Crims raided third-party systems and lifted personal data, including license numbers and partial SSNs

US insurance giant Farmers Insurance says more than a million customers had personal data nicked after a third-party vendor was compromised.…

Spotify is introducing a direct messaging feature that allows users to share music, podcast, and audiobook recommendations with each other without leaving the app. Messages is rolling out in “select markets” this week, according to Spotify’s press release, and will be available on mobile devices for Free and Premium users aged 16 years and older. […]

Phone lines also down as officials rely on social media to issue updates

The state of Nevada is now two days into a cyberattack that has brought down many of its digital services.…

Chatbots ignore their guardrails when your grammar sucks, researchers find

Security researchers from Palo Alto Networks' Unit 42 have discovered the key to getting large language model (LLM) chatbots to ignore their guardrails, and it's quite simple.…

Everything's fine, the ad slinger assures us

Cloud security vendor Zscaler says customers of Google’s Play Store have downloaded more than 19 million instances of malware-laden apps that evaded the web giant’s security scans.…

What the Dickens is going on in Germany?

Opinion  Let’s talk law and let’s talk donkey. Or. in the British vernacular, ass. In particular, let’s go back to Charles Dickens, a pungent critic of the law, who had one of his characters in Oliver Twist say of a legal assumption that “If the law supposes that, the law is a ass - a idiot.”…

Poor defenseless tech companies need help despite massive profits, low tax bills, and monopoly positions

+COMMENT  US president Donald Trump has threatened to impose extra tariffs on imports from any nation that dares to regulate American technology companies.…

Because AI, like everything else this year

EXCLUSIVE  VMware will port its flagship hypervisor and Cloud Foundation suite to the Arm processor architecture.…

With the start of the NFL season looming, it’s also a window where many TV contracts are up for renewal, and on Monday evening, YouTube TV and Fox sent out alerts indicating that their contract could come to an end as soon as August 27th, at 5PM ET. Google-owned YouTube TV says that “Fox is […]

GPU modules for AI and robotics take aim at latency

Nvidia has released a new brain for humanoid robots called Jetson Thor that promises more compute power and more memory than its predecessor.…

10 percent equity and maybe that $8.9 billion in CHIPS funds you're waiting on doesn't get lost in red tape

Comment  We know US President Donald Trump isn't a fan of the US Chips Act. But, turn a government handout into a tit-for-tat transaction and the self described "master dealmaker" is singing a different tune.…

The CEO of VMware’s most ardent partner – Yves Sandfort of comdivision – on what’s gone well, and where Broadcom needs to do better

In the 20 months since Broadcom took over VMware, Yves Sandfort has become the most ardent and prolific commentator on the acquisition. The CEO of Germany-headquartered VMware partner Comdivision Consulting has created almost 300 videos and still has plenty to say about where VMware went wrong, and where Broadcom needs to improve.…

Amazon’s 16GB Kindle Colorsoft is less than a month old, but it’s already on sale for $219.99 ($30 off) at Amazon, Best Buy, and Target. Meanwhile, the new Colorsoft Kids — which includes a 12-month subscription to Amazon Kids Plus, a two-year extended warranty, and a cover-style case — has been discounted to $239.99 ($30 […]

PostgreSQL implementation of document-oriented NoSQL datastore adopted under permissive MIT license

The Linux Foundation on Monday welcomed Microsoft's DocumentDB into its stable of open source projects, waving the document database's permissive MIT license as if it were an "Open for Business" sign.…

According to a new report from Android Headlines, Google’s next-generation Nest Cams might get an upgrade from 1080p to 2K. Along with a series of leaked images that it says show off new colors for Google’s next set of devices, the report indicates the upcoming battery-powered Nest Cam and its indoor-only counterpart may feature new […]

Lawsuit 'consistent with Mr Musk’s ongoing pattern of harassment' says Altman's crew

Elon Musk's xAI and X businesses have shown a bad case of the Mondays by launching an antitrust lawsuit against Apple and OpenAI that claims the duo are trying to stifle competition in the mobile machine-intelligence world.…

Setting up a smart home security system is important, even if you never want to think about having to use it. Thankfully, Kwikset’s Halo Select — the best smart lock we’ve ever tested — is currently down to $259 ($20 off) at Amazon, Lowe’s, and The Home Depot, marking the first time the lock has […]

Elon Musk is suing Apple and OpenAI over claims that their deal to build ChatGPT into the iPhone is stifling competition in the AI industry. In a lawsuit filed on Monday, the Musk-owned X Corp. and xAI also accuse Apple’s Apple Store of “deprioritizing” rival chatbots and “super” apps, including Grok and X. Musk’s companies […]

A new company aims to take the idea of sidewalk delivery robots and supersize it. Los Angeles-based Robomart unveiled its new delivery robot Monday, with the goal of making “on‑demand delivery work economically.” The level-four autonomous vehicle is the size of a shuttle bus and can carry up to 500 lbs of payload. With no […]

Okay, who has the gold leaf, paint, and #FFD700?

US government websites are getting an aesthetic and functional overhaul under a Trump executive order and a new "America by Design" initiative headed by a Silicon Valley veteran and DOGE insider. …

The Revolution Wind farm was already 80 percent complete before the US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management sent it a letter Friday to “halt all ongoing activities” to address purported national security concerns and “interference” with other potential uses for the area.   The move comes as data centers, domestic manufacturing, and electric vehicles are raising […]

Editor's Note: For those of you reading via email, I recommend opening this in a browser so you can use the Table of Contents. This is my longest newsletter - a 16,000-word-long opus - and if you like it, please subscribe to my premium newsletter.

Fi, the pet tech company known for its smart dog collar, has launched a clip-on GPS tracker that it says is the perfect size for your feline friend or small dog. The Fi Mini weighs just 0.56 ounces (16 grams), allowing you to keep tabs on your pet with real-time escape alerts and live tracking […]

The Nintendo Switch 2 was tough to find in stock during its first two months on shelves, but that’s no longer the case. If you own one, or are considering buying one soon, you understandably may want a microSD card to store more games than the console’s 256GB storage can fit. And, you may already […]

In July 2023, I deleted the Day One journaling app from my phone and laptop. It was perhaps the best thing I've done as a lifelong diarist. The decision was prompted by Apple announcing its Journal app at WWDC that year. In that keynote, Apple said it would use "on-device machine learning" to provide prompts […]

Next month, Apple is rumored to debut a slimmed-down iPhone Air, breaking from the small design tweaks and spec bumps that have become routine at its launch events. The three-year plan will see its hardware change to mesh with the new Liquid Glass design in its next iOS update, as Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman highlighted in his […]

Are tech giants getting nervous? They should be

Opinion  There tend to be three AI camps. 1) AI is the greatest thing since sliced bread and will transform the world. 2) AI is the spawn of the Devil and will destroy civilization as we know it. And 3) "Write an A-Level paper on the themes in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet."…

As President Donald Trump pushes federal law enforcement toward an immigration crackdown, agents and prosecutors fear he's drawing resources from one of the most vulnerable groups: victims of child sexual exploitation online. Current and former government employees tell The Verge that the Trump administration's laser focus on border security threatens to strain investigations into online […]

It's now possible to charge a large 99Wh (27,650mAh) power bank - the largest you can easily take on an airplane - from zero to 80 percent in about 20 minutes. But only if you own EcoFlow's new power bank and desktop charger combo, launching in the US today. The $179.99 / €169.99 Rapid Pro […]

Ideal for that one weird project you've been thinking about

HANDS ON  A $40, 5-inch touchscreen has landed for the Raspberry Pi, offering a smaller sibling for the existing 7-inch model.…

A charter boat fisherman was among the first to discover the wreckage - a "mess," he called it, deep off the coast of Massachusetts. From behind a veil of pea soup-thick fog emerged hundreds of white and green fiberglass and Styrofoam pieces, some as small as a fingernail, some as large as a truck hood. […]

The first two Netflix House venues now have their grand opening dates. Netflix House Philadelphia will open on November 12th at King of Prussia Mall, and Netflix House Dallas will open on December 11th at Galleria Dallas. These real-world manifestations of Netflix’s intellectual property span “more than 100,000 square feet.” They’re free to enter, offering […]

It was a simpler time

It's 2025 and the latest mega-album has just been released – on cassette tape. Taylor Swift dropped Life of a Showgirl on digital, vinyl, and the old jewel-cased pencil spinners. They're still with us, complete with tape tangling and endless rewinding to find that specific track you love.…

Firewall pro enjoyed European travel to fix the fallout

Who, Me?  Welcome to another instalment of Who, Me? It's The Register's reader-contributed column that shares your missives about massive mistakes, and how you managed to move on after them.…

Satnav birds would be a high-priority target in war. This tech could be a more resilient alternative

The US military’s Boeing-built X-37B spaceplane is in space again for its eighth mission.…

PLUS: India bans ‘money’ games; SK Hynix cranks out 321-layer SSDs; Fastly re-thinking CDNs for Asia; and more!

Asia In Brief  Australia’s University of Melbourne last year used Wi-Fi location data to identify student protestors.…

PLUS: Comet AI browser fooled; Microsoft sets sail for quantum safety; Sailor sent down for espionage

Infosec in brief  PLUS…

I have an ongoing fascination with "interactive TV": a series of efforts, starting in the 1990s and continuing today, to drag the humble living room television into the world of the computer. One of the big appeals of interactive TV was adoption, the average household had a TV long before the average household had a computer.

I've long dreamed of doing all my gaming on PC - a single platform that's easily upgradeable and lets me play my overstuffed Steam library wherever and however I like. The Steam Deck is a fantastic handheld, but for my living room, I want something more powerful that works as well on my TV as […]

This is The Stepback, a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more on deep-sea mining and critical minerals, follow Justine Calma. The Stepback arrives in our subscribers' inboxes at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepback here. How it started This is not how I thought things would go […]

Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 95, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you're new here, welcome, new gadget season is starting, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.) This week, I am listening to independent radio (shoutout to Seattle's KEXP), reading about […]

Everything you need to know to build, run, serve, optimize and quantize models on your PC

Hands on  Training large language models (LLMs) may require millions or even billion of dollars of infrastructure, but the fruits of that labor are often more accessible than you might think. Many recent releases, including Alibaba's Qwen 3 and OpenAI's gpt-oss, can run on even modest PC hardware.…

For incentives remember the three Fs – finance, fame, and fixing it

feature  Thirty years ago, Netscape kicked off the first commercial bug bounty program. Since then, companies large and small have bought into the idea, with mixed results.…

If you’re looking to upgrade your movie night, a soundbar is an easy way to beef up the audio. While there are some high-priced options out there, you don’t have to spend a lot to actually hear a movie’s dialog. Right now, the Bose TV Speaker is down to $163.45 (about $115 off) at Amazon, […]

Not all of The Verge’s staff live in the US. For example, news editor Dominic Preston is based in London and is, as he says, “responsible for keeping our news coverage ticking over in UK mornings before the US team comes online.” He also curates our new Verge Daily newsletter and covers Android phones, especially […]

Data contamination can make models seem more capable than they really are

Researchers with Scale AI have found that search-based AI models may cheat on benchmark tests by fetching the answers directly from online sources rather than deriving those answers through a "reasoning" process.…

The Fairphone 6 arrives almost two years after the 5, a testament to the company's approach to the upgrade cycle. If anything, I suspect the company would be frustrated if Fairphone 5 owners were considering a new model already - these are phones to keep, to repair, and to hold on to until the bitter […]

Ninja Gaiden is having a renaissance. The last mainline entry was originally released more than a decade ago, but by the end of 2025, there will be three new Ninja Gaiden titles. Two are 3D: Ninja Gaiden 2 Black, a modern-day remaster of Ninja Gaiden II released earlier this year, and Ninja Gaiden 4, co-developed […]

After the United Kingdom began enforcing its sweeping Online Safety Act in April, British regulator Ofcom served violation notices to three notorious sites: 4chan, Gab, and Kiwi Farms, each of which risked multimillion-dollar fines. Late last week, Preston Byrne, a First Amendment lawyer representing them, struck back. Byrne announced he would sue Ofcom in US […]

Oracle-backed FOSS hypervisor a worthy rival to Hyper-V and VMware

hands on  VirtualBox 7.2 is here, bringing improved Arm-on-Arm virtualization features and better 3D acceleration support.…

Museum boffins find code that crashes in 2037

A stark warning about the upcoming Epochalypse, also known as the "Year 2038 problem," has come from the past, as National Museum Of Computing system restorers have discovered an unsetting issue while working on ancient systems.…

The funds were already allocated under the CHIPS Act and Secure Enclave program

Congratulations America, your government now owns 10 percent of troubled domestic chipmaker Intel.…

Apple is suing a former employee on the Apple Watch team who left to join Oppo, alleging that he “conspired to steal Apple’s trade secrets relating to Apple Watch and to disclose them to his new employers.” Ahead of starting his new job at Oppo, the employee, Dr. Chen Shi, attended “dozens” of meetings with […]

Datacenters' drinking habit exaggerated, claims report comparing apples to oranges

AI's drinking habit has been grossly overstated, according to a newly published report from Google, which claims that software advancements have cut Gemini's water consumption per prompt to roughly five drops of water — substantially less than prior estimates.…

The US is investing $8.9 billion into Intel, but most of the funds come from money that the government was supposed to pay the embattled chipmaker anyway. In an announcement on Friday, Intel said the federal government will fund its investment using the remaining $5.7 billion in grants it hasn’t yet received under the Biden […]

Netflix has already faced backlash over the use of AI in  What Jennifer Did, director Jenny Popplewell’s 2024 true crime documentary that seemingly used AI-generated images in place of real archival photos. That documentary stood out as a shining example of gen AI’s ability to distort reality in situations where people are specifically looking to […]

Bluesky will block access from Mississippi IP addresses in response to a new state law requiring age verification and parental consent for underage users. The decision, outlined in a blog post, will stand until courts decide the fate of the law. “Mississippi’s approach would fundamentally change how users access Bluesky,” says the post, in ways […]

Meta is partnering with Midjourney to “license their aesthetic technology” for use in its own models and products, Meta’s new chief AI officer, Alexandr Wang, announced on Friday. The partnership involves a “technical collaboration between our research teams,” Wang said, suggesting the deal involves more than simply using Midjourney’s existing product across Meta services. Wang […]

Amazon, Apple, Google, and Microsoft among major customers

Data I/O, a major electronics manufacturer whose customers include Amazon, Apple, Google, and Microsoft, notified federal regulators that it fell victim to a ransomware infection on August 16 that continues to disrupt its business operations.…

Fidji Simo is wrapping up her first week at OpenAI, where she is expected to oversee most of the company's roughly 3,000 employees. To investors and partners, OpenAI leaders have been describing the former Instacart CEO as the kind of steady hand the company needs. Her mandate is clear: turn a chaotic, unprofitable startup into […]

Microsoft, Nvidia, and OpenAI researchers warn of uneven power usage associated with AI training, and propose possible fixes

Researchers at Microsoft, Nvidia, and OpenAI have issued a call to designers of software, hardware, infrastructure, and utilities for help finding ways to normalize power demand during AI training.…

Bug fixes, message links, and hints of Exchange support in the pipeline

Mozilla-owned subsidiary MZLA has released a new version of the Thunderbird messaging client and shared details on the forthcoming paid Thunderbird Pro service.…

But it's just a test, as NYC still doesn't allow driverless for-hire cars

Waymo robotaxis are set to return to the streets of New York City after a four-year absence. But with a list of caveats longer than a Midtown bagel shop brunch line, Waymo's return isn't something for pedestrians to get nervous about yet. …

Health details, tax ID numbers, even images of checks were stolen, reportedly by the Interlock gang

Ransomware scum breached kidney dialysis firm Davita's labs database in April and stole about 2.4 million people's personal and health-related information.…

Expect record-breaking temperatures to change the workplace, the World Health Organization (WHO) and World Meteorological Organization (WMO) warned today in a new report. When workers don’t have adequate protections from heat stress, their health and productivity suffer. It’s a risk employers and lawmakers have to take more seriously if they want to keep workers safe […]

Just over 50 days until Microsoft pulls the plug

OneNote for Windows 10 is on the way out. On October 14, it will reach the end of the road support-wise, and anything left in it will become read-only.…

In January, one of the wildest Intel prototypes I witnessed at CES was a giant handheld gaming PC with an 11-inch autostereoscopic (read: glasses-free) 3D screen, detachable controllers, an Intel Lunar Lake chip, and a dedicated toggle to switch between 2D and 3D modes. Co-developed by Intel and Tencent Games, it was called the Sunday […]

In January, one of the wildest Intel prototypes I witnessed at CES was a giant handheld gaming PC with an 11-inch autostereoscopic (read: glasses-free) 3D screen, detachable controllers, an Intel Lunar Lake chip, and a dedicated toggle to switch between 2D and 3D modes. Co-developed by Intel and Tencent Games, it was called the Sunday […]

Latest ad for the T1 looks suspiciously like a Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra in a Spigen case

President Trump's personally branded wireless provider was supposed to have a "premium" Android smartphone – gold, of course – on the market by September, but it appears the mobile virtual network operator has yet to even settle on a design to steal.…

Microsoft is testing a new Windows 11 feature that will let you resume using your Android apps right on your PC. The capability is gradually rolling out to Windows Insiders in the Dev and Beta Channels, and only supports the Spotify app for now. If you’re in the test, you can try out the feature […]

Launched in 1975, the probe outlived its 90-day mission by years and set the standard for Mars landings

It's been 50 years since NASA sent Viking 1 on a mission to Mars.…

CRLite, link previews, and a llama-shaped surprise for devs

Good news, everyone! The new version of Mozilla's browser now makes even more extensive use of AI, providing summaries of linked content and offering developers the ability to add LLM support to extensions.…

LibDem leader Sir Ed Davey calls Elon Musk a threat to national security

The leader of the UK's Liberal Democrat party is opposing a Tesla subsidiary being granted a license to supply electricity in Britain, calling Elon Musk a threat to national security.  …

Hmm, six, well, that's going to make Russia worry ...

Britain's threadbare defenses are getting a small boost. The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) just announced that it's purchasing six new Land Ceptor anti-aircraft missile systems.…

Users told to switch protocols or delay installation while Redmond investigates

Microsoft has admitted to yet another issue in the Windows 11 August 2025 Security Update: streaming apps might be disrupted by the changes.…

Noise-canceling earbuds are great productivity tools, blocking out noisy roommates and busy coffee shops so you can focus on studying or work. While there are a number of great options these days, few are as eye-catching like the translucent Beats Studio Buds Plus. And right now, you can buy the stylish wireless earbuds for just […]

The attack first affected an upstream provider of bespoke software

Exclusive  A leading UK provider of criminal record checks for employers is handling a data breach stemming from a third-party development company.…

Yesterday, Hollow Knight: Silksong developers Team Cherry announced a September 4th release date for the long-awaited game, and indie developers are announcing delays to get out of the way of the launch. Silksong is a full sequel to the excellent Hollow Knight and is currently the most wishlisted game on Steam, so it’s likely going […]

ClickFix tricks

Microsoft's security team has published an in-depth report into ClickFix, the social engineering attack which tricks users into executing malicious commands in the guise of proving their humanity.…

Update finally gives coders control over when – and if – AI butts in

Good news for developers growing tired of Copilot's helpful suggestions. Microsoft has announced that it is now possible to make the programming assistant a little less irritating.…

Crypto mines, BEC scams, fake passports, and a $300M fraud empire allegedly brought down during Serengeti 2.0

Interpol's latest clampdown on cybercrime resulted in 1,209 arrests across the African continent, from ransomware crooks to business email compromise (BEC) scammers, the agency says.…

Windows giant takes aim at spammers exploiting new 365 tenants

Microsoft has issued a warning to companies using the onmicrosoft.com domain for emails: get your domain sorted out or face throttling.…

After announcing certification from the Wireless Power Consortium (WPC) a month ago, Belkin is now debuting its first three devices that support the Qi2.2 standard and faster 25W wireless charging speeds. The most expensive and elaborate of the new accessories is the $129.99 Belkin UltraCharge Pro 3-in-1 Magnetic Charging Dock, which is a multi-device wireless […]

Google has added a Drive shortcut for Workspace users that provides a quicker way to edit videos without having to manually open them in Google Vids. When previewing a video saved in their Drive, users will now see an “Open” button at the top right corner that automatically opens the file in Google Vids, where […]

The Pixel line has often been on the cutting edge of mobile photography. This year, that means baking AI straight into the camera app and making us grapple with all of the very messy things that means. I've been scouring the internet for sample images of the Pixel 10 Pro's AI-enhanced 100x zoom feature - […]

Coweta County stalls bit barn vote as residents revolt

A county in the US state of Georgia is facing opposition to the construction of a massive hyperscale datacenter campus, reflecting the growing concerns of communities in America and elsewhere over the rush to build more cloud and AI infrastructure.…

A big reason that BoJack Horseman worked so well was contrast. It took place in a silly world of talking animals, and used that to explore deep human drama in relatable ways. It's part of what made its oddball jokes work so well, as they helped balance out the darker moments that explored topics like […]

Digg is making a comeback. With the backing of people like Digg cofounder Kevin Rose and Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian, Digg has ambitions to once again be the homepage of the internet. The revival is still in its very early days - the platform is still invite-only - but Digg launched its new mobile apps […]

Google announced plenty of new hardware at this week’s Made by Google event, but halfway through we were distracted by the brief appearance of what appeared to be a new, previously unknown Gemini-powered smart speaker. Now Android Headlines claims that this speaker is real, and will launch with new colors and the ability to pair […]

Project scrambles for mitigation as AUR, forums, and main site feel the strain

Some joyless ne'er-do-well has loosed a botnet on the community-driven Arch Linux distro, with a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack now in its second week of sustained disruption.…

When Trump Mobile first unveiled the T1 Phone, we were confused by the mixed marketing, which included dubious renders of what at least appeared to be an original phone along with multiple appearances from what was quite clearly a gold-plated iPhone. Now we can add Samsung’s Galaxy S25 Ultra into the mix. The Trump Mobile […]

Graphics API, crash reporting and more: Making low-level code cross-platform for Windows is a challenge

Zed co-founder Max Brunfield has explained why the Windows port of the Rust-based editor is taking so long – illustrating the friction facing developers of cross-platform applications when including Microsoft's operating system.…

Open source Surya system promises early alerts for space weather that can fry satellites and grids

Boffins at IBM and NASA have concocted an AI model to help predict the weather, but this time it is taking on space weather that might disrupt satellites and spacecraft, possibly even terrestrial power grids and the internet.…

President Donald Trump signed a new executive order on Thursday to improve the “usability and aesthetics” of US government services by creating “first-class online and offline experiences for Americans.” “It is time to update the Government’s design language to be both usable and beautiful,” Trump said in the order, which establishes an America by Design […]

Escort's forgotten cap left techie facing rifles and a debrief

On Call  Welcome once again to On Call, The Register's reader-contributed column that tells tales of your tech support misadventures.…

FTC chair: Companies could face enforcement if they give in

The head of America's consumer watchdog has issued a stark warning to some of the biggest names in the tech sphere – don't backdoor encryption or censor content at the behest of foreign governments, or there may be consequences.…

Fujitsu doesn’t have the project all to itself any more

Japanese research institution RIKEN has decided it needs GPUs for its next generation “FugakuNEXT” supercomputer and has signed Nvidia to supply them and design the systems needed to get them working.…

Radioactive decay produced a warm internal ocean

Dwarf planet Ceres, the unpleasant lump of icy rock orbiting between Mars and Jupiter, once had an environment in which microbes might have thrived.…

Also fired another AI - GitHub Copilot - after it produced ‘mixed results in utilisation and efficacy’

Australia’s Commonwealth Bank has decided not to fire 45 workers it planned to replace with an AI chatbot.…

Point release retuned with new FP8 datatype for better compatibility with homegrown silicon

Chinese AI darling DeepSeek unveiled an update to its flagship large language model that the company claims is already optimized for use with a new generation of homegrown silicon.…