01

The things we’re building

Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 126, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you're new here, welcome, I need 10 or 15 skirts from C...

The Verge · 02 May, 05:30 PM Read more →

02

Playing Esoteric Ebb is like rolling the dice with a great DM

It took me a while to get into Esoteric Ebb, a new CRPG from developer Christoffer Bodegård. The elevator pitch is basically Disco Elysium, but in the fantasy s...

The Verge · 02 May, 05:30 PM Read more →

03

Uber wants to turn its millions of drivers into a sensor grid for self-driving companies

Uber's chief technology officer revealed a plan to expand a nascent program called AV Labs, which was announced in late January, at a TechCrunch event in San Fr...

TechCrunch · 02 May, 12:06 PM Read more →

04

Replit’s Amjad Masad on the Cursor deal, fighting Apple, and why he’d rather not sell

At a sold-out StrictlyVC event in San Francisco, the question of whether Replit will sell was raised in light of rival Cursor reportedly being in talks to be ac...

TechCrunch · 02 May, 04:36 AM Read more →

05

Musely secures $360M from General Catalyst without giving up equity

The DTC skin, hair, and and menopause care brand will use the non-dilutive capital to super-charge customer acquisition.

TechCrunch · 02 May, 04:09 AM Read more →

06

Meta buys robotics startup to bolster its humanoid AI ambitions

Meta bought humanoid startup Assured Robot Intelligence to beef up its AI models for robots, the company said.

TechCrunch · 02 May, 03:43 AM Read more →

07

Meta buys robotic startup to bolster its humanoid AI ambitions

Meta bought humanoid startup Assured Robot Intelligence to beef up its AI models for robots, the company said.

TechCrunch · 02 May, 03:43 AM Read more →

08

Microsoft tests redesigned Windows 11 Run menu with dark mode and more

Microsoft is testing a refreshed Windows 11 Run menu with a modern interface, described as faster and supporting dark mode. The redesign is now available to Win...

The Verge · 02 May, 03:31 AM Read more →

09

Apple raises the Mac Mini’s starting price

Apple's Mac Mini now starts at $799 after the company pulled the $599 option with 256GB of storage from its online store, as spotted earlier by MacRumors. The m...

The Verge · 02 May, 03:22 AM Read more →

10

Birdfy’s smart bird feeder is down to its best-ever price for Mother’s Day

From crafting machines to smart calendars, a number of unique gifts are already on sale in the run-up to Mother’s Day, May 10th. Birdfy smart feeders are anothe...

The Verge · 02 May, 12:12 AM Read more →

11

Coatue has a plan to buy up land for data centers, possibly for Anthropic

Coatue, one of the biggest names in venture capital, has a new venture that is reportedly buying land near large power sources.

TechCrunch · 01 May, 11:53 PM Read more →

12

Amazon’s built-in AI price history expands to show the entire last year

Amazon's built-in price tracking feature now allows users to see a product's price change over the past year. The feature can be accessed by opening the Amazon ...

The Verge · 01 May, 11:25 PM Read more →

13

Dreame — the vacuum company — just ‘launched’ its own phones

Dreame, a Chinese manufacturer, has announced its entry into the smartphone market. The company showcased two phones at its Next event in California, which had ...

The Verge · 01 May, 11:25 PM Read more →

14

This accessory can snap a Steam Controller to your phone — or almost anything else

Valve's new Steam Controller will go on sale on Monday for $99. Mechanism will be ready with its accessories, including the Basegrip, which allows attachment of...

The Verge · 01 May, 10:30 PM Read more →

15

Players from the NBA, NFL, and MLB call for a ban on betting ‘unders’

Unions representing professional NBA, NFL, MLB, NHL, and MLS players have called on the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to ban prediction market pla...

The Verge · 01 May, 10:27 PM Read more →

16

Severe Linux Copy Fail security flaw uncovered using AI scanning help

A recently disclosed security bug, known as "Copy Fail," affects nearly every Linux distribution released since 2017, allowing any user to gain administrator pr...

The Verge · 01 May, 10:25 PM Read more →

17

Dreame’s rocket-powered car can do 0–60 in 0.9 seconds because you can just say things now

When I first heard that a vacuum company had released a rocket-powered electric vehicle with physically impossible-sounding performance specs, I immediately tho...

The Verge · 01 May, 10:03 PM Read more →

18

We just got a new reason to believe the Trump phone is real(ish)

Where's the Trump phone? We're going to keep talking about it every week. We've reached out, as usual, to ask about the Trump phone's whereabouts. This time we'...

The Verge · 01 May, 09:58 PM Read more →

19

Pentagon inks deals with Nvidia, Microsoft and AWS to deploy AI on classified networks

The deals come as the DoD has doubled down on diversifying its exposure to AI vendors in the wake of its controversial dispute with Anthropic over usage terms o...

TechCrunch · 01 May, 09:32 PM Read more →

20

Aurzen’s tiny trifold projector is almost 40 percent off right now

Not all trifolds are created equal — just ask our own Allison Johnson, who recently spent time with Samsung’s ill-fated Galaxy phone. Aurzen’s Zip projector is ...

The Verge · 01 May, 08:30 PM Read more →

21

Ubuntu services hit by outages after DDoS attack

A group of hacktivists have claimed responsibility for a distributed denial-of-service attack, which has affected several Ubuntu and Canonical websites, and pre...

TechCrunch · 01 May, 08:30 PM Read more →

22

Some of Xteink’s credit card-sized e-readers are losing their best feature

The Xteink X4 and X3 e-readers offer a pocket-friendly alternative to Kindles and Kobos, but come with clunky stock firmware that can be improved by plugging th...

The Verge · 01 May, 07:54 PM Read more →

23

Pentagon strikes classified AI deals with OpenAI, Google, and Nvidia — but not Anthropic

The Pentagon has partnered with OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Nvidia, xAI, and Reflection to use their AI tools in classified settings. Anthropic, previous...

The Verge · 01 May, 07:39 PM Read more →

24

Musk v. Altman is just getting started

Elon Musk spent the better part of three days on the witness stand this week in his lawsuit against OpenAI, and it’s already getting messy. Emails, texts, and h...

TechCrunch · 01 May, 07:30 PM Read more →

25

My $5K smart bed needs to shut the hell up

This is Optimizer, a weekly newsletter sent every Friday from Verge senior reviewer Victoria Song that dissects and discusses the latest gizmos and potions that...

The Verge · 01 May, 07:30 PM Read more →

26

Elon Musk had a bad week in court

Elon Musk is pursuing a trial against OpenAI, claiming the company "stole a nonprofit" and that he was the driving force behind it. He has spent months making t...

The Verge · 01 May, 07:03 PM Read more →

27

Your guide to sci-fi streaming season

Summer has become a popular time for new science fiction shows on streaming services, with 2026 being no exception. Premiere dates for these shows appear to be ...

The Verge · 01 May, 07:00 PM Read more →

28

Christian content creators are outsourcing AI slop to gig workers on Fiverr

Platforms like Fiverr are now being used by freelancers to offer services that utilize generative AI, allowing them to meet clients' demands quickly. These work...

The Verge · 01 May, 06:55 PM Read more →

29

Oura adds birth control support to its period tracker

Oura is launching a new reproductive health feature that considers hormonal contraception when tracking period cycles. The feature, called Hormonal Birth Contro...

The Verge · 01 May, 06:30 PM Read more →

30

People are finally using Reddit’s search

The company saw a 30% year-on-year jump in the number of people using search every week, CEO Steve Huffman said on Thursday.

TechCrunch · 01 May, 05:30 PM Read more →