South Korea's president laughed, so perhaps it was funny? Unlike China's censorship and snooping
Chinese president Xi Jinping has joked that smartphones from Xiaomi might include backdoors.…
Superapp company that chased Uber away built its own model to do the job right
Proprietary large language models are bad at interpreting Asian languages, according to Singaporean super-app company Grab, which has built its own model instead.…
55 cuffed last week after court ruled sting operation was legal
Australian police last week made 55 arrests using evidence gathered with a backdoored messaging app that authorities distributed in the criminal community.…
'Unified Edge' designed so even retail workers can replace a server
Cisco entered the server market in 2009 because the company thought incumbent vendors weren’t satisfying customers. On Monday, the networking giant entered the edge infrastructure market for the same reason.…
If you want your First Amendment rights, make money the Palantir way
Palantir CEO Alex Karp used his quarterly shareholder letter to take aim at critics after the company beat Q3 2025 earnings estimates.…
A smart lock is an easy solution to some common problems. Locked yourself out? Need to let a friend in to water the plants? Your latchkey kid lost their key? Hands are full, and it’s raining cats and dogs? A smart lock solves all of these problems and more. One of the best smart home […]
Even AI has doubts about the claim that '80% of ransomware attacks are AI-driven'
Do 80 percent of ransomware attacks really come from AI? MIT Sloan has now withdrawn a working paper that made that eyebrow-raising claim after criticism from security researcher Kevin Beaumont.…
OpenAI says ChatGPT’s behavior “remains unchanged” after reports across social media falsely claimed that new s updates to its usage policy prevent the chatbot from offering legal and medical advice. Karan Singhal, OpenAI’s head of health AI, writes on X that the claims are “not true.” “ChatGPT has never been a substitute for professional advice, […]
Apple has just released iOS 26.1, which includes a new transparency toggle for Liquid Glass. The toggle helps address some of the legibility issues introduced in iOS 26 by allowing iPhone users to tone down the glassy design for buttons, tabs, and other navigational elements. As teased during the iOS 26.1 beta, with the toggle, […]
If you know where to look, you can often score discounts on Apple’s ever-expanding AirPods lineup. Both the newer AirPods Max and AirPods 4 (with or without ANC) now consistently receive discounts, as do the second-gen AirPods Pro with USB-C. Events like Prime Day, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday often bring the steepest discounts, though […]
Rogues committed extortion while working for infosec firms
A ransomware negotiator and an incident response manager at two separate cybersecurity firms have been indicted for allegedly carrying out ransomware attacks of their own against multiple US companies.…
While the best iPad deals usually land during major sale events like Black Friday and Amazon Prime Day, many great iPad deals are available outside of those times. The day-to-day discounts come and go like changing winds, so there’s often some amount to be saved, particularly on Apple’s most affordable iPad, the iPad Mini, and the […]
Still available via API, the developer-facing AI isn't even really designed to answer general-purpose questions
If Google's Gemma were an employee, it might be facing HR right now. The company yanked the model from AI Studio after it allegedly invented criminal accusations about a US senator and a conservative activist. However, it seems like the aggrieved parties went out of their way to get the offending output.…
Last month, General Motors added its name to the growing list of automakers who are pursuing a novel type of partially automated technology called "eyes-off driving." What they didn't do, though, is provide a thorough description of how they'll take responsibility when something goes wrong. Not to be confused with the type of "eyes-off" distracted […]
Last year's winner scored a $65M funding round on a $300M valuation
Cloud and AI security startups have two weeks to apply for a program that fast-tracks access to investors and mentors from Amazon Web Services, CrowdStrike, and Nvidia.…
Apple has launched its App Store on the web, offering a central hub where you can browse through different categories of apps across all of the company’s devices, as spotted earlier by MacRumors and 9to5Mac. Now, when you navigate to apps.apple.com, you’ll see the revamped interface instead of a webpage that just contains information about […]
Gaming laptops come in various shapes and sizes, though many of the heavy hitters remain thick and beefy machines that maximize cooling to get the most out of their powerful chips. Most are awash in RGB lighting and edgy designs geared toward capital-G Gamers, but there are also thinner, lighter options that are more portable […]
A person claiming to be one of the University of Pennsylvania hackers says that about "1.2 million lines of data" will be kept private for the group to sell before it is made public. The group also plans to make other documents public. In comments to The Verge, the hacker or hackers distanced themselves from […]
With everything from the next Knives Out movie to the final season of Stranger Things on the way, there’s going to be a ton of great stuff to stream in the coming weeks. And if you want to watch it all in glorious 4K resolution, Google’s TV Streamer (4K) is a great streaming device that’s […]
Apple has shared a new intro sound and video that will accompany things you watch on the newly-renamed Apple TV streaming service. Apple rebranded Apple TV Plus to just Apple TV last month, and the previous intro prominently highlighted the plus, so it makes sense that Apple made a new version to accompany the updated […]
Amazon deal still dwarfed by $250B Azure commitment made as part of OpenAI's for-profit transformation
OpenAI has signed a seven-year, $38 billion agreement with Amazon Web Services, adding another hyperscaler alongside Microsoft Azure for its growing AI compute needs. Where it's getting all this money was not disclosed.…
Accenture to poke around the beleaguered airline's IT infrastructure
Alaska Airlines has called in consultants to advise it on what went wrong during a late October IT meltdown that grounded flights and wreaked havoc for two days.…
The spending will continue until ROI improves
Tech companies continue to sling crazy amounts of money at AI, with Microsoft announcing deals worth billions in Texas and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), while Google parent Alphabet is selling bonds in Europe to raise cash for more AI expansion.…
Old-school cargo heists reborn in the cyber age
Cybercriminals are increasingly orchestrating lucrative cargo thefts alongside organized crime groups (OCGs) in a modern-day resurgence of attacks on freight companies.…
The Content Overseas Distribution Association (CODA), an anti-piracy organization representing Japanese IP holders like Studio Ghibli and Bandai Namco, released a letter last week asking OpenAI to stop using its members’ content to train Sora 2, as reported by Automaton. The letter states that “CODA considers that the act of replication during the machine learning […]
Coca-Cola is once again using generative AI to reimagine its classic Coke caravan holiday commercials, and in doing so, killing some of the festive joy you have for the brand. After receiving backlash for airing three AI-generated holiday commercials last year that featured gliding wheels and uncanny-looking faces, the company has doubled down with a […]
Researchers point to risks in high-stakes applications as well as the potential to spread misinformation
Large language models often fail to distinguish between factual knowledge and personal belief, and are especially poor at recognizing when a belief is false.…
For Big Tech, a penny invested in AI is a penny earned… Maybe. After an indeterminate amount of time. Investors hope. On earnings calls last week, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Meta reported more than $350 billion this year on capital expenditures, or longer-tail investments in a company's future. All four told investors to expect the […]
Memory safety trumps retro computing: Alpha, PA-RISC, m68k, SH4 face the chop in 2026
Debian's APT package manager will have a "hard requirement" on Rust from May 2026. This move may make some rather big waves.…
If you haven’t upgraded your Apple Watch in years (or haven’t tried one at all) the Apple Watch SE 3 (40mm GPS) offers the best bang for your buck, and the Starlight color is down to a new all-time low of $199.99 ($50 off) at Amazon. Verge senior reviewer Victoria Song was impressed with how […]
Waymo said it plans on launching commercial robotaxi services in three new cities: San Diego, Las Vegas, and Detroit. The announcement comes after the company said it would begin rapidly scaling to bring its fully driverless technology to more people on a faster timeline. Waymo didn’t say exactly when it plans on opening up its […]
OpenAI has struck a $38 billion deal with Amazon Web Services that will give the AI giant access to “hundreds of thousands” of Nvidia GPUs to power its AI models. The seven-year partnership comes as Microsoft continues to loosen its grip on OpenAI, dropping its status as its exclusive cloud provider and losing the first […]
Help me, HOBI-WAN, you're my only hope for lunch
The European Space Agency (ESA) has coined a tortured acronym for its project to feed astronauts on long-duration missions: HOBI-WAN (Hydrogen Oxidizing Bacteria In Weightlessness As a source of Nutrition).…
Today, I’m talking with David Risher, who is the CEO of Lyft. I’ll just say from the jump: I think you’ll like this one, since David is refreshingly direct and doesn’t pull a lot of punches. He has on the board of Lyft for years, but he only stepped in as CEO just a couple […]
Oh the irony: IEEE survey of senior techies finds demand for devs skills falling in AI-related roles
Demand for software development skills in AI-related roles is set to fall next year as agentic AI accelerates across business markets, according to an IEEE industry survey.…
For Mike Hill and Guillermo del Toro, it all started with Frankenstein. Years ago, Hill - a sculptor and special effects artist - was exhibiting his works at a convention in Burbank. Del Toro saw some of Hill's monstrous creations on display and was so impressed that he decided to get in touch, tracking down […]
But question marks remain over the tech’s biases
London's Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) says the hundreds of live facial recognition (LFR) deployments across the Capital last year led to 962 arrests, according to a new report on the controversial tech's use.…
The Redmagic 11 Pro is the first phone (outside of a OnePlus concept design, at least) to feature true liquid cooling, and it’s launching worldwide later this month — including the US, though you won’t be able to buy it direct from any carriers. We’ve seen plenty of phones launch with vapor chambers and call it […]
Google says it has pulled AI model Gemma from its AI Studio platform after a Republican senator complained the model, designed for developers, “fabricated serious criminal allegations” about her. In a post on X, Google’s official news account said the company had “seen reports of non-developers trying to use Gemma in AI Studio and ask […]
Does Discord need some stars for when Management is watching?
The maker of the Grand Theft Auto game series, Rockstar Games, has fired more than 30 coders and graphic designers in an act described by the Independent Workers' Union of Great Britain (IWGB) as "the most blatant and ruthless act of union busting in the history of the games industry."…
Christmas is coming, the GNOME is getting fat… please put a penny in the old red hat?
Ubuntu Summit System76's POP!_OS is one of the more substantially modified Ubuntu based distros out there, and so it was something of a surprise to see the company's substantial presence at the Ubuntu Summit. And its stable release along with version 1.0 of its custom desktop, COSMIC, is imminent.…
Ukraine first to deploy open source security platform to isolate incidents, stop lateral movement
Feature It was a sunny morning in late April when a massive power outage suddenly rippled across Spain, Portugal, and parts of southwestern France, leaving tens of millions of people without electricity for hours.…
Boffins say outsourcing your homework leaves you sounding less knowledgeable, short on facts
A study of how people use ChatGPT for research has confirmed something most of us learned the hard way in school: to be a subject matter expert, you've got to spend time swotting up.…
Jon Seager, VP of Engineering, talks exclusively to The Reg
Ubuntu Summit The Register FOSS desk sat down with Canonical's vice-president for engineering, Jon Seager, during Ubuntu Summit earlier this month. This is a heavily condensed version of our conversation.…
Taking belief in LLMs very literally indeed
Opinion It's not been a year since his ouster as Intel's CEO, but Pat Gelsinger is firmly back on the tech leadership pony. He's done hardware with Intel, software with VMWare. This time, it's faithware.…
Logitech's Alto Keys K98M mechanical keyboard is now available in North America after its initial launch in China and other select markets. The $149.99 Alto Keys K98M is an almost full-size 1800-layout keyboard, offering a slightly compact design that maintains a number pad. But what makes the K98M special for a mass-market Logitech board is […]
One SQL slip-up is survivable. Not learning from the first mess meant change
Who, Me? Another Monday is upon us and The Register therefore presents a fresh instalment of Who, Me? It’s the reader-contributed confessional column in which you admit to making mistakes, and explain how you made it out alive afterwards.…
It’s less bonkers than it sounds given the challenges of wiring Africa
African carrier Seacom is investigating the feasibility of building a submarine cable that would run across the heart of Africa, on land.…
When operators see danger, innocent users are dragged down along with bad actors
Before the potential of the internet was appreciated around the world, nations that understood its importance managed to scoop outsized allocations of IPv4 addresses, actions that today mean many users in the rest of the world are more likely to find their connections throttled or blocked.…
PLUS: Google's massive AI giveaway in India; Raid on Australian software company; Alleged scam camp owner's assets seized; and more!
Asia In Brief Last week’s trade talks between the USA and China have seen the two countries ease some trade restrictions.…
Spooky season is over, which means it's officially Mariah Carey season. It also means streaming services are already loading up on Christmas movies. On pure principle, they'll be omitted here - Santa doesn't need a full two months of our attention. Also, while not a movie, worth noting that season two of The Vince Staples […]
PLUS: Cyber-exec admits selling secrets to Russia; LastPass isn't checking to see if you're dead; Nation-state backed Windows malware; and more
Infosec in brief Australia’s Signals Directorate (ASD) last Friday warned that attackers are installing an implant named “BADCANDY” on unpatched Cisco IOS XE devices and can detect deletion of their wares and reinstall their malware.…
Found footage movies are tough to pull off. For every classic like The Blair Witch Project or Rec, there are 100 movies like Slender and Megan Is Missing that are, at best, forgettable, and at worst, an affront to the very concept of cinema. My personal favorite, though, is Lake Mungo, a slow burn mokumentary […]
The Microsoft Zune is mostly just a footnote in tech history. Microsoft spent years - and vast sums of money - trying to create a true competitor to Apple's iPod, without ever coming close to actually pulling it off. The Zune was simply too little, too late. You know what's surprising about the Zune, though? […]
There is no more chaotic activity than willfully entering a grocery store without a list. I know. Some people thrive on vibes-based grocery shopping. They can come up with meals on the fly, buy what's on sale and work around that, or follow some bizarre "3-3-2-2-1" rule or whatever I'm always seeing on Instagram. I […]
This is The Stepback, a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more on the real-world effects of Trump's tariffs, follow Mia Sato. The Stepback arrives in our subscribers' inboxes at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepback here. How it started The economists tried to warn us. From the […]
Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 104, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you're new here, welcome, happy belated Halloween, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.) This week, I've been reading about lotteries and Jennifer Lawrence and religious AI, shame-watching Finding Mr. […]
No datacenters required
Fortytwo, a Silicon Valley startup, was founded last year based on the idea that a decentralized swarm of small AI models running on personal computers offers scaling and cost advantages over centralized AI services.…
There are plenty of good smartwatches out there, and Google’s last-gen Pixel Watch 3 is one of them. Right now, the 45mm / Wi-Fi model is available at Amazon, Walmart, and Target for $199.99 ($100 off), which is a new low price and $150 less than the Pixel Watch 4. In her review, our own […]
Ayaneo is best known for its retro gaming handhelds, but the company has now confirmed its first phone will be coming soon. Ayaneo briefly teased that it was working on a phone back in August during the event where it unveiled the dual-screen Pocket DS. Of course, many of the company’s gaming handhelds run a […]
Best Buy’s early Black Friday deals are already live, with discounts to be had on everything from smartphones and gaming PCs to wireless headphones. If you’re in the market for a new 4K TV, Best Buy is also offering an exclusive doorbuster deal on LG’s 48-inch B5 OLED, bringing the price of the 4K TV […]
Whenever I review a phone, one of the first things I do after setting it up is charge it to full and then just… let it run, using it as my only phone for as long as I can, resisting every urge to charge it along the way. The Oppo Find X9 Pro lasted for […]
We're living in a wonderful period for puzzle games. Seemingly everyone, from The New York Times to Linkedin, has fun puzzles to play, so every morning I have plenty of options to accompany my first coffee of the day. Lately, though, much of my daily puzzle time has come from an unlikely source: the Playdate. […]
The Sunseeker Elite X5 can mow on its own, but it doesn't come cheap
The tentacles of AI seem to be reaching everywhere, even to the humble lawnmower. We tested the Sunseeker Elite X5, a robotic mower that uses machine learning to steer around your lawn, to see what happens when artificial intelligence meets whirling blades of doom.…
Rockstar Games, the developer of Grand Theft Auto VI, fired between 30 to 40 employees on Thursday, as previously reported by Bloomberg. According to the Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain (IWGB), all of the employees fired were part of a private trade union Discord chat and were either already union members or attempting to organize a […]
With the holidays quickly approaching, everyone will soon be on the hunt for gifts and the fastest way to get them. Thankfully, many retailers offer generous shipping policies for their products, with some even providing free two-day shipping or even same-day delivery if you’re willing to pay a little extra. And just in case the gift […]
AI promises to find bugs and gaps in your apps
After helping expand the modern software attack surface with the rise of AI services prone to data poisoning and prompt injection, OpenAI has thrown a bone to cyber defenders.…
The bit barn will run on gas power first.
Texas is set to get another nuclear-powered datacenter project thanks to Blue Energy and Crusoe, but any atomic action isn't likely until the next decade.…
Microsoft’s new Xbox Full Screen Experience (FSE), which adds a console-like navigation experience to Windows PC gaming handhelds, is coming to another family of devices: the MSI Claw. As part of the latest Windows 11 Insider Preview Build, Microsoft is rolling out support for the Xbox FSE in preview to “MSI Claw models” today, the […]
You click and think you're getting a download page, but get malware instead
Imagine searching for Microsoft Teams, seeing a text link at the top of the results, visiting it, and then getting hit with malware. The Rhysida ransomware gang, an especially insidious criminal organization that has stolen millions of people's info, has been placing fake ads for Microsoft Teams in search engines and then infecting victims who make the mistake of clicking them.…
Microsoft is bringing shared audio to Windows 11, allowing you to stream audio across two pairs of wireless headphones, speakers, earbuds, or hearing aids. The feature is built using the Bluetooth Low Energy (LE) audio codec, and it’s rolling out in preview to Windows 11 Insiders in the Dev and Beta channels. Shared audio comes […]
Dolby Atmos, the dominant name behind spatial audio in theaters and the home, has become a fixture in luxury cars from the likes of Mercedes-Benz, Rivian, Cadillac, and Lucid priced upwards of $70,000. But now, Hyundai is including Dolby Atmos audio in the new entry-level Elexio EV - a China-exclusive (for now) SUV that costs […]
It’s almost November, and to celebrate, retailers like Amazon, Walmart, and Best Buy are dropping early Black Friday deals on everything from Apple devices to smartphones and video games. We’re also seeing some great deals on Bose headphones and earbuds, with many of the discounts matching previous all-time lows. Take, for instance, the latest Bose […]
“We got hacked,” members of the University of Pennsylvania community were told in the subject line of several emails sent from addresses linked to its Graduate School of Education. The sender, apparently, was the potential hacker or hackers themselves. “The University of Pennsylvania is a dogshit elitist institution full of woke retards,” said the emails, […]
Adobe demonstrated some of the experimental AI tools it’s working on at its Max conference that provide new ways to intuitively edit photos, videos, and audio. These experiments, called “sneaks,” include tools that instantly apply any changes you make to one frame across an entire video, easily manipulate light in images, and correct mispronunciations in […]
Creators baffled as videos on local accounts, unsupported PCs vanish under ‘harmful acts’ rule
Is installing Windows 11 with a local account or on unsupported hardware harmful or dangerous? YouTube's AI moderation system seems to think so, as it has started pulling videos that show users how to sidestep Microsoft's setup restrictions.…
Our house, our rules
One of the biggest surprises of my tenure at El Reg so far is the activity in our forums and article comments. Reg readers are engaged, opinionated, and unafraid to express themselves. I love this. Thank you for reading, and for commenting.…
As I've established again and again, we are in an AI bubble, and no, I cannot tell you when the bubble will pop, because we're in the stupidest financial era since the great financial crisis — though, I hope, not quite as severe in its eventually
The once fearsome process killer is now a leaker of resources
Microsoft's ability to add bugs in the most unexpected of places has continued into its latest update to Windows 11, which spawns multiple copies of Task Manager, sucking down resources you'd normally use Task Manager to kill.…
Rare case of the state turning on its own, but researchers say it may be doing so more often
Russia's Interior Ministry says police have arrested three suspects it believes helped build and spread the Meduza infostealer.…
Trim down for obsolete operating system leaves it booting, but not much else
Stripping Windows to the bare essentials is a favorite hobby among enthusiasts, especially as Microsoft continues loading its OS with unwanted bloat. The latest achievement is Windows 7 being reduced to 69 MB.…
There haven’t been a lot of opportunities to catch Switch 2 games on sale since the console launched in early June, but that’s changing thanks to Woot. The store is having a sale on new video games and game accessories that’s live now, and runs through November 8th at 11:59PM CT. Dozens of games for […]
Yet another rumor suggests that Netflix is interested in buying Warner Bros. Discovery’s studio and streaming businesses. On Friday, Reuters reported that Netflix is “actively exploring” a bid for the company and has hired a bank to look into a potential offer. Sources tell Reuters that Netflix now has access to Warner Bros. Discovery’s “data […]
Rough justice? Redmond out as Germany's openDesk judged a better fit
The International Criminal Court (ICC) is ditching Microsoft Office for a European software alternative amid mounting fears about being reliant on US technology.…
Almost exactly a month ago, I wrote an article for theverge.com pointing out that the T1 Phone 8002 (gold version) — a.k.a. the Trump phone — had missed its promised release date. Now here I am again, because the phone still hasn’t come out. In case you’ve forgotten, the T1 is a very gold mid-range Android […]
Creative, the company best known for its Sound Blaster line of sound cards that boosted the audio capabilities of ’90s-era PCs, is reviving the brand with a new hub called the Re:Imagine. It’s reminiscent of Elgato’s Stream Deck controllers, but with a focus on your audio gear. It has a modular design allowing buttons, dials, […]
Bitcoin bridge biz offers 10 percent reward to attackers if they play nice
Blockchain company Garden admits it was compromised and temporarily shut down its app after approximately $11 million worth of assets were stolen.…
The FCC is moving to dismantle a rule requiring internet service providers to publish detailed "nutrition labels" for their service plans, just over a year after the requirement went into effect. The changes it's proposing could roll back transparency requirements that took years to establish - making it harder to tell how much you'll be […]
Zuckcorp will gladly pay you in 2065 for the eyewatering sums it is borrowing today
Even the world's richest companies need outside help to fulfill their datacenter dreams. Now, Meta is selling $30 billion in bonds to build out its infrastructure estate and support its ambition in AI markets. Some of these won't mature for 40 years.…
Patents are notoriously difficult to search for, but Perplexity has launched an AI-powered tool that’s supposed to make the process a little easier. Its new patent research agent allows you to search for patents using natural language, rather than a string of keywords. As an example, Perplexity says you can enter something like, “Are there […]
More than 20 Disney-owned channels, including ESPN, ABC, and Nat Geo, have been pulled from YouTube TV after Google and Disney failed to reach a new content distribution agreement. The previous contract expired at 11:59 PM ET on October 30th, and it’s unclear when, or if, the two companies will reach a new deal. The […]
Bose has built its modern reputation on noise-canceling performance, offering the best in class for a good two decades, since the launch of the QuietComfort headphones in 2000. But Sony and Apple caught up in 2023 and the race has gone back and forth since. The $299 Bose QuietComfort Ultra second-gen earbuds aim to top […]
Music is obviously a huge part of KPop Demon Hunters. Songs are how the Huntr/x girls connect to their human fans and keep hordes of demons from entering the mortal realm. But beneath KPop Demon Hunters' banging soundtrack, there is also a rich tapestry of sounds that each play a role in bringing the movie's […]
One of the biggest flashpoints for internet regulation, the Kids Online Safety Act, is poised for a revival - but possibly without the central feature that's kept people fighting over it for the past three years. Since 2022, supporters of KOSA have backed its plan to require web platforms to protect kids from a variety […]
NASA is short of options when it comes to alternatives
SpaceX has published an update on its lunar Starship progress, and it still has a long way to go before the impressive-looking renders are translated into reality.…
What is AGI? We know it stands for Artificial General Intelligence. That's a good start. But what does AGI mean, really? And how do we know when we've achieved it? For that matter, who decides we've achieved it? Does the AGI decide? This week, as OpenAI completed a long restructuring process that sets it up […]
Percona says more than half of installs remain on version set to lose support in 2026
Users have six months to migrate from MySQL 8.0 if they are to stay on a supported version of the open source database, or face security and reliability risks.…
Price hikes, politics, and platform fatigue drive organizations back toward open alternatives
OpenInfra Summit Sovereignty might be the word of the hour, but the OpenStack community has another – resilience.…
Keep burning through your video generation allowance on Sora? No problem, OpenAI now lets you buy extra credits to make even more AI videos. That’s good, because the company says it expects to reduce free allowances at some point in the future. Bill Peebles, who leads the Sora team at OpenAI, said the video platform’s […]
