The Verge’s 2023 PC gift guide Photo Illustration by Amelia Holowaty Krales and Cath Virginia / The VergeThe best tech gifts for those who spend way too much time sitting at a laptop or desktop PC — whether for work or leisure. Continue reading…

The new Echo Show 5 and Apple’s leather AirTag Loops are over half off You can get a free smart bulb when you buy the third-gen Echo Show 5 at its all-time low price. | Image: AmazonBelieve it or not, Amazon’s Alexa is turning eight years old on November 6th, and to celebrate, Amazon is discounting a number of Alexa-enabled devices. There are a lot of good deals on everything from streaming sticks and soundbars to …

Dell put fast 120Hz panels in its latest UltraSharp monitors Dell’s 27-inch UltraSharp U2724DE. | Image: DellDell has announced four new UltraSharp monitors that have the potential to be good gaming displays in addition to playing to the brand’s traditional strength of offering color-accurate screens for work. The two 27 inchers have 1440p resolutions, while the other two 24-inch monitors are 1080p. All o…

Call of Duty can now take up over 200GB of space, but it’s complicated You might need to make space on your hard drive or SSD for to keep all your Call of Duty titles installed. | Image: ActivisionAhead of the release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III on November 10th, Activision has preemptively provided more details about the enormous file size of the game to explain why it’s “larger than last year.” As reporte…

Fortnite’s new season is a trip through the game’s history Image: Epic GamesThe Fortnite island is changing once again — but this time, it’ll look very familiar to longtime fans. The game just launched its latest season, which has been dubbed “Fortnite OG.” According to developer Epic Games, the game will be regularly updated throughout the season, and “each major update will bring a different phase of …

Sam Bankman-Fried found guilty of fraud Photo Illustration by Cath Virginia / The VergeFormer cryptocurrency kingpin Sam Bankman-Fried has been found guilty of fraud. A New York jury delivered the verdict on November 2nd, concluding a trial that has seen Bankman-Fried defend himself against claims that he criminally mismanaged his crypto exchange FTX and trading firm Alameda Research….

Sam Bankman-Fried gambled on a trial and his parents lost Over five weeks, the FTX founder’s parents watched from the galleys — deluded, humiliated, and finally defeated. Continue reading…

Max is taking 4K away from its legacy ad-free subscribers Illustration: The VergeWhen HBO Max transformed into Max back in May, Warner Bros. Discovery said that existing subscribers on the ad-free plan would be able to hang onto certain perks (like 4K streaming) for at least the next six months without needing to spend more money. Well, we’re about to hit that six-month mark, and right on cue, the part…

Futurama got renewed, so you can expect 30 more episodes on Hulu Image: HuluMore Futurama is headed to Hulu. The streamer has ordered two additional seasons of the quirky sci-fi series, each consisting of 10 episodes. That’s on top of the 20 Futurama episodes Hulu ordered last year, half of which debuted as part of the reboot’s 11th season in July. The streamer says it will drop the remaining 10 episodes with…

Amazon’s clothing stores are closing down Illustration by Alex Castro / The VergeAmazon is closing its two Amazon Style clothing stores by next week, according to Bloomberg, marking the company’s latest big change to its retail strategy. The company announced in March 2022 that it would be shutting down most of its physical stores, including all 68 of its Books, 4-Star, and Pop Up locat…

The new Sims expansion lets your Sim be a landlord Image: EAYesterday was the worst day of the month for many people — rent day. And if you really love to torture yourself, I have great news for you. In the upcoming Sims 4 For Rent Expansion Pack, players can have their Sims relive all the joys and annoyances of renting life. Players can build multiunit housing in a tropical, vaguely Southeast A…

HBO head Casey Bloys says he’s sorry for harassing critics on Twitter Photo by Jerod Harris / Getty Images for Vox MediaDuring today’s presentation about HBO’s slate of upcoming projects, CEO / chair Casey Bloys could have tried denying recent reports that he and fellow executive Kathleen McCaffrey concocted a scheme to target and harass critics who wrote negative things about some of the network’s recently releas…

Apple’s iPhone lineup is selling well, but the Mac is in a serious rough patch Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The VergeApple reported a record September earnings quarter on Thursday, with iPhone revenue up year over year — even with just a week or so of iPhone 15 sales factored into the numbers. But all of the company’s other hardware divisions were down, and as CNBC noted, overall sales were down for the fourth consecutive quart…

100 Thieves is laying off 20 percent of its staff as it focuses on ‘core’ of esports and apparel Photo by Steve Jennings/Getty Images for TechCrunchAnother big esports brand is making some major changes. 100 Thieves, which already announced layoffs in January, is laying off more staff and spinning out its internal game development studio and its Juvee energy drink, 100 Thieves president and COO John Robinson said in a Thursday thread on X (…

Microsoft employees aren’t happy that they’re losing free Xbox Game Pass Ultimate Illustration by Alex Castro / The VergeMicrosoft is removing the free Xbox Game Pass Ultimate benefit for most of its 238,000 employees and some aren’t happy about it. Sources familiar with Microsoft’s plans tell The Verge that the company started informing employees this week that in January 2024 the free Xbox Game Pass Ultimate benefit for per…

In Marvel we no longer trust The Guardians once guaranteed a good time. | Image: Marvel StudiosMarvel should be synonymous with a good time, but increasingly, it’s synonymous with bloat, bad VFX, and poorly scripted film and TV. Continue reading…

Humanity is on the run in the first trailer for Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes 20th Century StudiosThings aren’t looking so good for humanity in the first teaser trailer for Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. The fourth movie in the modern version of the franchise, Kingdom takes place several generations after the last film — 2017’s War for the Planet of the Apes — when a new leader has taken charge of the apes as they ass…

Brave responds to Bing and ChatGPT with a new ‘anonymous and secure’ AI chatbot The base version of Brave Leo is built on Meta’s Llama 2 AI model and is free for all desktop users. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The VergeBrave, the privacy-focused browser that automatically blocks unwanted ads and trackers, is rolling out Leo — a native AI assistant that the company claims provides “unparalleled privacy” compared to some o…

Nomad’s new iPad folios bring back the leather touch The Leather Folio Plus for the iPad Air and iPad Pro has an extra flap to keep the Apple Pencil secure. | Photo: Nomad GoodsThough Apple has ditched leather across its product lineups, third-party accessory makers are carrying on full steam ahead. Nomad’s latest cases for the iPad Air and iPad Pro, the Leather Folio and Leather Folio Plus, have …

The Boy and the Heron’s English dub trailer keeps the secret magic intact TohoIn the months before The Boy and The Heron’s Japanese debut, Studio Ghibli made a point of keeping details about the latest animated feature from Hayao Miyazaki to a minimum. For those who’ve been trying to avoid spoilers, it’s definitely gotten trickier what with all the buzz coming from its run on the film festival circuit. But as much as …