MacBooks are some of the most popular and best laptops on the market. There's a good reason why they're so popular, and even more so now with Apple Silicon delivering excellent performance and power efficiency. But a good laptop is more than what you get at launch; it's also measured by how long it lasts and for how long you can rely on it. So you may be wondering how long your MacBook model will be supported and will last you.

Image: The New York Times Strands, The New York Times’ very good word search game, has been officially added to the NYT’s Games app on iOS and Android.For me personally, this is huge. Strands has become my favorite of the NYT’s games since it launched in beta in March, but I was annoyed that I had to bounce between the app and a browser to complete my daily Wordle, Connections, and Strands. Now, I can do all of the puzzles right in the app over my morning coffee. It’s the little things!Each Strands puzzle has a theme. That theme hints at the words you’ll need to find — including the “spangram” word that spans across opposite sides of the puzzle. Every letter in the puzzle is used for a themed word or the spangram. If you need some help, you can get hints by... Continue reading…

After lots of waiting, we're finally seeing a rise in passkey adoption. I've personally noticed a steady uptake with this technology, as more and more of the websites I regularly visit swap out the username and password method for a quick and easy passkey. And now, Android 15 is making passkeys even easier to use on your phone by adding them as an automatic suggestion above the Android keyboard.

Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photos from Getty Images Joe Biden and Donald Trump are expected to face off on Tuesday, November 5th. Continue reading…

Image: Hyundai Meet the Hyundai Inster, the latest cute, small electric vehicle that is being cruelly denied a North American debut. This subcompact EV has over 200 miles of range, an almost retro-inspired interior aesthetic (think lots of plastic and chunky buttons), and an adorable face that won’t be making an appearance on US roads any time soon. Oh, and did I mention that it will be very affordable? Automotive News is reporting that the Inster will be priced below $26,000. So not only is Hyundai entering the fray for affordable EVs, but it’s doing it as at an extreme distance from the US — which is very much in need of affordable EVs. Tesla is being wishy-washy on making a more affordable $25,000 “Model 2.” Ford is still trying to... Continue reading…

Illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photos from Getty Images The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has joined the defense team for a neo-Nazi accused of plotting to sabotage Baltimore’s electrical grid, The Baltimore Banner reports. Attorneys from the ACLU’s National Security Project will be working with Brandon Clint Russell’s defense “for the limited purpose of challenging the government’s secretive warrantless surveillance under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act,” Ashley Gorski, a senior staff attorney with the National Security Project, said in a statement to The Verge.“Based on the government’s own disclosures, we have good reason to believe that Mr. Russell was subjected to Section 702 surveillance and his case is a rare and important opportunity to challenge the... Continue reading…

What, exactly, is Perplexity’s innovation? | Image: The Verge In every hype cycle, certain patterns of deceit emerge. In the last crypto boom, it was “ponzinomics” and “rug pulls.” In self-driving cars, it was “just five years away!” In AI, it’s seeing just how much unethical shit you can get away with.Perplexity is basically a rent-seeking middleman on high-quality sourcesPerplexity, which is in ongoing talks to raise hundreds of millions of dollars, is trying to create a Google Search competitor. Perplexity isn’t trying to create a “search engine,” though — it wants to create an “answer engine.” The idea is that instead of combing through a bunch of results to answer your own question with a primary source, you’ll simply get an answer Perplexity has found for you. “Factfulness and accuracy is... Continue reading…

House Energy Subcommittee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers. | Photo: Getty Images The House Energy and Commerce Committee suddenly canceled a markup to discuss and vote on 11 bills, including the American Privacy Rights Act (APRA) and the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA). The committee did not provide a reason for the cancellation in its online notice, and committee members appeared surprised by the change, according to reporters in the room. But disagreements on the bill with Republican House leadership seemed to play a role, according to recent reporting and the top Democrats on the committee. Some Republican House members have recently expressed concerns with the bill, Politico reported last week, adding that House Majority Leader Steve Scalise’s (R-LA) top aide said an earlier version of APRA wouldn’t get a floor... Continue reading…

Released back in 2000, the Windows Millennium Edition was a weird operating system. Its predecessor, Windows 98, was marketed as the last DOS-based Windows 9x operating system for home users. Despite its unstable nature at the time of its launch, the second version of Windows 98 was still going strong, and there wasn't much of a need for another OS that relied on the DOS kernel in the consumer space.

Have you ever wanted to upgrade your CPU, only to discover that to upgrade it, you'd need a new motherboard? It's a frustrating experience, but there are some good reasons why companies upgrade their CPU sockets, even if some CPU makers change their sockets more frequently. While sticking to one socket is great for consumers, it can hamper innovation in the long run.

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The NFL has been hit with a $4.7 billion verdict in a class action antitrust lawsuit filed on behalf of residential and commercial customers who paid for its Sunday Ticket package on DirecTV from 2011 through 2022. Originally filed in 2015 by the Mucky Duck sports bar, the lawsuit claimed that the league and its teams had conspired to give DirecTV an illegal monopoly on out-of-market games until YouTube took it over, starting with the 2023 season. The plaintiffs noted that other leagues distributed live, out-of-market games through multiple providers instead of just one exclusive partner like the NFL and argued during the case that the setup not only inflated the price of Sunday Ticket but also forced viewers to pay for games during... Continue reading…

Image: Samar Haddad / The Verge The chair of the Federal Communications Commission proposed a new rule that could make it easier for consumers to unlock their cellphones. The proposed regulation, which the agency announced on Thursday, would require mobile providers to unlock consumers’ phones within 60 days of activation.Under current regulations, consumers who want to unlock their phone — as in, freeing up a phone so it can move from one network to another — are at the mercy of their service provider. Per the FCC, consumers who want to unlock their device should contact their service provider to find out when and how their phone can be unlocked. To then unlock a device, a consumer must be in “good standing” with their provider, meaning their phone must be paid off... Continue reading…