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The Buds 4 and Buds 4 Pro (pictured) bring an updated look and some iterative changes. The next Galaxy Buds have been announced , and Samsung again mimics Apple in design, ecosystem functionality, and pricing. The Galaxy Buds 4 and Galaxy Buds 4 Pro keep the AirPods-esque design of the Buds 3 , but now have a flat metal surface along the stem's exterior. The regular buds use a single 11mm dynamic speaker and do not have silicone ear tips, while the Buds 4 Pro have a selection of silicone ear tips and a two-way design (meaning a woofer for lower frequencies and a tweeter for the high end), just like the Buds 3 Pro. There's a 5.5mm planar tweeter and a new 11mm "super wide woofer" with an effective area nearly 20 percent larger … Read the full story at The Verge. source https://www.theverge.com/tech/884434/samsung-galaxy-buds-4-pro-unpacked-2026-announcement

On Wednesday, February 25th, Samsung will hold an event in San Francisco where it’s expected to reveal the Galaxy S26, S26 Plus, and S26 Ultra phones, among other things. Based on leaks and Samsung’s own ads, we’re expecting at least one of the phones to come with a display that can black out sensitive content based on viewing angle , which is genuinely cool and useful. They might also finally have Qi2 ! We are also, alas, anticipating a whole lot of questionable AI photo- and video-editing features . Samsung truly is a land of contrasts. Samsung Unpacked starts at 1PM ET / 10AM PT. It’s streaming live on YouTube (embedded below), and we’ll be live blogging here. Stay tuned. You can still get $30 in Samsung credit when you reserve a Galaxy S26 phone Samsung is on slop watch at Unpacked Samsung is adding Perplexity to Galaxy AI Samsung is slopping AI ads all over its social channels Samsung’s Galaxy S26 lineup might look familiar. Samsung Galaxy S26 battery pack leak points ...

Spotify's "Mix" feature now has an option called "Smart Reorder" that can automatically sort users' playlists based on beats per minute (BPM) and key, organizing songs for the best flow from one track to the next. It builds on the existing Mix feature in Spotify and, along with transitions between songs, which were introduced in August , users can now effectively have an automated DJ mix their Spotify playlists for them. The "Smart Reorder" option, announced on Wednesday, is available now in the Spotify app for Premium subscribers. To try it out, open a playlist and tap the "Mix" button then "Edit." The "Smart Reorder" button should be at t … Read the full story at The Verge. source https://www.theverge.com/entertainment/884399/spotify-mix-smart-reorder-feature

YouTube is adding background playback and offline downloads to YouTube Premium Lite, its $7.99-per-month subscription. With the change, you'll be able to keep YouTube videos going while you use another app on your phone or save videos to watch when you're offline. YouTube Premium Lite came to the US just about a year ago as a more affordable way to watch YouTube with fewer ads, but it lacked background playback and offline downloads. In its blog post, the company said that it had "heard feedback about wanting these additional features included in the service." The features are rolling out beginning Tuesday and will be available everywhere … Read the full story at The Verge. source https://www.theverge.com/streaming/883316/youtube-premium-lite-background-play-offline-downloads

On Tuesday, Anthropic announced updates to its Claude Cowork platform that allow the AI to help with a wider range of office tasks. Claude Cowork can now connect with several popular office apps, including Google Workspace, Docusign, and WordPress. New pre-built plug-ins can also automate tasks in a range of fields, including HR, design, engineering, and finance. Additionally, according to Anthropic, "Claude can now also handle multi-step tasks end-to-end across Excel and PowerPoint," passing context between the two apps. The update is Anthropic's latest push into AI agents, following the initial launch of Claude Cowork last month. Anthrop … Read the full story at The Verge. source https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/883707/anthropic-claude-cowork-updates

Acme Weather is currently only available for iOS. | Image: Acme Weather Corporation After selling their popular weather app to Apple in March 2020 , where some of its core features were incorporated into Apple Weather, the creators of Dark Sky have left Apple to create yet another alternative. Their new app, called Acme Weather , embraces the fact that forecasts will never be entirely accurate by providing both a main prediction of the day's conditions and several alternate predictions. Acme Weather is currently only available for iOS . An Android version is planned, but there's no release timeline yet. You can try it out for two weeks for free, but a $25 annual subscription is needed if you like what you see and want to keep … Read the full story at The Verge. source https://www.theverge.com/tech/883089/acme-weather-forecast-app-ios-dark-sky-creators-subscription

Progress towards reliable deepfake labelling tech is sluggish, despite all the “help” from AI providers. | Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images As 2025 drew to a close, Instagram head Adam Mosseri ended the year by doom-posting about AI. "Authenticity is becoming infinitely reproducible," Mosseri lamented . "Everything that made creators matter - the ability to be real, to connect, to have a voice that couldn't be faked - is now accessible to anyone with the right tools." But people, Mosseri insisted, still wanted "content that feels real." His proposed solution was finding a way to label real media. "Camera manufacturers will cryptographically sign images at capture, creating a chain of custody," he said. The result would be a trustworthy system for determining what's not AI. The g … Read the full story at The Verge. source https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/882956/ai-deepfake-detection-labels-c2pa-inst...

Image: Kristen Radtke / The Verge Last November, the House Oversight Committee had just released 20,000 pages of documents from the estate of Jeffrey Epstein, and Luke Igel and some friends were clicking around, trying to follow the threads of conversation through garbled email threads and a PDF viewer that was, frankly, "gross." In the coming months, the Department of Justice would release its own batches of files, more than three million of them - again, all PDFs. This was a problem. While the Department of Justice had run optical character recognition over the text, it was not very good, Igel said, rendering the files more or less unsearchable. "There was no interface … Read the full story at The Verge. source https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/882891/ai-pdf-parsing-failure

I wish I could talk to my Plex server… | Image: Samsung. In addition to summoning Bixby or Gemini , Galaxy S26 users will be able to call on Perplexity by saying " hey, Plex ." The integration of Perplexity into Galaxy AI is just one element of the company's embrace of a "multi-agent ecosystem." Often, people will use different AI agents for different tasks, depending on where their strengths lie. So Samsung is opening up the ability to integrate different agents into the OS. Hey, Plex isn't just some transparent version of the app baked into a Galaxy phone to quickly get answers to questions. Perplexity will have access to Samsung Notes, Clock, Gallery, Reminder, and Calendar, as well as select thi … Read the full story at The Verge. source https://www.theverge.com/tech/882921/samsung-is-adding-perplexity-to-galaxy-ai

I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Laurie Spiegel for the site. As preparation for the interview, I spent a lot of time over the last couple of weeks revisiting Spiegel's records, most notably The Expanding Universe , her 1980 masterpiece that blends synth experimentalism with early examples of what would eventually be called ambient music , and algorithmic composition techniques. It's a marvel that sounds both nostalgic and cutting-edge at the same time. Tracks like "Patchwork" and "A Folk Study" dabble in the sort of bouncy arpeggios that beg comparisons to The Who's "Baba O'Riley," while "Old Wave" and "East River Dawn" conjure ea … Read the full story at The Verge. source https://www.theverge.com/entertainment/882915/laurie-spiegel-the-expanding-universe-review-masterpiece-ambient-music

Fun vibes. Okay-ish photos. | Photo: Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge There's been a surge of interest over the last few years in inexpensive digital cameras. Younger folks are snapping up old point-and-shoots because they view the aesthetic as more authentic and more appealing than smartphone images. Companies are even rereleasing old tech at new prices . And there are cameras like the original Camp Snap : a $70 single-button point-and-shoot with no screen, designed as a modern take on a disposable film camera. It's cheap enough to send off with a kid to summer camp and accessible enough for just about anyone to enjoy its lo-fi aesthetic. I've been testing two charming examples of this formula: the $99 Camp S … Read the full story at The Verge. source https://www.theverge.com/gadgets/882641/camp-snap-pro-flashback-one35-v2-digicam-camera-comparison-review

Arturia launched a new version of its flagship effects suite, FX Collection, which includes two new plugins, EFX Ambient and Pitch Shifter-910. FX Collection 6 also marks the introduction of an Intro version with a selection of six effects covering the basics for $99. That pales in comparison to the 39 effects in the full FX Collection Pro, but that also costs $499. Pitch Shifter-910 is based on the iconic Eventide H910 Harmonizer from 1974, an early digital pitchshifter and delay with a very unique character. Arturia does an admirable job preserving its glitchy quirks. Pitch Shifter-910 is not a transparent effect that lets you create natu … Read the full story at The Verge. source https://www.theverge.com/tech/882852/arturia-fx-collection-6

Of course, it’s the guy who constantly complains about voter fraud who may have committed voter fraud. | Image: The Verge For all his bluster about voter fraud , Elon Musk has been one of the most flagrant flaunters of US election law. Now his America PAC has been slapped with a reprimand by the Georgia State Election Board for sending out pre-filled absentee ballot applications. State law prohibits anyone, other than an authorized relative, from sending an absentee ballot application prefilled with the elector's information. Residents of Chattooga, Cherokee, Coweta, Floyd, and Whitfield counties reported receiving absentee ballot applications from America PAC, partially pre-filled. According to the State Election Board, the applications also failed to note tha … Read the full story at The Verge. source https://www.theverge.com/tech/882838/georgia-elon-musk-america-pac-voter-fraud

Juggling multiple chargers for your gadgets while you’re commuting, working from a cafe, or traveling can get heavy (and pricey!) fast, which is why today’s deal on the Anker Prime Power Bank (20K, 200W) is worth checking out. It can quickly charge three devices at once — including laptops — and it’s down to just $79.99 ($60 off) in black at Woot , which is a new low, through February 27th. Anker Prime Power Bank (20K, 200W) Where to Buy: $139.99 $79.99 at Woot Anker says the 20,000mAh power bank is powerful enough to get an iPhone 16 Pro to 30 percent in just 15 minutes or a 16-inch MacBook Pro to 50 percent in about 40 minutes, making it an easy way to quickly top up your devices while on the go. To deliver those speeds, it offers up to 200W of combined output via two USB-C ports and one USB-A port, so you can charge everything from earbuds to handheld consoles, e-readers, and more. And when the power pack dies, it supports 100W fast recharging via the USB-C port, allowin...

New users on the decentralized social network Mastodon could soon have an easier time getting started. Mastodon is running " onboarding experiments " to test ways to improve the new user experience, starting with default server recommendations. Now when new users join Mastodon from the mobile app, they may see a button to "join" a recommended server rather than the default "join mastodon.social" button that's currently displayed. Unlike most other social platforms, Mastodon has hundreds of independent servers users can join, catering to different communities and niches. The addition of default server recommendations could potentially help ne … Read the full story at The Verge. source https://www.theverge.com/tech/881352/mastodon-default-server-recommendations-experiment

Maybe you've heard, but Elon Musk is apparently a Moon fan now. He has historically been the ultimate cheerleader for human missions to Mars, and as recently as last year, he said his aim was to go straight to the red planet and that the Moon was "a distraction." Now, he has apparently changed his mind, announcing that SpaceX has shifted focus to building a city on the Moon. Within the space science community, this news about the Moon has largely been met with eye rolls, primarily because so many have become jaded toward Musk's overly ambitious plans and wildly unrealistic time scales. "It was hard for me to take those Mars plans seriousl … Read the full story at The Verge. source https://www.theverge.com/science/880672/spacex-elon-musk-moon-mars-ipo-blue-origin

Let Gemini be your, uh, Bard? | Image: Google Google has given Gemini the ability to spit out AI-generated music, courtesy of DeepMind's latest audio model. Beta access to Lyria 3 is rolling out in the Gemini app, enabling users to generate 30-second tracks based on text, images, and videos, without having to leave the chatbot window. The new music-making tool is available globally starting today in English, German, Spanish, French, Hindi, Japanese, Korean, and Portuguese, with plans to expand in the future. Access is limited to Gemini app users who are 18 years or older. Lyria 3's text-to-music capabilities allow Gemini app users to make songs by describing specific genres, moods, or … Read the full story at The Verge. source https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/880584/google-gemini-ai-music-maker-lyria-3-beta

The Lens Lizard is installed using your car’s existing license plate screw holes. | Image: Lens Lizard A Vermont-based startup has announced a new upgrade kit that adds a remotely triggered backup camera cleaner to your car. The Lens Lizard system might seem like an unnecessary luxury to some, but if you deal with ice and snow obscuring your backup camera every winter, or live somewhere remote with dirt roads mucking up your ride, the upgrade will save you from having to frequently clean the camera yourself. Its creators are making the Lens Lizard available through a Kickstarter and those who back the crowdfunding campaign can preorder a kit discounted to $99. Full retail pricing is expected to be closer to $149 while shipping will start in … Read the full story at The Verge. source https://www.theverge.com/gadgets/877893/lens-lizard-backup-camera-cleaner-aftermarket-wiper-fluid-kickstarter

To say that Ford has struggled to make profitable electric vehicles would be an understatement. The company recently pulled the plug on its F-150 Lightning, a truck once heralded as the most important EV ever made, after taking a staggering $19.5 billion hit on its EV investments in 2025. A new focus on hybrids and extended-range EVs, as well as internal-combustion engine vehicles that still bring in the most revenue, are now the new way forward for the iconic 122-year old company. Everything old is new again. But Ford still sees EVs as the future - just not oversize ones with "no path to profitability," like the Lightning, as Andrew Frick … Read the full story at The Verge. source https://www.theverge.com/transportation/879975/ford-universal-ev-platform-skunkworks-aero-battery-range

Even if the AI wasn’t being disclosed, its usage in these videos isn’t exactly subtle. | Image: Samsung / The Verge After cramming AI into every inch of its smartphones, appliances, and other devices, Samsung is now increasingly slapping it across social media. Several videos posted to the company's YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok accounts in recent weeks were made or edited using generative AI tools, including its latest teaser for the upcoming Galaxy S26 series. The " Brighten your after hours " video features two people skateboarding at night, and supposedly shows off the low-light video capabilities of the upcoming Galaxy S26 devices. Fine print appears at the bottom of the screen towards the end of the video, flagging that it was "generated with the as … Read the full story at The Verge. source https://www.theverge.com/tech/879864/samsung-ai-generated-edited-video-ads-slop

Valve has updated the Steam Deck website to say that the Steam Deck OLED may be out of stock "intermittently in some regions due to memory and storage shortages." The PC gaming handheld has been out of stock in the US and other parts of the world for a few days , and thanks to this update, we now know why. The update comes shortly after Valve delayed the Steam Machine, Steam Frame, and Steam Controller from a planned shipping window of early 2026 because of the memory and storage crunch. "We have work to do to land on concrete pricing and launch dates that we can confidently announce, being mindful of how quickly the circumstances around bot … Read the full story at The Verge. source https://www.theverge.com/games/879845/valve-steam-deck-oled-out-of-stock-memory-storage-ram-crisis

iPhone 17 Pro Apple is starting to test end-to-end encrypted (E2EE) RCS messages with the developer beta of iOS 26.4 released Monday. Apple announced plans last year to support the feature, and once fully available, it will let iPhone and Android users send encrypted RCS messages to each other across platforms. However, with this initial implementation, Apple is only testing RCS encryption between Apple devices. It's "not yet testable with other platforms," Apple says. The company also doesn't plan to ship E2EE RCS messages with iOS 26.4; the feature will actually ship publicly in a "future update," Apple says. RCS messages significantly improve the exp … Read the full story at The Verge. source https://www.theverge.com/tech/879792/apple-iphone-android-rcs-messages-end-to-end-encrypted

Apple is upgrading its Podcasts app to let users "seamlessly" swap between audio and video podcasts using its HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) technology. While listening to a show, users will be able to switch to a horizontal video version of the podcast and download the video versions of a podcast for offline viewing. By giving users the option to quickly change between audio and video, Apple might be able to keep users from jumping to other platforms to watch episodes of their favorite shows. Video is becoming an increasingly popular way to consume podcasts, with YouTube saying last February that more than 1 billion people watch podcasts on the … Read the full story at The Verge. source https://www.theverge.com/tech/879749/apple-podcasts-video-swap-hls-live-streaming

Two hours before one of the most important live events in Netflix's history, LA's sprawling CBS Radford Studio Center is abuzz with the strangest combination of things. As I walk through one cavernous soundstage on a Tuesday afternoon, I hear multiple people warming up their voices to sing. I pass a man carefully waving a hair dryer in front of a piano. Outside, a man and a woman, both in scant black leather, walk past with a wave. I'm told they're aerialists. Somewhere in this enormous rehearsal space, there's also a 74-year-old budding standup comedian, an 11-year-old gospel singer, and a dancing border collie. Such is the wondrous, bizar … Read the full story at The Verge. source https://www.theverge.com/streaming/879129/netflix-star-search-live

Sam Altman announced on X that Peter Steinberger, the man behind the trendy AI agent OpenClaw , was joining OpenAI. He said that Steinberger has "a lot of amazing ideas" about getting AI agents to interact with each other, saying "the future is going to be extremely multi-agent." He also said that this ability for agents to work together will "quickly become core to our product offerings." OpenClaw, previously known as Moltbot and Clawdbot, exploded on the scene earlier this year and became the darling of the tech world . Its rise was swift, but not without its bumps along the way. Earlier this month, researchers found over 400 malicious skil … Read the full story at The Verge. source https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/879623/openclaw-founder-peter-steinberger-joins-openai

This isn’t one for the squeamish. | Image: Metrograph Pictures Let me just say that I highly recommend you go into Possession blind. Don't watch a trailer. Don't even finish reading this. Go watch it now over on Shudder , Criterion , or Metrograph . It's also available through Kanopy or Hoopla if your library provides access. Then come back so we can talk about it in the comments. Though this probably isn't one for the squeamish. Warning: Spoilers ahead. Possession is the sort of film that, even if you've had the whole plot spoiled for you, can be difficult to follow. After watching it twice, listening to three different podcasts, and reading multiple articles about it, I'm still not 100 percent sure wha … Read the full story at The Verge. source https://www.theverge.com/entertainment/879602/cult-classic-possession-1981-review-isabelle-adjani

This is The Stepback , a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more news about video game industry's pushback against generative AI, follow Jay Peters . The Stepback arrives in our subscribers' inboxes at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepback here . How it started Long before the generative AI explosion, video game developers made games that could generate their own worlds. Think of titles like Minecraft or even the original 1980 Rogue that is the basis for the term "roguelike"; these games and many others create worlds on the fly with certain rules and parameters. Human developers painstakingly work to make s … Read the full story at The Verge. source https://www.theverge.com/column/879524/ai-video-game-worlds-project-genie

Lesley Groff, Epstein’s executive assistant. | Image: Jmail The folks behind Jmail are at it again with a clone of Wikipedia that turns the treasure trove of data in Epstein's emails into detailed dossiers on his associates. Entries include known visits to Epstein's properties, possible knowledge of Epstein's crimes, and laws that they might have broken. The reports are dense, listing how many emails they exchanged with Epstein, basic biographical information, and details about how they're connected. Beyond that, there are entries for the properties Epstein owns , detailing how they were acquired and the alleged activities that took place there. There are also entries for his business dealings, incl … Read the full story at The Verge. source https://www.theverge.com/policy/879508/jikipedia-epstein-email-encyclopedia

Buying a pre-assembled gaming desktop makes sense for some. It can save you time and money, too, compared to buying PC components piecemeal. If you’re weighing your options, consider some Presidents Day offers on iBuyPower’s pre-built desktops, including the $1,899 RDY Element 9 Pro R07 and the $2,099.99 Slate — both of which are stocked with high-end AMD processors and GPUs that can tear through most games at 1440p with fast frame rates. They also come with 32GB of DDR5 RAM and 2TB of storage, along with a mouse and keyboard. Digging into the Element 9 Pro R07, it features AMD’s Ryzen 7 7800X3D processor, a Radeon 9070 XT graphics card with 16GB of VRAM (roughly on-par with the Nvidia RTX 5070 Ti), 32GB of DDR6 6000MHz RAM, and a 2TB NVMe SSD built into the Asus B650EM Max Gaming motherboard. It ships in iBuyPower’s Element 9 Pro case, which has tempered glass on the front and one side, and features a 360mm RGB liquid cooling system. The system includes an 850W power supply, a wir...

There’s a playable henge of fiddles. | Image: Georgia Tech / The Verge Georgia Tech has announced the finalists in its annual Guthman Musical Instrument Competition . Every year, for the last 28 years, the school invites inventors from around the world to submit new instruments of their own design to compete for $10,000 in prizes. Past finalists have included founding members of Teenage Engineering , Artiphon , and Roli . And last year KOMA Elektronik won for their creation the Chromaplane . This year's finalists are an impressive collection of oddballs. There's Amphibian Modules, a modular synth that swaps patch cables for a dish of saltwater. The Gajveena, which combines a double bass with a traditional Indian … Read the full story at The Verge. source https://www.theverge.com/entertainment/879482/georgia-techs-musical-instrument-competition-fiddle-henge

Oura has taken to Washington to lobby for relaxed wearable regulation. This is Optimizer , a weekly newsletter sent every Friday from Verge senior reviewer Victoria Song that dissects and discusses the latest gizmos and potions that swear they're going to change your life . Opt in for Optimizer here . For the past week, I've been thinking about the fact that Oura has gone to Washington. The Oura Ring has always had an influential clientele , but it's apparently now a popular accessory in Capitol Hill. Earlier this week, Politico ran a story about how the smart ring maker is lobbying legislators for less wearable regulation. Specifically, the article notes that Oura has floated the idea of creating a "digital heal … Read the full story at The Verge. source https://www.theverge.com/column/878337/optimizer-oura-wearables-fda-regulation-digital-health-screeners

After years of testing and validation, Waymo announced today that it's sixth-generation robotaxi technology is finally ready for passenger trips. The updated autonomous driving system will first be rolled out for employees and their friends in San Francisco and Los Angeles, with public customers to follow. Waymo's current fleet of Jaguar I-Pace vehicles runs on the company's fifth generation technology , first rolled out in March 2020. But that vehicle has reached the end of its shelf life, after Jaguar discontinued the model at the end of 2024. The updated system is designed to work seamlessly across multiple vehicle types , starting with t … Read the full story at The Verge. source https://www.theverge.com/transportation/877902/waymo-sixth-generation-robotaxi-ojai-hyundai-sensors-cost

The woods in Reanimal are full of surprises. You will encounter human cadavers that slither like snakes, gigantic talking pigs, and, at one point, a forlorn, supersized whale who seems resigned to an agonizingly slow death. These variously monstrous beings inhabit a realm that, though it looks like our own, seems to defy spatial logic: the forest leads to an oceanic expanse, which segues into a decrepit, towering city. It's like Aesop's Fables meets the nightmare visions of both Lars von Trier and J.G. Ballard. Playing as a boy and girl (either solo or via local / online co-op), Reanimal evolves the premise Tarsier Studios explored with its … Read the full story at The Verge. source https://www.theverge.com/games/876355/reanimal-review-ps5-xbox-switch-steam

A Microsoft data center in Aldie, Virginia, on Tuesday, October 28th, 2025. | Photo: Getty Images Microsoft wants to design more efficient data centers using materials that allow electricity to flow with zero resistance. If these new materials, called high-temperature superconductors, can make it to market, Microsoft thinks it could be a game changer for how data centers and the energy infrastructure they connect to are built. Tech companies are facing backlash over how much power generative AI demands, delays connecting to power grids that lack the infrastructure to meet those demands, and the impact construction of new data centers has on local residents. High-temperature superconductors (HTS) could potentially shrink the amount of s … Read the full story at The Verge. source https://www.theverge.com/science/876083/microsoft-ai-data-center-superconductor

Ferrari released the first interior images of the company's first all-electric supercar, called the Ferrari Luce ("light" in Italian). This is the second time the Italian automaker has teased the Luce (formerly Elettrica) without showing us the actual car , or even a silhouette. But the interior images should suffice given the bold-faced name of the designer: Jony Ive. Ferrari decided to outsource the work of designing the Luce's interior to Ive and his partner Marc Newson, who together run the design shop LoveFrom. Ive, obviously, is well known for his work as Apple's former chief designer, overseeing such iconic products as the iMac, iPhon … Read the full story at The Verge. source https://www.theverge.com/transportation/875799/ferrari-luce-jony-ive-interior-design-photos

Fedora systems like this one running Linux kernel 6.17 could soon get an update. | Image: Stevie Bonifield / The Verge On Sunday, Linux developer Linus Torvalds announced the release of Linux 6.19 , which will be the last update in this kernel cycle, as previously reported by Phoronix . It adds support for the modern AMDGPU driver for older AMD GCN 1.0 and 1.1 graphics cards, like Radeon HD 7000 series GPUs, along with Vulkan support through the RADV driver, and improved power management. Linux 6.19 also includes improved HDR support with the addition of the DRM Color Pipeline, an updated Asus Armoury driver, expanded support for newer Intel Wildcat Lake and Nova Lake chips, PCIe link encryption and device authentication, and more. Along with the launch of … Read the full story at The Verge. source https://www.theverge.com/tech/875784/linux-kernel-7-0-announced

As if OpenAI didn't have enough drama around the Super Bowl and advertising , as the game wound down, word spread of a "leaked" ad that actually wasn't leaked at all; it was just a fake. Screenshots of a now-deleted Reddit thread told the tale of a frustrated employee who, while posting about how upset they were because the ad they'd worked on didn't run, accidentally leaked the entire advertisement video , seemingly showing Murderbot star Alexander Skarsgård with what could have been OpenAI's first hardware device , portrayed as a shiny orb that went with some wraparound earbuds. OpenAI president Greg Brockman commented on X with a tweet cal … Read the full story at The Verge. source https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/875615/openai-super-bowl-ai-hardware-leak-hoax-fake

Free YouTube Music accounts are now seeing their access to lyrics limited, according to multiple reports . Google started testing lyrics as an exclusive feature for Premium users in September, but it appears that it's now receiving a wider rollout . It seems that free users will be limited to viewing lyrics for five songs per month, though we've reached out to Google for confirmation. Once that limit is reached, users will only be able to see the first couple of lines. Everything beyond that will be blurred out, and they'll be prompted to "Unlock lyrics with Premium." The banner warning users about their limited lyric views remaining appears … Read the full story at The Verge. source https://www.theverge.com/streaming/875511/youtube-music-lyrics-paywall

AI data centers are becoming a bipartisan concern. | Image: Microsoft New York's state legislature is set to consider a pair of bills that would require labels on AI-generated content and would put a three-year pause on new data center construction . The New York Fundamental Artificial Intelligence Requirements in News Act ( NY FAIR News Act , for short) would require that any news "substantially composed, authored, or created through the use of generative artificial intelligence" carry a disclaimer. It would also require that any content created using AI be reviewed and approved by a human with "editorial control" before being published. Beyond that, the bill requires organizations to disclose to newsroom em … Read the full story at The Verge. source https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/875501/new-york-is-considering-two-bills-to-rein-in-the-ai-industry

Often, I focus on recommending older media that isn't currently getting a ton of attention . But this week, I can't stop listening to the new Mandy, Indiana album long enough to even think about anything else. It's early still, obviously, but URGH is my favorite release of 2026 so far. The band that I fell in love with on I've Seen a Way has found an entirely new gear. Frontwoman Valentine Caulfield is even more uncompromising. Most of the lyrics are in French, but even if you don't know what she's saying, you can feel the contempt. On "Magazine" she's spitting in your face as she seethes: Je viens pour toi Alors vas-y cours Je n'te … Read the full story at The Verge. source https://www.theverge.com/entertainment/875469/mandy-indiana-urgh-review

Jeff D’Onofrio in 2015, before ruining Tumblr. | Photo: Getty Images After what can generously be called a contentious tenure as the CEO of The Washington Post , Will Lewis is stepping down following mass layoffs this week. Jeff D'Onofrio, former CEO of Tumblr from 2017 to 2022, will step in as acting CEO and publisher. D'Onofrio has been CFO at the Post since June of last year, meaning he's had a front row seat to Jeff Bezos' dismantling of the once storied paper for the last nine months. D'Onofrio's resume doesn't include extensive experience in traditional news media, nor many notable success stories. He was briefly the general manager of Yahoo News while it was still a Verizon property, before shifting h … Read the full story at The Verge. source https://www.theverge.com/tech/875433/tumblr-jeff-donofrio-ceo-washington-post-layoffs

GOG recently posted a job listing for a senior software engineer focused on porting its Galaxy desktop client to Linux. Now, in reply to a Reddit AMA , the GOG team has revealed that work on native Linux support is already underway . It's still too early to give an ETA, according to the Reddit thread. But founder and CEO, Michał Kiciński, said, "personally, I'm a big fan of Linux." The job listing also calls Linux the "next major frontier" in gaming. It's obvious at this point that Linux is becoming an increasingly important part of the PC gaming landscape. Especially as Microsoft continues to frustrate users by cramming every nook and crann … Read the full story at The Verge. source https://www.theverge.com/tech/875425/gog-native-linux-support

Even when it wasn’t failing quietly, Ubuntu was throwing truly useless errors. | Image: Terrence O’Brien / The Verge It's a complete coincidence that I installed Linux around the same time as my colleagues Nathan Edwards and Stevie Bonifield. A few months ago, I decided to breathe new life into a 2019 Dell XPS 15 that had been collecting dust for a couple of years. Despite its (at the time) high-end Core i7 CPU and 32GB of RAM, Windows was frustratingly slow on it. The fan was constantly at full throttle even when the machine was idle, and it regularly failed to install updates. So in early 2024, I gave up and switched to an M1 MacBook Pro. But I wanted to give my oldest child something to practice typing on. Plus, I'd been trying to find a suitable di … Read the full story at The Verge. source https://www.theverge.com/report/875077/linux-was-a-mistake

It’s the first weekend of February, which can only mean one thing: The Super Bowl (or “ Benito Bowl ,” if you’re mainly tuning in for the Bad Bunny-led halftime show) is upon us. The game is Sunday, February 8th, at 6:30PM ET on Peacock , NFL Plus , and on live services that include NBC. With that out of the way, I’m here to surface this week’s best deals. There were plenty of good ones, from cheap yet extremely handy two-headed USB-C cables and a $20 sci-fi first-person shooter PC game bundle to steep discounts on big OLED TVs that will impress people at your Super Bowl watch party. If you happen to be in the market for a 65-inch OLED 4K TV (can I come over?), the LG C5 is almost half off its original asking price of $2,699. Whether you buy one through Amazon for $1,397 or from Best Buy at $1399.99, there’s a good chance that you can have it installed by kickoff on Sunday. Amazon currently has fast shipping for this TV, and many Best Buy brick-and-mortar locations are likely to...