Author: News Room

AI is everywhere. And everyone has their line in the sand. They’ll say it’s OK to do ‘this’ thing, yet not ‘that’ thing, with AI. Naturally, what most people consider acceptable tends to be whatever helps them work more efficiently, but not anything that threatens their own livelihood. All of which feels a tad hypocritical – and none of this is leading anywhere good. When I was a youngling, science fiction was full of people loafing about while robots handled the drudge work. But we now live in an age where tech bros, having contributed precious little of cultural value…

Despite my initial skepticism, I’m now sold on wireless Qi chargers that add integrated fans to keep your phone cool while charging. I figured they’d be too loud, or too weak, or too gimmicky, but I’m a convert after spending a week with the new $59.99 Kuxiu D5 Qi2.2 charging dock. Its active cooling system has kept my phone from heating up, unlike every other Qi charger I’ve tried. Good thing, given my own history with an overheating phone.Last year I fried the logic board on my titanium iPhone 15 Pro. I was on a sweltering train and trying to…

The next Apple Watch redesign will include an overhaul of the band system, according to reports, potentially leading to compatibility issues with existing straps and loops. A known Weibo leaker ‘Instant Digital’ reckons a fresh approach is on the horizon for next year’s Apple Watch models. The leaker says that existing watchOS device owners should hold off on buying additional band options if they envision upgrading in 2027. “After three years of waiting, Apple Watch is finally about to make a big change,” the leaker writes in a machine translated series of posts. “You can now reduce the frequency of…

Apple is reportedly upping its production run for the forthcoming iPhone Ultra foldable phone, suggesting increased confidence in how many devices the company expects to shift out of the gate. According to a Nikkei report, Apple has increased its order to ten million phones, up from the 7 to 8 million it was projecting just a few short months ago. Even though 10 million would be a small percentage of iPhones sold per generation – 2025 estimates put the figure at close to 250 million units – it would be somewhat surprising to see Apple bag double digits in the…

The erasure of the OnePlus smartphone identity is well underway, with the parent company actively pushing consumers towards sister brand Oppo in some regions. Now it appears that further consolidation of brands is well underway with reports suggesting the OnePlus user interface for Android phones – called OxygenOS – is going to be discontinued entirely in favour of the Color OS that sits atop of the operating system on Oppo phones. The skins are pretty much interchangeable at this point, but it seems Chinese owner BBK Electronics is going the whole hog. Smartprix is reporting that a “sweeping consolidation” of…

Lego’s minicars are set to break new ground for the drivers’ parade ahead of the British Grand Prix this Sunday – each driver will have their own go-kart- based car to drive about. It’s quite different than the previous iteration of larger Lego cars that debuted in Miami last year where there was a car per team and there were two drivers in each car. Last time out, the drivers quickly seized upon the fact they could drive them like slow bumper cars. And since they were representative of the design of an F1 car there was a lot of…

The Fire HD 8 that launched in 2024 was the last new addition to Amazon’s budget-minded tablet lineup, but the company has quietly updated the Fire HD 10 that debuted the year before. In 2023 it was offered with multiple storage configurations that each came with 3GB of RAM, but the 32GB version now ships with 4GB of RAM, and a small price bump from $139.99 to $154.99.The Fire HD 10 with 64GB of storage still only comes with 3GB of RAM and the other specs for both tablets remain the same, including a 10.1-inch, 1,920 x 1,200 display, a…

Apple replaced the traditional ring/silent switch with the Action Button on the iPhone 15 Pro/Pro Max flagship phones and has featured it on each model since, rolling it out across all new iPhones starting with the iPhone 16 range which also featured the Camera Control button for the first time. But what does the Action Button do – and how can you customize what it does? Instead of flicking a switch to set your phone to silent, you now press and hold the button for a haptic feedback response. This is all done via a bespoke interface that’s part of…

In the AI slop-loaded, algorithm-powered modern reality, trends come and go — and the tech industry is no different. For the last few years, The Verge staff has compiled a selection of things that are IN for summer and OUT for summer — and each time there are some strong feelings. (Here are the last two years’ predictions.) Let’s do it again!Meredith Haggerty, editorHayden Field, senior AI reporterVictoria Song, senior dystopia reviewerKevin McShane, editorial director audio/videoKevin Nguyen, deputy editorMarina Galperina, senior tech editorGaby Del Valle, policy reporterAntonio DiBenedetto, reviewerLiz Lopatto, senior internet typist Read the full article here

12 months, 16 days, 21 hours, and 54 minutes after I first heard about Trump Mobile’s T1 Phone 8002 (gold version), I’m finally holding one in my own hands.That’s right, The Verge’s Trump phones have arrived. And yes, I do mean phones – we have three of them: We ordered two, paid for two, and received three, all of which were sent to the wrong address. You can’t beat service like that.My phone came with a free Trump Mobile SIM card, even though I’ve not signed up to the company’s mobile plan, plus an A4 quick start guide that was…

It’s a big year for America. It’s the semiquincentennial, otherwise known as America250, and the United States is cohosting the World Cup. But spectators at these events — and the millions of people who live in the cities hosting them — may not realize that they, too, are being watched.From Kansas City to New York, the US cities hosting the World Cup have been ramping up their surveillance capabilities in the months leading up to the tournament. Security measures are at an all-time high in Washington, DC, which isn’t hosting the World Cup, but is home to a series of…

Despite the fact that smartphones have become impressively capable shooters, standalone point-and-shoot cameras are enjoying a renaissance. The tiny Kodak Charmera is still wildly popular, while influencers are scrambling to find aging Canon cameras on eBay. Godox, a company best known for its photography lighting products, is the latest to join the simple camera craze, but its new C100 stands out from the crowd by skipping a color preview screen for a transparent LCD that doubles as an optical viewfinder.Although the C100 product page on Godox’s website is thin on technical details, including its sensor resolution and video capabilities, it…