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President Donald Trump kicked off the first day of his presidency by signing a flurry of executive actions, including halting enforcement of the TikTok ban and rolling back the Biden administration’s artificial intelligence order. Having already run the country once before, Trump entered the presidency with the goal of hitting the ground running, having already […]
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Google said today that it plans to update Google Maps to reflect President Trump’s January 20th executive order to change the names of the Gulf of Mexico and Denali to the Gulf of America and Mount McKinley, respectively.
The company noted on X the updated nomenclature will appear once the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) is updated.
“We have a longstanding practice of applying name changes when they have been updated in official government sources,” the company posted on X. It added that when “name changes vary between countries, Maps users see their official local name. Everyone in the rest of the world sees both names. That applies here too.”
Denali was named Mount McKinley until 2015.
The US Department of the Interior said last week it plans to follow the executive order to implement the name changes.
“The U.S. Board on Geographic Names, under the purview of the Department of the Interior, is working expeditiously to update the official federal nomenclature in the Geographic Names Information System to reflect these changes, effective immediately for federal use,” the Department of the Interior said on Friday.
An Apple spokesperson wasn’t immediately available to comment on its plans for Apple Maps.
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Without going into detail about what might happen to the $52 billion in subsidies from the CHIPS Act under his administration, Donald Trump said tariffs on foreign computer chips, semiconductors, and pharmaceuticals are coming “in the near future.” He also namechecked DeepSeek’s AI releases, saying, “...coming up with a faster method of AI and less expensive, that’s good. I view that as a positive if it is fact and it is true, and nobody knows, but I view that as a positive.”
In the speech at the House GOP Issues Conference held at the Trump National Doral Resort in Miami Monday afternoon, he said that to return the production of these goods to the US, “we don’t want to give them billions of dollars like this ridiculous program Biden has.” Instead the incentive for manufacturers will be “they will not want to pay a tax.”
This is despite the outcome of the trade war with China during his first administration that expanded China’s trade surplus with the US between 2018, when the tariffs began, and 2021. A CTA report from last year cited by TechCrunchsaid Trump’s proposed tariffs could increase prices on laptops and tablets by 46 percent, game consoles by 40 percent, and smartphones by 26 percent.
He also said that “we will have more plants built in the next short period of time than ever before because the incentive will be there,” however it’s unclear how many of those will be like The Stargate Project’s first datacenter in Texas, which was in the works well before the start of his administration. Last fall, the Commerce Department said that by then, it had “announced over $30 billion in proposed CHIPS private sector investments spanning 23 projects in 15 states” with 16 new manufacturing facilities in the works.
He also said of DeepSeek that “instead of spending billions you will spend less and hopefully come up with the same solution,” even as OpenAI, Softbank & co. say they’re preparing to spend $500 billion on AI datacenters.
The VergeThe rise of generative AI has been powered by Nvidia and its advanced GPUs. As demand far outstrips supply, the H100 has become highly sought after and extremely expensive, making Nvidia a trillion-dollar company for the first time. It’s also prompting customers, like Microsoft, Meta, OpenAI, Amazon, and Google to start working on their own […]
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Following years of litigation, a federal court has finally ruled it unconstitutional for the FBI to search communications of US citizens collected under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). In a ruling unsealed last week, US District Court Judge LaShann DeArcy Hall decided that these “backdoor” searches violate the Fourth Amendment.
As noted by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, FISA allows federal intelligence agencies to collect swaths of foreign communications “in the name of ‘national security.’” Even though some of those communications might involve US residents, the government has argued that requiring warrants “would hinder the FBI’s ability to obtain and act upon threat intelligence.” In 2023, the FBI conducted more than 57,000 “US person” data searches, marking a 52 percent decrease from 2022.
This particular decision stems from a case involving Agron Hasbajrami, a permanent US resident who was arrested in 2011 over accusations that he planned to join a terrorist organization in Pakistan. However, the government failed to disclose that part of its case rested on emails it obtained without a warrant through Section 702 of FISA.
An appeals court in 2020 ruled that these types of searches might be unconstitutional, but now it’s official. Judge DeArcy Hall found the FBI’s warrantless search of US data “unreasonable” under the Fourth Amendment:
While communications of U.S. persons may nonetheless be intercepted, incidentally or inadvertently, it would be paradoxical to permit warrantless searches of the same information that Section 702 is specifically designed to avoid collecting. To countenance this practice would convert Section 702 into precisely what Defendant has labeled it – a tool for law enforcement to run “backdoor searches” that circumvent the Fourth Amendment.
Congress reauthorized Section 702 of FISA last year, and it’s set to expire again in 2026. The EFF is asking lawmakers to create a “legislative warrant requirement so that the intelligence community does not continue to trample on the constitutionally protected rights to private communications.”
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Image: Sony
Sony is upping the limited warranty on some InZone gaming monitors to three years and is tossing in OLED burn-in coverage for the 27-inch M10S. The company announced the additional coverage today after launching both the InZone M10S OLED and M9 II LED in September with only one-year limited warranties out of the box. Sony says other than that, the limited warranties remain as they were.
Manufacturers have long been averse to talking about burn-in or have outright categorized the phenomenon as “normal use,” denying warranty claims to fix it on various panel types. However, OLEDs have historically been more susceptible to burn-in, especially when used with many static images like those from a PC. In recent years, OLED has improved to be less sensitive to burn-ins.
Sony is the latest in a trend of manufacturers adding burn-in coverage. Alienware was one of the first to specifically include OLED burn-in within its three-year coverage on the QD-OLED monitor launched in 2022, and for its latest 27-inch 4K model coming this year. And in 2023, The Verge’s Sean Hollister asked LG to explicitly warrant the company’s OLED monitors against burn-in and they agreed and changed their verbiage.
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Screenshot: The Verge
A Samsung representative on this Best Buy product listing says the three-year warranty on the 32-inch Odyssey OLED G8 covers burn-in.
Since then, companies like MSI and Asus have also pledged to cover OLED burn-in on some models, including their latest ones (in some countries). It’s important to research the warranty included in the model you’re buying to determine whether burn-in coverage is included. For instance, Samsung’s website shows a general policy for its warranty that excludes burn-ins, however, an online rep confirmed it does cover it on a 32-inch Odyssey OLED G8. However, the company still hasn’t clarified if burn-ins are covered for its latest 27-inch Odyssey OLED G8 gaming monitor.
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Apple updated its AirPods firmware support page today with a more detailed step-by-step guide on how to upgrade the AirPods, AirPods Pro, and AirPods Max with their latest firmware, according to MacRumors. While most Apple devices, like the iPhone or Apple Watch, can start updates in the settings, with the AirPods you have to wait for the update process to happen on its own.
The AirPods firmware support page still includes Apple’s original summary of the conditions needed for the update process, but has now added an expanded step-by-step guide to help ensure the process happens automatically. Although most of the steps have been previously known, there are some specific suggestions added, including charging with a USB cable and waiting at least 30 minutes for the update to happen. Those clarifications may help you if you’ve been struggling to get firmware updates to work.
The following steps are specifically for the AirPods and AirPods Pro. The instructions for the AirPods Max are nearly identical, but with the charging case steps omitted.
There are still no sounds or pop-ups on a connected device letting you know when your AirPods’ firmware has been successfully updated. After following these steps and waiting for at least half an hour, you can check your AirPods firmware version manually by opening the Bluetooth settings of your iPhone, iPad, or Mac, clicking the Info button next to the name of your AirPods, and then navigating to the About section.
If it’s still showing a firmware version that’s older than the latest versions Apple lists on its support page, the company recommends resetting the AirPods and then going through the firmware update steps again.
The VergeTikTok is mostly back online after briefly going dark in the US to comply with the divest-or-ban law that went into effect on January 19th. On January 20th, Donald Trump issued an executive order “instructing the Attorney General not to take any action to enforce the Act for a period of 75 days from today.” […]
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Chinese startup DeepSeek claims its AI models can match the performance of those made by OpenAI and Meta — but at a fraction of the cost.
DeepSeek is shaking up the AI industry with cost-efficient large-language models it claims can perform just as well as rivals from giants like OpenAI and Meta. The Chinese startup says its flagship R1 reasoning model is capable of achieving “performance comparable” to OpenAI’s o1 equivalent, while the newly-released Janus Pro multimodal AI model can supposedly outperform Stable Diffusion and DALL-E 3.
DeepSeek’s ChatGPT competitor quickly soared to the top of the App Store, and the company is disrupting financial markets, with shares of Nvidia dipping 17 percent by 2PM on January 27th. The AI assistant is powered by the startup’s “state-of-the-art” DeepSeek-V3 model, allowing users to ask questions, plan trips, generate text, and more. As downloads of DeepSeek’s app spiked, the startup began restricting signups due to “malicious attacks.”
Launched in 2023 by Liang Wenfeng, DeepSeek has garnered attention for building open-source AI models using less cash and fewer GPUs when compared to the billions spent by OpenAI, Meta, Google, Microsoft, and others. If DeepSeek’s performance claims are true, it could prove that the startup managed to build powerful AI models despite strict US export controls preventing chipmakers like Nvidia from selling high-performance graphics cards in China.
Here’s all the latest on DeepSeek.
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The Pebble Time Round just got a new lease on life. | Photo: Chris Welch / The Verge
Eric Migicovsky still wears his Pebble. Thirteen years after he founded the wearables company and found huge success on Kickstarter, and more than eight years after he sold the company to Fitbit, which was then acquired by Google, Migicovsky’s watch still works. (In case you’re wondering: when I saw him at CES a few weeks ago, he appeared to be wearing a white Pebble Time Round model. But he has a box full of them at home.) It hasn’t gotten a software update since December 2016, though, and he’s been worried for a while that it will eventually stop getting notifications, or connecting to his phone, or run into some other show-stopping problem.
Rather than buy another smartwatch, Migicovsky decided to try and get Pebble going again. He sold his most recent startup, a messaging app called Beeper, to Automattic last year and left the company in the fall. Since then, he’d thought about starting a Pebble-like product from scratch, figuring it’d be easier to do the same thing again a second time. “But then I was like, what if I just asked Google to open-source the operating system?” he says. It felt like a long shot, but he knew the code was just sitting dormant inside Mountain View somewhere. So he asked. A few times.
To Migicovsky’s surprise, Google agreed to release Pebble OS to the public. As of Monday, all the Pebble firmware is available on GitHub, and Migicovsky is starting a company to pick up where he left off.
The company — which can’t be named Pebble because Google still owns that — doesn’t have a name yet. For now, Migicovsky is hosting a waitlist and news signup at a website called RePebble. Later this year, once the company has a name and access to all that Pebble software, the plan is to start shipping new wearables that look, feel, and work like the Pebbles of old.
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Photo: Dan Seifert / The Verge
Pebbles were always gadget-y gadgets, which is still part of their appeal.
The reason, Migicovsky tells me, is simple. “I’ve tried literally everything else,” he says, “and nothing else comes close.” Sure, he may just have a very specific set of requirements — lots of people are clearly happy with what Apple, Garmin, Google, and others are making. But it’s true that there’s been nothing like Pebble since Pebble. “For the things I want out of it, like a good e-paper screen, long battery life, good and simple user experience, hackable, there’s just nothing.”
The core of Pebble, he says, is a few things. A Pebble should be quirky and fun and should feel like a gadget in an important way. It shows notifications, lets you control your music with buttons, lasts a long time, and doesn’t try to do too much. It sounds like Migicovsky might have Pebble-y ambitions beyond smartwatches, but he appears to be starting with smartwatches.
If that sounds like the old Pebble and not much else, that’s precisely the point. Migicovsky tells me over and over that the plan is not to reinvent Pebble, or AI the bejesus out of the concept, or do whatever else you’d do starting a hardware company in 2025. The fact that the Pebble on his wrist still works, and still works for him, is evidence that maybe Pebble had already finished its job. “We’re building a spiritual, not successor, but clone of Pebble,” he says, “because there’s not that much I actually want to change.”
A lot of other things have changed in eight years, though. Google, Apple, and Samsung all now have good smartwatches that are tied tightly to their other devices — Pebble always had trouble getting access to features on iOS, in particular, and that’s not getting easier. Smartwatches are currently health and fitness devices above all else, and they’re getting vastly more complex and powerful in pursuit of those features. Google obviously doesn’t see any form of Pebble as a threat; its best chance is to chart another path entirely.
The biggest difference this time will be how the company itself operates. Migicovsky wrote a long blog post in 2022 explaining what went wrong at Pebble the first time and ascribed its failure in part to taking a bunch of investment money and letting it change the company. Since then, Migicovsky has made plenty of money from Beeper and during a stint as an investor at Y Combinator; his new company is his alone. Right now, it’s just Migicovsky and a few part-time employees — it’ll grow, he says, but not too much. “The core thing here is: sustainable.”
“They could even use it in random other hardware. Who knows what people can do with it now?”
Migicovsky also hopes to be part of a broader open-source community around Pebble OS. The Pebble diehards still exist: a group of developers at Rebble have worked to keep many of the platform’s apps alive, for instance, along with the Cobble app for connecting to phones, and the Pebble subreddit is surprisingly active for a product that hasn’t been updated since the Obama administration. Migicovsky says he plans to open-source whatever his new company builds and hopes lots of other folks will build stuff, too. “There’s going to be the ability for anyone who wants to, to take Pebble source code, compile it, run it on their Pebbles, build new Pebbles, build new watches,” he says. “They could even use it in random other hardware. Who knows what people can do with it now?”
This whole project will take time, Migicovsky cautions. He only found out for sure that Google would open-source the software a few days ago, and he hasn’t been able to use it at all yet. But he’s already working on hardware prototypes, and he’s crystal clear on what he wants the new Pebbles to be. He knows he can do it because he already did it once. The evidence is right there on his wrist. All he’s trying to do is make sure it can stay there.
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Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
iOS 18.3 is here, and it’s bringing changes to AI notification summaries on your iPhone. In iOS 18.3’s release notes, Apple says it has temporarily disabled notification summaries for news and entertainment apps.
The change, which was first spotted in the iOS 18.3 beta, comes after the BBC called out the feature for incorrectly summarizing one of its headlines. If you opt-in to the feature, Apple will notify you once it becomes available again.
For Apple devices that support Apple Intelligence (iPhone 15 Pro and later, iPads and Macs with the Apple Silicon M1 chip or later, and the most recent version of the iPad mini), today’s updates will also switch Apple Intelligence on by default.
Other features coming with the new iPhone update include the ability to use Visual Intelligence to add an event to the Calendar app from a poster or flyer, as well as a way to “easily identify plants and animals.” On Macs, the macOS 15.3 update that is also rolling out now is adding support for Genmoji, along with similar changes for notification summaries.
Additionally, iOS 18.3 will show notification summaries in italicized text to help you distinguish them from standard notifications. There will be new settings that let you manage notification summaries from your lock screen as well.
You can download the iOS 18.3 update by heading to Settings > General > Software Update.
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Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge
Meta is widely launching the ability for its AI chatbot to “remember” certain details about you, such as your dietary preferences or your interests, the company said in a blog post on Monday. It will then use your past conversations, in addition to details from Facebook and Instagram accounts, to provide more relevant recommendations.
Meta first started rolling out a memory feature for its AI chatbot last year, but now it will be available across Facebook, Messenger, and WhatsApp on iOS and Android in the US and Canada. Though you can tell Meta AI to remember certain things, like that you love traveling, it will also “pick up important details based on context.”
For example, if Meta AI provides you with a recipe that contains meat, and you respond that you’re vegan, the chatbot will adjust its future responses to account for your preference.
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Image: Meta
Meta says its AI will only remember things in one-on-one conversations, not in group chats, and that you can delete its memories “at any time.” Chatbots like ChatGPT and Google Gemini already have a similar feature.
Along with these “memories,” Meta AI on Facebook, Messenger, and Instagram will now deliver “a greater level of personalization” using information from your accounts. As noted by Meta, if you ask its chatbot for something fun to do with family, Meta AI could use your home location listed in your Facebook profile, as well as recently-viewed reels showing live country performances, to recommend a local country music show.
Meta doesn’t specify the other kinds of data its AI chatbot will glean from your Facebook and Instagram accounts, and the company didn’t immediately respond to a request for more information.
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The Apple Sports app has been updated with broadcast information for users in the US. | Screenshot: David Pierce / The Verge
Apple updated its iOS Sports app today with several new features, including a faster way to navigate the app, support for a handful of additional soccer tournaments, and information about where you can watch games that are being nationally broadcast in the US.
According to the release notes for the update, you can now quickly “swipe left or right to browse all of the leagues and teams you follow.” When on a page for a specific game, below each team’s name and record for the season you’ll now find an additional line listing broadcast information such as “Live on NHL Network,” or “Live on TNT, Max, truTV,” if there are several ways to watch it.
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Screenshot: Richard Lawler / The Verge
The Apple Sports app now provides brief details on where to watch nationally-televised games in the US.
The update also expands the Sports app’s soccer coverage with the addition of the UK’s FA Cup, EFL Championship, and League Cup tournaments.
Apple Sports launched in February, giving fans of several different major sports leagues – including the NBA, NHL, and MLS – a one-stop solution for keeping tabs on scores, stats, upcoming games, and even betting odds. In August, the app added live scores and play-by-play info for NFL and college football games and expanded its Live Activities support “for all teams and leagues available in the app,” making it easier to track games on an iPhone’s lock screen and the Apple Watch.
In December, it also introduced summaries of scoring plays and big moments in a game called Key Plays, plus league standings that made it easier to track which teams qualified for the postseason.
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The 2021 Kindle Paperwhite isn’t significantly different than its successor, rendering this an excellent deal if you want a waterproof Amazon e-reader. | Photo by Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge
If you’re feeling bored because it’s too cold to go outside, here’s an e-reader deal that might help: Woot is selling a refurbished 2021 Kindle Paperwhite with 16GB of storage and ads for just $89.99 with a 90-day warranty, saving you about $60 off the latest model. New Woot customers can also score an additional $10 off when they use code FIRETENOFF at checkout until February 1st at 1AM ET, lowering the price further to $79.99.
It may no longer be Amazon’s newest Kindle Paperwhite, but the 2021 version is still one of my favorite Amazon e-readers. Unlike the entry-level Kindle, which starts at $109.99, it boasts IPX8 waterproofing so it’s perfect if you read in the bath. Its 300ppi display is sharp with adjustable color temperature, so you can read just as easily at night as you can during the day. The 6.8-inch e-reader also offers exceptional battery life, allowing you to read for months on a single charge. You can quickly charge it thanks to USB-C support.
There are trade-offs you’ll make buying the 2021 Paperwhite over the 2024 version, which starts at $159.99. The latest Paperwhite, for instance, is noticeably faster with a slightly larger 7-inch screen and richer contrast levels.
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PBS
Though much of PBS’ programming is already available to stream through through its own apps, now you can access it through Amazon Prime Video.
Amazon has launched a selection of new, ad-free FAST channels consisting of programming from over 150 local PBS affiliate stations and the PBS KIDS Channel. Even if you aren’t subscribed to Prime Video, you will be able to access live affiliate streams in the “Watch for Free” section without having to watch the third-party ads seen on Amazon’s other FAST channels.
When Amazon and PBS first announced their partnership last November, PBS’ chief digital marketing officer Ira Rubenstein described the deal as “part of the PBS commitment to make trusted content available to all households across as many platforms as possible.”
The launch of Prime’s PBS FAST channels comes just months after Amazon shut down Freevee, its ad-supported channel that featured original series like Judy Justice as well as licensed content from other networks like Chicago Fire.
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After surging to the top of Apple’s App Store charts in the US, DeepSeek’s AI Assistant is now restricting new user sign-ups. According to an incident report page, registrations are being temporarily limited “due to large-scale malicious attacks on DeepSeek’s services,” though it’s unclear how these limitations are being applied.
“Existing users can log in as usual,” DeepSeek said in its update. “Thanks for your understanding and support.” An alert banner on the DeepSeek web sign-up page says that “registration may be busy,” rather than entirely restricted, however, and encourages users to wait and “try again” if their application is unsuccessful.
Outages and performance issues were reported by DeepSeek earlier today, which prevented users from signing in or creating new accounts. That incident has now been marked as resolved, but no information has been provided about the reported attacks against DeepSeek’s chatbot app. It was previously thought that DeepSeek’s systems may be under strain due to a huge influx of new users downloading the app, which is said to rival Western AI services like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Anthropics Claude.
An earlier update said that “only registration with a mainland China mobile phone number” is currently supported in an attempt to “ensure continued service.” The specific requirement for Chinese numbers has since been deleted; however, I and other Verge staff have been able to successfully create new accounts via sign-in options for Google and Apple ID. Email registration is also still currently listed as available on the web-based DeepSeek signup page.
Developing…
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Spotify and Universal Music Group have signed a new multi-year agreement that could result in a tiered subscription approach aimed at providing extra perks for “superfans.” The two didn’t announce any specifics, including the number of years the deal lasts, but UMG says it’s consistent with a “Streaming 2.0” vision it presented to investors last year.
UMG chairman and CEO Sir Lucian Grainge called the agreement “precisely the kind of partnership development” the company hoped for when describing Streaming 2.0. That presentation envisioned a “Super-Premium” subscription for superfans that could mean things like early access to music, exclusive deluxe editions, hi-res audio, and artist Q&As. The companies have been rumored to be discussing such a deal for months.
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Screenshot: Universal Music Group
UMG’s concept for a new subscription tier for superfans.
UMG also referenced Streaming 2.0 when it signed an agreement with Amazon Music last month, as World Music Business pointed out when it broke news of the Spotify agreement prior to Sunday’s announcement.
The deal also “appears” to increase royalty rates, the National Music Publishers Association told Variety. The outlet pointed out yesterday that the NMPA and others had criticized Spotify over changes last year that led to lower mechanical royalty rates for songwriters, spurring an NMPA complaint to the FTC.
Sony Music Publishing also criticized Spotify’s royalty changes, and even considered options to challenge them. It’s not clear if Sony or any other publishers are in talks for similar deals with Spotify, but that could change in light of the UMG deal, which Billboard notes is Spotify’s first direct deal with a music publisher since the Music Modernization Act passed in 2018.
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Image: Genesis
Hyundai’s luxury nameplate Genesis is taking its brand to new (and very cold) heights with a concept that turns its all electric GV60 SUV into a snowmobile. The new GV60 MIV, which stands for “Mountain Intervention Vehicle” is designed to assist in rescue operations on mountainous snowscapes and can also handle “rugged terrains and challenging weather conditions,” according to the automaker.
The GV60 MIV swaps its on-road wheels for four snow tracks, and it’s got well bolstered sport seats, medical supplies, and communication systems so you don’t get lost and need rescuing yourself. There’s also carbon fiber wheel arc extensions added to protect bystanders and minimize debris damage, a roof rack for emergency supplies, and a drone kit included in the trunk.
Genesis replaces the rearview mirror with a dedicated Garmin GPS Map 276Cx device, which can help you keep track of your location without the need of a data connection. Genesis also highlights the GV60’s vehicle-to-load abilities that lets it power rescue equipment using the EV battery, making it an environmentally-friendly setup that won’t muck up pure white snow. The EV is capable of up to 429 horsepower and has a maximum EPA estimated range of up to 294 miles on a single charge (for the on-road versions).
Genesis put the MIV on display at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland this past week, a location where the automaker has presented other models since 2023 including the Genesis X and the GV70 Snow adventure car, which is kind of the opposite of the new MIV in that its for having risky offroad fun.
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The Apple Watch Series 10 is the biggest and brightest you can buy without paying hundreds more for the Ultra. | photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
With a redesigned casing, a bigger display, and faster charging, the Apple Watch Series 10 is a fantastic upgrade opportunity for anyone who, like me, is more than a few iterations behind. If you’re in the same boat, you might consider jumping on a deal from Amazon, Best Buy, and Walmart that takes the 42mm version of the smartwatch down to $329 ($70 off), which matches the record low from Black Friday.
The 46mm Series 10 is also on sale for $359 ($70 off) at Amazon, Best Buy, and Walmart, which is also its best price to date.
The Apple Watch Series 10’s wide-angle displays are only one millimeter bigger than their Series 9 counterparts, but it’s a noticeable difference. The displays are also 40 percent brighter, while the overall package is a hair thinner. The Series 10 still doesn’t last more than a day as it doesn’t have the Ultra’s battery gains, but it won’t spend as much time on a MagSafe charger as it can get up to 80 percent capacity in 30 minutes.
For tracking your fitness and wellness, the Apple Watch Series 10 can do far more than count your daily steps and close your activity rings. It has optical and ECG heart rate monitors that can check your ticker and track your sleeping, including the ability to detect sleep apnea. It also has a temperature sensor for tracking cycles and other vital metrics, plus water temperature and depth sensors to help with aquatic workouts in shallower waters. It’s not fully waterproof, however, so you’ll want an Ultra if you’re plunging deeper.
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Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Some Slack users are finding that their notifications aren’t showing up on the platform this morning, or that their corresponding messages are harder to find than usual. A few of my colleagues are reporting similar issues on _The Verge’_s Slack channels, and I’ve been receiving repeated notifications for thread messages that I’ve already marked as read. The issues also seem to be affecting tags for other users — if a colleague hasn’t responded to your pings, DM them directly for now.
Slack is aware that “notifications may be missing for some users” and logged an incident report at 7:52AM ET today, later confirming that the issue is impacting threads. “We’re currently investigating the issue and we’ll be back when we have more information,” Slack announced on its status page. “We’re sorry for any interruption to your day.”
It’s unclear what’s causing the disruption to notifications or how many Slack users have been impacted. There’s a visible spike on Downdetector, but very few reports have been logged.
For myself, at least, some notifications are coming through, but several minutes after a message has been sent. As of 10:10AM ET, Slack said that “other notifications should be working as expected, but threads may not be loading correctly.” It also logged a separate note that reports some users are having trouble adding new members to multi-person DM’s (group chats for up to nine people.)
Developing…
Update, January 27th: Added more updates from Slack.
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One of the biggest tech companies you’ve never heard of is helping you listen to this podcast.
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The market value of US AI companies is taking a tumble. | Image: DeepSeek
A chatbot made by Chinese artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek has rocketed to the top of Apple’s App Store charts in the US this week, dethroning OpenAI’s ChatGPT as the most downloaded free app. The eponymous AI assistant is powered by DeepSeek’s open-source models, which the company says can be trained at a fraction of the cost using far fewer chips than the world’s leading models. The claim has riled financial markets, sending Nvidia’s shares down over 12 percent in pre-market training,
Downloads for the app exploded shortly after DeepSeek released its new R1 reasoning model on January 20th, which is designed for solving complex problems and reportedly performs as well as OpenAI’s o1 on certain benchmarks. R1 was built on the V3 LLM DeepSeek released in December, which the company claims is on par with GPT-4o and Anthropic’s Claude 3.5 Sonnet, and cost less than $6 million to develop. By contrast, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has said GPT-4 cost over $100 million to train.
DeepSeek also claims to have needed only about 2,000 specialized chips from Nvidia to train V3, compared to the 16,000 or more required to train leading models, according to the New York Times. These unverified claims are leading developers and investors to question the compute-intensive approach favored by the world’s leading AI companies. And if true, it means that DeepSeek engineers had to get creative in the face of trade restrictions meant to ensure US domination of AI.
Nvidia, Microsoft, OpenAI, and Meta are investing billions into AI data centers — $500 billion alone for the Stargate Project, of which $100 billion is thought to be earmarked for Nvidia. Investors and analysts are now wondering if that’s money well spent, with Nvidia, Microsoft, and other companies with substantial stakes in maintaining the AI status quo all trending downward in pre-market trading.
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The new iPhone SE will likely be limited to a single rear camera. | Image: Majin Bu
We might have just gotten our best look yet at Apple’s next affordable iPhone SE, shown in both video and photographs of what’s either a real phone or a convincing dummy unit. Despite some reports that the next SE would adopt recent iPhones’ Dynamic Island design, this model appears to stick with the older notch.
Leaker Majin Bu shared a short video over the weekend that shows the new phone in bright daylight, following it up a day later with photos of both white and black versions. Like previous iPhone SE models there’s only a single rear camera, though this appears to be the first in the line to feature a USB-C port — now a requirement for the phone to be sold in the EU.
Here's what the iPhone SE 4 looks like pic.twitter.com/pEyIAJ34VR
— Majin Bu (@MajinBuOfficial) January 25, 2025
The biggest surprise is that the phone features Apple’s older notched display, rather than the Dynamic Island design that leaker Evan Blass had tipped it to include. This is hard to make out clearly in the video, but the selfie camera’s position just left of centre matches the iPhone 14’s notched setup — and besides, the leaker himself has confirmed in replies to the post that there’s a notch.
iPhone SE 4 looks so beautiful pic.twitter.com/ezhNrrhyf8
— Majin Bu (@MajinBuOfficial) January 26, 2025
This isn’t our first look at the new SE, though it is our clearest. Sonny Dickson shared two photos of similar looking SE 4 dummy units two weeks ago that he then put on sale.
The SE 4 is rumored to switch to an OLED display, and is expected to include enough RAM to support Apple Intelligence features. Rumors point to a launch around March or April, which makes sense — the SE 3 launched in March 2022.
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The SuperStation One comes in three colors, including translucent blue. | Image: Retro Remake
Retro Remake’s Taki Udon announced last night that preorders had opened for the SuperStation One, a clone of the PS One variant of the original PlayStation. The $149.99 Founders Edition preorders are sold out already, but you can still preorder the standard $225 SuperStation One for $179.99 right now, with shipping expected in “Q4 or Earlier.”
While the SuperStation One looks like a PS One — complete with ports compatible with the original PlayStation controller and memory cards — it plays more than just PlayStation 1 games. It’s a custom MiSTER field-programmable gate array (FPGA) machine, as Polygon points out. That means rather than emulating game consoles, its hardware can actually function just like those consoles, with cores ranging from the Atari 5200 and NES to the PlayStation and Sega Saturn.
Introducing the SuperStation one. An open-source PS1 FPGA gaming console that supports original games, memory cards, and controllers. Load games from a disk or a backup. Region free. Supports all MiSTer FPGA cores, including N64 & Sega Saturn. Learn more: retroremake.co
— Taki Udon (@takiudon.bsky.social) 2025-01-26T01:02:28.357Z
Retro Remake currently offers the system in black, gray, and translucent blue. It comes with a 64GB Micro SD card and has three USB-A ports, an ethernet port, and an NFC reader that you can use to trigger specific games to load. It uses USB-C for power.
On the video side of things, the SuperStation One will have an HDMI port, along with VGA, DIN10, composite, and component ports geared for retro gaming setups. You’ll also find a 3.5mm audio jack and a digital audio port. Finally, there’s an expansion slot to support Retro Remake’s planned SuperDock accessory that adds a slot-loading disc drive, a 2280 m.2 SSD bay, and four more USB-A ports. That’s not up for preorder yet, but you can put down a $5 preorder deposit for it with an order of the SuperStation One.
This is Retro Remake’s first console, though the company plans to make more later, as Udon told Time Extensionlast week. The company has released other products, including a DIY kit for upgrading the Nintendo Switch Lite to an OLED display.
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Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge
Whenever Netflix raises its prices — which seems to happen roughly as often as Ben Affleck falls in love with an A-list celebrity — the company always gives the same reason. It needs the extra money, you see, in order to keep investing in the kind of programming and product its 302 million subscribers demand. That’s how the standard monthly price of ad-free Netflix jumped from $7.99 to $17.99 over the course of the last 13 years, including a $2.50 jump just announced during the company’s recent earnings report. There’s still a $7.99 monthly plan, of course, but that one includes ads — and it’s a dollar more expensive than it was a week ago.
But let’s be real with each other. You want to know why Netflix keeps raising its prices? Because it can. Because Netflix won. The rest of the streaming industry is competing ferociously over a finite pool of money, dealing with carriage disputes because of dwindling subscriber numbers, and panicking over the future of TV. Netflix is the future of TV.
Over the last couple of years in particular, Netflix has gone from a solid streaming service to a practically unavoidable, virtually uncancellable part of mainstream culture. It has developed a...
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Image: David Pierce / The Verge
Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 68, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome, hope you’re staying warm and sane, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.)
This week, I’ve been reading about Kieran Culkin and insomnia and the eBay for fancy startup stuff, finally watching The Wild Robot, thinking a lot about my shopping habits while watching The Mega-Brands That Built America, adding a bunch of Baseus retractable cables to my travel kit, playing an amazing browser-based rendition of the Atari game Pitfall!, testing out the new Spark calendar for Android, and trying to copy Babish’s delicious-looking breakfast sandwich.
I also have for you the biggest new phone in the Android world, the GPU every gamer’s going to want, an impossible test for AI tools, a clever Google alternative, and much more. It’s been a somewhat quiet week for new stuff, honestly, since it’s both post-CES doldrums and utter political chaos. But we’ve still got great stuff to talk about! Let’s do it.
(As always, the best part of Installer is your ideas and tips. What are you watching / reading / cooking / downloading / building...
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It can feel magical when it works, but often Live AI feels more like Captain Obvious. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
Live AI is neat, but the problem is knowing when (and why) you’d want to use it.
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The Lenovo Legion Go S with SteamOS. | Photo by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge
It might be time for a more unified platform.
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Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images
Oracle and a group of investors that includes Microsoft are in talks to take over TikTok’s global operations, reports NPR. The deal, which the White House is reportedly negotiating, would see ByteDance keeping a minority stake in TikTok while “the app’s algorithm, data collection and software updates will be overseen by Oracle.”
Oracle’s server network already provides the bulk of TikTok’s backbone, and under the deal, the company would “effectively monitor and provide oversight with what is going on with TikTok,” according to one of NPR’s anonymous sources, who added that the agreement’s goal is to “minimize Chinese ownership.”
Microsoft’s reported involvement isn’t clear beyond that it is “engaged in the talks.” The company was also in the mix with Oracle and Walmart in a 2020 bid to take over TikTok that Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates had called “a poison[ed] chalice.” Walmart reportedly isn’t involved this time around “after balking at the estimated price” of the app.
News of the talks comes after President Trump issued an executive order giving TikTok and others a 75-day reprieve from any enforcement action related to the United States’ requirement that ByteDance divest from TikTok. Trump had previously floated the possibility of a “joint venture” in which the US owns 50 percent of the company.
We’ve reached out to Oracle, Microsoft, TikTok, and the White House for comment.
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Image: Fubo
Fubo has raised its English-language streaming plan prices by $5 each, with a Fubo spokesperson citing “rising costs from our programming partners,” reported The Streamable yesterday. Fubo’s Essential and Pro plans now start at $85 a month, while its Elite plan has gone up to $95 monthly.
“We only make adjustments when necessary,” a Fubo spokesperson said to _The Streamable, “a_nd we’re committed to keeping Fubo competitive while ensuring our subscribers have access to the channels, features and live events they enjoy.”
I've updated my live TV streaming price tracker to reflect Fubo's $5/month increase.
More from The Streamable: https://t.co/wL6hz3IR6p pic.twitter.com/8w9izuy8F1
— Michael Saves (@MichaelSaves) January 24, 2025
Fubo debuted its Essential plan at $80 per month in December, as The Streamable notes. While priced the same as the Pro plan and offering largely the same features, it doesn’t include regional sports networks — or the extra up-to-$16 monthly fee that comes with them.
With the rate hike, Fubo is once again more expensive than YouTube TV, which raised its subscription fee by $10 the same month. It’s also pricier than Disney’s Hulu + Live TV, which Fubo is planning to merge with.