29 – Breaking News & Latest Updates 2026
Skip to main content

Archive

Archives for October 2026

David Pierce
David Pierce
Today’s Vergecast: Everything’s recording everybody. What now?

Meta just shipped a pair of smart glasses with no camera — a change that both David and The Verge’s Victoria Song are excited about. But these glasses, like the new product from Amazon Bee and seemingly everything else now, are still ready and willing to record the world around you at all times. What do we do in a world where everything, everywhere, might be recording? And can tech companies figure out a way to make us feel better about it?

Meredith Haggerty
Meredith Haggerty
“I don’t think so, Mickey!”

Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers’s extremely popular ‘Las Culturistas’ podcast will stream on Hulu and Disney+ beginning on November 18th. As Disney competes with other major streamers for podcasts, this is their biggest acquisition yet.

Emma Roth
Emma Roth
Florida can enforce social media ban for kids, appeals court rules.

The law prevents kids under 14 from creating an account on platforms like Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok, while requiring parental permission for teens aged 14 or 15. The tech trade group NetChoice won an injunction blocking the law in 2025, but a judge later paused the injunction during the appeals process, as reported by NBC 6 South Florida.

Stevie Bonifield
Stevie Bonifield
Microsoft says it’s working on making Edge updates less of a hassle.

It shared a prototype demo for “seamless updates” that wouldn’t require you to restart your browser. That feature’s still in development, but in the meantime Microsoft also says Edge users can opt-in for “Restart to update on idle,” which was previously called “Instant Updates.”

Stevie Bonifield
Stevie Bonifield
The FTC reportedly subpoenaed OpenAI and Anthropic for info on AI security incidents.

It also demanded documents related to the AI companies’ safety practices, consumer privacy policies, and marketing materials, as part of “a probe focused on potential consumer protection violations,” Axios reports. Its sources also say the FTC “plans to compel top AI executives to testify about their products.”

Richard Lawler
Richard Lawler
Two workers have died after an incident at Intel’s most advanced chip factory.

A suspected gas cylinder explosion at Intel’s Kiryat Gat facility in southern Israel, where it makes its most advanced chips, has killed two workers and injured a third. JPost and CTech report that police believe a gas cylinder malfunctioned while trucks were loading material into tanks, causing serious burns to the victims and a leak of nitrogen trifluoride (NF₃).

We’ve written about the risks fab workers face, including the death of a truck driver in 2024 while transporting sulfuric acid waste at TSMC’s Arizona facility, and an Intel employee who worried cost-cutting and downsizing were adding extra risk.

Andrew Liszewski
Andrew Liszewski
Ken, Ryu, Chun-Li, and Blanka can now battle it out on your wrist.

Following wearables with playable versions of Tetris, Mega Man 2, and Pong, My Play Watch’s latest timepiece comes saturated in Street Fighter II theming including various faces inspired by the game’s characters, a matching strap, and a version of the fighting game optimized for tiny touchscreen controls. You can preorder it now for $79.99 with shipping expected later this year.

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

1/3Image: My Play Watch
Jay Peters
Jay Peters
YouTube’s AI chatbot search has launched on mobile in the US.

The “Ask YouTube” feature, which pulls uses AI to generate a search results page populated with text and suggested videos to watch, popped up on mobile as an experiment in August. I tested the web version earlier this year, and in a few minutes using the mobile version, it’s pretty similar.

Emma Roth
Emma Roth
Anthropic is giving AI safety evaluators “employee-like” access to its systems.

Six employees at the AI safety organization METR will gain access to hardware and internal tools “roughly on par” with what Anthropic’s own risk assessment team sees. While Anthropic says METR will publish reports about Anthropic’s risk levels, incidents, and practices, it can still instruct the safety evaluator to redact certain information, such as the inner workings of its models or customer data.

Andrew Liszewski
Andrew Liszewski
A rare working Apple-1 signed by Wozniak just sold at auction for $1,148,200.

Thirteen years after selling at auction for $686,000 in 2013, a working Apple-1 computer, originally owned by Fred Hatfield, just sold at auction again through Bonhams for nearly twice that amount. The machine is especially rare because it’s signed by Steve Wozniak who hand built its motherboard and includes a letter signed by Steve Jobs offering Hatfield a hardware upgrade.

The Hatfield Apple-1 computer laid out with its manuals and a small display.
Image: Bonhams
Cameron Faulkner
Cameron Faulkner
A promising third-party Switch 2 controller is coming soon.

EasySMX’s upcoming $54.99 S05 Pro wireless controller doesn’t seem to leave out any features. It has a similar design to the X05 Pro, but with TMR sticks and more Switch features, like amiibo support, six-axis gyro, and one-button wake-up. More surprising are its two-stage Hall effect triggers that have dedicated rumble actuators (plus rumble in each grip). I’ll be testing it soon.

It also includes a charging dock.
It also includes a charging dock.
Stevie Bonifield
Stevie Bonifield
Watch the Wildwood scene Laika says took five years to make.

The “Crows” scene from the upcoming stop-motion fantasy film is less than two minutes long. Wildwood production designer Nelson Lowry told Variety it’s “the largest and most complex film” Laika has ever done. It comes out in theaters next week on October 23rd.