Marvel's mishandling of its Blade reboot will likely go down as one of the studio's biggest mistakes. There was a great actor in place to play the vampire hunter (Mahershala Ali), and a promising director set to take over the reins (Bassam Tariq). In retrospect, though, the disappointing demise o...
Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 143, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you're new here, welcome, new tech season is here, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.) This week, I've been devouring every iPhone Duo video I can find, cli...
This is The Stepback, a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more on cars, data privacy, and autonomous vehicles, follow Andrew J. Hawkins. The Stepback arrives in our subscribers' inboxes at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepback here. How it started Earlier this...
In May, hundreds of malicious and spam packages were uploaded to RubyGems, causing a serious disruption for the host. Now independent researchers have said that a swarm of OpenAI agents were responsible for the attack. Not only that, but the AI tried to steal users' API keys. At the time, RubyGe...
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman confirmed that there would be no OpenAI IPO in 2026 during an interview with Fortune. Over the course of 45 minutes, Altman discussed a variety of subjects including the Hugging Face hacking incident, recursive self-improvement, and the possibility of building an AI that was...
Blizzard originally tried to bring the StarCraft universe to the world of 3D shooters way back in 2002 with StarCraft: Ghost. It sat in development hell for years until Blizzard president Mike Morhaime confirmed that it had been canceled in 2014. Now Blizzard is giving it another go with the simp...
Sylvan Esso preparing to attend a frutiger aero renfaire. Amelia Meath and Nick Sanborn, better known as Sylvan Esso, have been bringing their low-key electro-pop to the masses since 2014, bursting onto the scene with their self-titled debut album and the single "Hey Mami." Over the years, they...
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei says the time has come to slow down AI development and will give third-party evaluators like METR access to its models to help ensure its "adherence to safety practices and commitments." In a winding essay, Amodei proposed a three-step plan to "pace the frontier" - jarg...
Earlier this week, Gamers Nexus, Level1Techs, and independent security researchers detailed some alarming findings about how LG's TVs are logging and uploading data on its users. Now the company is pushing back against those allegations, saying that "Some recent media coverage may have contribute...
President Donald Trump is weakening environmental regulations in the name of speeding up the construction of AI data centers, raising health risks for Americans, a cadre of former EPA officials said this week in a briefing and new report. They are urging - perhaps futilely - the president to adop...
Due to a scheduling mishap, I was only able to check out two movies on my second day at the Toronto International Film Festival - but I did manage to get an early look at and some fascinating details on one of my most anticipated films this year. Even if you don't know the name Laika, you probabl...
Which color suits you best? | Photo: Nilay Patel / The Verge The iPhone 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max are almost here. Announced at Apple's September 2026 "Sunrise and shine" event alongside the iPhone Duo and other new gear, the two upgraded phones feature the faster A20 Pro processor with more GPU po...
OpenAI has spent the last few years planting flags across the increasingly difficult terrain in mathematics. This week, it claimed one of its biggest prizes yet: a solution to a legendary Millennium Prize problem. In normal circumstances, this would have been celebrated as a historic achievement....
New Mexico's Supreme Court is punishing a lawyer for including AI-fabricated witnesses and fake police testimony in an appeal for his client's murder conviction, according to a report from Reuters. In a filing on Wednesday, the court fined Stephen Aarons $5,000 and held him in contempt for failin...
Two days after being placed on a paid leave of absence, Matt Mullenweg says he has been reinstated as CEO of Automattic, according to a Slack message seen by TechCrunch. As 404 Media reported on Wednesday, Mullenweg had told staff in Slack that CFO Mark Davies "conspired" with the board of direc...
You only get one chance at a first impression, and getting to introduce Apple's first folding phone is certainly a strong way to start things off as Apple's CEO. On The Vergecast today, we're talking all about Apple's launch event: how John Ternus did in his first appearance as CEO, what we make ...
The White House claims the Donald Trump-owned Truth Social is the "most powerful and popular social media platform in the world." The statement, provided to The New York Times by White House spokesperson Davis Ingle, is at odds with the user counts from some of the biggest social media platforms ...
After admitting earlier this year that its AI models had hacked other companies' systems on a handful of occasions, Anthropic released a new report on Wednesday detailing the attacks. It reveals a string of incidents displaying what Anthropic deems its models' single-minded "recklessness" - and w...
Frank Shaw in 2025. | Image: Microsoft Frank Shaw is leaving Microsoft after 17 years as chief communications officer. In an internal note to his team, Shaw says he's "decided it is time for me to move on and try new things," after supporting Microsoft's communications for 29 years - nearly 20 ...
Just a couple of weeks before Meta Connect starts on September 23rd, UploadVR posted images seemingly revealing the design for Meta's "Project Phoenix" headset. The images, which UploadVR says were "found in the HorizonOS Prescription Lens firmware package," suggest Meta may be looking to compete...