Verge Archives

The Pentagon says the high-altitude balloon currently flying over the US is spying on us. China says it’s just a weather balloon.

because literally nobody works like this. Get real, folks.

The live presentation has just wrapped up in a tidy 59 minutes. Now... more hands-on device time. There’s an “experience” waiting, and it’s just a five block shot straight downhill from the auditorium. Better than up I guess?

We’ve got Qualcomm and Google execs on stage with TM Roh talking about the integrations between their products and XR.

Samsung is highlighting the customizability of One UI 5.0’s lock screen. That was kind of iOS 16’s thing too. Custom lock screens are fun and good, fwiw. More of them, please.

Galaxy Book 3 Ultra got a big, flashy introduction on stage. We’re hearing all about the specs right now and it’s pretty clear that Ultra means “no compromises” in Samsung.

Full-well capacity, ISP, we’re talking about it all. I guess with not much else changing on the phone elsewhere, it makes sense to do more of a deep dive. Also, I’m a nerd, and 100% here for it.

Our least favorite word for low-light photography is back. Samsung’s highlighting the low light video capabilities of the S23 Ultra with... another film by another director. And it looks dark.

Welp, I was wrong. Samsung’s new 200MP sensor in the S23 Ultra features some under-the-hood updates to better gather light. I was betting that Samsung wouldn’t get into the weeds in this presentation, but they sure did. Guess I owe you all $5.

Galaxy Unpacked is underway and we’re on the ground in SF. I’m sensing big megapixel vibes... stay tuned as all is revealed.

Change Bing’s name to “Ask GPT.” (Sorry, Ask Jeeves.)

The trailer for Fast X (notably directed by Louis Leterrier in the place of Justin Lin) has a release date.

Welcome back to earnings season, with bad news from Samsung, a new record set by Spotify, and, this afternoon, reports from AMD and Electronic Arts.

This live-reflecting update to Apple’s 2000s-era Aqua design language is so cool. Bring it back!

Samsung’s big Galaxy Unpacked event on Wednesday will reveal more on its consumer devices phones and tablets, but, as Bloomberg points out, we’ll also keep an eye out for its quarterly earnings results.

The agency has gradually lifted restrictions on blood donations over the past decade, but rules on who can give blood have still been punishing for gay and bisexual men. The new proposed policy would eliminate time-based deferral requirements, though other restrictions related to sexual behavior still remain.

Sure, all the images look like those bad renderings that real estate firms put out thinking they’ll make their projects seem less soulless and evil. But using AI to remove cars and add greenery and happy looking pedestrians and cyclists is the only worthwhile application of AI image generators that I’ve seen so far.

Some people haven’t stopped playing since 1997, and now they’re very good. But choosing Oddjob in a match with your friends? Still very illegal.

Nonetheless, these days every inch of our digital landscape seems like it’s being mined for more revenue. (See: Pantone colors suddenly requiring a $15/month subscription.) If you want to use NPR’s new typefaces, you can grab Lato and Source Sans Pro for free under the Open Font License at Google Fonts. (Yes, it’s called Google Fonts, which contains many typefaces.)

We can’t have mass transit but we sure can dream.

The New York Times has a great piece today about a decommissioned fallout shelter that was built to preserve the Canadian government in the event of global nuclear war. Apparently it has become more popular as the doomsday clock ticks closer to midnight.

The N64 GoldenEye remaster is almost here, and this afternoon we’ll get a new Tesla quarterly earnings report, in case you’ve missed hearing from Elon Musk.

If the Joker had a blog, I really wish it’d have nothing to do with Batman. Maybe it’s just a cute, little side hustle where brands send him face paint in exchange for honest reviews.

They’re unofficially one of The Verge’s favorite things. Is there conversation pit news happening here? No. Who cares. Stop asking me questions.

It’s the latest project from Jeff Kosseff, author of The Verge’s favorite Section 230 book, The Twenty-Six Words That Created the Internet. I truly cannot wait.

West Coast Twitter boutique? They’re having a fire sale?!

During 2020’s wave of protests against police brutality, artists turned boarded-up windows into powerful murals. Some served as memorials to those killed by police, like George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. Others featured poems, calls to defund the police, poignant imagery, and more. Here are over 30 we photographed, with the artists’ names and/or Instagram handles if available.

NYT reports that a mining company in Sweden has discovered a potential wealth of rare earth materials. Word of caution to Swedish miners: don’t wake the Ender Dragon.

Air travel is back on, big TVs are still booming, and Andrew Tate will apparently remain on lockdown for at least a few more weeks.

The CES hangover is just about cleared, which is leaving room for some big entertainment news. That includes the trailer for the next MCU flick, kicking off Phase 5 of its superhero series, and our first review of HBO’s The Last of Us TV show.

I love writing headlines at The Verge but I have to give it up to our friends at Polygon today who have us beat with this one.

Boeing’s Starliner crew flight test patch is out and it really pops. I support going to space if only for the threads.

Today our CES 2023 attention turns to the show floor, but let’s not be so hasty that we ignore Sony’s event last night.

The CES madness in Las Vegas has begun, Twitter is broken in Australia, and someone else has probably scored 50 or more points in an NBA game since I started writing this.

Thank you all again for reading The Verge. I want to take a moment to also thank all of my colleagues — across text, video, audio, illustration, design, operations, events, and every other facet of Verge production — for the wonderful work they’ve done over several challenging years. If you want to get to know them better, just take a look at all of these incredible people across our masthead.

We’ve had a huge year of reporting, videography, design, and everything else that we love to do at The Verge — including a massive new redesign that has given you all lots of feelings and opinions. I’ve been at The Verge for more than a decade now and seen the site change from the months before launch through all of our various challenges and triumphs.

I really love this piece from my colleague Makena Kelly on the rise of “cozy games”, which both describes a sprawling genre and a cultural movement in gaming. I cut my teeth on a lot of intense FPS and action games growing up, but in recent years I have found a very happy place in games that allow you to have more of a relaxing experience — like wearing a warm sweater during the holidays. I’m happy to see this part of the industry be increasingly rewarded by consumers.

Supply shortages were not particularly kind to would-be PS5 buyers during the pandemic, but there’s been a notable uptick in availability over the last few months. Right now, for instance, Sony’s God of War Ragnarök bundle is pretty widely available, ending what has felt like a two-year console drought.