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The latest tech news about the world's best (and sometimes worst) hardware, apps, and much more. From top companies like Google and Apple to tiny startups vying for your attention, Verge Tech has the latest in what matters in technology daily.

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This may be your last chance to own a rare Nintendo PlayStation controller

In August, Heritage Auctions will be auctioning off another rare piece of hardware from the failed Nintendo and Sony collaboration.

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Hacktivists release Heritage Foundation data allegedly stolen in response to “Project 2025.”

A group that has previously claimed responsibility for breaching NATO, as well as satellite systems used by Halliburton and Shell, tells CyberScoop they’ve released 2GB of data from the conservative think tank behind “Project 2025” policy proposals for a second Trump administration.

The data includes the “full names, email addresses, passwords, and usernames” of people associating with Heritage, vio said, including users with U.S. government email addresses. “This itself can have an impact to heritage’s (sic) reputation,” they added, “and it’ll especially push away users in positions of power.” 


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Google Fi has a new feature to help protect against SIM swaps.

With Number Lock, you can’t transfer your phone number to a new phone or port your number over to another carrier, Google says.

If you have Google Fi, it’s probably worth setting this up — SIM swapping attacks can be pretty bad!


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PC industry growth wasn’t a fluke.

IDC and Canalys disagree whether this is the second or third consecutive quarter of growth, but either way, the slump is definitively behind us — and we haven’t even seen the impact of this year’s Qualcomm, AMD and Intel chip launches yet.


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Metaverse expert Matthew Ball published a long interview with Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth.

As summarized by Ball:

In the interview, we discuss the three “epochs” in Meta’s Metaverse strategy, what it will take for total VR / MR headset sales to cross 100 million annually, his the specs of his dream headset, Meta’s spending on Reality Labs, whether and when developers might get access to the Quest’s raw camera feed, the many inventions required to ship optical AR glasses, the role of AI, and more.


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MrBeast’s next video pits 50 YouTubers against each other.

Creators like MKBHD, Logan Paul, Kai Cenat, Pokimane, and Valkyrae will vie for $1,000,000, according to MrBeast. He says the video will go live on Saturday.

In June, MrBeast posted a group photo featuring the creators in the competition — there are a lot more that I didn’t name here!


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Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, and Cameron Diaz are all coming back for Shrek 5.

The Shrek franchise has been pretty Puss in Boots-oriented for over a decade now, but in 2026, Shrek, Donkey, and Fiona will be back in theaters at the center of a new DreamWorks movie.


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Apple TV’s InSight can instantly add tracks to your Apple Music library.

According to reports from beta testers, the new InSight feature announced at WWDC has appeared in the latest developer beta of iOS 18 and tvOS 18.

InSight pops up details about actors, characters, and songs appearing onscreen in original Apple TV Plus shows. These also show on your iPhone, from where it appears to be easy to add songs to your library. Neat.


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After years of delays, the European Space Agency has successfully launched Ariane 6.

The Ariane 6 vehicle was supposed to begin service in 2020, but then... some things happened.

At about 3PM ET, it finally took off from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana and successfully reignited its Vinci engine in orbit, beginning the journey’s second of three planned stages that you can continue to follow live.


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The Vision Pro needs a macOS-style dock.

I’m now convinced of that after adding one using the free Dock Pro app. Now, some of the Vision Pro apps I use most (along with time and battery percentage) are just right there, waiting. Adding third-party apps is tricky and involves finding app URL schemes, though.

Don’t get me wrong; I like the hand flourish to open apps in the visionOS 2 beta. But sometimes, a dock is just better.


Animated GIF showing the process of opening apps with the Dock Pro app.
Who knew I could be so excited about a dock?
GIF: Wes Davis / The Verge
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If your Philips Hue bulbs have been acting wonky, don’t worry there’s a fix coming.

Apparently, the company messed up something with its Matter implementation, causing some lights to randomly turn up to full brightness. But they’ve identified the problem, and an update should be rolling out this week.


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The Biden administration puts $1.6 billion toward chip packaging.

The funding is part of the $52 billion made available through the CHIPS Act. It’s meant to help bolster domestic semiconductor packaging — one of the final steps in the chip-making process that’s typically done in factories outside the US.


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German government refuses to hodl.

German law enforcement seized over 50,000 bitcoin (worth over $2 billion at the time) while busting a movie piracy site earlier this year. Now the government is liquidating so much crypto at such a fast pace that the price of bitcoin is dropping in response.

It’s not helping that Germany’s sell-off coincides with repayments to creditors (in crypto) by the Mt. Gox bankruptcy estate.


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a16z is trying to keep AI alive with Oxygen initiative.

According to The Information, VC firm Andreessen Horowitz has secured thousands of AI chips, including Nvidia H100 GPUs, to dole out to its AI portfolio companies in exchange for equity. The initiative is aptly named Oxygen, because these chips are that integral to AI companies. The chips are almost impossible to secure for small startups too, because Big Tech companies hoover up all the supply.


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Tesla reportedly optimizes its self-driving software for Elon Musk and EV influencers.

Current and former Tesla employees told Business Insider that the images and videos from Musk’s Teslas have “received meticulous scrutiny,” allowing the automaker to tweak its software to address hiccups on certain routes. The company similarly prioritizes driving data from Tesla influencers, Business Insider reports:

The result is that Tesla’s Autopilot and FSD software may better navigate routes taken by Musk and other high-profile drivers, making their rides smoother and more straightforward.