Author: News Room
This is The Stepback, a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more on the intersection of gaming and technology, follow Sean Hollister. The Stepback arrives in our subscribers’ inboxes at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepback here.They used to be called the “console wars,” and to the victor went the spoils. When Sony’s PlayStation and PlayStation 2 dominated the Sega, Nintendo, and Microsoft competition, selling over a hundred million boxes into our living rooms — each! — they created a profitable virtuous cycle. More consoles meant selling more games, which meant attracting more…
Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 98, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome, please tell me if you bought an orange iPhone, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.)This week, I’ve been reading about competitive massage and space soda and how people really use AI, checking out Adolescence now that it won all those Emmys, playing The New York Times’ new domino game, finally listening to The Lazarus Heist, doing a bunch of writing in Ulysses, using Remind Me Faster for all my task-writing…
IMPORTANT ADVISORY: New travel restriction for H-1B visa holdersHi all–We have now reviewed the actual text of today’s Presidential Proclamation on H-1B visas, which you can find here: Restriction on Entry of Certain Nonimmigrant Workers – The White House.Here’s what you need to know: First, the proclamation is structured as a travel restriction. Beginning at 12:01 am eastern time on September 21, 2025 (so, 9:01 pm Pacific time tomorrow), individuals will not be able to enter/return to the U.S. in H-1B status unless their petition has an additional $100,000 payment associated with it.What you need to do: I will be…
Barely over a week after right-wing activist Charlie Kirk’s public killing at a Utah campus, speech attacks in the name of the self-proclaimed free speech advocate are piling up.Law enforcement officials have custody of suspected shooter Tyler Robinson, a 22-year-old from Utah who prosecutors allege was in a relationship with a transgender woman and opposed Kirk’s “hatred.” Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said last week that officials believe Robinson acted alone and that they didn’t anticipate further arrests.But to many of Kirk’s friends and defenders, any past or present critic of him — or anyone on the left in general —…
A cool new perk recently became available for Prime members: for a limited time, you can get a three-month subscription to Kindle Unlimited. If your ebookshelf is looking bare, Amazon is currently offering a three-month subscription to Kindle Unlimited for free. The service typically costs $11.99 per month, so the deal saves you $35.97 over the course of the trial. Keep in mind that your subscription will automatically renew once the trial period is over. The discount is one of Amazon’s early Prime Big Deal Days deals (that’s a mouthful), dropping well ahead of the October 7th event. We’ll be…
You’d be forgiven for assuming the iPhone Air would snap like a twig under pressure. It’s almost impossibly thin at just 5.6mm. But, its titanium frame is not only stronger than aluminum, it’s also more elastic. YouTuber JerryRigEverything demonstrates this with his usual bend test. While he’s able to get some slight bowing by pressing his thumbs into the center of the screen with all his might, it doesn’t crack and immediately returns to its original shape.Not content to be thwarted by Apple’s engineering team (and perhaps feeling a little disappointed that the last several devices on his channel survived…
Starting Monday, the US government will get another crack at convincing a federal judge to break up Google, after a different judge decided to keep it intact despite finding it to be a monopolist.Lawyers for Google and the Justice Department will return to a federal courthouse in Alexandria, VA for a roughly two-week trial about how to restore competition to the advertising technology markets that Google illegally monopolized. It comes just weeks after DC District Court Judge Amit Mehta — who issued a historic ruling deeming Google a monopoly in online search — delivered his prescription for restoring competition to…
Looking for the best heart rate fitness tracker? If you care about keeping a close eye on your ticker, the good news is that there are plenty of fitness trackers with heart rate monitors that can do that for you. Also check out our guide to the best fitness trackers overall, too. Whether it’s monitoring heart rate activity throughout the day and night to give you a better sense of your current level of fitness, or whether you need to know how hard you went on a big bike ride, most trackers are now well-equipped to dish out those real-time…
Much modern tech aims to save you time. And that time should be spent buying more things. At least, that appears to be the thinking behind Samsung’s latest wheeze: turning its $1800-plus Family Hub fridges into kitchen-based ad boards. According to reports, a software update will soon be foisted upon unlucky owners as part of a pilot scheme. When their fridge screens are idle – which, unless I’m badly misinformed about fridges, is presumably most of the time – they’ll be plastered with promos and ads. Samsung insists this glimpse of the future is part of its commitment to “innovation and enhancing…
Anker’s latest Soundcore Sleep A30 sleep buds do what its A20 buds promised but couldn’t deliver: mask snoring. It accomplishes this with the inclusion of Active Noise Cancellation in the buds and a microphone inside the charging case that actively adjusts masking audio to cancel out the sound of sawing logs.Of course I want that! said my monkey brain when I first saw those specs attached to slightly smaller earbuds, which should make them even more comfortable for side sleepers. But after testing them every night for the last month, I’ve come to a different conclusion. Then again, my bedtime…
Have enough Copilot buttons in your life? No you don’t — have another one! This one pops up in the latest Windows 11 Insider Preview when mousing over an open app in your taskbar; it lets you share the contents with Copilot Vision.Want to know who is celebrating in that dogpile on the mound, or dig a little deeper on that sculpture you took a photo of? Just click that “Share with Copilot” button that pops up in the window preview. Copilot Vision scans what’s on your screen, analyzes it, and lets you discuss the contents of the window with…
While the overall UI doesn’t look like it’s changed dramatically, some usability tweaks streamline the app while putting Gemini front and center.According to screenshots published by Android Authority and detailed in a YouTube video, you can now “Ask Home” to control your devices by typing or saying what you want to happen or to search your video and home history to get detailed descriptions of what has already happened. This is all accessible through a new Ask Home search bar at the top of the app, which, according to AA, opens a new “Ask Home” conversation screen.Other updates AA spotted…