The Microsoft Zune is mostly just a footnote in tech history. Microsoft spent years - and vast sums of money - trying to create a true competitor to Apple's iPod, without ever coming close to actually pulling it off. The Zune was simply too little, too late. You know what's surprising about the Zune, though? […]

There is no more chaotic activity than willfully entering a grocery store without a list. I know. Some people thrive on vibes-based grocery shopping. They can come up with meals on the fly, buy what's on sale and work around that, or follow some bizarre "3-3-2-2-1" rule or whatever I'm always seeing on Instagram. I […]

This is The Stepback, a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more on the real-world effects of Trump's tariffs, follow Mia Sato. The Stepback arrives in our subscribers' inboxes at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepback here. How it started The economists tried to warn us. From the […]

Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 104, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you're new here, welcome, happy belated Halloween, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.) This week, I've been reading about lotteries and Jennifer Lawrence and religious AI, shame-watching Finding Mr. […]

There are plenty of good smartwatches out there, and Google’s last-gen Pixel Watch 3 is one of them. Right now, the 45mm / Wi-Fi model is available at Amazon, Walmart, and Target for $199.99 ($100 off), which is a new low price and $150 less than the Pixel Watch 4. In her review, our own […]

Ayaneo is best known for its retro gaming handhelds, but the company has now confirmed its first phone will be coming soon. Ayaneo briefly teased that it was working on a phone back in August during the event where it unveiled the dual-screen Pocket DS. Of course, many of the company’s gaming handhelds run a […]

Best Buy’s early Black Friday deals are already live, with discounts to be had on everything from smartphones and gaming PCs to wireless headphones. If you’re in the market for a new 4K TV, Best Buy is also offering an exclusive doorbuster deal on LG’s 48-inch B5 OLED, bringing the price of the 4K TV […]

Whenever I review a phone, one of the first things I do after setting it up is charge it to full and then just… let it run, using it as my only phone for as long as I can, resisting every urge to charge it along the way. The Oppo Find X9 Pro lasted for […]

We're living in a wonderful period for puzzle games. Seemingly everyone, from The New York Times to Linkedin, has fun puzzles to play, so every morning I have plenty of options to accompany my first coffee of the day. Lately, though, much of my daily puzzle time has come from an unlikely source: the Playdate. […]

Rockstar Games, the developer of Grand Theft Auto VI, fired between 30 to 40 employees on Thursday, as previously reported by Bloomberg. According to the Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain (IWGB), all of the employees fired were part of a private trade union Discord chat and were either already union members or attempting to organize a […]