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Announcements, stories, and updates from ChalloTech.
The ban on robot vacuums won’t make them safer, only worse
All future robot vacuums manufactured outside the USA (i.e., all of them) have been banned by the FCC. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge No other gadget knows as much about your home as a robot vacuum. They map your space, learn your routines, and many now carry a camera and microphone into every room in your house. As AI gives them a better understanding of what they see, the privacy and security risks these autonomous robots pose are only growing.That's why greater scrutiny makes sense, but the ban on foreign-made mobile robots issued by the Federal Communications Commission...
Apple says gaming slowdown and App Store changes hurt services growth
Apple said a slowdown in mobile gaming and changes to the App Store’s business model—including court-ordered payment rule changes in the U.S.—weighed on its services business, even as the company topped 1.5 billion paid subscriptions.
What Is Open-Weight A.I.?
As Silicon Valley debates how artificial intelligence software should be created, “open weight” has been a major part of the discussions. Here’s what to know.
‘Vibecoded’ Apps Are Flooding Apple’s App Store
Mobile apps are easy to make with artificial intelligence. That doesn’t mean people are excited to use them.
Artie (YC S23) Is Hiring Software Engineers
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OnePlus is reportedly bailing on the US
OnePlus and its parent company, Oppo, plan to announce in the coming days that OnePlus brand will be leaving the US and European markets, according to a machine translation of a WinFuture report. Should the exit actually happen, it will mark a conclusion to months of rumors about the future of OnePlus. Android Headlines said in January that OnePlus was being "dismantled," though OnePlus, in a statement at the time, said that "OnePlus North America continues to operate, with full guarantee of users' after-sales support, software updates, and rights commitments."In March, 9to5Google reported that...
Bending Spoons, Owner of AOL and Other Old Internet Brands, Is Going Public
Bending Spoons, an Italian company that bought aging internet companies like AOL, Evernote and Vimeo, is going public this week at a potential value of $19 billion.
Corgi, the buzzy Y Combinator-backed insurance tech startup, says it didn’t steal an open source product
Corgi became embroiled in controversy when Papermark accused it of stealing its software. Corgi says it did not, raising new questions about vibe coding.
Never Post’s Mike Rugnetta on the creative process and the value of reliable power
Mike Rugnetta is a writer, podcast host, producer, audio engineer, educator, musician, sound designer, and father. In short, the man wears a lot of hats. He's the cocreator and host of the award-winning Never Post, an absolutely must-listen podcast about the internet, as well as Fun City, a TTRPG podcast where he's the GM. He's also hosted two different Crash Course series and PBS's Idea Channel. If you're thinking that sounds like a lot, you're not wrong. It made us want to know how Mike stays focused with so much on his plate, and what tools are most indispensable to him with his hectic...
Siri won’t be your AI girlfriend
‘Listen, that's not what I'm here for, right?' | Image: Apple Our early testing has already shown that Siri AI knows when to shut up, and that's very much by design. In an interview with Mostly Human, Craig Federighi said Apple's new Siri won't act all sycophantic like chatbots made by OpenAI, Google, and others."As you may know, if you use many of the existing chatbots, they're really focused on engagement to a large degree," said Federighi who is responsible for software at Apple. "And sycophancy, right? They kind of want to pull you in. They might encourage you to reveal things about...
Amazon’s Echo Hub gets a customizable new look and Ring’s AI features
Amazon's rolling out a free software update for Echo Hub devices that gives the home screen a much-needed update to the software it launched with in 2024. It had already added Alex Plus AI support, but the new interface has a cleaner, fully customizable layout that fits more smart home info and controls on the screen than the previous version. The Echo Hub is also getting access to Ring AI's Video Search feature that lets you use natural language to search through your smart home camera footage, as well as Alexa Plus summaries of detected camera events. These are the five new features Amazon...
Cash App’s launching a phone service
Cash App's AT&T-based MVNO will offer an unlimited 5G data plan for $40 per month including taxes and fees. The new mobile service is powered by Gigs, the same firm behind the Klarna mobile service that launched last year with the same pricing and is "rolling out to select users, with broader availability planned in the coming months." Cash App also says it's planning connections to its Cash App Green rewards program and Cash App Families, its setup for managing supervised child and teen accounts. Cash App Mobile: Beyond unlimited connectivity: Cash App, the #1 personal finance app in the US2...
Meta A.I. Bug Allowed Hackers to Take Over Instagram Accounts
The flaw, which Meta said it had fixed, allowed anyone to take over Instagram accounts using a bug in the company’s new artificial intelligence software.
WWDC 2026 bonus live blog: Tech Talk with Craig Federighi
One of the funnier parts of the keynote. Fresh off the WWDC keynote presentation, The Verge has been invited to an "on-the-record technical deep dive into the bold new architecture enabling Apple Intelligence capabilities." Apple SVP of Software Engineering Craig Federighi and his team will be there, and so will we. The revamped Apple Intelligence is at the heart of nearly every update Apple announced across all its operating systems today, Liquid Glass corner radii notwithstanding. The discussion will begin at 12PM PT / 3PM ET. Nilay and Vee will be liveblogging below; Allison will be...
Apple announces visionOS 27 with Siri AI
Along with new software for Macs and iPhones, Apple announced visionOS 27 during its keynote presentation at WWDC on Monday. Like its other platforms, visionOS 27 will feature Apple's updated Siri AI assistant and the new dedicated Siri app. You can use visual intelligence to ask Siri about content on visionOS's floating displays, or ask Siri about objects in the real world by looking at them.It will also support using the panoramas you've photographed as immersive scenes and environments in visionOS. Apple said the Vision Pro will be able to connect to Wi-Fi "up to 3x faster," and a new "extra...
NASA will wear high-tech Prada long johns to the Moon
We've seen Axiom Space and Prada's collaboration on the Axiom Extravehicular Mobility Unit (AxEMU) spacesuit. Now the company has revealed the Liquid Cooling and Ventilation Garment (LCVG) that astronauts will wear underneath it when Artemis IV returns humans to the Moon in 2028.The LCVG is the all-important base layer that will keep the crew cool and comfortable while inside the AxEMU and on spacewalks. Cold water is circulated through tubes embedded in the suit to whisk heat away from astronauts' bodies. And, should the primary system fail, there is a backup, unlike older cooling suits. The...
Kill some time with these much needed distractions
Constantly being plugged into the news grind is mentally exhausting. Sometimes we just need to take a break, unwind, and do something fun. That’s why we’ve built up a collection of distracting time-wasters for when we need a break from being obsessively online. We figured you might enjoy these harmless rabbit holes, mildly addictive browser games, and internet curiosities, too, so we’ve been writing about them when we find them. Can you beat our score in I’m Not a Robot or did you find a gem of an academic paper on motherhood and body horror on Horror Lex? Tell us in the...
Hand-drawn interactive searching game Hidden Folks 2 is coming next year
It'll be available for PC and mobile, and maybe Nintendo Switch down the line.
Filtr is a new privacy tool that blocks ads in almost every iPhone and Mac app
This popular ad blocker app for iPhones, iPads, and Macs can now block ads from loading inside apps, including web browsers, thanks to a new feature in the latest Apple software.
Cash App made a magic wand for contactless payments
The Cash App Wand is a novel way to pay for your next coffee. | Image: Cash App The convenience of contactless payments can already feel magical, but Cash App is really leaning into that with its latest accessory. The mobile payment service is launching the Cash App Wand: an NFC-enabled, iridescent, star-topped wand that allows users to make on-the-go payments without pulling out their phone or card.This plays on a popular DIY trend that's already circulating on social media platforms, in which people are 3D printing (or otherwise constructing) their own creative "cases" for contactless payment...
Yes, the Oura Ring 5 is noticeably smaller
From top to bottom: Oura Ring 5, Oura Ring 4 in ceramic, Oura Ring 4 regular, and Oura Ring Gen 3. This is not an Oura Ring 5 review. That's coming later, once I've had enough time to really test the new durability and battery life claims, plus the new software updates that start rolling out today. In the meantime, I did want to provide an answer to a burning question that I've seen asked in many Oura Ring comment sections across the internet.Yes, it is smaller and lighter than the Oura Ring 4. And for impatient folks considering upgrades, I come bearing photographic size comparisons to the...
This Streamer Has Convinced the Internet Guy Fieri Never Swallows Food on TV
A video creator known as Doctor Spaghetti has scrutinized hours of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives to get to the bottom of an explosive culinary conspiracy theory.
Pokémon Champions hits iOS and Android on June 17
In a few short weeks, Pokémon Champions will arrive on mobile with full cross-platform support.
Australia gets access to AI model ‘too dangerous to release’
Mythos is so good at finding software flaws that its maker won’t release it. Now Australia is on the access list.
Australia gets access to AI model ‘too dangerous to release’
Mythos is so good at finding software flaws that its maker won’t release it. Now Australia is on the access list.
Microsoft’s next-gen quantum chip cuts timeline to useful quantum computing
Microsoft’s new Majorana 2 quantum chip. | Image: Microsoft Microsoft claimed last year that it had made a key breakthrough in quantum computing with Majorana 1, the company's first quantum processor. While physicists were immediately skeptical of Microsoft's claims, the software giant is announcing Majorana 2 today, the next generation of its topological quantum chip.Majorana 2 contains qubits, a unit of information in quantum computing much like the binary bits that computers use today, that are 1,000 times more reliable, according to Microsoft. It's a milestone that helps make quantum...
Microsoft’s first advanced reasoning AI is here
Microsoft announced a bunch of new in-house AI models at Build 2026, including a new "flagship" model: MAI-Thinking-1. It's an ambitious step into model development for Microsoft, which introduced its initial in-house models last year - before then, it had relied on OpenAI's models. The two companies recently renegotiated their deal to loosen ties.According to Microsoft, MAI-Thinking-1 is a "medium-sized model" that "matches leading models" on "key" software engineering benchmarks. Microsoft says the company "trained it from the ground up on clean data, without distillation from third-party...
6 Best Prepaid Phone Plans (2026): Tello, Boost, Google Fi, More
Forget the pricey, postpaid cell plans and two-year contracts. Save with one of these WIRED-tested options from US Mobile, Boost, and Google Fi.
CrowdStrike and Google take down botnet used by hackers to target software developers in supply chain attacks
Cybercriminals used the Glassworm botnet to infect open source software projects with malware, and in turn hack the developers and companies that use that software.
Are chatbots making things more difficult than old-fashioned transactions?
These days as consumers, we are often locked into these false amities with chatbots, our to-and-fro reliant on what previous questions and responses have been digested by the software.
The Trump phone is not here
Where's the Trump phone? We're going to keep talking about it every week. We've reached out, as usual, to ask about the Trump phone's whereabouts. It's now been more than a week since Trump Mobile announced that phones would "start shipping this week."Last week Trump Mobile announced that the T1 Phone was ready to start shipping by the end of the week. Almost two weeks later, there's no sign that's actually happened - and the company still hasn't shipped either of the two phones ordered by The Verge.Depending on where you get your news, you might believe the company when it says the phone has...
Trump Mobile confirms it exposed customers’ personal data, including phone numbers and home addresses
President Trump’s branded cell phone maker and cell provider said the exposure was linked to a third-party platform, and was evaluating whether it needs to notify customers.
Why would you disrespect your favorite artist with an AI remix?
Prompt something better than Beyoncé’s “Break My Soul,” I dare you. | Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photo from Getty Images AI covers and remixes of songs are already a blight on the internet. Spotify, YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram are awash in flat reggae versions of "Smells Like Teen Spirit," dinky country renditions of The Weeknd, and monotonous Motown reimaginings of AC/DC. Now, a new tool from Spotify will make them even easier to generate and share.Spotify and Universal Music Group (UMG) signed a licensing deal that will allow users to generate remixes and covers from UMG's...
Tesla recalls thousands of Model Ys at risk of… missing a sticker
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has issued a recall for 14,575 Model Y vehicles over an issue that Tesla can't fix with its usual software update: a missing label. According to the recall report, Model Ys made between November 17th, 2024 and April 21st, 2026 could be missing a weight certification sticker due to a mishap with an "automated vision-scanning tool" in Tesla's Fremont, California factory. As Electrek reports, the sticker in question usually goes on the inside of the driver's side door and shows the vehicle's maximum safe loaded weight, along with tire info...
The post-search Google era begins
Google is many things, but most of the time it's a verb: It is what it is to search the internet for information. But what if it's an AI agent doing the searching? And it's doing it proactively? Without even telling you about it? In the world Google imagines, in which so much of the actual googling happens without your prompting, involvement, or even knowledge, can you even call Google a search engine anymore?Verge subscribers, don't forget you get exclusive access to ad-free Vergecast wherever you get your podcasts. Head here. Not a subscriber? You can sign up here.These are the heady...
Circle Medical (YC S15) Is Hiring a Mobile Engineer
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Meta and Google get data from the app your boss uses to track you
Hundreds of thousands of workplaces use software to monitor employees. Now, a new study has found that many of these tools share data not just with employers, but with digital advertising platforms and data brokers as well. The review was led by Stephanie Nguyen, senior fellow at Columbia Law School's Center for Law and the Economy and former Federal Trade Commission chief technologist under Lina Khan. It examined nine workplace monitoring (or "bossware") services and found that all of them shared some information with third-party platforms. The data ranged from names and email addresses to web...
‘Fuck you, Bambu’: How one private message could change the face of 3D printing
Bambu Lab makes the best, most accessible 3D printers yet, but that reputation is suddenly under siege. It all started when Paweł Jarczak received a private message from the company on Reddit asking him to delete his code. Now the 3D printing community is lining up behind Jarczak to fund a war against Bambu - and the future of 3D printers could be at stake.Jarczak is a developer who shared a way to let people remote control their Bambu printers without using Bambu software. But Bambu wanted to lock down its system, despite relying on open-source code. That provoked a furious coalition of...
SpaceX just filed for what could be the biggest IPO ever
Elon Musk's final frontier is officially open for business now that SpaceX has formally filed its S-1 prospectus with the SEC. That kicks off what could be the largest initial public offering ever when it lists on the Nasdaq stock exchange with the ticker SPCX.According to the filing, SpaceX generated $18.67 billion in revenue in 2025, driven largely by its Starlink satellite internet service. SpaceX lost over $4.9 billion last year, with capital expenditures soaring to $20.7 billion last year, a leap from $11.2 billion in 2024, as reported by The New York Times. According to the Wall Street...
Tesla’s Full Self-Driving software is creeping into Europe
First came the Netherlands, now it's Lithuania. And more European countries appear to be in the queue for Tesla's driver assistance system.
Volvo is trying to put its EV stumbles in the rearview
Volvo once had ambitions to fully exit the gas car business. Now it's trying to keep its tenuous foothold in the EV market. It's not an understatement to say that Volvo's EV journey has been a bumpy one. The compact EX40 has been a consistent winner, but the Swedish brand's other EVs have been plagued with problems. The EX90 was supposed to be a bold statement for the future, but persistent software bugs have forced Volvo into an expensive hardware replacement. The tiny EX30 faired no better, with tariffs upending the rollout of the brand's first mass-market affordable EV, eventually leading to...
Customers say Trump Mobile is leaking their personal information
Trump Mobile is leaking customers’ email and home addresses, but has not responded to people alerting the company of the data exposure, according to two YouTubers who said they verified that their leaked data is authentic.
Trump Mobile may be leaking customer addresses
The T1 Phone was meant to start shipping last week. | Screenshot: Trump Mobile Just as the T1 Phone is seemingly on the verge of release, Trump Mobile has been accused of insecurely storing customer data, leaving addresses and phone numbers vulnerable. The alleged leak has also revealed how many T1 Phone orders were apparently placed, and it's far fewer than viral figures have claimed.YouTuber voidzilla was the first to report the apparent leak, having been tipped off by an anonymous person who discovered the "vulnerability" in the Trump Mobile website. The hacker says they're able to both...
This new app scans your clothes for PFAS, microplastics, and hidden toxins
Most health-conscious consumers have already ditched plastic containers, switched to filtered water, and overhauled their skincare routines. Clothing, however, remains a stubborn blind spot, and a new app called Wove wants to change that. Launched this week, Wove bills itself as the first mobile app that scans everyday garments for PFAS, microplastic shedding potential, […]This story continues at The Next Web
Gemini will use Volvo’s external cameras to interpret parking signs
Gemini is gaining the power of sight and mobility. Today at the I/O conference, Google and Volvo announced that the AI-powered assistant will be able to access external cameras in the upcoming EX60 SUV to help explain and interpret its surroundings to vehicle owners. The upgrade is possible thanks to Volvo's use of Google's embedded Android Automotive as its vehicle operating system.Google posits that the first use case will be to ask Gemini to translate difficult-to-understand parking signs, though the company obviously sees other future applications as possible as well. Google envisions a...
With Gemini 3.5 Flash, Google bets its next AI wave on agents, not chatbots
Google launched Gemini 3.5 Flash, its most powerful coding and agentic AI model yet, at the company's annual developer conference. It is capable of autonomously executing complex tasks and building software from scratch.
Nintendo's wacky new mobile game takes inspiration from WarioWare
The free-to-download Pictonico! turns photos into minigames.
The minimalist Light Phone teams up with Andrew Yang’s Noble Mobile, which pays you to stop doomscrolling
"The Light Phone is designed to be used as little as possible," founder Joe Hollier told TechCrunch.
Starlink raises prices across satellite internet plans
Starlink is raising prices across its satellite internet plans in the US - including Standby Mode - with the cheapest 100Mbps Residential plan going from $50 to $55 / month, as reported earlier by PCMag. Meanwhile, Starlink's 200Mbps residential plan has jumped from $80 to $85 / month, while the Residential Max plan went from $120 to $130 / month.Standby Mode, which allows subscribers to pause their main Starlink service while using unlimited low-speed data, now costs $10 / month instead of $5. Starlink is raising the prices of its Roam plans as well, with the 100GB plan going from $50 to $55...
Why does Amazon have no Western rivals?
The internet giant dwarfs other online retailers on both sides of the Atlantic.
Does Trump Mobile know how many stripes are on the American flag?
The T1 Phone has the wrong number of stripes, but it does at least have 50 stars. | Screenshot: Trump Mobile Where's the Trump phone? We're going to keep talking about it every week. We've reached out, as usual, to ask about the Trump phone's whereabouts. This week, despite our best hopes, we still don't have our phone - but we do have some fresh doubts about the company's patriotic credentials.This has been a momentous few days for Trump Mobile, in which it defied the haters by announcing that its phones will be shipping to buyers this very week. Not that there's any sign the company has...
Google Enhances Android Mobile Security with New AI-Powered Protections - CyberSecurityNews
Google Enhances Android Mobile Security with New AI-Powered Protections CyberSecurityNewsWhat’s New in Android Security and Privacy in 2026 blog.googleGoogle launches new Android security feature to help uncover spyware attacks TechCrunchFind Hub ‘Mark as lost’ will require biometric unlock & hide Quick Settings, more 9to5GoogleAndroid 17: AI scam alerts, anti-theft features, verified bank calls & more Deccan Herald
YouTube viewers watch 2 billion hours of Shorts on TVs each month
Short-form video is built for mobile, so it may seem counterintuitive, but it's true: YouTube Shorts are becoming quite popular on the big screen.
Netflix’s new INKubator studio will produce animated shorts with AI
Netflix’s job listings indicate an generative AI-heavy animation studio is coming. | Image: The Verge This is Lowpass by Janko Roettgers, a newsletter on the ever-evolving intersection of tech and entertainment, syndicated just for The Verge subscribers once a week.Netflix has been building a new internal studio called INKubator that aims to use AI to produce short-form animated content: The streamer is hiring for a wide variety of roles, including producers, software engineers, and CG artists to staff INKubator, according to a number of recently published job listings.Netflix has yet to...
AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon team up to eliminate coverage dead zones
AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon have agreed to work together under a new joint venture that aims to end wireless dead zones in the US. The partnership was announced today as an "agreement in principle," but if finalized would see the three carrier companies pooling their ground-based spectrum resources together to increase coverage in rural areas.The goal is to create the "best and most diverse ecosystem for wireless and satellite products and services," though details on how this will actually be achieved are fairly vague. There's mention of the venture developing a unified technical standard for...
Notion just turned its workspace into a hub for AI agents
Notion’s new developer platform lets teams connect AI agents, external data sources, and custom code directly into their workspace as the company pushes deeper into agentic productivity software.
Musk’s xAI is running nearly 50 gas turbines unchecked at its Mississippi data center
Gas turbines at xAI's Colossus 2 data center have drawn a lawsuit over the company's use of "mobile" gas turbines as power plants.
Netflix’s ad ambitions just keep growing
For the second year in a row, Netflix's ad-supported tier more than doubled its monthly viewerbase. During its 2026 upfront presentation, Netflix revealed that its $8.99-per-month plan reaches more than 250 million people around the globe, a significant leap from 94 million users reported last year.The streaming service reported earning $1.5 billion from ads in 2025, and now it's finding more areas to stick them across its service. Starting next year, Netflix will start showing ads in the vertical video feed it just launched on its mobile app, and in the lineup of podcasts it began adding to...
The Trump phone starts shipping this week, CEO claims
The Trump phone may finally be here: Trump Mobile's CEO told USA Today that the phone will begin shipping to buyers this week. The announcement comes as reports have gone viral this week alleging that preorders for the phone have been canceled.Trump Mobile CEO Pat O'Brien confirmed the release plans to USA Today over email, telling the outlet that all preorders will be fulfilled within the next few weeks.O'Brien reportedly acknowledged the phone's numerous delays - it's now been 11 months since it was announced - though seemingly didn't offer any detailed explanation for why the phone has taken...
The 9 biggest new features in Android 17
AI-generated widgets are among the features coming to Android this year. | Screenshot: Google Would it shock you to hear that Android 17 is filled with new AI-enabled features, like improved dictation and vibe-coded widgets? Fortunately, that's not all. The platform is getting non-AI updates too, from an emoji overhaul to a new screentime tool that helps you avoid distracting apps.Google has just revealed the biggest changes coming in its next OS update as part of its dedicated Android Show, ahead of next week's big I/O developer conference. The Android software updates came alongside a tease...