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Emma Roth
Emma Roth
Putting the “AI” in airport.

This report from Futurism dives into some of the inconsistencies in the logo for the newly-renamed President Donald J. Trump International Airport. The shield only has 11 stripes, instead of 13; the eagle’s right-side talons look distorted; and there’s an uneven number of feathers and leaves.

Image: President Donald J. Trump International Airport
Dominic Preston
Dominic Preston
That’s all folks.

My Trump phone review is here. And with that, it’s time to wrap up the weekly coverage. I’m not entirely done with the T1 yet — I’m still trying to find out how many buyers have one, and how and where it’s made — but I’ll give the execs at Trump Mobile a break for a bit.

Jennifer Pattison Tuohy
Jennifer Pattison Tuohy
Apple Intelligence in Apple Home will require the $10-a-month iCloud Plus plan.

As spotted by MacRumors, to get the new AI-powered camera features — text descriptions, searchable camera clips, and noteworthy clips — you’ll need Apple’s 2TB plan or higher.

HomeKit Secure Video has always required the base iCloud plan for recording, but now you may need to upgrade to get these smarter alerts. I’ve been testing them in the beta, and they’re a big improvement.

Stevie Bonifield
Stevie Bonifield
Bethesda’s union will hold a “Save Our Devs” march to protest Xbox layoffs.

Game Developer reports the OneBGS union is holding the rally in support of laid off developers on July 15th at ZeniMax offices in Rockville, Austin, Dallas, and Montreal, as the union announced in an email to members:

“Microsoft and ZeniMax leadership have made the devastating decision to slash over 440 positions across BGS, ZOS, id, ZWU(QA) and ZeniMax corporate (including CTO and CSUR). Because we organized and certified our unions, we have hard-won legal rights and protections that non-unionized studios simply do not have. The company wants us to accept this as a done deal and quietly disappear. We won’t let that happen. Our next steps are to mobilize. We need every single member visible and unified.”

Cameron Faulkner
Cameron Faulkner
Stardew Valley’s coziness knows no bounds.

First, there was a Stardew Valley cookbook that was just as much about the game’s characters as the ingredients you can pick up during the life sim adventure. In early 2027, there will be an official amigurumi crochet book launching, with 25 patterns to let you build the game’s little critters to put around your house. Sounds chill.

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I spent a week using the Trump phone — it sucks

3

Verge Score

The T1 is a marketing stunt, not a serious phone.

Dominic Preston
Empathy for the optimizers

Clowning on the longevity king is fun, but it ignores why people biohack in the first place.

Victoria Song
Dominic Preston
Dominic Preston
The Randian response.

OpenAI is shutting down its ChatGPT web browser, and there’s only one appropriate reaction.

better-endings:

Atlas? shrug

Get the day’s best comment and more in my free newsletter, The Verge Daily.

Thomas Ricker
Thomas Ricker
China lands reusable rocket for first time.

SpaceX dominates satellite launches because nobody else can match the cost-effective, reusable booster of its Falcon 9. Blue Origin landed its New Glenn booster last year, but then blew up its only launch pad in May. Now it’s China’s turn, although with a bit less finesse, according to the BBC:

Long March 10B does not autonomously land on a ground pad or drone ship. Instead “landing hooks” on the rocket catch a net attached to a floating platform.

Emma Roth
Emma Roth
TikTok aims to catch more accounts posting AI spam.

The platform is testing improvements to its spam detection system to help identify accounts posting AI-generated spam related to politics, current events, financial advice, medical information, and other topics that could “pose a risk to public trust or well-being.”

TikTok is also joining the C2PA Steering Committee.

Jay Peters
Jay Peters
Asha Sharma has been appointed to a Federal Reserve task force about “Productivity and Jobs.”

The Xbox CEO, who announced mass layoffs at Xbox this week, will assess “the economic impact of new general-purpose technologies, including artificial intelligence, to inform the Federal Reserve’s policy judgments.”

She’ll work alongside Marc Andreessen, cofounder of Andreessen Horowitz, and Charles I. Jones, a Stanford professor who is “on leave” at Anthropic.

Jay Peters
Jay Peters
YouTube’s TV turn continues.

As YouTube starts to look more and more like TV, the company now lets Partner Program creators make playlists that function as “shows,” which offer a “polished TV experience for your series.” YouTube has been working on them for a while.

Emma Roth
Emma Roth
Patreon is working with Cloudflare to squash AI crawlers.

In a post on Instagram, Patreon CEO Jack Conte says the move will prevent AI crawlers from training on creators’ work. Last year, Cloudflare began blocking AI crawlers by default and recently announced plans to give publishers more granular control of the kinds of scrapers they allow in.

Emma Roth
Emma Roth
The president of Disney Plus is leaving to head up Fubo.

Fubo, which is now controlled by Disney, has appointed Alisa Bowen as its CEO. Bowen has led Disney Plus since 2022.

As noted by Variety, it’s not clear whether Disney plans to fill Bowen’s role or just leave it to Joe Earley and Adam Smith, the co-presidents of Disney’s combined streaming business.

Andrew Liszewski
Andrew Liszewski
Watch 1X’s NEO robot try out a new pair of dexterous hands.

For a robot to effectively help with chores it needs to be able to interact with an environment designed for human hands. So 1X has developed a new pair of artificial hands for its $20,000 NEO Home Robot featuring 25 degrees of freedom in the fingers, palms, and thumbs allowing them to skillfully complete tasks like assembling Lego.

Jacob Kastrenakes
Jacob Kastrenakes
Today’s Vergecast: Time to believe the quantum computing hype?

Quantum computing hype is everywhere. Trump says we’ll have one by 2028, Microsoft by 2029. IBM is investing billions. Is it really happening? Science journalist Sophia Chen joins us to discuss her article, “What is a quantum computer good for? Absolutely nothing — yet,” and break down what’s real and what’s hype in the quantum computing race.

Emma Roth
Emma Roth
A Madison Square Garden database labeled “LGBTQIA” celebrities.

That’s according to a report from Wired, which viewed a leaked database from the surveillance-heavy New York City venue that tracked celebrities’ race, gender identity, and sexual orientation. The list also assigned some stars a low to high “risk” level, with some labeled as “DO NOT HOST.”

Andrew Liszewski
Andrew Liszewski
The Weather Channel’s retro experience is expanding to its mobile apps.

A few months ago The Weather Channel launched a website recreating the channel as it appeared during the heyday of cable TV in the ‘80s and ‘90s with simple graphics and a smooth jazz soundtrack. That same nostalgic experience is now available in The Weather Channel’s iOS and Android mobile apps.

1/2Image: The Weather Channel
David Imel
David Imel
Is OpenAI coming for Squarespace next?

The new ChatGPT hosted sites feature is targeted at presenting decks within your business, but it doesn’t seem like much of a stretch for it to become a full-on site builder next.

From the ChatGPT Work livestream
From the ChatGPT Work livestream
Emma Roth
Emma Roth
Meta reportedly plans to start manufacturing its new AI chip in September.

The chip, codenamed “Iris,” will join the growing lineup of Meta Training and Inference Accelerators (MTIA), according to a report from Reuters. Meta previously announced plans to ship a new in-house chip every six months, helping to decrease its reliance on Nvidia and AMD.

Jay Peters
Jay Peters
The first two Call of Duty: Black Ops games are now available on PS5 and PS4 for $39.99… each.

As noted by Push Square, the games also have separate season passes that cost $29.99, meaning the total for both titles with all of their content is just under $140. Oof. However, if you subscribe to PlayStation Plus, you can buy the games and their passes at a significant discount ($19.99 per game, $9.89 per season pass) until August 6th.

Andrew Liszewski
Andrew Liszewski
Jsaux confirms it’s still making front screen accessories for Valve’s Steam Machine.

After first teasing them last November, months before the Steam Machine was released, Jsaux has shared updated designs for its screen-equipped front plates for the console. Pricing and availability haven’t been announced, but the accessory will come in three versions with E Ink, color E Ink, or dot matrix displays.

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Three versions of Jsaux’s screen equipped front plates for Valve’s Steam Machine.
Image: Jsaux