X’s ‘complimentary’ Premium push gives people blue checks they didn’t ask for Illustration by Alex Castro / The VergeJust as Elon Musk said, X is doling out free Premium and Premium memberships to accounts with a high number of verified followers. Multiple X users on Wednesday reported seeing the familiar blue “Verified” checkmark next to their handles despite not paying for either paid X subscription tier. Musk last wee…

The App Store is down, along with Apple TV, Apple Podcasts, and Apple Music Illustration by Alex Castro / The VergeApple’s online services appear to be having some problems, with an outage cutting many of us off from the App Store, Apple TV, and Apple Music. The system status page for Apple’s online service has noted an outage beginning at 6:31PM ET affecting those services, as well as Arcade, Audiobooks, Books, Podcast…

Judge allows Roblox illegal gambling suit to proceed Image: RobloxRoblox asked a federal judge in California to dismiss a suit from two mothers who allege the platform allowed an illegal gambling ring to prey on their children. Instead, the judge has allowed the case to proceed — though some of the claims, including RICO allegations, have been dismissed. The company argued that the plaintiffs’ cla…

DALL-E now lets you edit images in ChatGPT Nothing but respect for MY president. | Image: OpenAIOpenAI’s DALL-E is getting a couple of upgrades today that help you shape your AI-generated masterpieces. First, you’ll now find image editing tools when using DALL-E within ChatGPT, both on the web and on mobile. Second, DALL-E now offers preset style suggestions to help inspire image creatio…

NASA picks three companies to develop a Moon car for Artemis astronauts The Lunar Dawn LTV from Lunar Outpost, Lockheed Martin, General Motors (GM), Goodyear, and MDA Space. | Image: Lunar OutpostNASA has selected Intuitive Machines, Lunar Outpost, and Venturi Astrolab to develop the lunar terrain rover for its Artemis lunar explorations. All three companies are in the running for task orders with a potential value …

Huberman fans aren’t leaving the show behind Photo by Chance Yeh / Getty Images for HubSpotThis is Hot Pod, The Verge’s newsletter about podcasting and the audio industry. Sign up here for more. I have never gotten so many responses to an issue as I did with last week’s on Andrew Huberman. He seems to elicit an even stronger response than Rogan, though perhaps response to Rogan has calmed…

Indie adventure Open Roads thrives on curiosity Image: Annapurna InteractiveYou could breeze through Open Roads, the new mystery game from publisher Annapurna Interactive. It’s only around two hours long, and it isn’t the kind of game where you’re likely to get stuck. There are no real puzzles to solve or obstacles to overcome. Instead, you steadily move through a story about a mother and dau…

Europe’s space agency prepares to blot out the Sun Proba-3’s occulter blocks the Sun’s light for the coronagraph. | Image: European Space AgencyThe European Space Agency (ESA) is preparing to create its own solar eclipses so that researchers can study one of the more difficult-to-observe parts of the Sun’s anatomy: its blazing-hot corona. To do that, it hopes to fly two separate spacecraft, 150 …

The Witcher: everything you need to know about Netflix’s fantasy epic Image: NetflixHenry Cavill may be gone, but Netflix’s live-action adaptation of The Witcher is soldiering on with even more seasons inspired by Andrzej Sapkowski’s novels. Continue reading…

Meta’s AI image generator can’t imagine an Asian man with a white woman Image: The Verge / Meta AIHave you ever seen an Asian person with a white person, whether that’s a mixed-race couple or two friends of different races? Seems pretty common to me — I have lots of white friends! To Meta’s AI-powered image generator, apparently this is impossible to imagine. I tried dozens of times to create an image using prompts …

WhatsApp is down worldwide and stuck on connecting Illustration by Alex Castro / The VergeWhatsApp is down worldwide, impacting the 2 billion users of the messaging service. Users started experiencing issues connecting to WhatsApp in multiple countries just after 2PM ET today, with the service stuck on “connecting” for many. The Meta-owned messaging service appears to be experiencing a major out…

How to use your Mac screen inside the Apple Vision Pro Illustration by Samar Haddad for The Verge | Photo by The VergeOne of the coolest things you can do with the Apple Vision Pro is use your Mac screen — either floating by itself in a virtual landscape or, better yet, in mixed reality. It’s hard to make work exciting, but if you can, why not work on the Moon? Or on top of Haleakalā in Hawaii? You…

Ford’s hybrids just posted their best sales quarter ever — but so did gas-guzzlers Illustration by Alex Castro / The VergeFord’s electric vehicles aren’t doing too bad despite a lot of gloom in the industry over a slowdown in EV sales growth. But hybrids are where the Blue Oval is really crushing it, posting its best quarter in its nearly 20 years of selling gas-electric hybrids. The automaker sold 38,421 hybrid vehicles in t…

Facebook’s new full-screen video player looks a lot like TikTok Image: MetaFacebook is launching an updated mobile video player that will bring the vertical look made ubiquitous by TikTok and Reels to all of the platform’s video content, Meta announced in a blog post on Wednesday. Under the new design, Reels, Facebook Live, and longform videos will default to a full-screen portrait-oriented video format. Th…

Microsoft reveals how much you’ll have to pay to keep using Windows 10 securely Photo by Chris Welch / The VergeMicrosoft is ending support for Windows 10 on October 14th, 2025, and you’ll need to pay yearly if you want to continue using the operating system securely. Microsoft will offer Extended Security Updates (ESU) for Windows 10 users, with pricing starting at $61 for the first year. The pricing for additional securit…

The Matrix is coming back for a fifth movie Image: Warner Bros. DiscoveryThough the last Matrix movie was basically a warning about corporations sucking the life out of iconic pieces of subversive IP, Warner Bros. Discovery is already going back to the well. Deadline reports that The Martian writer Drew Goddard has been tapped to pen and direct another Matrix movie executive produced by L…

You can save 20 percent on three months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate Game Pass was already the best deal in gaming, but this discount makes it even better. | Photo by Mateusz Slodkowski / SOPA Images / LightRocket via Getty ImagesMy digital game library is filled with titles that I’ve never played, so a few years ago, I promised myself that I would stop buying every new release. It’s easy with services like Game …

Oura’s experimenting with a feature to detect early changes in your health Oura’s new Symptom Radar feature detects early signs of change to your overall wellness. | Image: Victoria Song / The VergeThe Oura Ring is getting a bit more experimental. Starting today, Oura users will get access to a new Oura Labs feature, which allows them to opt in to experimental features. The first will be something called Symptom Radar,…

Patreon is taking Reddit’s approach to content moderation Image: PatreonPatreon is taking a page out of Reddit’s book. Now, podcasters, artists, writers, and other creators on the subscription-focused creator platform will be able to assign community members as moderators as the platform expands its product offering. All Patreon content is subject to the company’s own guidelines, but different creators…

Fujifilm X100VI vs. Ricoh GR IIIx: battle for the best point-and-shoot Fujifilm x100VI vs. Ricoh GR IIIx: battle of the best point-and-shootThe $1,599.00 Fujifilm X100VI and the $1,046.95 Ricoh GR IIIx are two of the most popular digital point-and-shoot cameras for folks who aren’t looking to break the bank. They both come in a small package and have an APS-C sensor and a fixed focal length lens that can produce cr…