California Governor Gavin Newsom signed the CAADCA last year. | Photo by Tayfun Coskun / Anadolu Agency via Getty Images A federal judge has granted a request to block the California Age-Appropriate Design Code Act (CAADCA), a law that requires special data safeguards for underage users online. In a ruling issued today, Judge Beth Freeman granted a preliminary injunction for tech industry group NetChoice, saying the law likely violates the First Amendment. It’s the latest of several state-level internet regulations to be blocked while a lawsuit against them proceeds, including some that are likely bound for the Supreme Court. The…
The Surface Pro 9. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Panos Panay has always been the force behind Microsoft’s Surface line. He helped bring Surface to life as a secret project more than 10 years ago. He’s presented the new devices onstage at events, showed up at malls to promote Surface hardware, and has steered Microsoft’s Surface tablets to success in the years since. Now, he’s leaving in a surprise departure announced just days before Microsoft’s next big Surface event. Panay will no longer be presenting at Microsoft’s showcase on Thursday but will remain at the company…
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Netflix and South Korean ISP SK Broadband have been locked in a legal tussle over network usage cost-sharing since 2020 when Netflix filed a lawsuit against the provider, and SK Broadband responded with its own suit. Now the fight is over, Netflix announced, as the companies drop their lawsuits and instead become partners (via Reuters). The lawsuits started because SK Broadband wanted Netflix to help cover the expense of partially Squid Game-induced increases in streaming traffic in South Korea. A South Korean court said Netflix is obligated to pay for the increased network…
The Home Assistant Green can be the main command center for your smart home. | Image: Home Assistant Buy enough tech and you can’t escape the siren call of a smart home. Amazon practically throws Echo Dots at you. Google will sneak a Nest Mini in the box with almost anything you buy in its store. Good luck buying a new kitchen appliance that doesn’t beg to be connected to the internet. All of those come with platforms that are locked down and cloud-dependent, requiring you to bend to their corporate wishes to use them. But for the last decade,…
Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge Mark Gurman writes in the subscriber edition of his Power On newsletter for Bloomberg from this morning that he expects Apple to finish its transition to USB-C by 2025. Gurman says that, in addition to other products, he expects the company will release USB-C versions of the now-discontinued MagSafe Battery Pack and the MagSafe Duo “eventually. But don’t hold your breath.” By comparison, Apple took either a little over a month or about two years to totally move over to Lightning, depending on how you look at it. The company retired the 30-pin…
Laura Normand / The Verge Apple CEO Tim Cook acknowledges in an interview with CBS Sunday Morning that there are “some things about” the platform formerly known as Twitter that he doesn’t like. Cook called the platform’s apparent anti-Semitism problem “abhorrent” but said, “Twitter is an important property; I like the concept that it’s there for discourse.” He didn’t say whether he believes Apple should be advertising on X, only that it’s something the company “constantly” asks itself. Dickerson also pushed Cook on the Vision Pro’s release schedule, asking him about reports that the headset is facing manufacturing delays. Cook…
Grand Theft Auto V turns 10. | Image: Rockstar Games It’s been exactly 10 years since Grand Theft Auto V first launched on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, followed soon after by Grand Theft Auto Online. In a thread on X today, Rockstar Games thanked fans, calling them “the reason GTA V has thrived across multiple console generations.” Last week, Rockstar announced new content for GTA Online commemorating the anniversary: new outfits; GTA V-themed weapon finishes; extra modes; a stock car called the Bravado Hotring Hellfire for GTA+ members; and other collectibles and bonuses for playing certain missions. Celebrate…
Who needs the drab white model, anyway? | Image: Nintendo It’s been an exciting week for Nintendo Switch fans. First, Nintendo announced a whole bunch of games as part of its latest Direct event, including F-Zero 99 — a battle royale spin on the classic racing title — and remakes of both Mario and Donkey Kong and Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. And now, the Nintendo Switch OLED is on sale for an all-time low at Monoprice, where you can pick it up with free shipping and blue and red Joy-Cons for just $289.99 ($60 off). Unlike the standard Switch,…
The OnePlus Pad as pictured in The Verge’s April review. | Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge OnePlus is making a new budget tablet called the OnePlus Pad Go, according to Digital Trends. It will have an 11.6-inch 2.4K screen with a 144Hz refresh rate, according to the article, and will launch with OnePlus’ OxygenOS 13. It’s not clear when it’s coming or for how much, though. The OnePlus India X account teased what appears to be the tablet on Thursday, so it sounds like the tablet is at least launching in India soon. Digital Trends’ report was light…
Image: Bungie Destiny 2 has one of the worst — and most hilarious — bugs in its history right now, allowing players to create guns with perks that are game-breaking in activities or PvP. Players can put shotgun frames on auto rifles, resulting in a weapon that obliterates someone in PvP in milliseconds due to the hugely reduced time to kill. Bungie, the developer of Destiny 2, says in a post on X (formerly Twitter) that it will release the fix in two waves, with the first being deployed within the next 24 hours. First, a stopgap: Bungie will disable…
Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge TikTok will try to boost its new online marketplace, TikTok Shop, by funding heavy discounts for the holiday shopping season, starting on October 27th, reports Bloomberg. The social video site reportedly hopes that by subsidizing up-to-50 percent discounts, it can gain a foothold with US holiday shoppers, who turn out in droves for big sales at retailers like Amazon and Walmart every year in November. Bloomberg says a TikTok spokesperson confirmed the plans, with official Black Friday deals starting at 8PM on November 23rd and deals for Cyber Monday running from November 28th…
Image: Unity The game developers affected by Unity’s new pricing model are striking back. A collective of developers across 19 companies, mostly based in Europe and mostly developing mobile games, has put out an open letter urging Unity to reverse course on its recently announced pricing model changes. The letter contains some of the same sentiments expressed by other developers this week but with one big twist. “As a course of immediate action, our collective of game development companies is forced to turn off all IronSource and Unity Ads monetization across our projects until these changes are reconsidered,” the letter…
Photo by Nilay Patel / The Verge The iPhone 15 Pro could come with better 5G connectivity. That’s according to data from SpeedSmart (via 9to5Mac), which indicates that the iPhone 15 Pro will offer up to 24 percent faster download 5G speeds when compared to its iPhone 14 Pro predecessor. As shown by the data from SpeedSmart, the biggest jump occurred on Verizon’s network, which showed an average download speed of 195.83Mbps on the iPhone 14 Pro, as opposed to 243.06Mbps on the iPhone 15 Pro. Meanwhile, the iPhone 15 Pro on T-Mobile had the fastest average 5G download speeds…
CASEY CRAFFORD/NETFLIX Netflix’s live-action One Piece adaptation is better than it has any business being, and the streamer intends to keep all of the first season’s good momentum going with even more episodes, according to Eiichiro Oda. In a move that only comes as (a bit of) a surprise given how opaque Netflix likes to be about the logic behind its choice to cancel some shows just as they’re really taking off, Oda announced today that the live-action One Piece has been renewed for an unannounced number of new episodes / seasons. In an announcement video featuring one of One…
Image: PlayStation Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 will come with an even bigger map. The developers behind the sequel — Insomniac Games — have announced they’re “nearly doubling” the size of Marvel’s New York. With the expanded map, you’ll get to swing your way past the East River and web your way across Queens and Brooklyn while completing story missions, side quests, and city activities along the way. There are also new “Web Wings” that help you get across the city faster. You’ll also get to switch between playing as Peter Parker and Miles Morales “near-instantly,” with both characters having different side…
Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge Disney is in talks to sell off its ABC network and local TV stations, according to a report from Bloomberg. The entertainment giant reportedly met with Nexstar Media Group, which owns dozens of local news stations, to discuss a sale. Disney’s response to the report is a denial that it has reached a deal to sell off ABC or any of its other linear properties. In a statement published on its website, the company says it’s “open to considering a variety of strategic options,” but it hasn’t made an official decision and that…
Zach Katz, FaZe Nickmercs, and Lee Trink at Parq Nightclub in San Diego, California. | Photo by Cassidy Sparrow/Getty Images for FaZe Clan Faze Clan, a merchandising and influencer marketing agency that was once synonymous with the esports space, has fired CEO Lee Trink. CFO Christoph Pachler will take over for Trink on an interim basis, Bloomberg reports. Faze Clan cultivated a lavish and freewheeling image during its early years. The firm maintained teams across many different esports titles, created gaming-adjacent content for social media platforms like Twitch and Snapchat, and sold branded apparel. Trink, who had no esports background…
Photo by Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images Tech leaders called for regulation that balances innovation and safety as the Senate conducted one of the many “insight forums” to inform potential rulemaking. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) invited leaders in the AI space, including Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Nvidia president Jensen Huang, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, and X chair Elon Musk to a bipartisan AI Insight Forum. The forum was closed to the public and media, but some tech leaders prepared remarks or spoke to reporters outside the event. Zuckerberg said in…
Yes, you can even create a strawberry koala. | Screenshot by Emma Roth / The Verge You can now create your own emoji combinations directly in Google Search. The company has launched its Emoji Kitchen feature on the web (via 9to5Google), which lets you mash up existing emoji to create different combinations, like an angry pumpkin or a panda wearing a cowboy hat. To start using the tool, all you need to do is type “Emoji Kitchen” into Google Search and click on the “Get cooking” prompt. From there, you pick from dozens of different emoji to combine or play…