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The latest tech news about the world’s best (and sometimes worst) hardware, apps, and much more. From top companies like Google and Apple to tiny startups vying for your attention, Verge Tech has the latest in what matters in technology daily.

Elon Musk denies a report about SpaceX’s AI phone prototype

The Wall Street Journal reports that SpaceX showed investors a ‘handset-like prototype’ that was slimmer than an iPhone.

Emma Roth
Xbox testing disc-to-digital feature that digitizes a physical game collection

Microsoft’s disc-to-digital feature could be essential for next-gen Xbox consoles.

Tom Warren

Latest In Tech

Jay Peters
Jay Peters
Meta might launch its own cloud computing business.

The company is weighing plans like selling access to AI models on its infrastructure or letting customers buy compute in a model similar to companies like CoreWeave, Bloomberg reports.

Andrew Webster
Andrew Webster
It might finally be time to jack in.

Apple is teasing its upcoming Neuromancer adaptation, which means we might be getting a trailer for the cyberpunk series — or maybe even a premiere date — in the near future.

Google built a great smart speaker, but Gemini isn’t ready for it

6

Verge Score

The Google Home Speaker nails the hardware, but Gemini for Home isn’t the assistant we’ve been waiting for.

Jennifer Pattison Tuohy
Jess Weatherbed
Jess Weatherbed
Former Sony gaming chief is baffled by the PlayStation PC pullback.

In an interview with French media outlet PSI, former SIE Worldwide Studios chairman Shawn Layden said bringing Sony exclusives to PC was always about expanding title visability beyond PlayStation consoles, and wasn’t a money-making strategy:

I think if someone’s waiting 18 months for something to come on PC, we didn’t lose a sale to them. They weren’t going to buy the hardware anyway. If it’s a way to cover costs or the burden of making a port, there is some money attached to that, or the distraction or whatever. I don’t know what they’re thinking.”

Dominic Preston
Dominic Preston
Samsung starts teasing its wider foldable phone.

All signs point to Samsung launching a wide version of the Galaxy Z Fold 8 this month, and now the company has released its first teaser. There are video versions too, all along similar lines teasing a “new shape” from the company.

Image: Samsung
Dominic Preston
Dominic Preston
The next bubble.

If you loved Microsoft sticking Copilot in everything, just wait until its marketing department gets ahold of “quantum.“

itsmrfungible666:

Get ready for Microsoft Windows 12 Elite with Copilot Quantum

Get the day’s best comment and more in my free newsletter, The Verge Daily.

Dominic Preston
Dominic Preston
Google AI Mode is making original recipe links more prominent.

The AI search tool will start linking directly to source recipes at the top of cooking queries, with images, ratings, and ingredient numbers. Not every food writer is happy though, since there’s still a full AI-generated recipe below the links, sometimes with opaque sourcing and errors in the instructions.

Thomas Ricker
Thomas Ricker
Siri AI v. EU, an update.

According to an unnamed spokesperson speaking to the FT, Tim Cook and EU tech chief Henna Virkkunen had a “constructive exchange on topics of common interest” on Tuesday over the current impasse that will leave roughly 450 million people without access to Apple Intelligence that actually works:

The meeting included a discussion of how Apple can launch its reinvented Siri in Europe while avoiding millions of dollars in fines for violating the bloc’s flagship competition rules, according to two people familiar with the talks.

Richard Lawler
Richard Lawler
Trump pulled in over $1 billion from crypto ventures last year.

The President’s annual disclosure noted that companies owned by Trump and his family received more than $800 million from the WLFI token and $635 million in royalties from Trump memecoins, report Reuters, WSJ, and CNBC.

CoinDesk points out the more than $50 million in Bitcoin, $25 million in ETH, investments in Coreweave and Coinbase, and $6 million from an NFT licensing agreement.

Jay Peters
Jay Peters
Spark on Mac.

Google is rolling out its frighteningly good AI agent to the Gemini macOS app, meaning Spark can access and work with files on your computer.

The company is adding a few other new features to Spark, too, including the ability to connect Tasks and Keep to the agent, use integrations with apps like Canva and Instacart, and track topics in real time.

Mia Sato
Mia Sato
Kalta? Melshi?

Before plans to spin up its own prediction market app, Meta explored acquiring Kalshi, NPR reports. Meta is now reportedly working on an app known as “Arena” internally, which would allow users to bet with points rather than real money, as Kalshi and Polymarket do. If an acquisition had happened, it wouldn’t be the first (or second, or third) time Meta piggybacked on what was trendy.

Sean Hollister
Sean Hollister
AMD patch leaves little doubt: it’s got a new low-power core.

Moore’s Law is Dead claimed Sony’s handheld PS6 would add Zen 6 LP (Low Power) cores, and Phoronix has found new evidence in a Linux kernel patch: “a Low Power core type, in addition to the existing Performance and Efficiency types.” They’re “designed for minimal power consumption during background or idle workloads,” not necessarily gaming on battery.

Jay Peters
Jay Peters
The Supreme Court is taking up Epic v. Apple.

The Court will hear Apple’s arguments about a lower court decision upholding a ruling that Apple “willfully” violated a 2021 injunction forcing the company to let developers point to alternative payment methods, Bloomberg reports.

Mia Sato
Mia Sato
Today’s Vergecast: Tim Heidecker on the return of InfoWars.

After more than a year and a half in court, satirical news site The Onion is rebooting Alex Jones’ InfoWars — even as the conspiracy channel hangs in legal limbo. Comedian and writer Tim Heidecker has been tapped as creative director, and he came on the show to share his vision for the platform. Also mentioned: peptides, The Beatles, and the state of Tim’s vocal chords. Enjoy!

Jay Peters
Jay Peters
The native Discord app for Meta Quest VR headsets is now available.

With the VR app, you can still chat with friends on Discord using other platforms. Check the app out on the Meta Store.

Meta and Discord announced last year that the app was in the works.

A screenshot of the Discord app for Meta Quest headsets.
Image: Meta
Jay Peters
Jay Peters
Reddit is going to force you to log in to use old Reddit.

The logged-out experience on old Reddit is “a significant source of abusive scraping and automated traffic on the platform,” a Reddit admin (employee) says. The company will start requiring anyone who wants to use it to log in “over the next month.”

The admin adds that Reddit “can’t promise” that old Reddit “will be around forever,” though CEO Steve Huffman said last year that the company will figure out how to keep it online “as long as people are using it.”

Charles Pulliam-Moore
Charles Pulliam-Moore
Luca Guadagnino’s Sam Altman movie may have found a new home.

Neon was one of the only studios that seemed interested in picking up Luca Guadagnino’s biographical drama about Sam Altman after Amazon suddenly decided not to distribute the movie. And now, Neon is reportedly “in advanced talks” for a deal that could get the project into theaters.

Andrew Liszewski
Andrew Liszewski
An Xbox version of the Echo Aviation flight sim gamepad is coming this fall.

Honeycomb Aeronautical has answered the biggest question I’ve had about its Echo Aviation Controller with a new XPC version designed to work with the Xbox instead of just PCs. It’s slated to hit stores later this year and like the original it’s compatible with Microsoft Flight Simulator and features a collection of customizable flight sim controls.

1/3Image: Honeycomb Aeronautical
What is a quantum computer good for? Absolutely nothing — yet

The Trump administration wants a useful quantum computer in two years. Microsoft wants one in three. Independent researchers cry hype.

Sophia Chen
Charles Pulliam-Moore
Charles Pulliam-Moore
You wanna pop bottles on the PJ? Read this.

If you’ve ever found yourself wondering how course-peddling hustlebros manage to convince their followers that they’re selling enough subscriptions to galavant around the world in private jets, you need to check out this excellent 404 piece that highlights one of the trade’s shadiest tricks: fake dashboards.

Jay Peters
Jay Peters
Threads is expanding live chats a little more.

Any “champions” in a Threads community can now make and host live chats, and live chats can have up to three co-hosts. If you want to share a post in a live chat to your main Threads feed, you’ll be able to do that, too.

Threads launched live chats in April.

A screenshot of a Threads live post message in a main feed.
Image: Threads
Andrew Liszewski
Andrew Liszewski
Motorola’s battery-boosted Moto Tag 2 tracker is now available in the US.

Launch details were lacking when the Moto Tag 2 was announced at CES in January, but it’s now available in the US and temporarily discounted to $19.99 for one, and $69.99 for a four-pack. Motorola claims up to 500 days of use from a single CR2032 coin battery, while UWB support allows for more precise locating.

If you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement.

Moto Tag 2 on the back of a bicycle
Image: Motorola
Jess Weatherbed
Jess Weatherbed
Weird Al doesn’t care for your weird AI jokes.

The Grammy-winning satirical musician told Syracuse.com that he’s “not a fan” of the generative technology, and that he turned down “a nice pile of money” after walking away from a commerical for business productivity software.

”A week before we’re supposed to shoot it, I find out, oh, this is, it’s AI. And I thought, ‘Oh no, I can’t be the poster boy for AI, forget it.’ So I felt bad about kind of pulling out at the last minute. But yeah, I’m not down with that.”

Andrew Liszewski
Andrew Liszewski
An aquarium filled with tiny self-charging submarines looks more fun than scraping algae.

I’ve never enjoyed the regular maintenance of a fish tank, so I prefer the approach that Peter and Filip from the YouTube channel, CPSdrone, took. They spent three months engineering custom 3D-printed mini submarines that zoom around an aquarium like fish and autonomously dock themselves to wireless underwater chargers.

Andrew Liszewski
Andrew Liszewski
A future Qi standard could bring 50W wireless charging to more devices.

There are already smartphones that can wirelessly charge at 50W using proprietary fan-assisted chargers, but the Wireless Power Consortium (WPC) recently met at Xiaomi’s headquarters in Beijing to discuss the tech requirements behind a future version of the Qi standard that can accommodate the higher rate, according to IT Home.

Three devices wirelessly charge on a stand from Satechi.
Image: Satechi
Meet the lawyer who beat Elon Musk — twice

Walk softly and carry a Fender Telecaster.

Elizabeth Lopatto
Dominic Preston
Dominic Preston
Clicks shows off its Communicator phone in action for the first time.

The BlackBerry-esque Communicator has a nifty homescreen based on the minimalist Niagara Android launcher, a fingerprint sensor built into the space bar, and a removable back panel that certainly hints its battery might be easy to replace. It’s still on track to ship in Q4 for $499.