The tundra keeps burning and it’s transforming the Arctic Illustrations by Alex Castro / The VergeFor millennia, the Arctic tundra has helped stabilize global temperatures by storing carbon in the frozen ground. Wildfires have changed that, according to the latest Arctic Report Card released yesterday at the American Geophysical Union (AGU) conference. Fires, intensified by climate change, release car…

Now you can visit Roku City in 1080p Image: RokuRoku City, the purple-tinted cityscape screensaver that debuted in 2018, might look a little sharper and more detailed the next time you see it scrolling by. This week, Roku is increasing the screensaver’s resolution to 1080p; it was still stuck at 720p until now — despite running on millions of 4K Roku TVs and 4K-capable streaming pl…

The iPhone 16 Pro now lets you layer recordings in Voice Memos Image: AppleApple is bringing layered recordings to the Voice Memos app on the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max. With the new feature, you can record vocals while listening to an instrumental track out loud in iOS 18.2. Even though the microphone will technically pick up the instrumentals, Apple says the iPhone 16’s A18 Pro chip allows it to isolate vo…

Trump’s DOJ broke policy to try to learn journalist’s sources, inspector general alleges Image: Cath Virginia / The VergeThe Department of Justice during the Trump administration defied agency policy in an attempt to identify journalists’ sources, the agency’s inspector general alleges in a new report. The IG alleges the agency sought “non-content communications records” — information like email logs, rather than the content of thos…

The end of Cruise is the beginning of a risky new phase for autonomous vehicles Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photo from Getty ImagesEight years and $10 billion later, GM has decided to pull the plug on its grand robotaxi experiment. The automaker’s CEO, Mary Barra, made the surprise announcement late on Tuesday, arguing that a shared autonomous mobility service was never really in its “core business.” It was too expensive a…

NYT tech workers win tentative union contract after election week strike Photo by Erik McGregor/LightRocket via Getty ImagesThe NewsGuild of New York announced Wednesday that it has reached a tentative deal with The New York Times on behalf of the Times Tech Guild. The tentative three-year contract would be the first for the guild, which was initially formed in 2021. The tentative deal follows a strike that kicked o…

The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim is a soulless return to Middle-earth Image: Warner Bros. AnimationDirector Kenji Kamiyama’s new Lord of the Rings anime film feels like what happens when you try to turn a footnote into a feature-length story. Read the full story at The Verge.

Watching sports: a special series from The Verge It should be simple to stream live TV at home. But depending on the sport, you might be signing up (and paying handsomely) for a lot of different services just to keep up. There are the rare leagues, like Major League Soccer, that can be watched on a single channel. (In the US, every match can be viewed live on Apple TV Plus.) But keeping up wit…

The PS5 disc drive is back in stock, but only for GameStop Pro members We never thought such a simple attachment would be so difficult to come by. | Image: SonySony’s detachable disc drive for the PlayStation 5 has been hard to come by as of late, and it’s disappointing that the $700 PS5 Pro doesn’t include one. However, GameStop is now offering a rare window for GameStop Pro members to pick one up for its original…

Microsoft wants to make the Xbox app the home of PC gaming Image: The VergeMicrosoft is updating the Xbox app on Windows today with hundreds of PC games that weren’t previously available and a new home experience. It’s part of a broader effort to make the Xbox app the place to find PC games, regardless of whether they’re part of PC Game Pass or not. “Earlier this summer, we began working with partners t…

Nvidia must face lawsuit alleging it downplayed crypto’s impact on its success Illustration by Cath Virginia / The VergeNvidia must face an investor lawsuit claiming it misled shareholders about the impact of the cryptocurrency market on its sales after the Supreme Court dismissed the company’s appeal. The court said it had “improvidently granted” Nvidia’s petition, meaning it decided it shouldn’t have taken it up in the f…

Xbox tests streaming your Xbox games to your Xbox Illustration by Alex Castro / The VergeMicrosoft is going to let Xbox Insiders who also subscribe to Game Pass Ultimate test the ability to stream some Xbox games they already own to their Xbox starting today. The feature could be useful if you want to jump into a game without having to install the whole thing; given how big game file sizes can …

Microsoft starts testing iPhone file sharing for Windows PCs Illustration by Alex Castro / The VergeMicrosoft has started testing some improvements to its Phone Link app for iPhone users. Windows Insiders can now try out a new way to share a file from an iPhone to a PC and vice versa, making the experience a little more like file sharing with an Android device. Windows Insiders can download the latest Pho…

Homey adds new energy management features and a dongle The Homey smart home platform, which works with the Homey Pro or Homey Bridge hubs, has launched a Home Energy Dongle and energy management tab for its app.Smart home company Homey has added a new energy management tab to its app to track and monitor energy use from compatible smart devices such as plugs, appliances, thermostats, and EV chargers…

Apple Watch Series 10’s record low price from Black Friday is back The Series 10 has the biggest display of any non-Ultra Apple Watch. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The VergeIf you happened to miss out on the Apple Watch Series 10’s all-time low Black Friday price, now is a good chance for redemption. The 42mm GPS model of Apple’s latest smartwatch has dropped to $329.99 (about $70 off) at Amazon when you…

We asked our staff for their 2025 predictions 2024 had some stand-out moments in tech: from AI-generated images to TikTok’s near ban, to beigecore, Windows BSOD, the best smart ring of them all, and the list goes on. If you want to see the technology that we just couldn’t ignore, check out our video here. But now, we’re looking toward 2025, and it’s gearing up to be another eventful year. …

Wallace & Gromit studio Aardman is working on a Pokémon project TCPi / AardmanAardman Animation, the studio behind the Wallace & Gromit, Chicken Run, and Shaun the Sheep, and Chicken Run franchises, is working with The Pokémon Company International on a mysterious new project. In a surprising turn of events, TCPi and Aardman announced today that they’re teaming up for “a special project” that’s set to be rel…

It sure sounds like Google is planning to actually launch some smart glasses Here’s what Google’s latest smart glasses prototype looks like. | Image: GoogleGoogle is working on a lot of AI stuff — like, a lot of AI stuff — but if you want to really understand the company’s vision for virtual assistants, take a look at Project Astra. Google first showed a demo of its all-encompassing, multimodal virtual assistant at Googl…

Google’s new Jules AI agent will help developers fix buggy code Illustration: The VergeGoogle has announced an experimental AI-powered code agent called “Jules” that can automatically fix coding errors for developers. Jules was introduced today alongside Gemini 2.0, and uses the updated Google AI model to create multi-step plans to address issues, modify multiple files, and prepare pull requests for Python a…

Google is testing Gemini AI agents that help you in video games Clash of Clans. | Image: SupercellGoogle just announced Gemini 2.0, and as part of its suite of news today, the company is revealing that it’s been exploring how AI agents built with Gemini 2.0 can understand rules in video games to help you out. The agents can “reason about the game based solely on the action on the screen, and offer up suggest…