The 1 VIII doesn’t look much like any Xperia that’s come before.
The Xperia 1 VIII marks an attempt at a step change for Sony's flagship phone line. Not only has it had an aesthetic overhaul, but Sony has also revamped the camera system, dropping the continuous optical zoom telephoto that's defined the last four generations of Xperia phone.
It's not all different. Sony staples like a 3.5mm headphone jack and microSD card slot remain, and a few specific design touches, like a thick front bezel that fits stereo speakers, have stayed intact. Sony's ambitious pricing hasn't changed either: The Xperia 1 VIII isn't launching in the US, but in the UK and Europe, it starts from £1,399 / €1,499 (about $1,850), r …
Atlantic reporter Alex Reisner recently uncovered four datasets of music being used to train AI models and made them fully searchable for the public. Two of the sets are absolutely enormous at 12 million and 9 million tracks. The other two are much smaller, but still represent a significant amount of training data at over 100,000 songs each.
According to Reisner, the sets have been downloaded thousands of times and, while it's impossible to know exactly who has used them, Google and Stability have both confirmed they have in research papers. Some of the sources, like the Free Music Archive dataset, are free to stream for personal use but re …
Indulging in the “Dark Souls of synthesis.” | Image: Aleksander Stojanov / Hainbach
Stefan Paul Goetsch, better known as Hainbach, is a German experimental composer, artist, and YouTuber who is perhaps most famous for making music with laboratory equipment and scientific instruments. He describes it as being like the "Dark Souls of synthesis." Despite using "hard mode" production techniques that often rely on telephone line testing equipment and gear salvaged from nuclear testing facilities, Hainbach is also incredibly prolific, releasing six albums in 2025 alone, along with a handful of singles and EPs. His latest, Gentle Hum, is a collaboration with Ah! Kosmos (Turkish composer, Başak Günak). The album is a melancholic co …
From its opening minutes, Moves of the Diamond Hand is upfront about what it offers: You're going to have a lot of strange conversations, and you're going to roll a lot of dice. Get on board with this proposition, and the reward is one of the most creative roleplaying games I've seen in years, even if its many mysteries won't be resolved until 2027.
Moves of the Diamond Hand is an Early Access videogame available on PC, macOS, and steamOS (including the Steam Deck, where I played it) from musician and game designer Cosmo D. The game looks and feels like a 2000s-era first-person RPG or immersive sim: environments are grimy, stark, and blocky …
Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 133, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you're new here, welcome, happy belated Juneteenth, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.)
This week, I've been reading about Sam Bankman-Fried and PE Guy and admin nights (which we should totally all do together one of these days), listening to Paul McCartney on Song Exploder, trudging through the bugs of the iOS 27 beta in order to use the good new Siri, once again trying and failing to switch to YouTube Music, free trial-hopping my way through the World Cup, finally upgrading my camera setup with the E …
I can't remember the last time I got excited about a fan. Normally, I just buy whatever Vornado or Dreo model fits my budget, but that was before I started testing the battery-powered Standing Circulator Fan from SwitchBot.
As the name indicates, the SwitchBot fan is a 3D circulator - a fancy way of saying that it can tilt up, down, left, and right to push a decent amount air around a room. It looks okay, despite all the plastic, is relatively quiet, runs for hours on battery, has an integrated nightlight, transforms from a desktop to standing fan in seconds, and works on its own or as part of a smart home. There's a lot to like here.
Nothing's next budget phone is the latest victim of RAMageddon. As 9to5Google reports, Nothing co-founder Akis Evangelidis announced in a post on X that a follow-up to the CMF Phone 2 Pro won't be coming this year:
We were working on a successor but with memory prices where they are right now, we can't build a phone that feels like a genuine step forward at a price that makes sense for CMF. As a result, we've decided not to launch a new CMF phone this year.
Relativity Space’s CEO is former Google executive Eric Schmidt. | Image: Alexander Tamargo / Getty Images
Relativity Space, the rocket company led by former Google executive Eric Schmidt, was picked to launch NASA's Aeolus payload to Mars in 2028, as reported earlier by TechCrunch. Under a new public-private partnership, Relativity Space will provide the "spacecraft, rocket, and cruise operations" to fly Aeolus to Mars, where the payload will "provide the first integrated, daily, global view of Martian winds, temperatures, dust, and clouds."
The Aeolus payload will have four instruments on board for studying the Martian atmosphere, which NASA says will "directly inform entry, descent, and landing systems and support safer, more predictable mis …
The new Wired Wall Switch Modules fit behind existing switches. | Image: Signify
Smart lighting company Philips Hue has launched its first wired wall modules. Installed behind existing wall switches, the new devices bring non-smart lights into the Hue ecosystem for the first time. Hue also announced new Play table and floor lamps that are more affordable versions of its Signe series, along with upgrades to its E14 candle bulbs that add a broader white light spectrum and Matter-over-Thread compatibility.
The new lights are now available globally; however, the Wired Wall Switch Modules are Europe-only. Signify CTO George Yianni told The Verge that there are currently no plans to launch them in the US, but the company woul …
Have I found my Chromecast Audio replacement? | Image: NTS Radio
NTS Radio and Swedish audio company Atonemo have teamed up on a dedicated player that brings NTS's genre-defying mixes and streaming stations to almost any stereo or speaker setup. And, like Atonemo's existing Streamplayer, you can also listen to your favorite streaming services with it, using AirPlay 2, Google Cast, Spotify Connect, or Tidal Connect.
The $179 NTS Radio Player puts out 24-bit / 192kHz audio over a standard 3.5mm audio jack and comes with an adapter cable for connecting to RCA on your vintage hi-fi system, or whatever other speakers you have lying around. The top of the device has two buttons for tuning in directly to NTS 1 …
Luca Guadagnino's film about OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Artificial, has reportedly been dropped by Amazon MGM.
The film, which stars Andrew Garfield and covers the rollercoaster five days in 2023 spanning Altman's termination and reinstatement as CEO, had been in the works for about a year. The cast also includes A Complete Unknown actress Monica Barbaro as OpenAI CTO Mira Murati, Ike Barinholtz as Elon Musk, and Anora's Yura Borisov as OpenAI chief scientist Ilya Sutskever.
In a statement to Deadline, the studio said it believes the movie "will be better served if it were released by a different studio and is working closely with the filmmak …
You need a quarter teaspoon for your face alone, a half teaspoon if you include the neck (which you should!)
This is Optimizer, a weekly newsletter sent from Verge senior reviewerVictoria Song that dissects and discusses the latest gizmos and potions that swear they're going to change your life. Opt in for Optimizer here.
On TikTok, the tanned youths are explaining why they no longer wear sunscreen. In one video, a young man films himself in the ocean while describing how you can naturally build up a "solar callus" or sun tolerance to getting burned. (You can't.) In another, a young woman confidently states that eating healthy foods full of polyphenols and other antioxidants will help make your body more resilient to sunburn. (Antioxidants help w …
If you've been following my reporting on the Trump phone, you'll know that Trump Mobile doesn't exactly keep open lines of communication with the media. That doesn't look to be changing, with the company no longer working with its long-term media relations firm.
Poplar Group has represented Trump Mobile since at least last June, when the company's founding partner Chris Walker gave a statement to USA Today, insisting at the time that "T1 …
When Colin Farrell was doing press for the first season of the detective series Sugar, he had to be very careful with how he spoke. Sugar is a story about a quirky private detective, but it's also secretly a work of science fiction, something that doesn't become clear until halfway through the season. "I knew that I could get the show in deep shit if I revealed certain things," he tells me. Now as Sugar heads into its next season, which starts streaming on Apple TV on June 19th, Farrell says he feels "unburdened" by the previous veil of secrecy. "There are certain things I wouldn't mention here about season 2," he says, "but nothing as big a …
The Strato E player (here with a Mini Terra Prime server on top of it) is smaller than a Blu-ray disc collection, but you can get a lot of 4K discs for $3,000.
We've lost something in the past 15 years. Netflix, Amazon, Disney, Apple; they've all convinced us that streaming is the best way to watch movies and shows at home. With everything at our fingertips, there's no need to run to Blockbuster for the weekend's entertainment, or wait for a DVD rental to arrive in the mail. And going to the movie theater is a luxury - one that keeps getting more expensive.
But we were, all of us, deceived. We traded quality for convenience. And while TVs have improved drastically, we feed them inadequate, bitrate-starved, internet-throttled streams that won't let our fancy screens show their full potential. Blu-r …
Five months after returning to OpenAI, Barret Zoph - the company's head of enterprise AI sales - has departed, The Verge has learned.
Zoph returned to OpenAI in mid-January after a stint as co-founder and CTO of Thinking Machines Lab, the competing AI company founded by former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati. Shortly after Zoph returned to OpenAI, the company said he would lead its push into enterprise - a significant role at OpenAI, since in recent months it had vowed to stop chasing so-called "side quests" and focus on key revenue drivers like enterprise and coding ahead of its planned IPO.
OpenAI confirmed to The Verge that Zoph will be depart …
Valve has some good news and bad news about Steam Controllers. The good news: If you make a reservation for a Steam Controller, the company will now show you one of three estimates of when you'll be able to actually order your gamepad: by September 2026, by December 2026, or sometime in 2027. The bad news: Any reservations made today "indicate a 2027 date for shipping," Valve says.
"We have no plans to stop making Steam Controller," according to Valve. "But as we look at the current demand compared to how many we know we can make by the end of the year, we want to manage expectations as much as we can with regards to when folks can expect t …
You don’t need a Game Boy Camera or a GB Operator dock to use Epilogue’s new Flashback app. | Image: Epilogue
The $50 GB Operator is an accessory that lets you connect, play, and authenticate Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance cartridges on PCs and other devices. Now it's getting some new functionality for the Game Boy Camera. After turning the Game Boy Camera into a charmingly awful desktop webcam two years ago, device-maker Epilogue has just released an iOS/Android mobile app so you can take photos while the Game Boy accessory is connected to your smartphone through the GB Operator.
The Game Boy Camera was a terrible camera even by 1998 standards when it was released. It captured 0.01434-megapixel images in just four shades of gray an …
You can stream Sinners and other recent Oscar winners for less with HBO Max's sale. | Image: Warner Bros. Pictures
The easiest way to save on a streaming service is often to pay for a year upfront, which HBO Max is currently making a lot cheaper. Through July 15, 2026, new and returning subscribers can get 28 percent off any of HBO Max’s yearly plans, bringing the ad-supported tier down to $78.99 ($31 off) per year, the Standard plan to $132.99 ($52 off) per year, and the Premium tier to $164.99 per year ($65 off). That’s up to 40 percent less than paying month to month.
All three plans include access to HBO Max’s extensive library of movies and TV shows, including films from Warner Bros. Pictures, DC Studios, A24, Studio Ghibli, and Turner Classic Movies. Subscribers can also stream recent Oscar winners and nominees like titles like Sinners,One Battle After Another, and Marty Supreme, alongside other HBO Max originals. On the TV side, you’ll also get access to popular series like The Pitt, Hacks, Euphoria, and Heated Rivalry, as well as longtime favorites such as Game of Thrones, Friends, and The Big Bang Theory.
The biggest differences come down to features. The ad-supported Basic plan lets you stream on up to two devices simultaneously, while the Standard plan lets you download up to 30 shows and movies for offline viewing. It also includes access to live sports from the likes of the MLB, U.S Soccer, college football, NHL, and more. The Premium tier lets you stream on up to four devices at once, supports 4K and Dolby Atmos, and increases offline downloads to 100 titles.
Snap's new smart glasses are probably the most impressive bit of face-computer technology we've seen. They're not VR-headset huge; they don't have a big charging puck; thanks to Snap's many years of AR lens development, they're likely to have a lot of features right out of the box. (Yes, they're $2,195, but that may just be what all this tech costs right now.) Snap is clearly at the front of this race.
And then… you see the pictures. The pictures of Snap CEO Evan Spiegel wearing the new Specs, as the enormous and heavy stems smash down on his ears. The pictures of models and athletes wearing Specs, carefully posed to hide the obvious weigh …
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