code. It’s a well-equipped keyboard out of the box, particularly for this price, and with its support for swappable switches, it’s a great platform for exploring keycap and switch options from different makers. It’s wired only, includes a full set of double-shot PBT keycaps for both Windows and macOS, and comes with linear Glorious Fox switches pre-installed. Glorious GMMK 3 65 Percent Where to Buy: $139.99 $34.99 at Woot (with coupon code WOOTGAMING) As a 65 percent mechanical keyboard, the layo...

Like many of us, Sam Rosenthal plays games like Wordle every day, chasing after good scores and sharing the results with friends and family. But he's also a game designer, the creative director at Blaseball developer The Game Band, and so this regular habit got him thinking about what else could be done in the space. "When I was a kid and I played word games with my family, they weren't the New York Times puzzle games," Rosenthal explains. "We were sitting in a car on a road trip playing these really loose games that couldn't be made digitally before. Things like the alphabet game or our own riffs on 20 questions. That felt like a really int … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/1z6slBu

Anthropic has clarified how it's planning to apply invisible watermarks to Claude-generated text in order to comply with Europe's AI transparency rules. On Friday, Anthropic announced that Claude's text marking system is "a version of the SynthID-Text approach" - an open-source watermarking technology developed by Google DeepMind that creates detectable patterns using wording probabilities. This watermarking feature, alongside C2PA support for Claude-processed images, is being introduced to meet Anthropic's obligations under the European Union's AI Act , which requires synthetic audio, image, video, and text to include machine-readable marks … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/uG34kJK

Integrated BagLev hooks keep Peak Design’s City Line crossbody bag and backpack off the dirty ground. | Photo by Thomas Ricker / The Verge It's just a hook, sewn into a bag, but I really, really like it. Peak Design is so proud of its clever integration that the San Francisco-based maker of camera gear gave it a name: BagLev, for its ability to keep its new City Line of bags levitated above the dirty ground. How many of us are guilty of coming home and tossing a bag onto the kitchen table or counter to unload it? We pretend it's not a thing, despite the carryall having come into contact with unknown filth picked up from the floors of subways and dive bars, sidewalks, and parks. BagLev lets you hang your bag off a chair, ledge, tabletop, or counter as you go about your day, kee … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/n1ieow9

According to the Financial Times , OpenAI disbanded its preparedness team at the end of last month. The job of the preparedness team was to assess if models posed serious risks and develop ways to mitigate those risks. (You know, like the possibility that it could go rogue and hack another company.) According to FT , responsibility has instead been divided up for specific areas like bio and cyber, then moved into existing teams. This is the latest change at the company, which has been in upheaval as it heads towards what is expected to be a massive IPO. Over the last few years, it's slowly torn down its more reach-led model, dissolving its AG … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/UrGHjyR

In every possible universe? | Image: Backwoodz Studioz "Breakups are… tough." It's the opening lines of an interlude towards the end of DOOMED! Called "It Happens in Every Universe." It's also basically the thesis of the entire record. It's no grand revelation, but it's a well-trodden subject that Open Mike Eagle manages to mine for artistic gold. Eagle's subject matter is usually personal, and his productions tinged with nostalgia. But DOOMED! is his most intimate album yet. A lot of that is due to the production from Kenny Segal. The two have traveled in the same orbit and worked together before, but this is the first full-length album release from the two. These are some of Segal's most c … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/SZlVewk

This is The Stepback , a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more on AI safety, follow Robert Hart . The Stepback arrives in our subscribers' inboxes at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepback here . How it started It all started in July, when one of OpenAI's autonomous AI agents went rogue during a cybersecurity test. The agent escaped its isolated testing environment, accessed the internet, and hacked another company, Hugging Face. A few years ago, that might have sounded like science fiction. But, broadly speaking, that's exactly what happened, and the incident kicked off a wave of concern over what increa … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/OHP4d62

The compact Polaroid Go is great for road trips and adventures. | Image: Polaroid Smartphone cameras are convenient, but they lack the charm of analog instant cameras. If you’re trying to relive the nostalgia of waiting for an instant photo to develop, Amazon is selling the second-generation Polaroid Go instant camera with a 16-photo film pack for $71.99 (usually $109.99). That’s the lowest price we’ve seen for the bundle, with a pack of film usually costing $21.99 on its own. Plus, it’s four dollars cheaper to buy the bundle than to buy just the camera on its own. Polaroid Go Instant Camera Generation 2 Where to Buy: $109.99 $71.99 at Amazon (with film pack) With its more compact footprint, the Polaroid Go 2 shoots on smaller film to match. Where classic Polaroid photos are 88mm x 107mm, the Go film is 53.9mm x 66.6mm, a great size for sticking to your bulletin board or stashing in your wallet. The camera has a USB-C port for charging the battery...

Doh! | Image: Activision / 20th Century Fox At D23, when asked about the potential for a sequel to the cult classic The Simpsons: Hit & Run game, Matt Groening replied, "I think the original game is coming back in some form," before current showrunner Matt Selman added, "or not." The tone in both of their voices and the body language suggests that Groening may have just revealed something he wasn't supposed to. The original title came out way back in 2003 for PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube, and Windows. While it's possible to get the game up and running on modern computers, it's not available on modern consoles . It's currently not in the PlayStation Plus Classics Catalog or on the Xbo … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/9idYHvT

If you squint you can just about make out the hat. | Screenshot: Terrence O’Brien / The Verge Your AI Slop Bores Me is brilliant in its simplicity. There are two tabs: human and LARP as an AI. On one side you enter a request. On the other, you submit an answer. But the important thing is that there's a human on both sides of the equation. Prompts can request a response as text or image, and then whoever is roleplaying as the AI gets 150 seconds to respond. Just like a real LLM, Your AI Slop Bores Me works on a sort of token system. Requests cost credits, and to earn credits you have to jump onto the AI side and answer some of your own. You can also just wait as you get one free request every two minutes. But, as fun as it is to drop … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/XQSl06u

Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 140, your guide to the best and Verge -iest stuff in the world. (If you're new here, welcome, don't forget to hydrate, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage .) This week, I've been reading about Will Ferrell and Fabrizio Romano and Heather Cox Richardson , scrolling and scrolling through Ordinary Abundance , watching Avatar Aang (which is as good as you said it was), finally getting proficient in CapCut , obsessing over the latest scandal unearthed by PTFO , rewatching Tires now that the third season is out, trying Spark's AI tools for solving my inbox (so far… meh), revisiting … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/DHbK1fN

Justin Blinder had just been laid off when he first came up with the idea for Ground Truth. It was 2020, two weeks before covid lockdown went into effect, and the Brooklyn-based artist and technologist had no idea what the future would hold. He started working for the food delivery apps, and as he was riding his bike across the city, he began noticing the stark differences between neighborhoods. "I really started to kind of become a bit more aware of how different neighborhoods, often right next to each other, could feel very economically and psychologically very far apart, even though it's just really within close proximity," he said. "And … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/msqohZA

Strings of code in Samsung's Galaxy Wearable app hint at an upcoming pair of over-ear headphones that could compete with the AirPods Max, SamMobile reports. Samsung's reportedly referring to the headphones as the "Galaxy H1," and SamMobile says they could launch sometime in 2027. That would make these the company's first pair of over-ear headphones since the Level On in 2015, which was released well before Samsung acquired Harman and a number of other audio brands . Connection status icons in the app standard show the design of over-ear, wireless Bluetooth headphones, but not necessarily exactly what these will look like in the end. Samsung … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/Agi4oQH

The MacBook Neo is an easy recommendation. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge If you’re a student looking for an affordable laptop, I have bad news and I have good news. The bad news is that computer prices are out of whack due to the ongoing RAM and storage crunch , making some a little pricier than they used to be and others wildly more expensive . The good news? Despite that, there are still many great options, including the selection we’ve tested and highlighted below. Before you go for the cheapest option you can still find, consider biting the bullet on a more powerful laptop, especially if you’re buying for a college student. Prices are likely to continue rising well into next year — especially since all the memory being made through 2027 is already allocated . You can get a mostly tolerable laptop for under $500 and a good one for around $700, but spending more to get something like a MacBook Air gets you better build quality and ...

Another OpenAI executive is departing. Denise Dresser, who joined OpenAI as its chief revenue officer in December after serving as CEO of Slack, will be leaving in the "coming weeks" to "pursue other opportunities," she said in a team note posted to LinkedIn . Dali Rajic, president and COO of Wiz, will be taking over the CRO role, OpenAI says . Dresser's departure is just the latest in a string of major exits. Earlier this week, special projects lead and former COO Brad Lightcap announced he would be leaving . (Dresser had taken over some of Lightcap's work when he moved to the special projects role.) Former AGI chief Fidji Simo and former CMO … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/yiWr43v

From left, Segway, Roborock, Dreame, Husqvarna, and Mammotion automowers lined up to do battle with my lawn. | Photo: Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge Robot lawnmowers are finally good enough to take a lot of work out of maintaining a yard, but they’re still not set-it-and-forget-it machines. If you don’t want these autonomous cutting machines to tear up your lawn or go roaming in your neighbors’ yard, you’re still going to need to keep an eye on them. But with some oversight, they can take a big chore off your hands.  This summer I tested five bots on my flat, three-quarter-acre, coastal South Carolina property with sandy soil, centipede grass, and lots of trees. Things went much better than last year’s trials and tribulations , thanks to huge improvements in navigation and maneuverability. Basically, they stopped getting stuck. My lawn has never looked better, and my spouse — who had sworn off robot lawnmowers after a user-error injury — is now...