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“We are Xbox” / What does it mean that Microsoft Gaming is out and Xbox is back in?

‘We Are Xbox’: read the memo defining Microsoft’s gaming future‘We Are Xbox’: read the memo defining Microsoft’s gaming future

Microsoft’s new Xbox leader starts to talk strategy for the company’s gaming business.

Tom Warren
Microsoft brings Xbox back, scraps Microsoft Gaming

Xbox is Microsoft’s gaming identity moving forward.

Tom Warren
Microsoft’s new Xbox chief is ‘reevaluating’ exclusive games

Asha Sharma has a new strategy for her return of Xbox.

Tom Warren
Inside Microsoft’s wave of executive departures

Leadership reshuffling signals the mounting pressure on Microsoft’s AI bet.

Tom Warren

Dream(e) big / The chaotic, questionable, and super-sized future of online shopping.

First vacuums — then the worldFirst vacuums — then the world

Dreame plans to build everything from hypercars and hair dryers to China’s Elon Musk. It’ll either win big or go down in flames.

Jennifer Pattison Tuohy
First there was nothing, then there was Hoto and Fanttik

How two Chinese tool brands are becoming household names.

Sean Hollister
I saw the future of retail, and it’s all AI

From window shopping and browsing to reviews and recommendations, retailers and tech companies envision a future filled with artificial intelligence — whether shoppers want it or not.

Mia Sato
Online shopping is full of copycats
Play

On The Vergecast: how online shopping became boring in an era of unmitigated mass consumption. Plus, what a small nonprofit is doing to save and recycle textile waste.

Mia Sato

Too good to get / The most impressive new phones are often impossible to buy in the US.

Oppo’s new phone has one camera too manyOppo’s new phone has one camera too many

7

Verge Score

The Find X9 Ultra has the best 10x telephoto lens yet, but would be a better phone without it.

Dominic Preston
More phone cameras should come with telephoto lenses

I thought the Vivo X300 Ultra’s extender lenses were a gimmick. Now I’m hooked.

Allison Johnson
Oppo made the best foldable phone, again

The Find N6 is my new favorite foldable.

Dominic Preston
Xiaomi’s Leica Leitzphone mostly earns the name

The Xiaomi 17 Ultra and its Leica co-branded special edition are closer to cameras than ever before.

Dominic Preston

Apple turnover / Tim Cook is stepping down as CEO, to be replaced by John Ternus. What is Cook’s legacy, and what’s next for Apple?

Tim Cook was an innovator — just not the Jobs kindTim Cook was an innovator — just not the Jobs kind

Cook’s relentless optimization propelled Apple’s fortunes to new heights and an era of predictable profitability.

Allison Johnson
John Ternus’ first big problem is AI

Does Tim Cook’s newly announced successor have what it takes to regain the company’s lost ground in the AI race?

Hayden Field
Will a new CEO help realize Apple’s smart home potential?

John Ternus inherits a smart home platform that’s been waiting a decade to matter. His first act could be making it happen.

Jennifer Pattison Tuohy
The AirPods are Tim Cook’s most underrated achievement

Cook and incoming CEO John Ternus made a computer company the most important audio company of the 21st century.

John Higgins
The Trump phone still isn’t realThe Trump phone still isn’t real

It may have a new design, but there’s still no proof this isn’t vaporware.

Dominic Preston
Stevie Bonifield
Stevie Bonifield
Norway could be the next nation to ban kids from social media.

As Reuters reports, Norwegian Prime ​Minister Jonas Gahr Støre announced plans for a bill barring teens from social media until “January 1st the year a child turns 16,” similar to Australia’s.

“I can now confirm that we are planning to submit a bill to the Parliament before the end of the year. We are introducing this legislation because we want a childhood where children get to be children. Play, friendships, and everyday life must not be taken over by algorithms and screens.”

Andrew Liszewski
Andrew Liszewski
Anker is renaming its Soundcore brand that now includes projectors.

After moving its Nebula projector lineup under its audio brand last year, Anker has announced through its Chinese social media channels that it’s renaming Soundcore to Anker Audio-Visual, according to Notebookcheck and ITHome. It’s not yet known if this change is limited to China or if there will be a different name as part of a broader global rebranding.

A person carrying an Anker Soundcore Nebula projector outside using a built-in strap.
Photo: Thomas Ricker / The Verge
A new Republican privacy bill could be ‘worse than no standard at all’A new Republican privacy bill could be ‘worse than no standard at all’

It would add protections for many states, but also likely strip some from others.

Lauren Feiner
Elon Musk and Sam Altman’s courtroom brawl could burn it all down
Elizabeth Lopatto and Hayden Field
Dominic Preston
Dominic Preston
Google is bringing back I/O’s Android Show.

Android Headlines spotted an unlisted promo video for the I/O pre-show’s second year, since removed from the Android YouTube channel. Apparently the show will stream at 1PM ET on May 12th, a week before I/O on May 19th, and will tee up “one of the biggest years for Android yet.”

Instagram has launched another Snapchat cloneInstagram has launched another Snapchat clone

The new Instants app allows users to share disappearing, unedited photos and videos with friends.

Jess Weatherbed
Dominic Preston
Dominic Preston
Hearsay.

OpenAI says its new GPT-5.5 model is its “smartest and most intuitive” model yet. That’s probably true, and yet…

ev:

OpenAI says a lot of things

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

China’s DeepSeek previews new AI model a year after jolting US rivals China’s DeepSeek previews new AI model a year after jolting US rivals 

DeepSeek says the V4 model can compete toe-to-toe with leading American systems from Google, OpenAI, and Anthropic.

Robert Hart
Prestigious photo contest answers ‘what is a photo?’Prestigious photo contest answers ‘what is a photo?’

‘A photograph captures light on a sensor or film. It is a record of a physical moment.’

Jess Weatherbed
Tom Warren
Tom Warren
GitHub just had a major outage.

GitHub uses a queue for developers when lots of people are working on a single project. It’s designed to avoid changes clashing and developers breaking things, but yesterday it failed in a catastrophic way thanks to a bug that randomly reverted previously merged commits (code snapshots). GitHub also had other outages yesterday, on the same day I reported on employee concerns about GitHub reliability and leadership.

Dominic Preston
Dominic Preston
Trump is mad about the UK’s digital tax again.

He threatened to “put a big tariff on the UK” if it doesn’t drop its tax on the revenue of tech giants, despite the Supreme Court ruling that he can’t actually do that. The president still thinks the tax, which brought in £944m ($1.3bn) last year, unfairly targets US companies.

Saros is pure action nirvana
Lewis Gordon
US arrests soldier who allegedly made $400K on Maduro Polymarket betsUS arrests soldier who allegedly made $400K on Maduro Polymarket bets

Prosecutors allege Gannon Ken Van Dyke had sense his Polymarket bets would pay off, since he was part of the operation.

Richard Lawler
Leak reveals new Xbox Game Pass ‘Starter Edition’ that’s part of Discord NitroLeak reveals new Xbox Game Pass ‘Starter Edition’ that’s part of Discord Nitro

Discord Nitro subscribers are about to get a more limited version of Xbox Game Pass.

Tom Warren
Claude is connecting directly to your personal apps like Spotify, Uber Eats, and TurboTaxClaude is connecting directly to your personal apps like Spotify, Uber Eats, and TurboTax

Anthropic says the new app connectors are available to all Claude users, ‘with mobile in beta.’

Stevie Bonifield
Tom Warren
Tom Warren
This is Microsoft’s new Xbox logo.

Microsoft has scrapped Microsoft Gaming in favor of Xbox today, and it’s also starting to roll out a new Xbox logo. The new logo started appearing on Microsoft’s campus this week, just in time for Xbox CEO Asha Sharma’s all-hands meeting earlier today. The new Xbox logo has a more glassy look, and I understand Microsoft has also been using this new design for some of its internal Project Helix materials.

Image: Microsoft
Brendan Carr’s war on wokeness targets inclusive children’s televisionBrendan Carr’s war on wokeness targets inclusive children’s television

The FCC is asking loaded questions about ‘transgender and gender nonbinary programming’ aimed at kids.

Charles Pulliam-Moore
Terrence O'Brien
Terrence O'Brien
NASA made its LAVA physics modeling software available to anyone.

Launch, Ascent, and Vehicle Aerodynamics (LAVA) is the tool NASA uses to model reentry, aerodynamics, and fluid dynamics for Mars landers and the SLS (Space Launch System) that launched Artemis II. And now it’s available for researchers and commercial aerospace companies, even those without a supercomputer:

Aerospace engineers rely on “scale-resolving simulations” to capture high-fidelity renderings of phenomena that can have profound effects on missions, including pressure waves, turbulent swirls, and acoustic signatures. Those were once resource- and time-consuming. Now, LAVA runs them on modest computing resources, making them readily available and easy to produce, even for novice users.

Stevie Bonifield
Stevie Bonifield
DirecTV is streaming TV directly into Meta Quest headsets.

DirecTV now supports mixed reality with its new app for the Quest 2, 3, 3S, and even Pro headsets. There’s live TV for subscribers, plus on-demand and ad-supported content anyone can watch, available in the app store or through the Horizon TV hub Meta launched last year.

A person watching The Pitt on DirecTV with a Meta Quest headset
Image: DirecTV
Sonos’ big sale on refurbished speakers is about to endSonos’ big sale on refurbished speakers is about to end

You can save a lot of money buying like-new versus new, and these speakers come with the same one-year warranty.

Cameron Faulkner
Meta is laying off 10 percent of its staffMeta is laying off 10 percent of its staff

Meta is making the cuts to help ‘offset the other investments we’re making.’

Jay Peters
‘We Are Xbox’: read the memo defining Microsoft’s gaming future‘We Are Xbox’: read the memo defining Microsoft’s gaming future

Microsoft’s new Xbox leader starts to talk strategy for the company’s gaming business.

Tom Warren
Microsoft’s new Xbox chief is ‘reevaluating’ exclusive gamesMicrosoft’s new Xbox chief is ‘reevaluating’ exclusive games

Asha Sharma has a new strategy for her return of Xbox.

Tom Warren
Spirit is broken
Darryl Campbell
Anthropic’s Mythos breach was humiliatingAnthropic’s Mythos breach was humiliating

There’s no good excuse for letting hackers into an AI model too dangerous for public release.

Robert Hart
OpenAI says its new GPT-5.5 model is more efficient and better at codingOpenAI says its new GPT-5.5 model is more efficient and better at coding

The new model ‘excels’ at tasks like writing and debugging code and doing work across different tools.

Jay Peters and Hayden Field
Ikea’s new inflatable chair doesn’t look like an inflatable chairIkea’s new inflatable chair doesn’t look like an inflatable chair

You still inflate it with a pump, but with an added metal frame this chair won’t bounce around a room like a balloon.

Andrew Liszewski
Stevie Bonifield
Stevie Bonifield
Meta’s new Account system manages your WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, and other logins.

This hub holds certain settings that work across Meta’s apps and allows for using a single password for access across all accounts and managing passkeys.

Any accounts users currently have connected in Meta’s Account Center will automatically transfer to the new Meta Account that’s rolling out “over the next year.”

Screenshots of Meta’s new Meta Account hub
Screenshots of the security pages in Meta’s new Meta Account hub
A screenshot of cross-app settings in the Meta Account hub
A screenshot of the passkey login page on Instagram
1/4Image: Meta
Microsoft brings Xbox back, scraps Microsoft GamingMicrosoft brings Xbox back, scraps Microsoft Gaming

Xbox is Microsoft’s gaming identity moving forward.

Tom Warren
Antonio G. Di Benedetto
Antonio G. Di Benedetto
Asus’ Zenbook Duo is finally up for preorder but costs $400 more than expected.

The dual-screen Zenbook Duo I reviewed in January was said to cost $2,399.99 with an Intel Core Ultra X9 388H. Now preorders are open, but a base model costs $2,499.99 and the 388H configuration I tested will be $2,699.99. Ouch.

We reached out to Asus for the reason, but company reps did not immediately reply. Seems like RAMageddon claims another.

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

Keychron’s customizable V1 mechanical keyboard is back down to $45Keychron’s customizable V1 mechanical keyboard is back down to $45

Plus, we found deals on Skullcandy’s budget-friendly noise-canceling wireless earbuds and a lego cactus set.

Sheena Vasani
Terrence O'Brien
Terrence O'Brien
Vercel says some customer data was stolen before the breach.

The hosting platform provided a new update on the recent compromise. It named Context.AI as the vector for the attack, found more customer data that had been stolen, and said it discovered that some accounts had been broken into during an earlier incident.

First, we have identified a small number of additional accounts that were compromised as part of this incident. Second, we have uncovered a small number of customer accounts with evidence of prior compromise that is independent of and predates this incident, potentially as a result of social engineering, malware, or other methods.

Andrew Webster
Andrew Webster
Are you ready, kids?

Ubisoft just officially unveiled its Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag remake, and you’ll be able to live out your Jack Sparrow fantasies pretty soon: it’s launching on July 9th. Here’s a gameplay trailer for a little more detail.

Inside Microsoft’s wave of executive departuresInside Microsoft’s wave of executive departures

Leadership reshuffling signals the mounting pressure on Microsoft’s AI bet.

Tom Warren
25 years later, is it time for a new iPod?25 years later, is it time for a new iPod?

Amid smartphone and subscription fatigue, hardware startups like Sleevenote smell an opportunity.

Janko Roettgers
Charles Pulliam-Moore
Charles Pulliam-Moore
WBD’s shareholders yearn for the sweet embrace of David Ellison.

Deadline reports that WBD’s shareholders have “overwhelmingly” voted the sell the legacy studio to Paramount Skydance for $31 per share. Shareholders rejected a proposed compensation package for current CEO David Zaslav that could range from $500-800 million. But Zaslav could still wind up walking away with a lot of money because that vote was non-binding.

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