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Archives for September 2026

TC Sottek
TC Sottek
164-1.

That’s the vote tally at the United Nations to adopt a new world map, the “Equal Earth projection”, that corrects distortions in the centuries-old and well-known Mercator projection. The Mercator map was prized during the era of European imperialism. (This is also a subject in a great episode of The West Wing.) The proposed new map more accurately portrays the relative size of continents.

You can probably guess the only nation that voted against it. Yes, it was the United States, which called this “a radical ideological project.” Perhaps the new map should depict us as an island standing alone against the world’s nations. If you really want to find a radical ideological project in mapping, just look at Trump’s “Lake America” designation.

The Equal Earth projection.
The Equal Earth projection.
Fantasy Footballers’ Andy Holloway is a dedicated zero-inbox kinda guy

If you haven’t had your fantasy football draft yet, better get on it.

Terrence O'Brien
Terrence O'Brien
Terrence O'Brien
Apple Vision Pro is overkill for tracking wall studs, but it works.

TikTok user CatJacks created an app for Apple’s headset that allows him to see through walls. When he’s running cable in a house, he’ll peek in the attic, mark where the studs are, then come around the other side and be able to see them and the cavity in 3D.

Content creators drop the ball

Recent US Open shenanigans and YouTubers’ disastrous golf ad show a risky relationship between brands and influencers.

Charles Pulliam-Moore
Sean Hollister
Sean Hollister
This is Project Aeroblade.

Remember Frore and its fan-replacing AirJet cooling tech? Sure looks like Lenovo is taking it seriously!

Robotaxis enter their villain era 

Road Rage is a new short film in production that casts a murderous autonomous car as the bad guy — and taps into everything people already fear about AI on the road.

Rani Molla
Jess Weatherbed
Jess Weatherbed
XP-Pen has a new portable Android drawing tablet.

Following the standalone Magic Drawing Pad from 2024, XP-Pen is now launching the Android 16-based Magic Pro 13 next month to tempt creatives away from sketching on iPads. The price hasn’t been announced yet, but it features a 3096 x 2064 resolution LCD display, with 100 percent sRGB coverage, 650-nit brightness, and a refresh rate of up to 120Hz.

The XP-Pen Magic Pro 13.
The XP-Pen Magic 13 Pro joins the small, but growing number of display drawing tablets that don’t need to be plugged into a computer.
Image: XP-Pen
Stevie Bonifield
Stevie Bonifield
Spider-Noir’s ending with one season.

Amazon has reportedly canceled Nicolas Cage’s Spider-Man detective series that premiered on Prime Video and MGM Plus earlier this year, according to TheWrap. The report adds that Sony and Amazon “will continue collaborating” on more Marvel projects, and “have already identified the next chapter of the franchise.”

Jennifer Pattison Tuohy
Jennifer Pattison Tuohy
PSA: The SmartThings V3 hub is nearly sold out.

And they won’t be making more, meaning there won’t be a way to add Z-Wave devices to a SmartThings smart home. Aeotec, which makes both hubs for Samsung, told me they have about 10,000 left, which may last through the end of the year. Samsung discontinued the V3 last year and replaced it with the Smart Home Hub 2, which has twice the performance, but doesn’t support Z-Wave.

The Smart Home Hub (aka SmartThings V3 hub), right, is on the outs. It’s been replaced by the Smart Home Hub 2 (left).
The Smart Home Hub (aka SmartThings V3 hub), right, is on the outs. It’s been replaced by the Smart Home Hub 2 (left).
Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge
Jennifer Pattison Tuohy
Jennifer Pattison Tuohy
Tell us how you really feel, Home Assistant.

The fiercely open-source smart home platform had its first-ever booth at IFA this week and, true to form, didn’t pull any punches.

<em>It’s a beautiful, custom embroidered sign</em>.
<em>The booth is a popular spot on the show floor.</em>
1/3Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge
TC Sottek
TC Sottek
GPT-6 Astra is now (actually) available.

OpenAI’s Sam Altman apologized earlier today for a “messy” rollout of GPT-6 Astra that left paying users locked out of the new model. Altman says the tool is now available to “all Pro, Enterprise, and Business Premium users.”