Internet of Things (or IoT) devices have a notoriously bad reputation for security. As devices designed to have the smallest footprint possible (that is, to be tiny, low power, and cheap), manufacturers often resort (intentionally or not) to less-than-best security practices in order to lower their costs and maximize profits. This can be true of everything from smart home sensors, Wi-Fi-connected lightbulbs or smart home appliances. Especially if you're buying from a region of the world where you might have broader security concerns, it's best to take steps to keep these devices secure.

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge The Federal Trade Commission has charged Sitejabber, an online review platform, with violating its new fake reviews rules by using point-of-sale reviews to misrepresent what customers think about products. In one of its first enforcement actions under new rules banning companies from making or selling fake reviews, the FTC is ordering the company to stop.The FTC says Sitejabber “deceptively” punched up businesses’ review counts by incorporating responses to point-of-sale questionnaires asking customers to rate and review their shopping experience, before they’d actually gotten any products or services. It also alleges that by giving its clients tools to publish that feedback on their own sites, Sitejabber enabled them to mislead people... Continue reading…

Besides improving stability, enhancing performance, and getting rid of bugs, updating your GPU's drivers is one of the most essential maintenance tasks to keep your gaming PC in tip-top shape. However, there are rare cases when you might want to uninstall the drivers.

Although many creative apps come with high costs or require subscriptions, there are plenty of affordable options for becoming an experienced designer or starting your creative journey. However, not all free tools are worth your time and effort. To help you with that, we've compiled the best free creative tools that allow you to fully express your vision.

Illustration: The Verge Roblox is going to block kids from accessing certain types of experiences following reports alleging that the platform has enabled child abuse.One new measure will stop kids under 13 from accessing experiences with “certain types of interactive features,” Roblox says in a post on its developer forum. Those include “social hangouts,” where the primary purpose is to communicate with others over text or voice chat, and “free-form 2D user creation” experiences, where players can do things like draw on a chalkboard or whiteboard. This change goes into effect beginning November 18th.Another change stops kids under 13 from playing, searching for, or being able to discover unrated experiences. This change goes into effect after December 3rd.... Continue reading…

Striking New York Times tech workers have created a “Guild Builds” page dedicated to strike-themed games you can play, including a spin on Wordle, a word search, and the custom Connections I reported on earlier today.As part of its strike announcement on Monday, the New York Times Tech Guild requested that people don’t cross the digital picket line to play the NYT’s daily puzzle games. This collection of five other games offers an alternative if you want to support the striking workers but also do some brain teasers. There are currently five games on the page:Strikle, the twist on WordleConnections: Strike Edition, which is a puzzle made in a Connections creatorWord SearchMatch Strike, a memory gameFrogger 8th AvenueThey... Continue reading…

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Microsoft is testing a big Windows on Arm update to let more x64 software and games run under Prism emulation on Copilot Plus PC with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite or X Plus processors. The capability comes as part of the Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27744, rolling out to testers in the Canary Channel.This way, Qualcomm’s new chips can run more kinds of apps that don’t have native ARM64 versions and, until now, weren’t usable with emulation. It could even enable games that use AVX2, like Starfield and Helldivers 2, to work on Windows on Arm.With this update, Microsoft’s emulator will open up support for 64-bit x86 software to use processor extensions like AVX, AVX2, BMI, FMA, and F16C. However, it says 32-bit software still won’t... Continue reading…

Youre probably familiar with using Microsoft Excel to crunch numbers, quickly create a schedule, or even help with project management. The software is insanely powerful, with built-in features and functions that help you do all kinds of work-related tasks. However, those features can be used in unusual ways beyond productivity needs, and VBA (Visual Basic) makes even more uses possible.

If you've been looking for a charging station that makes plugging in all your devices more convenient, then the Anker 647 charging station is going to be for you. Not only does it have plenty of AC outlets, which are located on both sides, but it also has retractable USB-C cables, and USB ports as well.

Pokemon developer Game Freak’s unreleased Project Bloom game is included in the sale. | Image: Private Division Take-Two Interactive is selling off its indie games label Private Division, which published titles such as The Outer Worlds and OlliOlli World, following rumors over the summer that Take-Two laid off most of Private Division’s staff.Take-Two did not disclose the buyer of Private Division or how much they paid. In an emailed statement to The Verge, Take-Two spokesperson Alan Lewis wrote:We recently made the strategic decision to sell our Private Division label to focus our resources on growing our core and mobile businesses for the long-term. As part of this transaction, the buyer purchased our rights to substantially all of Private Division’s live and unreleased titles. Take-Two will continue to support No Rest for the Wicked, which... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Samsung might be working on a “Galaxy S25 Slim” model, with similar rumors to the ones about a “Slim” iPhone 17 in 2025 that may replace the iPhone Plus. South Korea’s ET news first reported on it, saying Samsung might release a slim smartphone during the second quarter of 2025 (April – June) as a follow-up a few months after the rest of the Galaxy S25 family makes their debut. And now Smartprix has shown the listing for a smartphone with the market name “Galaxy” and model number SM-S937U in the GSMA IMEI database. Smartprix says Samsung typically adds smartphones it’s working on testing internally to the database before launching it six to seven months later, and this model number lines up with others that line up with the usual Galaxy... Continue reading…

With AI tools and features in every creative software youll use from 2023 onwards, you might feel overwhelmed with the options. Although Adobe has a handful of helpful AI tools, there are a good deal of other software that offer AI tools to help you in your creative workflow. With these ways, youll learn some good AI techniques and where to find them.