Frank Shaw is leaving Microsoft after 17 years as chief communications officer. In an internal note to his team, Shaw says he's "decided it is time for me to move on and try new things," after supporting Microsoft's communications for 29 years - nearly 20 years as a Microsoft employee plus time at the Waggener Edstrom agency (now We. Communications) before that.
Shaw has been at the heart of Microsoft's communications since 1997, helping the company navigate multiple Windows and Office releases, CEO transitions, the all-important bet on cloud, and huge acquisitions like the $26.2 billion LinkedIn purchase in 2016 and the $69 billion acquisi …
Just a couple of weeks before Meta Connect starts on September 23rd, UploadVR posted images seemingly revealing the design for Meta's "Project Phoenix" headset. The images, which UploadVR says were "found in the HorizonOS Prescription Lens firmware package," suggest Meta may be looking to compete with devices like those from Xreal or Viture. These companies' mixed reality glasses are a bit bulkier than something like Meta's Ray-Ban AI smart glasses, but a step down from a full VR headset like Meta's Quest 3.
This leak shows something that's almost in between larger headsets and smart glasses, with lenses set into a slim, glasses-style fram …
The new AirPods 5 in their charging case. | Photo: Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge
The Apple AirPods 5 are bringing active noise cancellation to the masses, and they're now available for preorder at a variety of retailers. They'll officially launch on September 18th, the same day as the Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4, as well as the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max.
There are two versions this time around, just like with the last-gen model. The standard $129 model adds active noise cancelation, which was previously only found on the more expensive $179 AirPods 4 with ANC models. They're available from Amazon, Best Buy, Walmart, and Apple. The upgraded $149 model features a wireless charging case, longer battery life, and touc …
On September 6th, YouTuber Nicholas Light posted a video to one of his channels that made it seem like all of his content was about to be removed from the platform. In the video - ominously titled "My Channel will be Deleted Today" - Light alleges that he was on the receiving end of some of the "thousands upon thousands of false copyright strikes" recently initiated by a company called Remove Your Media. Light spends much of the 13-minute video accusing Remove Your Media CEO Eric Green of being a troll who systematically targets creators whose content mentions or features clips of popular anime series like Bleach and One Piece.
Anker’s Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro came out swinging in May with incredible call quality, something that competing ear buds have struggled to get right. They’ve become part of our reviewer John Higgins’ rotation of earbuds for more than just taking calls; The Liberty 5 Pro have fantastic audio once you make some tweaks in their app, and they stand out thanks to an IP55 rating and LDAC high-res audio codec support on Android.
What’s more, they’re typically cheaper than the competition at $169.99, but you can snag them for $149.99 at Amazon, Best Buy, and at Anker. They come in four colors (black, blue, white, pink), and include a screen-equipped charging case that lets you make adjustments to active noise cancellation, sound profiles, speak-to-chat and enabling Dolby Atmos head tracking. Your mileage may vary with the usefulness of the case, but it’s nice not to have to use the app for quick tweaks.
I’ve been eagerly awaiting any sort of deal on the Liberty 5 Pro since John’s review dropped. Clearly, Anker caught wind of its success and kept them locked at $170 for months (not even a small price drop during June’s Prime Day sale). What could have lead to the price drop? Likely the debut of the AirPods 5 that start at $129 but have a more feature-rich version that’s $20 more — the same current price as Anker’s Liberty 5 Pro. Read our review.
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Here are three more great deals
Those shopping for a battery-powered video doorbell may want to consider the second-gen Ring Battery Doorbell Pro, which is steeply discounted at Wellbots thanks to an exclusive offer code for Verge readers. Currently $249.99 at Amazon, the 4K-enabled doorbell with 10x digital zoom is $149.99 with code 100VERGERING used at checkout. This price, frankly, spanks the previous lowest price of $179.99 at Amazon we saw in late August. You can read more about Ring’s latest generation of battery doorbells in our coverage. But put simply, they’re sleeker, more capable, and still come with a removable, rechargeable battery.
I’m hyped for Control Resonant, the follow-up to Remedy’s brilliant Control. It launches on September 24th, and you can get $12 off Steam preorders at Newegg. The game will debut for $59.99, but the code CNTRLXV used at checkout knocks it down to $47.99, which is the best price I’ve seen. It’s not tough to find the game at other key sellers for around $50, though. While it’s a direct sequel, it’s also the latest addition to Remedy’s connected universe that canonically includes Alan Wake titles. Here’s our hands-on from Summer Game Fest.
While we’re on the topic of games, we recently covered that Walmart was discounting preorders for the physical version of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake for Switch 2. Well, that also extends to Amazon, which is selling it for $59.99, a discount you’ll see at checkout. The cartridge version typically costs $10 more than digital — a change that Nintendo made earlier this year — but both retailers have a reputation for eating the price hike during the preorder phase for Nintendo Switch 2 titles.
Meta says it's making changes to the prompts suggested by its AI chatbot after a viral video showed it digging for personal information about a woman's young daughters, as reported earlier by Futurism. In a statement to The Verge, Meta spokesperson Dina El-Kassaby says the company "missed the mark," adding that "the feature never should have prompted the individual with questions like that."
Last week, Instagram user Kalie Robins posted a video explaining how Meta AI presented her with an invasive suggestion after cross-posting a clip to Facebook. The AI prompt, "Who is the child passenger?" appeared beneath a video of her and her child sin …
Hello once again from Toronto, where for a week every year I watch far too many movies and tell you all about them. The festival, better known as TIFF, is always a great preview of the months ahead in film, with a nice mix of mainstream fare, awards contenders, indie surprises, and genre flicks destined to be cult classics. The streamers also love to make their presence felt here, previewing some of their most anticipated projects. Last year, for instance, Netflix showed off both Guillermo del Toro's long-awaited Frankenstein as well as the third Knives Out movie, and I was also able to watch everything from the terrifying video game adaptat …
An Apple Home computer could combine a Wi-Fi router, an AI-powered smart home hub, and local storage into a single device. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
John Ternus didn't mention Apple Home once during his first keynote as Apple CEO. But he did open by describing an "intelligent personal hub" that prioritizes local processing, protects your privacy, and integrates with all your other devices, apps, and services. While Ternus was talking about the iPhone - not a new smart home device - what he spelled out is exactly what I want to see Apple make: an intelligent home hub, a computer for your home.
Rumors suggest Apple's first smart home hub with a screen is imminent. While that's long overdue, it's likely to be more interface than infrastructure, a device that can run your home locally but s …
That isn't Apple's former CEO promoting the Galaxy Z Fold 8 in a new Samsung ad - "Tim Cook from Palmerston North" just happens to have the same name and look a lot like him. Released right as Apple announced its iPhone Duo, the ad mimics Apple's cinematic product launch videos, with "Tim Cook" saying "the future is here." Samsung also takes a jab at Apple's Tim Cook with a reference to his recently updated profile picture.
A new feature coming to Slack will allow you to build interactive reports, polls, dashboards, presentations, microsites, and other tools directly inside a chat. With Slackforce Surfaces, you can describe to Slackbot what you need, and it will use AI to gather information from relevant conversations and connected apps, like Google Drive or Salesforce, to create it.
Once Slackbot creates a Surface, you can share it with colleagues and pin it to channels, allowing other people to view it, interact with it, and leave comments. In one example shared by Slack, a user asks Slackbot for help creating an arcade-themed visualization of AI token usage …
It's the hot new thing in tech, and it's where all the jobs are. Students who don't learn to use it fall behind. And to help them catch up in time, its creators are graciously providing the resources and curriculum for learning it, often pro bono.
That's the narrative AI companies are pitching schools on right now, but according to New York Times education technology reporter Natasha Singer, it's also how the tech industry has built its influence in classrooms for the past 15 years.
In a new book, Coding Kids,Singer details how tech companies took a central role in promoting computers and coding skills in education, promising computer sci …
Amazon’s Fire TV Stick 4K is fast and capable. | Image: The Verge
Looking to take full advantage of your 4K television, but your current streaming stick doesn’t have the right features? Through September 13th, you can grab an Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K from Woot for just $16.09 when you use the coupon code FIRE30 at checkout. With support for Wi-Fi 6 and 2GB of memory, it’s fast enough for streaming movies or playing games with Xbox Cloud Gaming or Nvidia GeForce Now. While this is the 2023 model, it’s functionally identical (and also has the same specs) to the current Fire TV Stick 4K Plus that costs considerably more. It received a name change in late 2025 to differentiate it from the more basic 4K Select model.
Like the other 4K Fire TV sticks, the 2023 model supports a huge variety of streaming services and apps, and the Alexa Plus voice assistant feature lets you quickly find a show or movie without having to scroll through each one. With support for Dolby Vision, HDR10 Plus, and Dolby Atmos, you won’t have to compromise on video or audio quality during your next movie night.
Other deals to consider
Green Man Gaming has the Steam version of Resident Evil Requiemon sale for $41.64, with the full discount showing up once you add it to your cart. This iteration of the game tasks players with investigating a series of murders related to the 1998 Raccoon City incident, a core piece of lore for the series, and it alternates between perspectives. Read our review.
You can grab a two-pack of Ring Alarm Contact Sensors at Amazon for $20, a $10 discount compared to what they usually cost (but half off their original price). These sensors easily install onto window or door frames with either adhesive or screws, and send signals to the Ring Alarm Base Station when opened or closed. They have a three year battery life, with replaceable batteries once they finally run out.
The Lenovo Idea Tab Pro is on sale for $279.99 at Best Buy, $180 off its usual price. The 12.7-inch Android tablet features a 2944 x 1840 display, with a variable refresh rate up to 144Hz, great for scrolling the web, or even some light gaming. The deal also includes the Lenovo Tab Pen Plus, which has over 4,000 sensitivity levels for a natural feel while drawing or taking notes.
A new federal program to test the feasibility of electric, hybrid-electric, and autonomous aircraft kicks off today in Texas - before the rules governing this new technology have even been finalized.
Universal Music Group is launching a new AI-powered platform that will allow users to draw from its catalog of licensed music to create song remixes, mashups, and new takes on tracks, according to an announcement on Thursday. The record label is developing the platform through a multiyear licensing agreement with ElevenLabs, a company that specializes in AI voice and music generation.
While both new watches look similar to their predecessors, there are a number of updates under the hood that might intrigue some people enough to warrant a preorder. My colleague Victoria Song got hands-on with both smartwatches …
Marvel's Wolverine captures just how angry its lead character is. The latest PS5 exclusive from Spider-Man developer Insomniac, Wolverine is a straightforward action game that is at its best when you're (literally) slicing through enemies or thrust into a sequence pulled from a blockbuster movie, like climbing the fuselage of a plane as it careens toward land or racing a motorcycle across rain-slicked city streets. It's the kind of game that can really get your heart rate rising, and keeping Logan mad is a key part of the strategy. In many ways, it's a throwback to straightforward action titles of the past - and it's a refreshing change of p …
I turned my Muse assistant into a purple cat. | Screenshot: The Verge
Meta has launched its new Muse assistant, marking the company's first real foray into AI-powered productivity tools. The company says its AI agent can "take the busywork off your plate" by helping you with online shopping, emails, trip-planning, and more. I decided to try out the new tool and see how well it performed - especially from a company that previously prioritized entertainment over productivity. Though the AI assistant generally worked as I expected it to, the unnerving amount of information it autonomously gleaned about me largely overshadowed my experience.
One of the first tasks I assigned Muse, which carries out actions using …
Jimmy Kimmel will be interviewing Democratic Texas Senate candidate James Talarico "under unusual circumstances," posting the interview directly to YouTube, rather than airing it on TV during Jimmy Kimmel Live. In Wednesday night's episode, Kimmel said this was out of concern for retaliation from the Trump administration's FCC:
[Trump's] FCC has threatened me, threatened our show, threatened our network, ABC, our affiliates, our local stations based on simple, traditional editorial decisions, guest bookings, it would seem they don't like. And so, out of consideration for our local stations, especially our ABC affiliates in Texas who woul …
With the iPhone Duo, Apple has pulled off a familiar trick. It arrives into a mature Android foldable market with a handful of hardware features we've mostly already seen elsewhere, but paired with a level of software polish that makes a lot of them feel new again. It's those software flourishes that have me excited to try the iPhone Duo when it launches next month, but I'm less convinced that its hardware will be anything special.
If Apple had gotten there first, the Duo's biggest surprise would have been its squat, wide, passport-inspired shape. But its slow-moving supply chain meant that Huawei, Samsung, and Xiaomi all managed to beat Ap …
Plan your next event with friends without ever leaving the app. | Image: Snap
Snapchat is launching Plans, a new suite of features designed to help turn the plans already being made in group chats - everything from birthday celebrations to study sessions and weekend hangouts - into real life get-togethers without ever leaving the app.
Plans lets users set event details, invite up to 200 friends with invitations adorned with dynamic Bitmoji that change as friends respond, and track RSVPs. Invites are sent via one-to-one chat and reminders are automatically sent to attendees before the scheduled event starts. A dedicated "My Plans" tab on user profiles lets you keep track of upcoming and past plans.
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