12 – Breaking News & Latest Updates 2026
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Tech

The latest tech news about the world’s best (and sometimes worst) hardware, apps, and much more. From top companies like Google and Apple to tiny startups vying for your attention, Verge Tech has the latest in what matters in technology daily.

Terrence O'Brien
Terrence O'Brien
The Internet Archive was briefly forced offline because of PHP.

The list of sites that had to go down, at least temporarily, because of the recently disclosed PHP vulnerability keeps growing. Thankfully, the Internet Archive’s ops team quickly got things patched, secured, and back online. Digital librarian Brewster Kahle posted his thanks on Mastodon last night: “Given the severity, there are heroes in many many orgs from last night. Could have been no lights, no traffic signals, real problems.“

Andrew Liszewski
Andrew Liszewski
Build it, stack it, sort it, make it.

Lego and Daft Punk have revealed a new collaboration that will include an upcoming set based on the pyramid stage design from the duo’s 2007 Alive concert tour. The Daft Punk Concert set was originally submitted to the Lego Ideas platform in 2020 by a father-son duo from Belgium, according to Variety, but has finally been approved for production by Lego after amassing 10,000 supporters.

Terrence O'Brien
Terrence O'Brien
Akai’s new MPK Mini Plus II is a lot of MIDI controller for $169.

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.

Bill Gates says to prepare for 20 years of ‘tumultuous’ AI disruption
Play

The Microsoft cofounder isn’t an AI doomer, but he says it’s still “the most dangerous weapon of all time.”

Nilay Patel
Terrence O'Brien
Terrence O'Brien
Two old-school Japanese mobile games are shutting down over the PHP exploit.

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.

Jennifer Pattison Tuohy
Jennifer Pattison Tuohy
Meet Mori.

Launching today, this companion robot-slash-lamp 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, OKA, claims is alive. Mori is available to order now for $649, in four colors.

Updated Oct. 22: OKA sent a replacement video because the original had unlicensed music.

Andrew Liszewski
Andrew Liszewski
Wyze’s new smart bulb security camera can track and follow subjects.

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.

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<em>The camera screws into a standard E26 bulb socket, so it doesn’t require a wall mount to be installed, power cables to be run, or a battery to be charged.</em>
<em>An included switch cover prevents someone from turning off a light switch and cutting power to the camera accidentally.</em>
<em>Cloud storage is an option with a paid subscription, but the camera can also record 24/7 locally to a microSD card up to 512GB in size.</em>
1/3
The camera screws into a standard E26 bulb socket, so it doesn’t require a wall mount to be installed, power cables to be run, or a battery to be charged.
Image: Wyze
Birdbuddy’s budget feeder foiled my squirrels

The Nook and Home are cheaper, faster, and sleeker smart bird feeders — but the new camera might be a deal-breaker for diehard birders.

Jennifer Pattison Tuohy
Googlebooks just aren’t ready

Our collective reviews of every Googlebook at launch: very good laptops hobbled by beta-level software.

Antonio G. Di Benedetto, David Pierce and 2 more
AI agents are ready to shop. Some retailers are wary

AI agents are getting blocked left and right — but even when they work, it suggests a more annoying future for humans.

Mia Sato
Jess Weatherbed
Jess Weatherbed
Capcom data breach leaks over 11 million email addresses.

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.

The world’s first triple 200-megapixel cameraphone is great

Oppo’s Find X10 Pro Max benefits more from sensor size, dynamic range, and excellent software than sheer resolution.

Dominic Preston
Jess Weatherbed
Jess Weatherbed
The next iPhone Duo could have Face ID.

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.

Jess Weatherbed
Jess Weatherbed
The PHP2Shell exploit hit Cloudflare hard.

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.

Dominic Preston
Dominic Preston
Australia orders Apple to open the iPhone to third-party app stores.

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.

Dominic Preston
Dominic Preston
Now that’s what I call futureproofing.

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.

Dominic Preston
Dominic Preston
The iPhone Duo’s crease gets a lot more visible after 10,000 folds.

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.

Comparison image of iPhone Duo before and after 10,000 folds
Screenshot: Tim Pan
Stevie Bonifield
Stevie Bonifield
Meta made a deal to keep Mark Zuckerberg from leaving California over its billionaire tax.

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.

Jay Peters
Jay Peters
10 million people have already set up Muse agents.

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.

Jay Peters
Jay Peters
Automattic is reportedly laying off staff.

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.

Tom Warren
Tom Warren
Microsoft’s headcount is down year-over-year.

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.

New York’s first microdrama film festival searches for its audience

At Alza, the entertainment industry is trying to reinvent itself.

Charles Pulliam-Moore