Author: News Room

The premium smartwatch space isn’t exactly crowded. In fact, it really only has two main players – the Apple Watch Ultra 3 and the TAG Heuer Connected E5. Both have very different ideas of what a luxury smartwatch should be, and both are vying for a spot in our best smartwatch guide. On one side, the TAG Heuer Connected Calibre E5 is keeping things as traditional as possible. It’s the Swiss watchmaker’s most polished Connected watch yet, with heritage and craftsmanship paired with modern fitness tracking and smart features. On the other side is the Apple Watch Ultra 3, Apple’s…

Keep your head down. Compartmentalize. Don’t make trouble.That’s what many tech workers are taking their CEOs’ strategic silence to mean, amid an immigration crackdown across the US by the Trump administration’s Department of Homeland Security. Widespread violence by federal agents has sparked protests in Minneapolis and across the country. One month after an ICE agent shot and killed Renee Nicole Good, and two weeks after Border Patrol agents shot and killed Alex Pretti, the majority of tech CEOs have remained tight-lipped. Internally, workers from several companies describe a culture of silence and fear — and trepidation over what kind of…

Sky has signed deals with Warner Bros Discovery and Disney, meaning that both HBO Max and Disney+ with ads will be available as part of the Ultimate TV bundle, costing from £24 for new customers (£41 with broadband). The extra streaming platfoms join Netflix which is already in the bundle and Paramount+ which is included with Sky Cinema. Introducing the news at a launch event I was at in London this morning, Sky’s chief consumer officer, Sophie Armand said “we are so excited to be the only place in the uk that can offer customers this incredible range of content.…

Logitech’s productivity-minded MX Master series has consistently been the top mouse choice for office workers. That blend of comfort, connectivity and an ability to spool through spreadsheets at the pace of an Olympic sprinter hasn’t gone anywhere for the MX Master 4 – but now there are a bunch of creator-friendly functions also in the mix. The headline addition, a haptic button built into the thumb rest recess, gives you force feedback a bit like a MacBook’s Force Touch keyboard. As someone who works across multiple monitors I love how it buzzes as my cursor moves from one screen to…

Ayaneo opened preorders for its next Windows 11 handheld and it looks like a powerhouse. The Ayaneo Next 2 is 13.45 inches wide, 10.3-inches tall, and weighs 3.14 pounds. That’s more than twice as heavy as the original Ayaneo Next that launched back in 2022, and it easily outweighs the Steam Deck and Switch 2. The Next 2 could be the ultimate Windows handheld if money and pocketability aren’t a concern for you.Pricing starts at $1,999 for a version of the Next 2 with a Ryzen AI Max 385 processor with integrated Radeon 8050S graphics, 32GB of memory, and 1TB…

Hello and welcome to Regulator, a newsletter for Verge subscribers about tech politicking in the age of Trump. If you’re a subscriber, you are dominant and talented, like the Seattle Seahawks. If you’re not a subscriber yet, it’s time to get your act together, like the New England Patriots. (I’m from Boston and I’m allowed to say this.) The biggest tech story dominating Washington right now is, incidentally, a media story. Last week, shortly after The Washington Post laid off 400 staffers and closed many of its desks, and before its absentee CEO Will Lewis got summarily shoved out, I…

Robert Playter, CEO of Boston Dynamics, announced on Tuesday that he is stepping down from his role effective immediately and leaving the company on February 27th, as previously reported by A3. Under Playter’s leadership, Boston Dynamics navigated its way through an acquisition from Softbank that brought it to Hyundai in 2021, and it launched a new all-electric version of its humanoid Atlas robot in 2024. Just a few days ago, the company posted another video of its research Atlas robots attempting tumbling passes and outdoor runs as more enterprise-ready editions start to roll out.Boston Dynamics announced at CES last month…

Ring’s new Search Party feature has once again drawn backlash for the company. A 30-second ad that aired during Sunday’s Super Bowl showed Ring cameras “surveilling” neighborhoods to locate a lost dog. In the current political climate, a prime-time ad celebrating neighborhood surveillance struck a nerve.People voiced concerns across social media that the AI-powered technology Ring uses to identify dogs could soon be used to search for humans. Combined with Ring’s recent rollout of its new facial recognition capability, it feels like a short leap for a pet-finding feature to be turned into a tool for state surveillance.Privacy expert Chris…

OpenAI plans to start testing ads in ChatGPT today, according to a report from CNBC. The “clearly labeled” ads will appear in a separate area beneath your chat, OpenAI announced last month.OpenAI will show ads to logged-in users who use the app for free or subscribe to its cheaper Go subscription. The company says it will “keep your conversations with ChatGPT private from advertisers,” but notes that the ads will still be “optimized based on what’s most helpful to you.” Advertisers won’t have an impact on ChatGPT’s answers, according to OpenAI. Read the full article here

Samsung’s annual Galaxy S-series reveal is later than usual this year, but we finally have a confirmed date to circle on the calendar: February 25th. And if you were hoping for major hardware upgrades from the company’s flagship phones, you probably shouldn’t hold your breath: an extensive leak published by WinFuture has seemingly confirmed that the S26 series will be a software-focused affair. According to the leaked specs, the standard S26 will allegedly get a nominally larger battery – 4300mAh compared to 4000mAh – which is great news for the last “small” phone left standing. Once again, all three phones…

OpenAI is updating ChatGPT’s deep research tool with a full-screen viewer that you can use to scroll through and navigate to specific areas of its AI-generated reports. As shown in a video shared by OpenAI, the built-in viewer allows you to open ChatGPT’s reports in a window separate from your chat, while showing a table of contents on the left side of the screen, and a list of sources on the right.Deep research, which OpenAI first launched last year, has ChatGPT scour the web to compile an in-depth report about the topic of your choosing. With this most recent update,…

Apple is planning to launch a lower-end MacBook laptop for the first time, in an attempt to compete with affordable Chromebooks and Windows PCs – something that would have seemed like an unlikely move just a few years ago. The reason? Apple wants to boost Mac sales by chasing a new market with a cheaper option than the MacBook Air. The new machine is set to debut in the coming months – and could even be with us in the coming weeks. Judging by previous Apple launch cycles, that most likely means March. According to a Bloomberg report, the model…