Minimalist News

PopWheels realized its battery swapping network could be used for more than food delivery workers who need to charge their e-bikes. Now, its planning for an "aggressive rollout" this summer.

Hexus founder and CEO Sakshi Pratap, who previously held engineering roles at Walmart, Oracle, and Google, tells TechCrunch that her San Francisco-based team has already joined Harvey, while the startup's India-based engineers will come onboard once Harvey establishes a Bangalore office.

Apple shipped a record 14 million iPhones in India in 2025 and gained market share.

TikTok users are freaking out over a mention of "immigration status" data collection, but lawyers explain the disclosure is related to state privacy laws.

Yann LeCun's new venture, AMI Labs, has drawn intense attention since the AI scientist left Meta to found it.

The NTSB joins the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in investigating Waymo vehicles illegally passing stopped school buses.

The Department of Justice may be conducting a criminal investigation. This is arguably the biggest drama between two HR startups ever.

Learn more about Netflix's acquisition of Warner Bros., considered the most historic megadeal in Hollywood, as it continues to develop.

Security researchers have attributed the attempted use of destructive "wiper" malware across Poland's energy infrastructure in late December to a Russian-backed hacking group known for causing power outages in neighboring Ukraine.

The World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos felt different this year, and not just because Meta and Salesforce took over storefronts on the main promenade. AI dominated the conversation in a way that overshadowed traditional topics like climate change and global poverty, and the CEOs weren’t holding back. There was public criticism of trade policy, warnings about AI […]

The addition is meant to just be a fun way to explore your photos and experiment with Google's Gemini AI technology, and specifically Nano Banana.

Meta today said that it is pausing teens' access to its AI characters globally across all its apps. The company mentioned that it is not abandoning its efforts but wants to develop an updated version of AI characters for teens.

A number of investors are competing for the opportunity to purchase the app, and if a deal were to go through, the platform's U.S. business could have its valuation soar to upward of $60 billion.

Started by an engineer who worked on the space shuttle program, and at Blue Origin, Space Beyond has a spot on a 2027 Falcon 9 flight.

The FBI served Microsoft a warrant requesting encryption recovery keys to decrypt the hard drives of people involved in an alleged fraud case in Guam.

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Apple’s iOS 26 and watchOS 26 introduced a new fitness companion called Workout Buddy. This feature uses Apple Intelligence to provide spoken feedback during workouts and give motivation based on your activity history. Workout Buddy analyzes your pace, heart rate, distance and other metrics to deliver real-time encouragement and performance insights directly through connected Bluetooth headphones. It works in conjunction with the Workout app on Apple Watch and is partially controlled through the Fitness app on iPhone. This guide walks you through everything needed to set up and use Workout Buddy effectively during workouts. WHAT WORKOUT BUDDY DOES It’s important to note

Our reviews team is rested up after the CES grind and we’re back to business. This week we reviewed the latest devices from Valerion, Canon, Samsung and Sony, covering a wide range of product categories in the process. Grab yourself a beverage and cozy up with all the reviews you might’ve missed. VALERION VISIONMASTER MAX The weeks leading up to the Super Bowl are a popular time to upgrade home theater setups before the big game. One way to do that is Valerion’s VisionMaster Max — if you’re willing to splurge. “The Valerion VisionMaster Max is a highly capable indoor projector that

Welcome to our latest roundup of what's going on in the indie game space. It’s been a very busy week of fun game releases (next week will be too!), so let’s get into some of them after a quick reflection on gaming while traveling. I love my Steam Deck. I really truly do. It’s a fantastic machine. And yet when I brought it with me on a five-week trip over the holidays, I used it for barely an hour the entire time. That doesn’t really justify the space and weight it takes up in my bag. The same holds true for

In Big Tech's never-ending quest to increase AI adoption, Google has unveiled a meme generator. The new Google Photos feature, Me Meme, lets you create personalized memes starring a synthetic version of you. Google describes Me Meme as "a simple way to explore with your photos and create content that's ready to share with friends and family." You can choose from a variety of templates or "upload your own funny picture" to use in their place. The feature isn't live for everyone yet, so you may not yet have access to it. (A Google representative told TechCrunch that the feature will roll

Meta is being sued by Solos, a rival smart glasses maker, for infringing on its patents, Bloomberg reports. Solos is seeking "multiple billions of dollars" in damages and an injunction that could prevent Meta from selling its Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses as part of the lawsuit. Solos claims that Meta's Ray-Ban Meta Wayfarer Gen 1 smart glasses violate multiple patents covering "core technologies in the field of smart eyewear." While less well known than Meta and its partner EssilorLuxottica, Solos sells multiple pairs of glasses with similar features to what Meta offers. For example, the company's AirGo A5 glasses lets you

File this one under "Things that make you go, 'Hmmm…'" Retro handheld maker Anbernic is launching a new controller with a screen. But unlike Nintendo's Wii U controller, there's no second-screen gaming capability here. Instead, the display is designed to "make customization intuitive and effortless." Oh, and the controller also has a heart rate sensor. Because, hey, if you're going weird, I say fully commit! The Anbernic RG G01 has a 2.5-inch HD display that the company describes as an "HD smart screen." The idea is to remap buttons, program macros and change other settings without requiring software on a connected

More ads are coming to App Store search results starting in March, Apple shared on an advertising help page. The company first said that it would increase the number of App Store ads last month, and this new rollout of search ads will begin on Tuesday, March 3, according to a developer email viewed by MacRumors. "Search is the way most people find and download apps on the App Store, with nearly 65 percent of downloads happening directly after a search," Apple says. "To help give advertisers more opportunities to drive downloads from search results, Apple Ads will introduce additional ads

After years of uncertainty over TikTok's future in the United States, a deal for the app's US business has been finalized. The new US entity is called TikTok USDS Joint Venture. ByteDance has retained a 19.9 percent percent stake in the new business, with the rest controlled by a group of non-Chinese investors, including Oracle, Silver Lake and MGX, an Emirati-state owned investment firm, all of which have a 15 percent stake. Dell CEO Michael Dell and other investors have smaller stakes in the new company.  The terms of the deal were first leaked last month, after TikTok CEO Shou Chew

Vimeo just got hit by a brutal round of layoffs, according to a report by Business Insider. Staffers are posting on various social media sites that the layoffs have impacted most of the company, including the entire video team. Vimeo is a video-hosting platform, so that sounds bad. “Yesterday, following Vimeo’s recent acquisition by a private equity firm, I learned that I, along with a large portion of the company, was impacted by layoffs,” wrote the company’s former vice president of Global Brand & Creative, Dave Brown. He is referring to a firm called Bending Spoons that bought Vimeo for $1.38

Tesla just objectively decreased the value of the Model 3 and Model Y. On Thursday, the company said it’s paywalling its lane-centering feature, Autosteer, for new purchases of the two EVs in the US and Canada. This was previously a standard feature. Lane centering is now part of the Full Self-Driving Supervised (FSD) package, which costs $99 per month. Speculating on why Tesla would do this doesn't require much imagination. Remember the pay package Tesla shareholders approved for Musk in November? One of his requirements for receiving up to $1 trillion is reaching 10 million active FSD subscriptions. One of Musk's stipulations

Meta will no longer allow teens to chat with its AI chatbot characters in their present form. The company announced Friday that it will be "temporarily pausing teens’ access to existing AI characters globally." The pause comes months after Meta had said it was working on chatbot-focused parental controls following reports that some of Meta's character chatbots had engaged in sexual conversations and other alarming interactions with teens. Reuters reported on an internal Meta policy document that said the chatbots were permitted to have "sensual" conversations with underage users, language Meta later said was "erroneous and inconsistent with our policies." The

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella recently went on record saying that AI still needs to prove its worth if society is to adopt it long-term, but he presumably thinks his company has cracked it with its latest innovation: AI coloring books. A new Microsoft Paint feature currently rolling out to Windows Insiders allows you to generate coloring book pages based on the text prompt you enter. The example Microsoft uses is "a cute fluffy cat on a donut," to which the AI tool will spit out a set of slightly different options based on your prompt. You can then choose which image you

Basketball fans can save on NBA League Pass right now, which lets you catch a bunch of out-of-market NBA games via streaming. The League Pass Premium subscription is on sale for $75, down from the usual $160, and League Pass Standard is marked down to $50 from $110. Considering we're almost halfway though the season, the discount makes sense and is a good deal for anyone who wants to keep a close eye on the rest of the games to be played this year. The Standard plan includes commercials and support for only one device at a time, while the Premium

After being one of the first countries in the world to block Elon Musk’s Grok chatbot, Malaysia has now lifted its ban. Along with Indonesia, the country moved swiftly to temporarily halt access to X's frequently controversial AI chatbot earlier this month, after multiple reports emerged of it being used to generate deepfake sexualized images of people, including women and children. At the time, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) said the restrictions would remain in place until X Corp and parent xAI could prove they had enforced the necessary safeguards against misuse of the above nature. Malaysian authorities appear to

MicroSD Express cards are still a little hard to find, considering they're pretty new and only really started becoming popular last year once the Switch 2 came out. These upgraded versions of microSD cards are the only ones compatible with the Switch 2 for expanding its storage, so if you're already starting to feel the crunch on your console, it's worth picking one up. Samsung's P9 microSD Express card is on sale right now — you can grab the 512GB version of $80, which is 33 percent off and one of the best prices we've seen. The P9 boasts transfer speeds

At their core, refrigerators are relatively simple devices. If you're the type of person to view every extra feature as a component that could potentially go wrong, basic iceboxes are probably the kind you go for. But for those on the other end of the spectrum, Samsung's latest Bespoke Refrigerators with AI inside have more bells and whistles than you might think possible — including an optional 32-inch screen. Editor's note: The model we tested for this review came out in the second half of 2025 and will continue to be on sale throughout 2026. Hardware will remain the same, the

Ring has launched a new tool that can tell you if a video clip captured by its camera has been altered or not. The company says that every video downloaded from Ring starting in December 2025 going forward will come with a digital security seal. “Think of it like the tamper-evident seal on a medicine bottle,” it explained. Its new tool, called Ring Verify, can tell you if a video has been altered in any way. Even adjusting a video clip’s brightness or trimming a few seconds off will break that seal, and the tool will tell you that it

With the spring approaching, it's time to start thinking about how you'll file your taxes. Unfortunately, with the recent demise of Direct File, there isn't a free, government-provided alternative to TurboTax in 2026, and you'll need to look to other federal programs, including IRS Free File, to file your paperwork. If you don't qualify for Free File, chances are you'll need to dish out cash for Intuit's software. And while we hate to suggest you give money to a company that has spent decades lobbying to ensure America's tax system remains a nightmare, we can at least save you some

AirPods Pro 3 have returned to an all-time-low price. You can pick them up for $200 right now, which is $50 off and the best discount we've seen since the earbuds came out at the end of last year. We gave these AirPods a score of 90 out of 100 in our review and we consider them the best wireless earbuds for iPhone users. The third generation model is a substantial update to an already impressive product, bringing new features like live translation to the table. The AirPods Pro 3 also offer heart-rate tracking, allowing them to stream live data to Apple

Apple is reportedly working on an AI pin of its very own to compete with OpenAI's non-existent pin. No, it doesn't really make much sense to us, either. In this episode, Devindra and Engadget Managing Editor Cherlynn Low discuss why Apple might be quick to jump on the AI pin trend, even before it jumps into smart rings. Also, we dive into Sony’s Bravia TV deal with TCL, and the aftermath of Verizon’s massive service outage. SUBSCRIBE! * iTunes * Spotify * Pocket Casts * Stitcher * Google Podcasts TOPICS * TCL is taking over Sony’s Bravia TV business in a new

It’s been a while since rumors and reports suggested Apple is exploring a new divisive product category, and it’s been several years since the Apple car. Unfortunately, the new challenger is a wearable AI pin with cameras, mics and… zero interest from me. According to a report from The Information, it’ll resemble a slightly thicker AirTag with an aluminum and glass exterior. The report suggests it’ll have two cameras (standard and wide-angle) for photos and video. It may also have three microphones and a (swoon) physical button. I love a physical button. TMA Apple How is Apple going to pitch it? What is the

Following the shutdown of an alternative app store, Apple has accused the European Commission (EC) of using “political delay tactics” as an excuse to probe and fine the company, Bloomberg reported. Apple issued the statement preemptively as commission is reportedly preparing to blame Apple for the shutdown of third-party app store Setapp due to what the developer called “still-evolving and complex business terms.” As part of an EU ruling, Apple was forced to allow third-party marketplaces for apps once the Digital Markets Act (DMA) took effect in 2024. Apple agreed to allow such stores, but implemented fees of €0.50 per installation

Having the right GPS watch on your wrist whether you’re going for your first ever run or your umpteenth run can make all the difference. The best GPS running watches not only keep track of how far you’ve run, but they track pace and other real-time metrics, advanced training features to help you hit your goals and, of course, precise distance measurements. Some models even provide offline maps for navigation, sleep tracking, recovery insights, and smart features that “regular” smartwatches do. For those who need extra durability and lasting battery life, higher-end sport watches — like some of the best Garmin

Sennheiser has unveiled its RS 275 TV Headphones, which are bundled with a BTA1 digital receiver. These headphones use Auracast technology to provide low-latency audio at a range of up to 50 meters, and can connect to other devices enabled with Auracast or Bluetooth Classic. For those unfamiliar, Auracast is broadcast Bluetooth audio; we have an explainer about it after CES 2024 put this audio tech onto the big stage. The digital receiver introduces an Auracast signal in a physical space for any other compatible devices, which might include hearing aids or loudspeakers as well as other headphone sets. The company

Darth Maul, the beloved, sometimes spider-legged former Sith Lord first introduced in Star Wars: Episode 1 — The Phantom Menace, is officially getting his own animated spin-off on April 6, 2026, based on a new teaser trailer published by Disney. Star Wars: Maul — Shadow Lord was originally announced at Star Wars Celebration in 2025, and is set after Maul's arc in Star Wars: The Clone Wars but before his appearance in Star Wars: Rebels. The 10-episode series covers Maul's plot to rebuild his criminal syndicate "on a planet untouched by the Empire," according to Lucasfilm. "There, he crosses paths with

JBL is trying its hand at something new, with a pair of AI-powered practice amps. The BandBox Solo and BandBox Trio include an onboard Stem AI that purportedly lets you separate or remove vocals and instruments from any music streamed over Bluetooth. So, say you're a young guitarist learning “Stairway to Heaven” (as one does). At least in theory, you could use the speaker to remove Jimmy Page's part and hone your chops with the rest of the band. The $250 BandBox Solo, designed for individual musicians, has a single guitar / mic input. And the $600 BandBox Trio, better for

Telly appeared on the home theater scene in 2023 with an unusual proposition. Its business model revolves around giving customers free dual-screen televisions where the lower screen shows non-stop advertisements. At the time, the start-up’s execs projected that Telly would ship its first 500,000 screens that summer. However, Janko Roettgers of Lowpass reported that Telly only had 35,000 sets in people's homes at the end of the third quarter of 2025. The figure appears to come from a quarterly investor update, but Telly didn't provide Roettgers with any comment on the report. Personally, I don't think I'd want a free TV

Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison is apparently still hopeful that investors will approve his $108.4 billion hostile takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery. Paramount Skydance announced Thursday that it's extending its all-cash offer to acquire the storied studio, and giving investors until February 20, 2026 to accept. The company's previous offer expired on January 21, but with a lawsuit in the works and a revised Netflix deal to compete with, Paramount Skydance wants to stay in the conversation. Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery originally announced their $82.7 billion acquisition agreement in December 2025. Netflix's deal is for a significant portion, but notably

After half a decade of waiting, Microsoft finally offered an extended preview of its long-awaited reboot of the beloved Fable RPG franchise on Thursday. During the company’s recent Developer Direct showcase, Playground Games, best known for its works on the Forza Horizon series, shared nearly 11 minutes of gameplay footage and commentary related to the upcoming title. The new game will feature a fully open world for players to explore, with locations from previous Fable games like Bowerstone making a return. Playground didn’t say exactly where the new game takes place in the Fable timeline. If you played 2010’s Fable 3,

Double Fine has been on a tear with its smaller projects lately. The popular indie game developer is following up last year's atmospheric adventure game Keeper with a new title in a totally different direction. As its Double Fine founder Tim Schaefer attempted to say five times fast during today's Xbox Developer Direct, Kiln is an "online multiplayer pottery party brawler" that boasts exactly the sort of colorful, clever fun that fans have come to expect from the studio.  Kiln is a game with two facets: creation and destruction. On the creation side, players get to design a ceramic vessel of

It was only 16 months ago that Substack expanded into live video. Since then, it's become a widely adopted medium on the platform, including by its ever-growing list of cable news expats. Now, the company has decided it's ready for a bigger screen. Starting today, you can install a new Substack TV app on Apple TV and Google TV devices. Substack describes the app's initial launch as focusing on "reliable, high-quality viewing" for the platform's long-form videos. It centers around video posts and livestreams from the creators and publications you follow. There's also a "For You" section that combines those videos

Elon Musk just took the stage at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland and announced that Tesla's Optimus humanoid robot will be sold to the public by the end of next year. Musk is the master of unrealistic timetables, but this may be the nuttiest one yet. These are humanoid robots that are supposed to be able to do just about any task a human can do. Musk, as usual, gave himself an out if the robots don't start rolling off the assembly line in 2027, saying that they'll only be released when Tesla is "confident that it’s very high

Mario Kart World received a free update today that brings a team option to its Knockout Tour mode. Initially, the Knockout races in this Nintendo Switch 2 launch title were only for solo drivers, challenging players to finish ahead of enough other competitors or get eliminated from the series. It was one of the highlights of the game in our review, and this new wrinkle should bring plenty more fun chaos to the racetrack. In the team mode, players compete either in two teams of twelve, three teams of eight or four teams of six. If you don't have enough people

Forza Horizon 6 is taking the racing series to Japan for the first time, and now we know exactly when you’ll be able to hit the virtual streets of Tokyo. The game will arrive on Xbox Series X/S, PC and Xbox Cloud on May 19, with an early access period commencing on May 15. That lines up with earlier reports about the release date(s) after an in-game ad supposedly appeared in Forza Horizon 5. The upcoming title will hit PS5 later this year. The standard edition of Forza Horizon 6 is expected to cost $70, though it will be on Xbox

So it's come to this: Apple is reportedly working on a wearable AI pin. According to The Information, it is going to be a small device with "multiple cameras, a speaker, microphones and wireless charging." It sounds like the perfect gadget to pair with the long-awaited AI-powered Siri update, which will also reportedly work as a chatbot. But while many Apple rumors conjure up an air of excitement, the notion of an Apple AI pin sounds downright baffling. Worse, it just seems desperate.  Apple, the company known for taking its time to jump into new categories with more thoughtful solutions than

Korg just officially unveiled the Phase8 synthesizer, after years of tinkering by a team led by legendary engineer Tatsuya Takahashi. This is a highly experimental synthesizer, but it's not a concept unit. It'll be available for purchase in April. The Phase8 uses a new form of "acoustic synthesis" that combines acoustic sound generation with electronic control. Takahashi says the synthesizer is "beyond analog vs. digital" and "beyond electronics" altogether. It features chromatically tuned steel resonators, which creates an acoustic sound similar to that of a kalimba. These signals can be manipulated via onboard effects and sequenced like a traditional synthesizer. Here's

We already knew xAI's Grok was barraging X with nonconsensual sexual images of real people. But now there are some numbers to put things in perspective. Over an 11-day period, Grok generated an estimated 3 million sexualized images — including an estimated 23,000 of children. Put another way, Grok generated an estimated 190 sexualized images per minute during that 11-day period. Among those, it made a sexualized image of children once every 41 seconds. On Thursday, the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) published its findings. The British nonprofit based its findings on a random sample of 20,000 Grok images from December

We might still be in the midst of the playoffs, but that doesn't mean we can't plan ahead for Super Bowl LX. For those of you who just can't with Roman numerals, thats Super Bowl 60, and it's taking place this year at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, CA, on February 8, starting at 6:30 p.m. ET.  Like all other Sunday Night Football games this season, the championship game will be broadcast on Super Bowl Sunday on NBC, and will stream live on Peacock. And it's not just the game that we're excited for, either. This year's halftime performer is singer

It only seems right that cloud gaming should welcome virtual pilots, and that’s definitely now the case if GeForce Now is your streaming platform of choice. One of the most frequently requested features from its community according to NVIDIA, flight control support has now been added to its GeForce Now offering, meaning you can live your Top Gun fantasies without worrying about your rig buckling under the pressure. The first compatible peripheral is the Thrustmaster T.Flight HOTAS One — which incidentally NVIDIA is giving away to five winners of a competition it’s currently running, along with a month of GeForce Now

In a chaotic world, one thing you can count on is your own common-sense steps toward better cybersecurity. Most of the holiday deals are over by now, but plenty of services are still offering excellent prices. With access to a virtual private network (VPN), you can stream TV shows and events from all over the world, protect your information from hackers and thwart online trackers. We strongly recommend using a VPN, but you might get stuck with a substandard app if you jump on the very first deal you see. You might also mistakenly end up paying more than you want

At CES earlier this month, AMD announced the Ryzen 7 9850X3D, a more wallet-friendly take on its $700 9950X3D. The company promised the new chip would be out sometime in the first three months of the year, and it's going to arrive a bit sooner than you might have expected. It can be all yours on January 29 for $499. AMD says the 9850X3D builds on the 9800X3D with an 400MHz upgrade to the boost clock. It can reach boost speeds of 5.6GHz. The Ryzen 7 9850X3D is an 8-core CPU with 16 threads and 104MB of combined L2 and L3

The nominees for the 2026 Academy Awards were just announced and Ryan Coogler's vampire-adjacent period drama Sinners received a record-breaking 16 nominations. That's the highest number of Oscar nominations for a single film in the history of the awards, followed by Titanic, La La Land and All About Eve with 14 noms each. Sinners grabbed a nomination in nearly every major category, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay. The same goes for the performances, as Michael B. Jordan captured the nomination for Best Actor. Even Delroy Lindo got nominated for Best Supporting Actor, which is his very first

Waymo’s fully autonomous robotaxis are now accepting passengers in Miami. The city was one of five named in expansion plans last year, and joins the likes of Phoenix, Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area on Waymo’s existing network. Waymo says that nearly 10,000 Miami residents have signed up so far, and that it will send out invites to new riders on a rolling basis" in the weeks and months to come. The autonomous ride-hailing service will initially cover a 60-square-mile area that includes neighborhoods like the Design District and Wynwood, with Waymo planning to expand to Miami International Airport

Xbox is set to hold the fourth installment of its now-annual Developer Direct showcase on January 22. You’ll be able to watch the 2026 edition at 1PM ET on YouTube (including versions with audio descriptions and ASL), Twitch, Facebook and Steam. Xbox will stream the Developer Direct on its regional channels simultaneously, and it’ll be available on Bilibili on Friday. The YouTube stream might be the way to go, since that one will be available in 4K and 60 fps. Because we’re so nice, we’ve embedded that stream above, so all you have to do is click the play button when

After adding Personal Intelligence to Gemini as an opt-in experience, Google has announced that it’s also integrating the feature into AI Mode in Search. What Personal Intelligence does is pull information from your Google apps to tailor its responses based on your history and interests. For Search, in particular, you can allow Personal Intelligence to look for information in your Gmail accounts and Google Photos libraries. If you use AI Mode to shop for clothes with the new feature enabled, for instance, Google could recommend items or models from a brand you previously purchased from. If it sees plane tickets or

Every month, Circana video game analyst Mat Piscatella posts fascinating data about video game sales on Bluesky, highlighting trends like November's historically bad month for game hardware and Battlefield 6's big launch in October. But he doesn't just share data about what is selling the most; as of late, he's also posted delightful lists of games that have sold just a single physical copy over a certain period of time, and the lists often include retro games that take me down memory lane or titles that I didn't even know existed. The list of games that sold one physical copy in

Of course ad agencies love AI commercials, this Kalshi ad only cost $2,000 to make. I'll confess, with no shame whatsoever, that I really love ads. Artsy ones, funny ones, weird ones, emotional ones - TV commercials were my childhood TikTok before any of us were using terms like "short-form video." But like most creative things in my life, AI is sucking the joy out of it. And it's only going to suck harder this year. Ads are mini-movies, posters, illustrations, and photoshoots with an underlying purpose: to burn whatever product they're flogging into your brain as quickly as possible. It requires

There's a lot about Perfect Tides: Station to Station's Mara that I find relatable. Like me, she's recently moved to a place simply called "the City" from the middle of nowhere, and like me, she's an avid writer. But these biographical details aren't the important thing; it's the way she's painted by the game's incredibly sharp writing where I start to feel uncomfortably seen. There are a lot of characters in media that are awkward or socially anxious, but few that are drawn with such piercing specificity. The point-and-click game is minimalist in its mechanics. Consisting mostly of conversations, it's broken

I respect Gemini using the royal “we” here. By lots of metrics, Gemini is winning. It has raced ahead of OpenAI, become scarily good at creating convincing imagery, and even won Apple's business. So last week's news that it was enabling something called Personal Intelligence felt like a victory lap. Personal Intelligence allows Gemini to reference past conversations and access your data in other Google services, including Gmail, Calendar, Photos, and search history, without you specifically prompting it to look in those sources. It's entirely opt-in, and you choose which apps Gemini can access and which it can't. It's in beta

Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 113, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you're new here, welcome, please send hot cocoa to my freezing-cold house, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.) This week, I've been reading about private garbage collectors and vintage watches and My Favorite Murder, watching The Running Man (which was not great) and Sinners (which was extremely great), giving my Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses another whirl, nostalgia-tripping my way through The Format's new album, sitting in the audience for the first Star Search on Netflix,

Most gaming laptops under $1,000 aren’t great, but these three machines stand out above the rest.

Agatha Christie’s Seven Dials, Stranger Things, and His & Hers are just a few of the shows you need to watch on Netflix this month.

Cordless portable blenders have come a long way since their introduction a decade back. Here's why the Ninja Blast Max smokes them all.

Plus: The FAA blocks drones over DHS operations, Microsoft admits it hands over Bitlocker encryption keys to the cops, and more.

Plus: Asus exits the smartphone market, and Sony partners with TCL on TVs.

It’s LVMH Watch Week, so here's WIRED's pick of the timepieces that made their debut—plus one notable gatecrasher.

Researchers have succeeded in developing the smallest fully autonomous robot in history. It measures less than 1 millimeter and can swim underwater for months powered only by light.

Discover ways to save at TopResume, including their free review service and 4-week Career Services Platform trial.

Save on streaming with the latest Paramount+ promo codes and deals, including 50% off subscriptions, free trials, and more.

Save an extra $100 or up to 50% today with the latest Home Depot promo codes for appliances, power tools, and more this January.

Save up to 60%, plus an extra 20% with HP promo codes for laptops, printers, PCs, and more tech.

Shipping experts say the big winter storm across a wide swath of the country should be business as usual—if their safeguards hold.

Clearly Filtered water pitchers, bottles, and under-sink filters are 10 to 19 percent off. I tested three filters to see how they performed.

On this episode of Uncanny Valley, our hosts unpack the news from Davos, where Trump and major AI companies shared the stage at the World Economic Forum.

The ruling in federal court in Minnesota lands as Immigration and Customs Enforcement faces scrutiny over an internal memo claiming judge-signed warrants aren’t needed to enter homes without consent.

According to its new privacy policy, TikTok now collects more data on its users, including their precise location, after majority ownership officially switched to a group based in the US.

Bitter cold, power outages, and impassible roads are a terrible cocktail. Here’s how to prep and bunker in for an extreme winter storm.

These excellent earbuds were already a good deal before the discount.

US Customs and Border Protection is paying General Dynamics to create prototype “quantum sensors,” to be used with an AI database to detect fentanyl and other narcotics.

TikTok’s new age-detection tech seems like a better solution than automatically banning youth accounts. But experts say it still requires social platforms to surveil users more closely.

A research paper suggests AI agents are mathematically doomed to fail. The industry doesn’t agree.

Gearing up to shred the slopes or dive into the seas? These photography tools are made for danger.

Celebrate National Handwriting Day (I did not make that up) with new notebooks, a journal, or sketchbooks.

I tested an array of alternative sleep aids, from gummies to wearable patches, to see if they would help my chronic insomnia.

It’s rare to find a gaming laptop under $1,000 without any major compromises, but the Lenovo LOQ 15 surprises.

Roborock hasn’t updated its popular, affordable Qrevo Curv line of robovacs for years. Finally, it’s happening!

Freecash will actually pay money out to users but not for watching videos. This misleading marketing coincides with the app’s rising popularity.

We Are Rewind’s speaker/cassette player combo is an imperfect but satisfying reissue of a bygone audio era.

This “dream wish list for criminals” includes millions of Gmail, Facebook, banking logins, and more. The researcher who discovered it suspects they were collected using infostealing malware.

Explore Chewy coupon codes for $30 off, $20 off your first order $49, 50% off pet food, and more January 2026 discounts.

From Black vampires gobbling up Oscar nominations to gay pro hockey players dominating the culture, diverse stories broke through in an environment that’s increasingly hostile to them.

A pair of bills in Massachusetts would require manufacturers to tell consumers when their connected gadgets are going dark. It should be a boon for cybersecurity as connected devices grow obsolete.

Humanoid robots, space travel, the science of aging—Musk weighed in on all of it at this week’s World Economic Forum. But his predictions rarely work out the way he says they will.

Chinese firms are building battery plants from Europe to North America, promising jobs while prompting local concerns about the environment, politics, and who really benefits.

F1: The Movie, CODA, and Highest 2 Lowest are just a few of the movies you should be watching on Apple TV this month.

Advances in artificial intelligence are creating a perfect storm for those seeking to spread disinformation at unprecedented speed and scale. And it’s virtually impossible to detect.

WIRED spoke with Boris Cherny, head of Claude Code, about how the viral coding tool is changing the way Anthropic works.

The Meross Smart Plug Mini boasts excellent compatibility and slim construction.

The alleged risks of being publicly identified have not stopped DHS  and ICE employees from creating profiles on LinkedIn, even as Kristi Noem threatens to treat revealing agents’ identities as a crime.

Looking to jazz up your portable gaming experience? Here are the best accessories we’ve tested for the Nintendo Switch 2.

Motorola phones may seem old-school, but their reasonable prices, colorful designs, and simple software make them good, wallet-friendly Android smartphones.

Upgrade your locks with fingerprint-scanning or a keypad, whether it’s at the front door or a sliding glass entryway.

The web’s best resource for spotting AI writing has ironically become a manual for AI models to hide it.

Hume AI’s CEO, Alan Cowen, will join Google DeepMind along with several top engineers as part of a major licensing deal.

There’s no need for an expensive retreat to practice meditation. Try it on your lunch break to recharge your mind and body.