Author: News Room

Today on Decoder, I’m talking with Peter Kafka, who is chief correspondent at Business Insider and host of Channels, a podcast about the media industry.And it’s a big week for the media industry — Comcast just announced that it’s splitting itself up, into the Comcast broadband company and the NBCUniversal entertainment company. That’s after the media giant spun out its cable assets like CNBC and MS.NOW into a new company called Versant earlier this year.A quick note, by the way — longtime Verge fans know we’ve been disclosing that Comcast NBCUniversal was an investor in our parent company, Vox Media,…

The Schlage Sense Pro is a beautiful smart lock. Sleek, discreet, and simple to use, it’s Schlage’s smartest lock to date. Thanks to ultra-wideband (UWB), it unlocks as I walk up to my front door; I don’t need to enter a code or tap my phone or press my finger against it. I’ve tested several hands-free unlocking systems that rely on geofencing and other radio technologies, and UWB is faster and more reliable. It’s the first one I actually trust.The $399 Sense Pro is Schlage’s first smart lock with ultra-wideband auto-unlock, its first to support Matter-over-Thread, and its first without…

Personal digital assistants like the iconic Palm Pilot were one of many devices we thought went extinct with the arrival of the smartphone. But similar to Canon resurrecting a nearly decade-old digital camera to appeal to point-and-shoot fans, Talisman Design is crowdfunding a clamshell PDA called the PocketMage that combines a tactile keyboard with both e-paper and OLED displays in a pocketable device.There are two different preorder options for the PocketMage on Crowd Supply, plus you get your choice of parchment (gray) or royal purple accent colors. The $235 version comes fully assembled, while the cheaper $185 version requires you…

Sony is bringing back the RX10 superzoom camera after a nearly nine-year gap between models. The newly announced RX10 V retains the same 24-600mm equivalent f/2.4-4 Zeiss Vario-Sonnar 25x zoom lens of its last two predecessors, but it has lots of upgrades elsewhere. The new 20.1-megapixel 1-inch-type sensor is a stacked design, allowing up to 30fps continuous burst shooting without any blackout (up from the last-gen’s 24fps). That’s a nice improvement for a camera aimed at action, sports, and wildlife photography, but it will come at a steep cost of $2,299.99 when the camera launches in early August.The RX10 IV…

With pocket-sized compact cameras being all the rage and their interchangeable lens bigger brothers aiming more at professional creators, I thought the bridge camera’s days were numbered. Yet Sony is bringing it back from beyond the grave with the RX10 IV – a fixed-lens superzoom that has learned a few lessons from the firm’s Alpha division between generations. The last-gen Sony RX10 IV is now nine years old, making this successor model almost a decade in the making. It’s had both a visual and mechanical overhaul: the more modern styling and rearranged top plate more closely match Sony’s mirrorless line-up,…

After reentering the AI race with its first in-house Muse Spark model in April, Meta is now opening up the doors to developers with a new model that can plug into AI coding software with the new Meta Model API.Meta says that Muse Spark 1.1 is a “step-change” from the first generation, with improvements based on feedback from developers. The company says it’s capable of more advanced coding, including detection and fixing of complex bugs; better supports end-to-end agentic workflows across a range of apps, including multi-agent systems; and has native multimodal perception across images, videos, and documents.The Muse Spark…

It isn’t long since I was behind the wheel of the DS N°4, which was recently updated to bring it in line with a refreshed range of cars from this most niche of French brands that also includes the wafty DS N°8. Now the DS No7 has returned, having ditched the smoother-edged looks I was rather fond of in favour of a more angular design. It’s an altogether more aerodynamic and very premium SUV, which is likely to appeal to anyone who doesn’t want a run-of-the-mill motor on their drive. It’s commendable that DS is providing a wide range of…

SpaceX is currently ahead of last year’s record-setting pace for Starlink satellite deployments. SpaceX launched 1,589 Starlink satellites into low-Earth orbit in the first half of 2026, according to launch data compiled by Jonathan McDowell’s satellite tracker, compared to 1,489 satellites deployed at the same point in 2025.2025 was already a record year for SpaceX, with the company deploying 3,180 Starlink satellites in total. SpaceX has launched over 12,400 Starlink satellites since the constellation’s inception, with nearly 11,000 still functioning.To put these numbers into perspective, Amazon’s fledgling Leo service has only deployed about 400 satellites over the last 15 months,…

Are we closer than ever to seeing lifelike robots becoming the norm, not just tech world novelties that are trotted out at trade shows? Qualcomm is banking on it: the chipmaker has just revealed a new reference design it says will help robotics firms simplify and speed up development. The Dragonwing IQ10 platform was first announced at CES back in January as a specific processor for use in robots, rather than repurposed smartphone or PC silicon. The reference design – what industry customers will actually be able to get their hands on from June onwards when the firm’s early access…

Apple’s AirPods make for some of the best headphones money can buy, especially if you’re all-in on the Apple ecosystem. But would rumours of AirPods with a camera be a step too far? It sounds absurd, but there appears to be some logic behind the speculation. Over the past few years, Apple has patented earbuds with outward-facing image sensors, with numerous analysts reporting that the company is actively exploring the tech, even going as far as making prototype hardware – though a proper launch date remains completely up in the air. And before you grab the Privacy Pitchforks (no judgement…

Meta might be the next company to make an always-on AI wearable. The company is working on prototype “super sensing” always-aware smart glasses that could continuously record audio and snap photos “every few seconds,” according to the Financial Times. The wearer could then ask Meta AI about the captured audio and images.However, the images and audio might not be directly available to the user. Here’s how the FT describes one way the glasses could use the data:In one proposed system, raw footage and audio would not be stored by Meta or made available to the user, several people said. Instead,…

OpenAI is overhauling ChatGPT’s voice mode with a new model that it says is more like “talking to another person.” The new GPT-Live-1 is designed to interrupt you less and will also wait for you to continue speaking if you pause mid-conversation.During a press briefing, OpenAI research lead Kundan Kumar called GPT-Live-1 the company’s “smartest voice model” yet. It will automatically pass your queries to its best text models, like GPT-5.5, when it needs to reason or search the web, allowing it to more quickly transition from researching the topic you’ve asked about to talking about its findings. The upgraded…