Image: Ford Ford continues to exhibit a dedication to diversifying its EV lineup in Europe — a dedication that, frankly, I wish could also be applied here at home — with the reveal of the new all-electric Puma Gen-E.The Puma is a familiar nameplate in Europe, as the automaker’s bestselling vehicle there since it surpassed the Fiesta in sales in 2021. Now, it’s getting a fully electric powertrain to complement the hybrid EcoBoost options that were added four years ago. The small, sporty Mustang Mach-E-looking subcompact crossover will get 376km (233 miles) on a full charge, can charge from 10 to 80 percent in 23 minutes when hooked up to a 100kW DC fast charger, and will accelerate from zero to 100km/h in a not-totally-disappointing eight seconds.Storage is a key selling point for the Puma Gen-E, with Ford promising extra space in the extremely compact trunk thanks to something the company is calling the “GigaBox.” It’s basically an extra storage space underneath the floor of the trunk for additional items, a feature found in most EVs today but of added relevance to the Puma thanks to its small stature. Ford says the GigaBox can hold 145 liters (five cubic feet) of storage, which is a bit more than what most vehicles offer and certainly bigger than the 2.8 cubic feet of space offered by the gas-powered Puma’s understorage. How small are we talking for this subcompact? The Puma Gen-E is 4,214 millimeters (165.9 inches) long, 1,930mm (75.9 inches) wide, and 1,555mm (61.2 inches) tall. That’s smaller than the 2023 Chevy Bolt EV and by far the smallest vehicle in Ford’s lineup. Storage is a key selling point for the Puma Gen-ETo compensate, Ford is giving its electric Puma a facelift in a variety of ways, including a very literal facelift with a new Mustang Mach-E-inspired shield design replacing the traditional grille. It’s also getting “unique alloy” wheels for an added “electric vibe” that come in two sizes: 17 inches for the standard trim or 18 inches for the Premium version. Image: Ford Inside, a 12.8-inch center display will run on Ford’s Sync 4 operating system (no Android-based Digital Experience in Europe yet) and supports wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. Ford is clearly hoping that the small, sporty Bumblebee yellow Puma Gen-E can lift its sagging fortunes in Europe after the company was forced to idle the plant in Cologne where it makes the electric Explorer and Capri. The company also recently laid off 14 percent of its workers in Europe, with most of the cuts affecting operations in Germany and the UK. Ford says the Puma Gen-E will go into production at its assembly plant in Craiova, Romania, using electric drive units built in Halewood, England. The new EV is available to order today and will begin to make deliveries in spring 2025. Pricing has not been announced yet.

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge General Motors is selling its stake in an electric vehicle battery facility to its partner LG Energy Solutions, the automaker announced Monday. The nearly completed factory in Lansing, Michigan, was being developed by Ultium Cells LLC, a joint venture between GM and South Korea’s LG. Following the non-binding agreement, LG will become the sole owner and complete the plant. The company will then sell the batteries to other customers. GM said it would get back the $1 billion it invested in the factory. GM and LG already jointly develop batteries at factories in Warren, Ohio, and Spring Hill, Tennessee, where they produce batteries for the Cadillac Lyriq and Chevy Equinox EVs. The automaker also has a battery factory in joint ownership... Continue reading…

If you’ve got a spare PC gathering dust, there are plenty of ways to put it to good use. Thanks to the myriad NAS operating systems out there, it’s easy to convert your old desktop into a robust storage server.

Gaming PC upgrades are never-ending. Sometimes, you might find yourself hunting for a new GPU or SSD, while years later, you might upgrade your CPU and motherboard as part of a platform upgrade. However, many gamers keep ignoring a pretty huge part of their setup for years — the gaming monitor.

Looks like an official Lenovo rendering of the Legion Go S. | Image: Windows Central Lenovo’s Legion Go handheld gaming PC cost $700 when it launched in the spring, and while you can get one for $484.99 right now, there have been rumors about a revised Legion Go S that starts at about $399. Windows Central has a hold of some seemingly genuine renderings of what the upcoming cheaper device will look like.A firmware leak last week for the “Legion Go S 8ARP1” indicated the cheaper machine will have AMD’s Rembrandt APU inside. While it’s based on a new Ryzen Z2 platform, Videocardz points out the chip will have Zen 3-plus cores that aren’t as powerful as the current generation Z1 Extreme with Zen 4 cores inside the current Legion Go.From the images, it looks like the Legion Go S will have RGB lights, two USB-C ports up... Continue reading…

With its interactive graphs, rich plugin store, Markdown support, and canvas, Obsidian has emerged as a powerful tool for organizing and connecting ideas. But if you truly want to harness its full potential, explore the Dataview plugin. It’s a game-changer add-on for your vault to transform your static notes into a dynamic, interconnected knowledge base. It lets you effortlessly query, sort, and filter your notes, revealing hidden connections and insights.

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge Apple has quietly delayed its plans to support robot vacuums in HomeKit. After announcing earlier this year that Apple Home would finally support robot vacuums with iOS 18, MacRumors has spotted that Apple has updated its HomeKit website to note that the robot vacuum integration won’t be available until early 2025.The website had previously mentioned that HomeKit would be updated by the end of 2024, with some hoping that robot vacuum support might sneak into the iOS 18.2 release this month after originally missing the initial iOS 18 launch. If you’re waiting to ask Siri to get your robot vacuum to clean your room then you’ll now have to hold on for a few more weeks or months. Image: Apple You’ll soon be able to use... Continue reading…

Image: Blizzard GOG has announced that even if games in its recently launched preservation program are delisted from its store, it will maintain compatibility with those games and offer players “a seamless experience and tech support for those titles.” The first games covered are Warcraft I and II, scheduled for delisting on December 13th.That promise extends to Windows changes that affect how playable a game is, GOG says.The Preservation Program launched last month, offering ongoing tech support and compatibility updates for some classic games. GOG started it with a list of 100 games, including Diablo and Resident Evil 1-3.Warcraft I and Warcraft II are being delisted from GOG “at the publisher’s request,” the company says. Their publisher,... Continue reading…

As miserable as the experience can be, it's possible to install Windows 11 on unsupported hardware. While Windows 11 now shows a watermark warning if your PC doesn't meet the hardware requirement, you get a full-fledged operating system with minimum loss of features. But if you're looking for something more fun, a famed Windows tinkerer has managed to boot Windows 7 on less disk space than you'd ever imagine.

Because everyone loves an electric screwdriver. | Image: Hoto Whenever Verge staffers are asked to describe their favorite games, smart tech, desktop accessories, or whatever, they are free to talk about things they recently bought, things they picked up 10 years ago, or things they’ve had sitting around their house for decades. Unsurprisingly, many of those items are on sale for Cyber Monday. Good news!Deep-sea strategy board gameJennifer Pattison Tuohy, reviewerFinding a board game that will entertain a 13-year-old girl, a 16-year-old boy, my partner, and me is a challenge. We’ve cycled through all the classics as well as newer options — Carcassonne, Ticket to Ride, Catan, and more. While these are all great, inevitably one of the group develops a passionate dislike for a game (usually... Continue reading…

Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photo: Getty Images In the wake of high-profile hacks affecting hundreds of millions of Americans, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is proposing a rule limiting data brokers’ ability to sell Americans’ sensitive personal and financial information.Under the proposed rule, data brokers that sell information about consumers’ income, credit history, credit score, or debt payments would be considered consumer reporting agencies. As such, they’d be required to comply with the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), a law limiting how these agencies can obtain and use the information provided in consumer reports. In other words, they’d be treated like credit bureaus and background check companies, which already have to comply with the FCRA.During a... Continue reading…

Microsoft’s Phone Link app. | Image: Microsoft Samsung’s upcoming One UI 7 update will no longer support the DeX app on Windows. A footnote on Samsung’s UK site, spotted by Android Authority, reveals the DeX PC app “will end support from One UI 7 version,” with Samsung encouraging users to use the Link to Windows feature instead to take advantage of similar functionality with Microsoft’s Phone Link app on Windows.The DeX app for Windows, not to be confused with the broader DeX platform that turns your phone into a PC, lets you mirror your phone screen to a PC and easily drag and drop files between the devices. It’s very similar to Microsoft’s Phone Link app, which Samsung and Microsoft have collaborated closely on in recent years, so it makes sense that Samsung is favoring... Continue reading…