No show likes to troll its audience quite like The Walking Dead. Game of Thrones may kill off people you love, and Homeland may test your patience, but there’s something unique about The Walking Dead’s ability to get you invested, hold your hand through long stretches of dialogue … | Continue reading
Next week the first piece of downloadable content for Fallout 4 launches, and today Bethesda has released a new trailer showing just what's in store for those jumping back into the wasteland. Called "Automatron," the debut DLC features a character known only as the Mechanist, who … | Continue reading
As the battle between Apple and the FBI continues, The Guardian reports that other tech companies are close to announcing security improvements. Among them is Facebook-owned messaging service WhatsApp, which the publication says is set to expand encryption to voice calls "within … | Continue reading
The Seattle-based e-commerce company recently filed a patent application for a process that would allow shoppers to make a purchase by taking a photo and/or video of themselves rather than keying in their account password. The application is related to a separate patent Amazon ho … | Continue reading
Smartphones are connected computers that fit in our pockets — at this point, the "phone" part of them is virtually an afterthought. We use them for all kinds of communication that has nothing to do with a phone number: email, instant messaging, social networks, video calling, the … | Continue reading
AlphaGo’s victories against legendary Go player Lee Se-dol over the last few days mark a major milestone in AI research. The complex Chinese board game had long been considered impossible for computers to crack, but DeepMind used machine learning and neural networks to give its A … | Continue reading
"If you don't know who Slenderman is, you're living under a rock," remarks one of the dozens of teens appearing in YouTube videos that are excerpted in Beware the Slenderman. It's the first hint that the documentary is going to try to do the impossible:€” explain the internet, an … | Continue reading
Everything about 10 Cloverfield Lane has been a complete surprise: its out-of-left-field announcement, its tightly-held plot secrets, and the fact that it’s the first time audiences have been able to see what director Dan Trachtenberg can do with a feature film. The filmmaker has … | Continue reading
Twitter is cluttered with stray artifacts of fandom. There are countless fan accounts — some active, some long dormant — for Katy Perry, One Direction, and Taco Bell (@TacoBell_fanz bio: "the place for Taco Bell lovers"). There’s a fan account for DJ Khaled’s Snapchat and Donald … | Continue reading
Are you a light connoisseur? Can you tell the difference between "cool daylight" and "warm white"? If so, Philips has just announced what could be your next favorite lightbulb: the Philips Hue white ambiance. The company promises that the white ambiance delivers "every shade of w … | Continue reading
The First Lady needed a turnip.By the fall of 2014, “Turn Down for What,” Lil Jon and DJ Snake’s triple-platinum trap-meets-EDM single had swallowed pop culture whole. Jimmy Fallon and Robin Wright were dancing to it on The Tonight Show; Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum posed while … | Continue reading
The first thing I see when I put on the HTC Vive virtual reality headset is a McDonald’s Happy Meal. It’s floating by itself against a blank white backdrop, gesturing toward me with its unmoving smile and a dog-like eagerness. With my two hands now firmly grasping the Vive’s mush … | Continue reading
You know the old saying: it's Pi Day, Pi Day, gotta get down on Pi Day. And what better way to celebrate the date that embodies everyone's favorite mathematical constant than with precisely 3.14 facts about pi. 1 — A Japanese memory master Claims he can recite pi to 111,700 digit … | Continue reading
Happy π day!It’s a big week for The Verge with four major events scheduled: the South by Southwest festival, the GDC gaming show, the Baselworld Swiss watch event, and the final Go match pitting man against machine. Continue reading… | Continue reading
An aging population and increased urbanization are set to dramatically change America's transport needs, and the government wants to do something about it. In 2015, the Department of Transportation unveiled its Smart City challenge, a competition for mid-sized cities to their ret … | Continue reading
Microsoft first started accepting Bitcoins as a payment method for Xbox games and Windows apps around a year ago. Bitcoins could be used to fund a Microsoft Account, allowing owners to purchase content from the Windows and Xbox games, music, and video stores. Microsoft has ended … | Continue reading
I've been in Seoul, South Korea for the past week covering the gripping Go face-off between human champion Lee Se-dol and DeepMind AI AlphaGo, and it's been endlessly fascinating. There wasn't a game today, though, so I headed on down to the arty student district of Hongdae to do … | Continue reading
Today is Pi Day, and Microsoft is celebrating the mathematical constant with some impressive deals on Dell laptops. In keeping with the Pi theme, Microsoft is taking 31.4 percent off Dell's latest XPS 13, so it starts at just $685.31 instead of $999. Only the base Core i5 model r … | Continue reading
Last month, the LA Clippers — owned by world's-happiest-man-dunking, Steve Ballmer — unveiled a new mascot: Chuck the Condor. Chuck has a big blue beak, a happy-go-lucky grin, and is hated by Clippers fans. Kanye West, who apparently attended a Clippers game on Sunday, is no exc … | Continue reading
We've heard from some heavyweight names on both sides in the ongoing encryption battle between Apple and the FBI, but as is increasingly common with complicated issues, perhaps the most succinct analysis has come from John Oliver. The comedian tackled the topic on his most recent … | Continue reading
A British teenager has won $250,000 after placing first in the inaugural World Drone Prix in Dubai. 15-year-old Luke Bannister piloted his drone to victory along an outdoor track, using a camera mounted on its front to steer the craft through a series of illuminated hoops from a … | Continue reading
In Berlin's Neues Museum, there sits a 3,000-year-old bust of Queen Nefertiti. The priceless artifact is under glass, kept safe by alarms, and watched by security guards. Last year, it was stolen.But there was no daring heist, no Mission Impossible-esque dangling from the ceiling … | Continue reading
It can be hard to get a grasp on South by Southwest, the sometimes ungainly group of panels, conventions, and festivals the descend upon Austin, Texas in March. But we've got you covered here with everything from SXSW Interactive. That means the latest tech, the biggest news from … | Continue reading
Sony's Future Lab is a R&D group responsible for taking crazy ideas into the prototype phase, and one impressive vision shown here at SXSW in Austin this week is a projector that turns any flat surface into a screen for light to play on. The "Interactive Tabletop" concept uses de … | Continue reading
Janette Sadik-Khan, New York City transportation commissioner from 2007 to 2013, oversaw what may have been the most turbulent period for the nation’s biggest city in decades. She built over 400 miles of bike lanes and transformed some of the most congested pockets of the city in … | Continue reading
The origin story of SXSW's Online Harassment Summit is not a pretty one, and it informed the tone of the event months ahead of time. SXSW canceled a panel called "Level Up: Overcoming Harassment in Gaming" in October after it received "numerous threats of on-site violence." An ou … | Continue reading
Sony's newly formed R&D outfit, Future Lab, is here at SXSW to show off its first concept prototype: a pair of headphones worn around the neck that direct audio upwards so only you can hear it. Codenamed Project N, the Bluetooth device takes the design of those wacky-looking neck … | Continue reading
Two robotic spacecraft are set to launch to space on a Russian Proton rocket tomorrow, the beginning of a seven-month journey to Mars. This is the first phase of the ExoMars mission, a partnership between the European Space Agency and the Russian Federal Space Agency, or Roscosmo … | Continue reading
Over the past several months I’ve noticed a bizarre trend among the digital health and fitness products I’ve tested: many are faulty, incomplete, or inaccurate products, and the companies making them are hawking them anyway. And when people — myself included — complain about them … | Continue reading
Last summer, I spent some time with the Devialet Phantom, a ridiculously loud, bulbous mass of a wireless speaker. The Phantom, which comes in two, expensive flavors, can hit deafening volumes of over 90db. It also looks like something straight out of Portal.While the Phantom is … | Continue reading
Writer/director Jeff Nichols' priorities, on the surface, are no mystery. The Take Shelter director is interested in the American South, the inner lives of children, a murky sense of mysticism, Michael Shannon. He's not particularly interested in spelling things out for an audien … | Continue reading
Yesterday afternoon, Blizzard, developer of the enormously popular digital card game Hearthstone, made an announcement about its new expansion, Whispers of the Old Gods. It's like the half dozen expansions which have come before it, with a backstory tied into Warcraft lore, a the … | Continue reading
This column is part of a series where Verge staffers post highly subjective reviews of animals. Up until now, we’ve written about animals without telling you whether they suck or rule. We are now rectifying this oversight.Listen up: there are mites on your face. Yes, right now … | Continue reading
Tidal's had a bit of a rocky road since its star-studded relaunch last May, but it appears the streaming music service has at least earned itself enough mindshare to get its very own Saturday Night Live skit. Well, not quite, because the skit was mostly just a vehicle for host Ar … | Continue reading
AlphaGo wrapped up victory for Google in the DeepMind Challenge Match by winning its third straight game against Go champion Lee Se-dol yesterday, but the 33-year-old South Korean has got at least some level of revenge — he's just defeated AlphaGo, the AI program developed by Goo … | Continue reading
Do machines have rights? It's a classic question in science fiction, but we've reached a point where the question can be hammered out in actual case law too. A new paper from Ryan Calo at the U... | Continue reading
50 years ago, in 1966, the gorgeous Lamborghini Miura was introduced. To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the iconic mid-engined supercar, Lamborghini's PoloStorico division has painstakingly restored the original Miura SV (Super Veloce) that was revealed at the Geneva Motor Sho … | Continue reading
It's easy to love a robot with a face. But it turns out we'll react just as positively to a trash can sitting on a Roomba. That was the finding of four students at the Stanford Center for Design Research, who sent a mobile trash can equipped with a hidden camera into two public l … | Continue reading
Representative Katherine Clark (D-MA) has announced a new federal bill to ramp up cybercrime enforcement training for police departments and create a national resource center that hosts a cybercrime-specific library. Clark announced the bill at a SXSW panel about how law enforcem … | Continue reading
Like any piece of new technology, virtual reality needs a legacy mode to handle content not designed for VR. Soon, the HTC Vive (and other Steam VR headsets) will have just that, with "Desktop Theater Mode."Unfortunately, we don't have any images of the feature yet, but it's safe … | Continue reading
Richard Linklater has never cared about plot in his movies and he’s never really concerned himself with adhering to genre, either. What Linklater loves to do is is simply hang with his characters, and whether it’s the ‘70s teens of Dazed and Confused, the constantly evolving rela … | Continue reading
There is now an actual Snopes debunk for an amusing Forza 6 video that features a Cadillac limo drifting backwards around a track. Why? Some people apparently thought it was real-life footage of Secret Service agents training for "advanced reverse escapes" in the President's heav … | Continue reading
Leah Reich was one of the first internet advice columnists. Her column "Ask Leah" ran on IGN, where she gave advice to gamers for two and a half years. During the day, Leah is Slack’s user researcher, but her views here do not represent her employer. You can write to her at askle … | Continue reading
When Benjamin Franklin proposed Daylight Saving Time — he invented it — it was a joke. These days, it's more like a practical joke we play on ourselves every single year. It's time to end this dumb prank once and for all. Continue reading… | Continue reading
Broad City creators and stars Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer announced at a SXSW panel today that an episode featuring Hillary Clinton will air this Wednesday. Clinton herself announced the guest spot with a tweet from the set of the show back in December, but the plot and timing … | Continue reading
DeepMind’s exploits in South Korea have captivated the world this week, as its AlphaGo program has defeated Go champion Lee Se-dol three times to secure overall victory in a five-game series — something AI experts had previously predicted was decades away due to the ancient Chine … | Continue reading
Out on the red carpet for the New York City premiere of Daredevil season two, Power Man himself Mike Colter announced that Marvel's third Netflix series, Luke Cage, is officially set to debut on September 30th. The release puts its just under a year from the premiere of Jessica J … | Continue reading
The ARC, which stands for Audience Reactive Composition, looks like an instrumental installation you'd see at a Daft Punk concert fifteen years from now, with Tron-like neon lights and all manner of rotating spheres and illuminating touch-sensitive cylinders. It effectively lets … | Continue reading