EVgo nabs $1.25 billion loan as Biden races to approve more EV spending Photo by Smith Collection/Gado/Getty ImagesThe US Department of Energy announced a $1.25 billion loan to electric vehicle charging company EVgo as the Biden administration races to finalize its spending on EVs before Donald Trump takes office. The money will fund EVgo’s plans to install approximately 7,500 chargers at roughly 1,100 charging stat…

Trump is probably going to kill the crash reporting rule that made Tesla look bad Photo by Jeff Gritchen/Digital First Media/Orange County Register via Getty ImagesDonald Trump’s transition team is taking aim at a Biden-era rule requiring automakers and tech companies to report crashes that involve fully or partially autonomous vehicles, according to Reuters. Scrapping the crash reporting rule would greatly benefit Tesla, whi…

Leak: Lenovo’s larger Legion handheld adds OLED and keeps the detachable mouse A leaked image of the new Lenovo Legion Go. | Image via Evan BlassEarlier today, Evan Blass revealed an unannounced Lenovo Legion Go S handheld gaming PC with an extremely intriguing twist: a Steam button that suggests it could be the first third-party SteamOS handheld, and thus the first true competitor to the Steam Deck. But that handheld gami…

OpenAI just dropped new Elon Musk receipts: ‘You can’t sue your way to AGI’ Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty ImagesThe lawsuit between Elon Musk and OpenAI is really heating up. OpenAI just dropped a new blog post defending itself against Musk that outlines some new text messages between cofounders Ilya Sutskever, Greg Brockman, Sam Altman, Elon Musk, and former board member Shivon Zilis. “You can’t sue your way …

Elmo needs a new streaming home after Max drops Sesame Street Image: MaxAfter next season, Max will no longer be the place to watch new episodes of beloved children’s show Sesame Street first, The Hollywood Reporter reports. Platform owner Warner Bros. Discovery has decided not to renew its HBO and Max deal with producer Sesame Workshop, which means new episodes of the series will need to find a new home. …

Amazon is shipping the Kindle Colorsoft again, but it’s unclear if it’s fixed The Colorsoft is Amazon’s first Kindle with a color screen, but some users noticed colors they didn’t want. | Photo: Andrew Liszewski / The VergeAmazon is once again shipping its Kindle Colorsoft. This follows reports of the company’s first color e-reader exhibiting a yellow discolored strip at the bottom of the e-reader’s display — including Th…

Game-like ‘task scams’ stole more than $220 million in six months Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge; Getty ImagesThe Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is warning Americans about “game-like online job scams” that get people to perform tasks with the promise of a continuous income stream — only to be duped into giving money to the scammer. The FTC says in the first six months of this year, these “task scams” have ra…

Anker’s new 5K MagSafe battery is slimmer and faster Anker’s slim MagSafe power bank now supports Qi2 wireless charging speeds. | Image: AnkerAnker has released its thinnest MagSafe-compatible power bank, measuring about a third of an inch thick. It’s only got a 5,000mAh battery inside, so you probably won’t get two full iPhone charges with it, but Anker has updated it with 15W Qi2 wireless chargi…

Lenovo might soon announce a SteamOS handheld Image: Evan Blass (X)Valve revealed earlier this year that it will support the ROG Ally handheld with its Steam Deck operating system, and now it looks like Lenovo will soon have its own SteamOS handheld, too. Evan Blass has posted images of an unannounced Lenovo Legion Go S on X today, revealing black and white variants of a handheld gaming PC….

Tumblr adds Reddit-like ‘communities’ Illustration: The VergeTumblr is introducing a new Community feature — in-app groups organized by topic or interest. Communities are similar to subreddits or Facebook groups and had previously been in beta. Topics include things like film photography, marine biology, LGBTQ, and video games, and each topic has its own landing page where posts sh…

The Backbone One with USB-C is just $50 for today only The USB-C Backbone One (second-gen) offers the same experience as the Lightning version pictured.As good as the Backbone One is (read our review of the original version), it can be hard to justify earmarking $100 for a mobile gaming controller. Even at its common $70 sale price, you’re entering pro controller territory. That said, a 50 percent d…

Airbnb’s anti-party tech is cracking down on ‘unauthorized’ get togethers Airbnb would prefer if you have your rowdy New Year’s Eve bash elsewhere. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The VergeIf you were thinking of booking an Airbnb to host a rowdy New Year’s Eve shindig, the company is already one step ahead of you. Airbnb says it’s rolling out anti-party technology worldwide to help prevent “unauthorized and disruptiv…

NASA thinks it’s figured out why the Mars helicopter crashed A color image taken by Perseverance’s Mastcam-Z instrument of NASA’s Ingenuity Mars helicopter in April 2023. | Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSSAhead of a full technical report that’s expected to be released in the next few weeks, engineers from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and AeroVironment have revealed what’s believed to be the cause of t…

Platforms need the news — but they’re killing it Image: The Verge / Photos: GettyMedia critic Matt Pearce on ‘Lessons on media policy at the slaughter-bench of history’ Read the full story at The Verge.

Waymo’s robotaxis pass the first responder test Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty ImagesWaymo’s driverless vehicles can detect emergency vehicles, know how to respond to hand signals for traffic cops, and can be disabled manually when something goes wrong, according to an independent review of the company’s first responder protocols. As such, the Alphabet company’s first responder protocols pas…

Kraven the Hunter is the flimsiest strand in Sony’s spider-free web SonySony has made bad Spider-Man spinoff movies before, but Kraven the Hunter is another level of terrible. Read the full story at The Verge.

Google now lets you talk with the AI ‘hosts’ of NotebookLM Audio Overviews Illustration: The VergeGoogle’s NotebookLM and its podcast-like Audio Overviews have been a surprise hit this year, and today Google company is starting to roll out a big new feature: the ability to actually talk with the AI “hosts” of the overviews. When the feature is available to you, you can try it out with new Audio Overviews. (It won’t wor…

Okami is getting a sequel Image: CapcomCapcom had quite the surprise in store at The Game Awards. The developer announced a sequel to Okami, a beautiful and beloved action-adventure game that originally launched back in 2006. The sequel — which doesn’t currently have a name — was revealed in dramatic fashion with a musical performance. Original director Hideki Kamiya is …

Naughty Dog reveals sci-fi game Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet The Game Awards’ final world premiere was Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet. Developed by Naughty Dog, Intergalactic is a futuristic space opera with the kind of futurepunk vibes that remind me of Cowboy Bebop. That comparison is apt as Intergalactic game director and Naughty Dog studio head Neil Druckmann mentioned on the game’s website that i…

FromSoftware debuts a new Elden Ring game Image: Bandai NamcoFromSoftware, the studio that just this month said it was “not really considering developments such as an Elden Ring 2,” has revealed a game that looks a lot like it could be Elden Ring 2. Elden Ring Nightreign is the next entry in the Elden Ring series. The trailer, debuting during this year’s The Game Awards, didn’t share mu…