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

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
Arizona’s criminal charges against Kalshi are put on hold.

Federal Judge Michael Liburdi issued a temporary restraining order halting the state’s case against the prediction market. The CFTC has stepped in to stop Arizona and other states from attempting to supersede federal efforts to regulate prediction markets, but the Trump Administration has largely avoided actually regulating them. Perhaps unsurprisingly, according to Business Insider:

Since Donald Trump returned to office, Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., has become a paid advisor to Kalshi, and an investment firm he works for invested in Polymarket.

Is the ‘Holy Grail of batteries’ finally ready to bless us with its presence?

Finnish startup Donut Lab claims it’s made a solid-state battery breakthrough. Whether you believe it or not, the technology does appear to be more than just hype.

Andrew J. Hawkins
The Iranian Lego AI video creators credit their virality to ‘heart’

Explosive Media is going up against the White House in a meme war.

Charles Pulliam-Moore
Dominic Preston
Dominic Preston
Samsung’s Z Flip 8 slims down in new leak renders.

The fairly reliable leaker OnLeaks has shared his first CAD renders for the Galaxy Z Flip 8, via MyMobiles, and it looks… pretty much identical to the Z Flip 7, actually. It’s apparently slimmer though, with 0.5mm shaved off when closed, which should make it fractionally more pocketable.

<em>The Flip 8 has the same boxy design and full cover screen as its predecessor according to this leak.</em>
<em>While it’s apparently going to be thinner when folded, it will be about the same thickness when open.</em>
<em>Samsung’s foldables normally launch in July, so expect to find out more then.</em>
1/3
The Flip 8 has the same boxy design and full cover screen as its predecessor according to this leak.
Image: OnLeaks / MyMobiles
Andrew Liszewski
Andrew Liszewski
Adobe’s ‘computational photography’ camera app is now available for the iPad.

After adding support for the iPhone 17 and its square sensor selfie camera last November, Adobe has updated its Project Indigo camera app to support the iPhone 17e and iPads with at least 6GB of RAM. But Adobe warns that “Project Indigo is not yet tuned for iPad operation” and suggests sticking with an iPhone for an “optimal experience.”

Stevie Bonifield
Stevie Bonifield
France’s government is switching to Linux.

France’s Interministerial Directorate for Digital Affairs (DINUM) has announced its “exit from Windows in favor of workstations running on the Linux operating system,” as XDA reports. It’s part of a broader shift away from non-European tech — in January, France’s government also launched its own videoconferencing platform to replace Teams, Zoom, and Google Meet.

Emma Roth
Emma Roth
Prime Video’s pricier “Ultra” plan goes live today.

Going ad-free on Prime Video now costs $4.99 per month, instead of $2.99. It also comes with “exclusive” access to 4K streams.

Interior design at 25,000 mph

How the Artemis II spacecraft was designed with (relative) comfort in mind.

Georgina Torbet
Stevie Bonifield
Stevie Bonifield
Gmail’s end-to-end encryption is now available on its mobile app.

Starting this week, enterprise users will be able to send encrypted messages from Gmail’s Android and iOS apps if their organization has the feature enabled. Gmail’s version of E2EE, which uses client-side encryption, has been available since last year, but is still limited to users with enterprise accounts.

Fear and loathing at OpenAIFear and loathing at OpenAI
David Pierce
Dominic Preston
Dominic Preston
Huawei’s next flagship phones are going big on gradients.

The Pura 90 series will launch in China on April 20th, and the phones will be decked out in a series of colorful gradient finishes. GizmoChina has images of the full line of Pura 90 Pro and Pro Max colors, but I’m a fan of this sunset Pro Max Huawei has teased on Weibo.

Screenshot showing Huawei Pura 90 Pro Max in the colors of a sunset on water
Gradients aren’t new for Huawei — its P20 and P30 phones had similar finishes.
Screenshot: Huawei Weibo account
Dominic Preston
Dominic Preston
I see what you did there.

Digital privacy non-profit the Electronic Frontier Foundation has announced it’s leaving X, citing a sharp decline in views for its posts. With EFF off the platform, some commenters agree with the organization’s thinking.

Krankor:

eff x, I agree

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

Dominic Preston
Dominic Preston
Android’s “tap to share” looks a little different to Apple’s.

Last month Android Authority reported Google is developing an NFC-based way to share contact info, files, links, and more, and now it’s got the interface running. Unlike Apple’s NameDrop, users have to hold the two phones above one another, perhaps to account for how varied NFC chip placement can be on Android devices.

<em>While iPhone users hold their phones edge to edge, on Android the phones must overlap.</em>
<em>Sharing options include photos, videos, and contact info.</em>
1/2
While iPhone users hold their phones edge to edge, on Android the phones must overlap.
Image: Android Authority
Thomas Ricker
Thomas Ricker
Lame loses his sparkle.

TikTok star Khaby Lame sold his personal brand to a small, relatively unknown company called “Rich Sparkle Holdings.” Instead of handing him $975 million in cash, they paid him in stock. Fans piled in, causing the price to skyrocket, briefly making Lame a paper billionaire (several times over) before the price plummeted. It’s now looking suspiciously like a “pump-and-dump” scheme, causing trading apps to freeze the stock. 🤷‍♂️

Thomas Ricker
Thomas Ricker
Apple to close three retail stores, including the first to unionize.

The stores are all located in struggling shopping malls. Employees at the non-union shops can transfer to nearby stores, but union workers from Towson, Maryland can apply for open roles. Apple says this is due to their collective bargain agreement, which the union disputes, threatening legal action.

Richard Lawler
Richard Lawler
Meta removes ads from lawyers seeking plaintiffs for social media addiction cases.

Now that a jury has ruled against Meta and YouTube in a landmark trial, the sharks are circling, and what better place to find potential clients than on those social media platforms? The only problem is that Axios reports Meta pulled “more than a dozen” such ads from firms like Morgan & Morgan and Sokolove Law on Thursday.

Here are the best Apple Watch deals available right nowHere are the best Apple Watch deals available right now
Brandon Widder and Sheena Vasani
The EFF is quitting XThe EFF is quitting X
Stevie Bonifield
Thomas Ricker
Thomas Ricker
Chrome combats session theft.

Google is officially rolling out Device Bound Session Credentials (DBSC) to Windows users in Chrome 146. The new security feature cryptographically binds your login cookies to your device’s hardware. So, even if malware steals your browser cookies, they should be useless to remote hackers. MacOS support is coming soon.

Andrew Liszewski
Andrew Liszewski
DJI teases an April 16th announcement for what could be the Osmo Pocket 4.

We know Insta360 is planning to launch its own handheld stabilized camera this year, but DJI may beat them to the punch with the latest version of its Osmo Pocket. The company shared a teaser this morning for a not-so-mysterious April 16th announcement that could be the leaked Osmo Pocket 4.