Android 16’s first beta is here with major tablet improvements and iOS-like Live Updates submitted by /u/MishaalRahman

Amazon’s New MacBook Air Sale Has Up to $250 Off M3 13-Inch and 15-Inch Models Big discounts have appeared today on Apple’s M3 MacBook Air, with both Amazon and Best Buy offering up to $250 off 13-inch and 15-inch models. At Best Buy, these deals are available to all shoppers with the exception of two 15-inch models, which are only available to My Best Buy Plus/Total members. Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with so…

Some Apple Watch Bands Contain Toxic ‘Forever Chemicals’ Per Lawsuit A class action lawsuit filed against Apple this week in a California federal court accuses the company of false advertising and violating various consumer laws, by failing to disclose that some Apple Watch bands contain toxic materials. Specifically, the complaint alleges that Apple misleads customers into thinking the Apple Watch has health an…

Apple Releases Beta Firmware Updates for AirPods Pro 2 and AirPods 4 Apple today released new beta firmware updates for both AirPods 4 models and the AirPods Pro 2 with both Lightning and USB-C charging cases. The firmware has a build number of 7E5067b, and it is only available to developers at the current time. It is not immediately clear what new features or changes are included in the new firmware, but we’ll …

Bitcoin Rises to $106K as Trump Slated to Call Bukele, El Salvador’s Crypto-Friendly President El Salvador started accumulating BTC under Bukele’s leadership, fueling speculation about Trump’s strategic reserve promises.

Ranger Labs Raises $1.9M, Eyes AI-Powered Crypto Trading Products The Solana-based DEX builder is gearing up for an expansion.

Absence of Trump Crypto Order Amps Industry Tension as He Fails to Mention in Speech Trump spoke at length about AI but not crypto in World Economic Forum speech, but the president has an executive-order signing session scheduled.

Bitcoin Trade Volume Wednesday Was One of the Largest Ever Across ETFs, spot and futures trade, bitcoin combined for $130 billion volume yesterday.

DAO Governance Platform Agora Acquires Older Competitor, Boardroom ndustry insiders hope that regulatory clarity under a Trump administration might renew interest in decentralized governance.

A New (Digital) Age at the SEC 6 immediate steps the SEC can take to regulate crypto.

Binance Labs Gets Major Overhaul With CZ Taking Active Role in Investments The former venture capital arm of Binance will become the family office of CZ and Binance co-founder Yi He, Bloomberg reported.

Anvil Launches DeFi Protocol for Letters of Credit Founder Tyler Spalding sees the Ethereum-based smart contract project as a step towards creating a new form of money for payments, loans and counterparty credit in DeFi.

Doom: The Dark Ages looks metal as hell and launches in May Image: id SoftwareAfter revealing its next Doom game last summer, id Software is almost ready to release it: the studio announced that Doom: The Dark Ages is launching on May 15th. The news came as part of Xbox’s most recent Developer Direct livestream, which provided the best look yet at the prequel. As the name implies, The Dark Ages is set in…

Android 16’s first public beta adds Google’s more limited take on live lockscreen notifications Illustration: Alex Castro / The VergeAndroid 16’s first public beta will start rolling out later today, bringing with it dynamic lockscreen notifications for ride-sharing and food delivery, following yesterday’s reveal of a similar feature in Samsung’s Galaxy S25 phones. The new beta also forces apps to be resizable, a move to make sure they run…

Google’s Identity Check for Android keeps phone thieves out of your digital accounts Illustration by Alex Castro / The VergeGoogle is officially launching a new Android security feature for Pixel devices with Android 15 to prevent phone thieves from accessing your digital accounts. The feature, called Identity Check, requires biometric authentication to access some account and device settings when you’re not at a trusted locatio…

Fitbit fined $12 million for Ionic smartwatches that burned 78 people Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The VergeFitbit is paying a $12.25 million fine over its Ionic smartwatches, which the company recalled in 2022 after reports that the watches’ lithium-ion batteries overheated and, in some cases, burned customers. The Consumer Product Safety Commission has provisionally accepted the settlement. The commission worked wit…

Everything we saw at Xbox’s Developer Direct 2025 Image: Cath Virginia / The VergeThough Nintendo can technically claim it had the first big gaming news event of the year, at least Xbox’s Developer Direct actually showed off some games and let us know when we can play them. The showcase was anchored by deep dives into the biggest games coming down the green pipe like Doom: The Dark Ages and Com…

Substack is spending $20 million to court TikTokers Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty ImagesMeta and YouTube aren’t the only platforms looking to benefit from TikTok potentially disappearing — Substack wants in on the action, too. The company announced Thursday it’s launching a $20 million “creator accelerator fund,” promising content creators they won’t lose revenue by jumping ship to Subs…

Perplexity now has a mobile assistant on Android Image: The VergePerplexity has turned its AI “answer engine” into a mobile assistant on Android. The new assistant can answer general questions and perform tasks on your behalf, such as writing an email, setting a reminder, booking dinners, and more. It’s also multimodal, meaning you can ask it questions about what’s on your screen as well as ha…

Bill Gates’ nuclear energy startup inks new data center deal A screenshot from a video of TerraPower’s groundbreaking ceremony for its demonstration project in Wyoming.TerraPower, a nuclear energy startup founded by Bill Gates, struck a deal this week with one of the largest data center developers in the US to deploy advanced nuclear reactors. TerraPower and Sabey Data Centers (SDC) are working together o…