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Andrew Liszewski
Andrew Liszewski
Android’s earthquake alerts have expanded to over 200 regions.

Google’s worldwide phone-powered earthquake alert system now covers even more of the planet. After launching in California in 2021 and eventually expanding to 98 countries and regions including Greece and New Zealand, the system is now available in over 200 regions with Panama, Guatemala, and more joining the list.

Three screenshots showing how Android’s earthquake alerts work and appear.
Image: Google
Jay Peters
Jay Peters
A game decompilation website is “sunsetting” because of the influx of AI use.

The website decomp.dev published a big statement following the recent influx of AI-assisted decompilations of games:

decomp.dev was originally designed to gamify decompilation: watching the progress go up was a fun way to stay motivated when every fraction of a percent took real human effort. Today, that same idea has warped decompilation into a hollow numbers game, exacerbated by folks who just want to burn tokens to make number go up or “port game to PC”, all else be damned. While the increased attention has brought in genuine folks who want to learn and contribute meaningfully, I believe that decomp.dev serving as a public index and leaderboard is now causing more harm than good.

Terrence O'Brien
Terrence O'Brien
A bunch of execs are leaving Universal Music Group as more layoffs loom.

In January 2024, the label announced a major cost-cutting initiative that is expected to run through 2027. As another round of layoffs is expected, several executives are leaving, including Tunji Balogun, Chairman and CEO of Def Jam Recordings; Nicole Wyskoarko and Sam Riback of Interscope Geffen A&M; Ben Mortimer, President of Polydor Label Group; Rebecca Allen, Chief Artist and Strategy Officer at Universal Music Group UK; and Mark Crossingham, Managing Director of UMG Ireland.

Sean Hollister
Sean Hollister
It sure would be nice if these congresspeople would say why DJI is a threat.

The FCC would like you to know that its DJI ban is justified — because of the contents of sealed letters from the Pentagon that it has now forwarded to 16 congresspeople. Do they know something they’re not saying out loud? So far, the government hasn’t revealed a single shred of public evidence about a national security threat.

Elizabeth Lopatto
Elizabeth Lopatto
“If you know where reality is heading, you can win a lot of money from people who don’t.”

The London Review of Books surveys the gambling landscape: how “prediction markets” have been handed the CFTC, market manipulation, and the blurring of reality. To state the obvious: “Prediction markets don’t produce truth. They are high-stakes wait-and-see machines, that’s all.” Do stay to read the very end.

Friends don’t let friends feed their data to AI agents

You may have consented to sharing with Muse, but all your friends sure didn’t.

Janus Rose
Stevie Bonifield
Stevie Bonifield
A fake Android app pretending to be Google Chrome reportedly got 100,000 Play Store downloads before Google removed it.

A Reddit user spotted the fake “Chrome” app as a sponsored suggestion above the real version. As Android Authority reports, the app was originally added to the Play Store as a “Ball Bounce” game before the developer reskinned it as a Chrome dupe.

Andrew Liszewski
Andrew Liszewski
Arduino’s new $34 webcam brings computer vision to its Pi-like microcomputer.

You can use it as a regular USB webcam on Windows, macOS, or Linux PCs, but Arduino’s new plug-and-play accessory is primarily designed to work with computer vision models running on the UNO Q or Ventuno Q microcomputers. It’s got a built-in microphone so additional audio hardware isn’t needed and a touch-dimmable LED ring around the lens with an adjustable color temperature.

The Arduino USB Camera with its USB cable wound up next to it.
Image: Arduino
Jacob Kastrenakes
Jacob Kastrenakes
Someone got iPhone OS 1.0 running in a browser tab.

It’s a little broken as a result of being a nearly 20 year old operating system, but it’s a joy to play around with. Kelindi says in a follow up post that the OS is “running on an emulated ARM11 CPU and S5L8900 chipset, compiled to WebAssembly.”

The best reason to care about Nvidia’s RTX Spark: ‘everything’ will run on Arm

Nvidia’s new laptops will run all your apps and games, the company claims.

Sean Hollister
Jess Weatherbed
Jess Weatherbed
BBC News now has a YouTube livestream.

The broadcaster announced that viewers in the UK and US can now watch a 24-hour news feed via the BBC News YouTube channel, with plans to expand access to Poland, Kenya, Australia and Nigeria soon. This is part of the BBC’s plan to access broader and younger adiences via YouTube’s platform as its traditional license-paying TV broadcast market continues to decline.

Janko Roettgers
Janko Roettgers
Hopin’s founder wants to reinvent the TV.

Johnny Boufarhat, the founder of the virtual events startup Hopin, is back with a stealth startup developing a voice-centric operating system for TV streaming devices.

Cameron Faulkner
Cameron Faulkner
Razer’s new wireless headset has a hidden compartment for a USB-C dongle.

The $199.99 Barracuda V2 Pro is $50 cheaper than its predecessor, yet contains quite a few improvements. Notably, the ANC-ready headset ships with a USB-C wireless dongle hidden within the left ear cup. It supports simultaneous 2.4GHz and Bluetooth 6 audio, as opposed to making you swap between them, and includes a detachable mic for better voice capture than its beamforming mics. It’s available now at Razer’s site.

If you buy something from a link, The Verge may earn a commission. See our ethics statement.

This still was taken from a video on Razer’s site, as the company didn’t supply high-res images of this feature.
This still was taken from a video on Razer’s site, as the company didn’t supply high-res images of this feature.
Jay Peters
Jay Peters
Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave is getting even bigger.

The new paid Expansion Pass adds content in waves: first, some Three Houses-themed weapons that are available today, then new playable characters and outfits coming this holiday season, and finally new stories featuring four characters that will launch in 2027.

I reviewed the already-gigantic base game and loved it. The new content will be a perfect excuse for me to dive back in.

Robert Hart
Robert Hart
OpenAI is giving $5 million to help mathematicians make sense of AI-generated research.

The funding is part of a $15 million initiative led by the Simons Foundation, with Anthropic also contributing. It follows months of upheaval in the field as AI companies race to solve longstanding problems and comes just over a week after OpenAI dumped hundreds of preprints on the research community.

Terrence O'Brien
Terrence O'Brien
A computer glitch delayed nearly 600,000 voter registrations in Texas.

County election officials claim they largely cleared the backlog by Wednesday, but the incident still raised alarms and prompted a lawsuit from voting rights groups. According to the New York Times:

The lawsuit, which named Mr. Howden and Freeman F. Martin, director of the Department of Public Safety, among its defendants, said the backlog had resulted from a programming error on a website for driver’s license applications that was also supposed to allow applicants to register to vote.

Because of the error, voters who checked “yes” to register to vote between December 2025 and February 2026 received a receipt confirming their choice, but their data was never recorded, the lawsuit said.

Stevie Bonifield
Stevie Bonifield
SK Hynix reportedly wants permission to export equipment to China in exchange for building a new US chip factory.

The export-restricted equipment for making RAM would go to SK Hynix’s Dalian, China facility, Reuters reports. Its sources say increasing SK Hynix’s production in China would help fund a US factory. SK Hynix is also separately reportedly in talks about making chips at an Intel facility in Ohio.

Emma Roth
Emma Roth
Ukraine says its Starshield services have been restored.

A Ukranian official tells Axios that Starshield — SpaceX’s government-focused internet service that runs on Starlink satellites — has been “restored to full capacity.” Sudden restrictions on Ukraine’s Starshield services disrupted the military’s drone operations, officials said on Wednesday.

Terrence O'Brien
Terrence O'Brien
Time’s profile of John Ternus is mostly about the iPhone Duo.

There’s not a ton of new info to glean from the profile, but it’s one of the most thorough looks at the rise of Ternus and how the iPhone Duo came to be a defining moment for the company and an early triumph for the new CEO.

Nobody is safe from celebrity AI deepfakes

AI photos and videos of celebrities are racking up millions of views on social media.

Mia Sato
Some great games to play before GTA VI and Zelda launch

Eight new releases including old-school horror, laid-back dressmaking, and the return of Castlevania.

Andrew Webster, Kallie Plagge and 1 more
Benn Jordan on Flock, privacy, and the new surveillance backlash
Play

The musician and YouTuber on investigating the surveillance state and becoming the face of the anti-Flock movement.

Nilay Patel
Stevie Bonifield
Stevie Bonifield
Microsoft is giving away 25 free games with Windows 11 PC purchases starting next month.

The collection celebrating Xbox’s 25th anniversary includes games like The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition, Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition, Minecraft Dungeons, and Gears of War: Reloaded. Microsoft says you can also play some of the free games on Xbox Series X/S with Xbox Play Anywhere.

Stevie Bonifield
Stevie Bonifield
Elon Musk is promising to “make you whole” if Grok messes up a purchase or leaks your credit card.

He claims in a post on X that it’s “never happened yet.” Musk didn’t go into details, but he’s made other promises before, like saying he would pay legal bills for people fired unfairly over tweets, or his many, many claims about robotaxis and Tesla’s new Roadster.

A screenshot of a post on X from Elon Musk
Screenshot: Elon Musk via X