Technology

Every Friday, The Verge publishes our flagship podcast, The Vergecast, where Verge editor-in-chief Nilay Patel discusses the week in tech news with the reporters and editors covering the biggest stories. The big stories from this week: Mark Zuckerberg’s big plans for AR glasses and Elon Musk’s attempt to buy 100 percent of Twitter. Nilay starts The Vergecast with deputy editor Liz Lopatto, managing editor Alex Cranz, and senior reporter Alex Heath to discuss the ever-evolving drama between Elon Musk and Twitter — and the repercussions of their limited partnership. (There are probably some additional updates to this story after we recorded this morning.) In the second half of the show, senior reporter Adi Robertson joins to discuss Alex Heath’s story on Meta’s plans for its AR glasses and h...

Valve’s Steam Deck handheld gaming PC has been the #2 top grossing product on Steam for five weeks in a row, according to SteamDB. I am vindicated — because that means it’s not a flop. Early estimates suggested over 110,000 people put down a $5 deposit for the unproven Linux handheld in the first 90 minutes after it went on sale last July, but there was always a chance they’d change their mind. I figured many would after reading critical reviews like mine! And while I have seen a handful of people in r/SteamDeck reclaim their five bucks… almost every other sign suggests to me that it’s selling well. While we don’t have official sales numbers for the Steam Deck, here is some context that might put things in perspective: Elden Ring is the context. The Steam Deck launched the same week ...

Are a Final Fantasy VII fan? Tired of oversleeping? Don’t want to use your phone as an alarm lest you get sucked into doomscrolling? Well, do I ever have the solution for you: a standalone digital clock fashioned after Final Fantasy VII’s iconic Buster Sword. The miniature replica of Cloud Strife’s ridiculously large sword — specifically, the version in Final Fantasy VII Remake — is set at an angle reminiscent of how you see it on the game’s main menu screen. The time is illuminated prominently thanks to a display on the sword’s blade, and the materia near the hilt light up, too. A closer look at the clock. Wonder what materia those are.Image: Square Enix If you like Final Fantasy VII Remake’s music — like me — you’ll be pleased to know that you can set five of the game’s best songs as you...

Scam app hunter / developer Kosta Eleftheriou, known for catching egregious scams that make it past Apple’s review process, has once again brought attention to a new crop of shady apps being peddled through the App Store. This time they’re on the Mac, and they’re using pop-ups that make it extremely difficult to quit an app without agreeing to outrageous subscription prices — all without Apple noticing, despite its argument that its App Review process keeps devices and users safe. The app that started the hunt, which seems to have been discovered by Edoardo Vacchi, is called My Metronome. According to Vacchi, Eleftheriou, and user reviews, the app locks up and won’t let you quit it using keyboard shortcuts or the menu bar until you agree to a $9.99-a-month subscription. (It can, however, b...

I just finished Friday’s Wordle — which I am reminding you now is owned by The New York Times for reasons you’ll understand shortly — and when I did, I was surprised to see an addition to the results screen. Under the usual stats, the “next Wordle” countdown, and the share button, there was something new: a small banner advertising another puzzle, the NYT’s Spelling Bee. For fans who appreciate Wordle’s simplicity, the ad may come as a rude surprise. Part of the appeal of Wordle is that simplicity: you take your shot at the day’s puzzle, decide whether or not your journey is worth sharing on Twitter, then close the tab and move on. And that was by design, as noted in the NYT’s profile of Wordle creator Josh Wardle: But since Wordle was built originally for just Mr. Wardle and Ms. Shah, the...

Games publisher Xseed announced via Twitter that No More Heroes 3, which was released for the Nintendo Switch in August 2021, is coming to the PC, PS4, PS5, and Xbox consoles in the fall. Presumably, digital versions will be available, but the sole picture shared by Xseed shows limited-edition physical copies of the game that include an art book, a faux license plate, and a soundtrack CD adorned with the most obvious Akira reference. Xseed hasn’t yet shared a price for No More Heroes 3 on these new platforms. Fans of the No More Heroes series will definitely want to play the latest installment, which my colleague Sam Byford says is a worthy follow-up to the original Nintendo Wii title. Its stylish, fluid combat is back (along with the sometimes funny, usually immature writing), and you’ll ...

Update, 5:38PM ET, April 15th: I didn’t expect this twist. IGN spoke with a player claiming to be the real “Let me solo her,” and apparently, I played with an imposter, of which there may be many. While the person who joined my game did, in fact, solo her, the player speaking to IGN said that they don’t mind if others join the battle with them. He told IGN: “I always wear a jar on my head and I do not bail on any Malenia boss fights. If the host or other summon decides to help, I have no problems whatsoever.” While this revelation is weighing heavily on my psyche, my enjoyment from watching someone single-handedly beat this boss remains. Before I reached Malenia, a notoriously tough boss in Elden Ring, I had already heard a bit about the player named “Let me solo her,” who — as their name ...

It’s been over a year since Samsung released its shiny red Galaxy Chromebook 2. Its next shot at this device is now available for purchase, and it’s something, well, a bit different. The new Galaxy Chromebook 2, as far as I can tell, is not nearly as red as its predecessor. (It’s pretty black and white.) But it does have a 360-degree hinge, and is more affordable with a starting price of $429.99, making it perhaps a more…practical purchase on multiple fronts. What’s most interesting here is the display. Not only is this Chromebook 16:10 (a good aspect ratio — thumbs-up), but it also comes with a 2560 x 1600 screen. That’s certainly going to be one of the highest-resolution screens you can get at a $430 price point. This is still a bit of a small screen at just 12.4 inches — smaller t...

If you’re the kind of Android user that double-checks every app permission, stays informed on every new feature, and is actually interested in app split screen, then you need to go read this detailed explanation of the changes to expect in Android 13 later this year. It’s a thorough and organized changelog — with a table of contents — of developer preview 2 of the unreleased Android 13 and reads as if it’s an official internal guide for all the changes. This thoroughly documented changelog of Android 13 is written by none other than former XDA Developers editor-in-chief Mishaal Rahman — who last year uncovered the technical reason why Microsoft Teams and Android 12 caused a failed emergency call. You might even catch foreshadowing of future products Google appears to be working on — like a...

Google has shown off a “design study” in ambient computing, with a series of objects that can subtly deliver notifications through taps, gentle breezes, and shifting shadows (shout out to Verge alumn Dieter Bohn for tweeting this to our attention). The company calls the experiment Little Signals and says it’s exploring “calm computing,” or ways of keeping you in the loop without having your phone blare a notification chime and light up a screen. Google has six objects in the Little Signals collection: the Air, Button, Movement, Rhythm, Shadow, and Tap. It shows off concepts of what the devices could look like in its video (which you can watch above) and explains what they all do on its website, though the descriptions can veer a bit too far into poetry for my liking. For example, the Butto...

One of the most persistent cryptocurrency ideas I’ve encountered from crypto proponents like Chris Dixon is that it will let people collaboratively tell stories with non-fungible tokens (or NFTs) and then profit from their creative work. The actual attempts to do this have been underwhelming so far, often seeming to not really require NFTs or collapsing because the operators haven’t thought the details through. So I was intrigued by a new Archie Comics plan to create an NFT-based “writer’s room on the blockchain.” But after reading the details, I hope that’s not what the publisher is actually doing. Archieverse: Eclipse is a comics tie-in pitched as “a near infinite storyline, created with fans.” Based on a press release and the announcement page, Archie fans can purchase one of 66,666 pre...

I recently reviewed the Gigabyte Aero 16, a 16-inch Intel-powered workstation with a powerful GPU. It was hot, heavy, expensive, and had… little in the way of battery life. The 16-inch laptop category has traditionally been dominated by those sorts of desktop replacements. Lenovo’s IdeaPad Slim 7 is trying something different within its 16-inch frame. This is an AMD-powered, portable laptop with a more midrange-level GPU and a 16-inch screen. It lasts all day on battery. And it’s much, much more affordable than many laptops of this size, with a price tag of just over $1,000 ($1,015, to be exact) for this test configuration. (This unit is currently sold out on Lenovo’s website, but the company says it should be back in stock soon.) With a solid build and an unobtrusive look, a comprehensive...