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

Dominic Preston

Dominic Preston

News Editor

News Editor

    More From Dominic Preston

    Inside the automated warehouse where robots are packing your groceries

    A third of Ocado’s orders are already packed by machines, and this is just the start.

    Dominic Preston
    Dominic Preston
    Dominic Preston
    Check out Huawei’s extra-wide flip phone.

    The Pura X arrived this week, and I’m ready to test this unique flip phone form factor, which opens to the side for a wider main display. And yes, those are Android apps on the post-Android HarmonyOS Next.

    What do you want to know ahead of my hands-on?

    <em>The Pura X looks like a flip phone turned on its side.</em>
    <em>It runs HarmonyOS Next, which is now distinct from Android.</em>
    <em>...But you can still get (some) Android apps if you know how.</em>
    <em>Best bit so far is this excellent color scheme.</em>
    1/4
    The Pura X looks like a flip phone turned on its side.
    Image: Dominic Preston / The Verge
    Dominic Preston
    Dominic Preston
    A Paramount premonition.

    Paramount and Skydance’s controversial merger is now complete, and it doesn’t take a genius (or a Verge commenter) to guess what’s coming next.

    GHollister:

    “Any time a CEO talks about ‘real efficiencies’ you know a bunch of employees are about to lose their jobs.”

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

    Dominic Preston
    Dominic Preston
    The staff sexbot writer.

    As Elon’s Grok chatbot keeps adding sexy bots for us talk to, one commenter predicts a productive beat for a future Verge staffer.

    stereoesque:

    “How long until The Verge is forced to hire a fulltime Grok Sex Chatbot Reporter?”

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

    Dominic Preston
    Dominic Preston
    HBO Max picked up 3.4M new subscribers.

    Though technically, it was Max at the time. All but 200,000 of them came from international markets, bringing Max to 125.7 million subscribers worldwide — and according to Warner Bros. Discovery, still on track to hit 150 million next year.

    The streaming division turned a profit of $293 million, after a loss this time last year, which will be good news for the Warner Bros. bit of the company ahead of their separation next year.

    Dominic Preston
    Dominic Preston
    Sony sells its 80 millionth PS5.

    Its 80.3 millionth, to be exact, half the lifetime sales of the PS2, the best-selling console of all time, and closing on the 87.4 million PS3 sales. Sony sold 2.5 million consoles over April-June, about the same as last year, but doubled its gaming profit thanks to game sales and subscriptions.

    It lowered its forecast for the tariff hit, but that likely didn’t factor in Trump’s new threat of a 100 percent rate on chips.

    Dominic Preston
    Dominic Preston
    Federal courts hit by hack.

    Politico reports that the courts’ case filing system was accessed. The breach was discovered last month, but its full extent is still unknown — one fear is that hackers may have accessed the identities of confidential informants, while a source told Politico that court dockets may have been tampered with.