Author: News Room

A new official White House app on Android and iOS takes the content from the White House website and copies it into app format. A tweet announcing the app on Friday morning appeared alongside a video joking about missile launches that also appears to feature an iPhone, rather than the elusive Trump Phone. There’s no word about exclusive features or tie-ins with the phone or Trump Mobile services.A handful of tabs in the app mostly replicate pages that exist on the Trump Administration’s version of the White House website, including news, livestreams, social feeds, and a gallery. A prominent “Get…

Social media companies have long seemed impervious to legal threats. Meta, YouTube, Snap, and the rest have long waved off criticism of their platforms on free speech and Section 230 grounds. But twice this week, juries rendered verdicts against the platforms, not because of some bad videos but because of the design and structure of the platforms themselves. That might change some things.On this episode of The Vergecast, David and Nilay dig into this week’s rulings, the novel legal approaches that led to them, and whether these cases (and the others set for trial this year) could actually change the…

Members of a convoy that delivered humanitarian aid to Cuba were detained and interrogated by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) upon returning to the United States on a charter flight from Havana. Of the 20 US citizens who were pulled for secondary inspection at Miami International Airport on Wednesday morning, 18 had their phones and other devices seized by CBP, with little information given on whether and when they’ll get them back.The group was part of a larger coalition of activists who traveled in waves to Cuba as part of the Nuestra América Convoy, named after an essay by nineteenth-century…

The Nuki Smart Lock is the best retrofit smart lock currently available for people who want a minimalist, feature-packed upgrade to their preexisting deadlock. It’s currently selling for $149 at Amazon — its cheapest price ever — during the Big Spring Sale. Its fast unlocking speed, Matter-over-Thread support, and broad smart home compatibility impressed my colleague Jennifer Pattison Tuohy, enough for her to consider it the most advanced model she’s tested in her review.The Nuki Smart Lock’s pricing history is a bit confusing. It originally launched for $159.99 when we reviewed it in July 2025. Months later, the company raised…

xTool, a company best known amongst makers for its laser-based cutting and engraving tools, has announced a new multi-function crafting machine called the WonderPress. It’s not an all-in-one device that can help you get an Etsy store off the ground, but the WonderPress can help turn designs from other machines, like Cricuts or sublimation printers, into finished products that are ready to sell.The WonderPress is available for preorder now with a $10 deposit and an early bird discount that brings its price down from $399 to $279. Out of the box it’s a replacement for machines like the Cricut EasyPress…

While most flagship phones have been steadily getting slimmer over recent years, the upcoming 2026 version of the Motorola Razr Ultra could end up being a bit chunkier than its predecessor. Leaked measurements of the phone shared by XpertPick and OnLeaks on Thursday show that it will be slightly thicker than the 2025 version, about 0.1mm more when folded and 0.6mm more when unfolded.The full dimensions of the Ultra 2026, according to the leaked specs, are 171.3 x 74.1 x 7.8mm when unfolded and 88.0 x 74.1 x 15.8mm when folded. With the camera bump, the Ultra 2026 could be…

Sony is raising the price of its PlayStation 5 consoles globally starting April 2nd. In an announcement on Friday, Sony says that the standard PS5 will now cost $649.99, up from $549.99. Meanwhile, the PS5 Digital Edition now costs $599.99 instead of $499.99, and the PlayStation 5 Pro will cost $899.99 instead of $749.99.Along with these changes, Sony is increasing the price of its PlayStation Portal as well, going from $199.99 to $249.99.This is the second time in less than a year that Sony has raised the price of its PS5 consoles, as the company hiked prices by $50 for…

Apple turns 50 next week, and we’re going to spend the week covering the company, its products, its legacy, and its future. But mostly, we’re going to spend the week debating which Apple products are the best. And we need your help.Our ranking system is live now, filled with what we believe to be the 50 best things Apple has ever created. Your job is to put them in order. When you start ranking, you’ll be presented with two products; pick the best one to contribute to our overall live rankings, which you can always check by clicking “See Results.”(By…

For any one person, ranking 50 items can be a long and tedious process. For a community, however, it’s markedly easier. Rather than have each user submit a full list, we can break down the rankings into bite-size components, then recombine them once we have enough votes. Here, we’re using a modified ELO algorithm to do just that. With ELO, each item has a starting score, which then modified in every paired matchup. The change in points is based on the score of the other item in the pairing; beating the top ranked item will come with a higher reward…

It’s a weird time for Xbox, with a big leadership shakeup that has many wondering what the future of the platform looks like, and what exactly it stands for. In the meantime, though, Microsoft is forging ahead with announcements, and it just wrapped up its latest Partner Preview event, focused on upcoming titles from third-party developers. (A similar event for Xbox Studios releases streamed back in January.)Perhaps the biggest announcement was that Hades II is finally coming to the Xbox and PS5 next month. But while the rest of the show may have been devoid of big names, it did…

Google is expanding access to Search Live, a feature that lets you search for information using your voice and camera. The AI search assistant is now available in more than 200 countries and territories, as well as dozens of languages, according to an announcement on Thursday.Search Live rolled out broadly in the US last September, allowing you to point your phone’s camera at something and ask about it aloud, such as how to install a shelving unit. The AI assistant will then offer an audio response, along with links to information it finds on the web.Google says it’s powering the…

Apple Music: “What do you want to hear?”Me: “Atmospheric instrumental black metal to write to.”Apple Music: “Here’s three metal songs with vocals, a field recording, an ambient electronic track, and a piece of doom jazz.”I am skeptical of AI’s ability to serve up the music I want to begin with, but even I was caught slightly off guard by how underwhelming Apple’s new Playlist Playground beta is. YouTube Music’s AI playlist generator is far from perfect, but when I gave it the same prompt for instrumental black metal, it wasn’t until the fifth track that it delivered something with lyrics,…