219 – Breaking News & Latest Updates 2026
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Jay Peters

Jay Peters

Senior Reporter

Senior Reporter

    More From Jay Peters

    Jay Peters
    Jay Peters
    Christopher Nolan’s next movie is planned for July 17th, 2026.

    Matt Damon might be the film’s star, Deadline reports.

    Nolan’s last film, Oppenheimer, won the Academy Award for Best Picture (and many other awards) earlier this year.

    Jay Peters
    Jay Peters
    Sega and Universal are developing a Shinobi movie.

    Sam Hargrave, who directed Netflix’s Extraction movies, will be directing the Shinobi movie, Deadline reports. No word on when it will come out.

    If you, like me, have never played a Shinobi game, here’s a playthrough of the 1987 arcade game you can watch. Apparently one of the boss fights is a helicopter? I hope that gets referenced in the film.

    Jay Peters
    Jay Peters
    Google’s Fitbit is launching a Gemini-powered ‘insights explorer’ in Fitbit Labs.

    Here’s what the tool will do, according to Fitbit:

    The first lab, an insights explorer, uses Google’s Gemini models and will test the ability of AI to understand users’ health and wellness questions and give personalized answers about some Fitbit data types. For example, you could receive interesting explanations about how your activity impacts your sleep, with a chart that helps you visualize the connection.

    Fitbit Labs is an opt-in program available to “select users.”

    A screenshot of Fitbit Labs.
    Image: Google
    Jay Peters
    Jay Peters
    iCloud.com finally gets dark mode.

    You can also set a background color, see pinned notes, and more. MacRumors has the full list of updates.

    A screenshot of new features promoted on iCloud.com.
    Screenshot by Jay Peters / The Verge
    Jay Peters
    Jay Peters
    Sony’s refurbished PS5s are now on sale.

    As reported by friend of The Verge Cameron Faulkner for Polygon, the refurbished consoles, revealed last month, are now on sale. A digital PS5 costs $349.99 (half the price of a PS5 Pro!) while the model with a disc drive costs $399.99.

    Jay Peters
    Jay Peters
    That’s one way to have a debate opponent.

    Reuters reports that Bentley Hensel, a “long-shot congressional challenger” in Virginia, made an AI chatbot of incumbent Don Beyer to stand in if Beyer doesn’t show up to a debate:

    DonBot, as the AI is playfully known, is being trained on Beyer’s official websites, press releases, and data from the Federal Election Commission. The text-based AI is based on an API from OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT.

    Jay Peters
    Jay Peters
    “I can assure you that Spectre isn’t going anywhere.”

    Nate Mitchell, the CEO and cofounder of Spectre Divide developer Mountaintop Studios, published a blog post seemingly trying to assuage fears about the game’s concurrent player count, which Mitchell admits is “lower than we’d all like.” Currently, Steam says there are 2,345 people in-game.

    The free-to-play shooter launched in early September. Shroud, a hugely popular streamer, was an adviser.

    Update: Added player count and Shroud’s involvement.

    Jay Peters
    Jay Peters
    Home Depot is reportedly starting to accept Apple Pay.

    9to5Mac has an article about the apparent rollout and says that the rollout “appears to be very gradual.” Home Depot had been a major holdout on accepting Apple Pay, but a support account said in September that the company was evaluating mobile payments.

    Walmart is now arguably the biggest retailer to not accept Apple’s mobile payments.

    Jay Peters
    Jay Peters
    The big new metaverse innovation: sitting.

    Meta’s avatars can now sit in Horizon Worlds experienceswell, as long as a developer uses the right “gizmo” in their world.

    Meta introduced upgraded avatars last week.