The best laptops under $500 that we’d actually buy

Ten years ago, a simple mobile game called Flappy Bird took the world by storm. The game became a massive hit in early 2014 on both iOS and Android, and quickly brought its creator, Vietnam-based Dong Nguyen, fame and fortune. Flappy Bird at one point was reportedly bringing in tens of thousands of dollars in…

Stray, a game where you play a cat. | Image: Annapurna Annapurna Interactive, the game company famous for publishing indie hits like Stray, Outer Wilds, Gorogoa, Neon White, What Remains of Edith Finch, and many more, may not be the same company anymore. Bloomberg reports that the entire staff of Annapurna Interactive, the gaming division…

An artist who goes by @tofu_rabbit on X says that the look of Nerf’s Ace of Spades handgun from Bungie’s Destiny games came from a commissioned artwork they drew almost a decade ago. Nerf and Bungie unveiled its newest foam dart gun collaboration on Tuesday featuring a limited edition version of Cayde-6’s iconic “Ace of…

Image: Google Google is testing a new feature for Android tablets that will let you resize apps freely and arrange them on your screen at will, making it easier to juggle multiple tasks. The “desktop windowing” feature is now available as a developer preview, and for apps that support it, you could even have more…

Apple’s latest entry-level handset starts at $799 once again. | Photo: Allison Johnson / The Verge The dust is still settling from Apple’s latest iPhone event, which introduced us to the Apple Watch Series 10, a new set of AirPods, and a suite of smartphones that are due to arrive later this month. And while…

Elgato has introduced the Stream Deck Studio, a new version of its creative control tech that’s firmly targeting professional broadcasters. This 19-inch rackmount console has 32 LCD keys and two rotary dials. The $900 price tag shows that this is not an entry-level purchase. The company collaborated with broadcast software specialist Bitfocus on the Stream…

Google will beta test a new feature for Google Wallet that can turn US passports into a new form of digital identification. Google announced the new feature on its official blog. Now digital IDs made from passports and state issued IDs can be used as valid forms of identification at certain Transportation Security Administration (TSA)…

Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge Meta, Snap, and TikTok have founded a new program called Thrive to help stop the spread of graphic content depicting or encouraging self-harm and suicide. Thrive enables participating companies to share “signals” to alert each other of violating content on their platforms. Thrive is built in conjunction with…

You’ll want to be extra careful with Huawei’s new trifold Mate XT Ultimate Design smartphone. | Image: Huawei Huawei has revealed the cost of replacement parts for the world’s first dual-hinged, triple-screen folding phone, and it’s another round of sticker shock. The Mate XT Ultimate Design starts at around $2,809, but should you damage its…

OpenAI’s advanced reasoning model has arrived. SEE ALSO: OpenAI clarifies: No, “GPT Next” isn’t a new model. Initially dubbed “Project Strawberry,” the model was released to the public as “o1” on Thursday. As expected, o1 is able to “think” before answering a prompt, which differs from previous large language models that use predictive-text to form…

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge; Getty Image Right-wing media figures and influencers have descended on Springfield, Ohio, hunting for anything that can help them prove the veracity of a viral racist rumor about Haitian migrants in the community — and relying on misleading, occasionally AI-generated content to help them prove their point. Springfield, which…

Multiple Stream Deck Studio interfaces can be stacked in a studio rack. | Image: Elgato Elgato’s new Stream Deck Studio — the largest version of its Stream Deck controller yet — is designed for broadcast environments where workflows involve juggling more hardware, software, and media feeds than streamers and solo content creators typically have to…

Valve has big savings on the entry-level (LCD) Steam Deck. You can take 25 percent off the 512GB model or 15 percent off the 64GB one, dropping their prices to $336.75 and $296.65, respectively. The sale runs through September 26 while supplies last for the two phased-out models. The 512GB (NVMe SSD) LCD Steam Deck…

Sony just released a PS5 system update that includes new options for customizing the home screen. The just-announced Welcome hub is basically a blank canvas that users can fill with various widgets that display console storage space, battery level for accessories, online friends, trophies and a lot more. It replaces the current Explore tab. These…

The White House released a statement today outlining commitments that several AI companies are making to curb the creation and distribution of image-based sexual abuse. The participating businesses have laid out the steps they are taking to prevent their platforms from being used to generate non-consensual intimate images (NCII) of adults and child sexual abuse…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge The Steam Summer Sale, like summer itself, is sadly well behind us, but Valve is beating one of its best deals on its own gaming handheld. That’s because in addition to the Steam Deck LCD with 256GB of storage once again selling for $296.65 (around $52 off), the…

OpenAI has unveiled its latest artificial intelligence model called o1, which, the company claims, can perform complex reasoning tasks more effectively than its predecessors. The release comes as OpenAI faces increasing competition in the race to develop more sophisticated AI systems.  O1 was trained to “spend more time thinking through problems before they respond, much…

A concerning report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) expresses some serious concerns about the future of America’s space exploration agency. The NASEM report was written by a panel of aerospace experts and lays out what it sees as a possible “hollow future” for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)….

Image: The Verge Microsoft is announcing plans to make changes to Windows that will help CrowdStrike and other security vendors operate outside of the Windows kernel. The announcement stems from a Microsoft-hosted security summit earlier this week at the company’s Redmond, Washington headquarters, where it discussed changes to Windows in the wake of the disastrous…

Apple Apple The Apple event on Monday revealed the newest selection of iPhones, which includes the iPhone 16, 16 Plus, 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max. If you’re looking into upgrading to one of the latest models but are unsure of the differences between the iPhone 16 and 16 Pro (other than the price tag),…

Unity has ditched a controversial fee it was charging game developers. The game engine maker says it’s focusing on its seat-based subscription fee (i.e. an annual payment for each person using the software at a studio), though there will be a price increase for Pro and Enterprise users. The company announced the runtime fee a…

Apple’s newly announced hearing aid capability is officially the first over-the-counter (OTC) hearing aid software to be approved by the FDA. And it should be available on devices soon. The federal agency formally ushered in the tech giant’s new “Hearing Aid Feature” (or HAF, as the agency refers to it) mere days after the company’s…

Given the presidential debate this week, you probably heard plenty of misinformation and conspiracy theories.  Indeed, reporters and fact checkers were working overtime to specifically determine whether Haitian immigrants in Ohio were eating domestic pets, as grotesquely alleged by Republican presidential contender Donald Trump, and his vice presidential running mate, Ohio Senator J.D. Vance. Neither…

You can’t escape advertising on the internet…even AI chatbots are starting to send ads your way. In an update provided to its advertisers, ecommerce giant Amazon has shared that it will start serving ads via its AI-powered shopping assistant chatbot called Rufus. SEE ALSO: New evidence claims Google, Microsoft, Meta, and Amazon could be listening…

Meta will hide the “AI Info” label in a menu if an image has been edited with AI. | Image: Meta Meta is updating how it labels content on Instagram, Facebook, and Threads that has been edited or manipulated using generative AI. In an updated blog post, Meta announced that its “AI Info” tag will…

Pixar After breaking all kinds of box office records and becoming one of this year’s biggest theatrical hits, Pixar’s Inside Out 2 is coming to Disney Plus at the end of September. Though you can still catch the movie in theaters right now, Disney announced today that Inside Out 2 will make its Disney Plus…

Adult video site Clips4Sale is celebrating its 20 year anniversary in 2024, and it’s looking back on the last two decades of fetish content. According to the site, some fetishes are timeless — like foot fetishes, which thrived on Clips4Sale (C4S) since the very beginning. But so much has changed in terms of how we…

Apple’s recent iPhone event brought some nifty ideas, from the camera button to a reinvention of Google Lens and beyond. The company also announced that it’s bringing simple multitrack recording to Voice Memos. This was particularly exciting for me since, well, I use Voice Memos a lot. I have nearly 500 of these little recordings…

Finding someone who you like enough to hang out with on a regular basis is hard enough. But finding someone who you like enough to smoke with regularly? That’s a different ball game, and the best 420-friendly dating apps can help you find someone to share your next joint with. “I don’t care that you’re…

Meeting people in real life is ideal, but waiting for a meet-cute to happen organically isn’t always realistic. That’s especially true when your life involves working late into the evening, launching a startup, juggling multiple clients and side hustles as a busy freelancer, and just generally trying to have it all. So, how do you…