Polymarket reportedly paid people to post fake videos of themselves placing bets
Polymarket reportedly paid people to post fake videos of themselves placing bets

According to a Wall Street Journal investigation, Polymarket has been paying people to film themselves placing fake bets and celebrating fake wins on social media. WSJ identified over 1,100 deceptive clips and talked to creators who, despite not stating as such in their videos, confirmed the company paid them to create the clips. The videos […]

How Roomba started a robot revolution
How Roomba started a robot revolution

If you had a Roomba, especially in the early days of the robot vacuum, it was in many ways a fairly unsophisticated machine. It would just bump around your house, looking for something to suck up, until its battery died or its (way too small) tank filled up. Not that it mattered, though. You probably […]

Electric air taxis are stuck in the courtroom
Electric air taxis are stuck in the courtroom

This is The Stepback, a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more on aviation, air taxis, and Wi-Fi speeds at 30,000 feet, follow Andrew J. Hawkins. The Stepback arrives in our subscribers’ inboxes on Sunday at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepback here. How it started Last year, […]

Sony’s Xperia 1 VIII is still a phone for the fans
Sony’s Xperia 1 VIII is still a phone for the fans

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 […]

Musician and YouTuber Hainbach on ‘Breath of the Wild’ and Swiss Army Knives
Musician and YouTuber Hainbach on ‘Breath of the Wild’ and Swiss Army Knives

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 […]

Toy Story has the right take on tech
Toy Story has the right take on tech

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 […]

ICYMI: the week’s 7 biggest tech news stories, from Commodore flip-phone nostalgia to Tim Cook’s Apple price-hike warning

The week’s 7 biggest tech news stories, featuring Commodore, Apple, Microsoft and more, for June 20, 2026.

SwitchBot’s Standing Circulator Fan is worth fighting for
SwitchBot’s Standing Circulator Fan is worth fighting for

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 […]

Nothing cancels this year’s CMF phone due to RAM prices
Nothing cancels this year’s CMF phone due to RAM prices

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 […]

Hue’s wired wall modules bring non-smart lights into its ecosystem
Hue’s wired wall modules bring non-smart lights into its ecosystem

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 […]