Oppo’s Find X10 Pro Max benefits more from sensor size, dynamic range, and excellent software than sheer resolution.
The Nook and Home are cheaper, faster, and sleeker smart bird feeders — but the new camera might be a deal-breaker for diehard birders.
‘We know that words alone will not earn that trust back.’
The Nook starts at $99 while Birdbuddy’s new flagship Home smart feeder is larger and more expensive at $219.
We have Peter Thiel’s secret lectures about the Antichrist.
OpenAI is taking credit for finding the PHP2Shell vulnerabilities, but now someone has to apply all these patches.
Health tech companies want data from your blood in return for a vague promise of a longer life.
What three hours of a documentary looks like to someone who spent four months at the Holmes trial.
Nano-texture was the right move.
Many apps, including Netflix, Microsoft Word, and Zoom, are taking advantage of the Duo’s extra screen real estate.
Verge subscribers can get their burning questions answered.
Following Apple’s smart home-focused launch earlier in the month, Apple is hosting another product event soon.
Does anyone else hear that ticking sound?
Claude Duet is Anthropic’s new agent for professionals and small business owners, and it’s launching as a research preview.
OpenAI, Meta, and Google want AI agents to do everything for you. But popular services on the web aren’t letting that happen.
At a moment when voters are fearful of AI, Democrats are finding their footing.
The KickerOctober 22
The keys were always the worst part of the MPK lineup, so the “upgraded keybed” is good news, even though it’s clearing a pretty low bar. But Akai’s pads remain the best in the biz, and the second-gen MPK Mini Plus adds polyphonic aftertouch. Plus, it’s got a full-color display and more hands-on controls than the original.
World Quest and Save My Demonic World have run for over a decade, but they’re built on older tech that the developers say can’t be updated to patch the apocalyptic PHP exploit disclosed this week. Because the vulnerability affects almost 20 years of PHP, big chunks of internet history are in danger of being lost. Per Kotaku:
Many old websites and services that are no longer being actively updated (or may simply be too old to receive the update, as was the case for these two games) are now at risk of permanently going offline. Such an event would lock swathes of the old internet from public view, including bits that were already beginning to break down and become inaccessible.
Many apps, including Netflix, Microsoft Word, and Zoom, are taking advantage of the Duo’s extra screen real estate.
Ten years after the console was announced, the Atari VCS platform will be shutting down in early 2027.
A companion robot-slash-lamp, Mori resembles a mushroom, with a glowing head and eyes that emerge from the base. It’s designed to proactively help you relax and connect with nature.
It’s cute, stylish even. But I’m deeply skeptical about a robot connecting me with nature, and even more so of one whose company claims it’s alive. Mori is available to order now for $649, in four colors.
Just grant the agent access approval and it’ll sign into your accounts to complete tasks.
The original $49.98 Wyze Bulb Cam that launched last year had an adjustable camera, but the new $99.98 Wyze Bulb Cam Pan Color doubles the price and introduces a motorized mount so its 2.5K camera can rotate 360 degrees and tilt 180 degrees to keep moving subjects in frame. Installation is as easy as screwing it into a standard E26 socket, and its 1,100-lumen bulb can be set to one of 16 million different colors.
The Nook starts at $99 while Birdbuddy’s new flagship Home smart feeder is larger and more expensive at $219.
The Insta360 Mic is a more affordable alternative to the Mic Pro and doesn’t sacrifice many features.
Tesla is manufacturing humanoid robots while still working out how to make them useful, reliable, and durable enough for customers.
The breach was discovered on October 19th. That’s a lot of exposed Capcom ID email addresses, but thankfully the hackers didn’t leak much else: 196 passwords were changed (but no existing passwords were leaked), and 43 cases involved date of birth, gender, country, and nicknames being revealed.
That’s according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, who said Apple is working on next-gen Duo protoypes that have the Face ID sensor located beneath the display on the outer screen. Being demoted to Touch ID has been a step back for the iPhone Duo, but in our review we said it’s “mostly painless” once you get used to it.
‘We know that words alone will not earn that trust back.’
The New York Times reports that data centers are “painting gray concrete and gray steel with more gray,” leading to an unexpected boom for paint manufacturers. Gravel producers and wiring companies are also enjoying an uptick, “creating a long tail of unlikely winners.”
[The New York Times]
CEO Matthew Prince says the company saw thousands of attempts to exploit the PHP vulnerability across the Cloudflare network in the 10 hours before the issue was publicly announced. That jumped to “hundreds of thousands” of attacks in the 2 hours after the disclosure, and “millions” by last night. Yikes.
[X (formerly Twitter)]
The court-ordered change takes effect from March 1st 2027, following similar rulings in the EU, Japan, and Brazil. Apple will have to let Fortnite back in the App Store too — one of the last holdouts after a global return — and allow developers to offer alternative payment methods. Apple told Reuters it plans to appeal.
[Yahoo News Australia]
Some Android users are reporting receiving a Google Play system update dated “1 January 2027,” which really seems to be getting ahead of itself. Sadly, all my Android phones are still stuck on September 2026, which now feels entirely old fashioned.
[Android Police]
YouTuber Tim Pan put the new Apple foldable through a total of 11,500 folds, a thousand of which were in freezing conditions. Like Joanna Stern, he found the hinge holds up well, but like any other foldable, the crease gets a lot more visible (and a bit more even after only 500), matte display or not.
YouTube creators, on their own videos, will have the dislike button moved behind the three-dot menu, but that’s not the case for regular users.
Tesla has set a Q2 2027 target to let owners opt their cars into its robotaxi network—a major promise, but one that comes with a history of missed deadlines and steep regulatory hurdles.
Even though Mass Effect developer BioWare has been shut down, IGN reports that Amazon is still working on the Prime Video series, citing “sources inside Prime Video.”
I asked both EA and Amazon about the status of the show today, and both companies declined to comment.
New research out of Texas shows how data centers are driving up pollution.
AI data center projects are continuing to pop up across the US, with frequent opposition from locals concerned about their impact. Here are a few recent articles about the projects:
It said in a filing that Zuckerberg “was evaluating relocating his primary residence” if California’s Proposition 40 passes. As Bloomberg reports, Meta’s board issued special shares so that he wouldn’t have to leave:
Zuckerberg gets non-voting shares he can sell for liquidity without reducing his voting control. In return, he has committed to remain in California — or wherever Meta is headquartered — for eight years while he remains in a full-time leadership role.
That’s according to Mark Zuckerberg on the company’s earnings call today. He also says that “About 25% of people who have set up Muse use it on any given day. For our earliest adopters, the longer that they use Muse, the better the retention seems to get.”
This week, Sensor Tower reported that the Muse app had hit 10 million US downloads.
I just left two prize packages with FedEx today, and yet I’ve still got plenty more in the Today I’m Toying With giveaway! I start a new giveaway each Wednesday, each runs for one week, and you can enter every week — as long as you do before each deadline of 9AM ET Wednesday. We’re now on Giveaway #17. Tell a friend!
TechCrunch reports that layoffs have hit the company’s “communications team, social team, WordPress.com, and its VIP enterprise business.” It’s unclear how many have been laid off.
Automattic’s head of comms, Chenda Ngak, gave this statement to The Verge — “We’re staggering our organizational changes to be more generous with severance and allow more time with each Automattician.” — and said she had nothing else to add.
The cuts follow CEO Matt Mullenweg being briefly placed on leave in September.
Update: Added Automattic statement.
Microsoft’s annual report reveals the company employed around 223,000 people as of June 30th. That’s 5,000 less than the 228,000 people employed in 2025. It’s the first time Microsoft has had a headcount reduction in 10 years, after the gutting of the Nokia phone business in 2015 and 2016. The reduction comes as Microsoft has laid off more than 9,000 employees over the past year.
[Microsoft]
Meta says the new class of shares will also fund acquisitions and employee compensation.
Meta’s third-quarter earnings report shows it spent $9.89 billion paying for its settlement with US attorney generals.
OpenAI is taking credit for finding the PHP2Shell vulnerabilities, but now someone has to apply all these patches.
Flat revenue and a 4 percent profit drop show that no amount of rocket thrusters can disguise Tesla’s troubles.
Bose will leverage Skullcandy’s designs and branding to help the company attract new users.
