As the LLM competition heats up, we're seeing AI tech companies burn through version numbers like they were made of wood. Any signs of slacking or lagging behind may permanently set the company back relative to its peers, so everyone is doing their best to release new models regularly.

At some point in high school, I just accepted that some subjects weren’t for me and instead tried to focus on the stuff I was good at. For me, that was mostly chemistry - I was completely lost in that class, and even years after graduating high school, it still bothers me that I didn’t know what was going on. I always told myself I’d go back and relearn everything I either didn’t understand, or did and just forgot - but life got in the way.

Xbox CEO Asha Sharma held an all-hands meeting this morning and laid out her strategy for a "return of Xbox" with employees. While rebranding Microsoft Gaming back to Xbox was part of the agenda, Sharma also revealed that Xbox is looking into "reevaluating" Xbox exclusive games and windowed releases of titles.It's a hot topic for Xbox fans, who were shocked when Microsoft decided to start porting games over to PlayStation and Nintendo Switch, but there's no firm commitment on a return to Xbox exclusives just yet. "Along the way, we will reevaluate our approach to exclusivity, windowing, and AI, and share more as we learn and decide," says …Read the full story at The Verge.

The green model of the Move 2 shown here is sold out at Sonos’ refurbished site, but the black or white models are up for grabs. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Portable audio and home theater upgrades can be very pricey, which is why we make a habit out of telling readers when there are good deals happening. With that in mind, here’s a friendly reminder that a heap of refurbished Sonos gear is steeply discounted, and will be until the company’s sale ends April 24th.It’s an opportunity to get refurbished tech that is delivered in like-new condition, all of which are backed by the same one-year warranty that new products have. Sonos always offers a discount when buying refurbished gear compared to buying new, but some of the current sale prices are better than usual. For instance, its smallest plug-in speaker, the Era 100, is down to $134 (versus $219 new). The bigger Era 300 that offers louder, more immersive sound is $329, a huge $150 off discount.There are also deals on refurbished home theater add-ons, as well as on hybrid speakers that work just as well outside for a barbecue as they do inside, linked to a larger group of Sonos speakers over Wi-Fi. The second-gen Sonos Beam soundbar with Dolby Atmos support and a wider sound than the first-gen model is down to $299 in black, which is $50 less than the best-ever price on a new model (it currently sells new for $499). Finally, the Sonos Move 2 that has a IP56 water-resistant design and up to 24 hours of battery life, plus line-in audio support, is $299. That’s a phenomenal deal considering the cost for a new unit hasn’t gone below $399 since last September. It currently costs $499 new at retailers.Sonos Era 100 (refurbished)Sonos’ Era 100 smart speaker is a replacement for the older Sonos One, utilizing two tweeters (left and right) and one larger woofer. In addition to Wi-Fi, the Era 100 also supports Bluetooth audio and line-in playback via an optional 3.5mm to USB-C adapter. Read our review.Where to Buy: $219 $134 at SonosSonos Era 300 (refurbished)The hourglass-shaped Sonos Era 300 is designed from the ground up for spatial audio and Dolby Atmos. It supports the same Bluetooth and line-in features as the Era 100. If you pair two 300s together with a Sonos Arc or Beam (Gen 2), you can get truly immersive home theater surround sound. Read our review.Where to Buy: $479 $379 at SonosSonos Beam (second-gen, refurbished)The Sonos Beam (second-gen) is a compact soundbar with bigger, wider sound than its predecessor. It supports Dolby Atmos spatial audio, and can stream music from a plethora of services. Read our review.Where to Buy: $499 $299 at SonosSonos Move 2 (refurbished)With double the battery life of its predecessor and better-sounding stereo audio, the Sonos Move 2’s improvements don’t stop there. It supports line-in audio, can stream Bluetooth audio to other Sonos speakers, and more. Read our review.Where to Buy: $399 $299 at Sonos

Asha Sharma. | Image: The Verge, Microsoft Microsoft's new Xbox CEO Asha Sharma has laid out a new strategy for what she describes as a "return of Xbox." In a joint memo with Xbox Chief Content Officer Matt Booty, Sharma and Booty lay out their vision for the future of Xbox that will be judged on daily active players and the priorities of hardware, content, experience, and services."Players are frustrated," admits Sharma and Booty. "New feature drops on console have been less frequent. Our presence on PC isn't strong enough. Pricing is getting harder for people to keep up with. And core experiences like search, discovery, social, and personalization still feel too fragmented. Devel …Read the full story at The Verge.

Mark Zuckerberg presenting at Meta Connect on September 17th, 2025. | Bloomberg via Getty Images Meta is planning to layoff around 10 percent of employees in May, according to a memo from the company's chief people officer, Janelle Gale, published by Bloomberg. That means approximately 8,000 people will see their jobs cut. Meta will also be closing around 6,000 open roles, according to Gale.The cuts follow Meta's significant investments in AI, including spending huge sums to hire top talent and build data centers. The company forecast in January that it will spend $115 billion to $135 billion in capital expenditures in 2026 - a significant increase from its $72.22 billion in capital expenditures for 2025. The increase is to "support o …Read the full story at The Verge.

Every time I boot up my high-end PC, with its fans humming, RGB glowing, and the GPU barely breaking a sweat, I know how ridiculous it is to open a browser tab instead of a blockbuster AAA game. And yet, that's exactly where I find myself more often than I'd like to admit. For all the ray tracing, teraflops, and frame-generated AAA gaming experiences in the world, sometimes all you really want is something instant, responsive, and effortlessly fun.

The Windows Subsystem for Android (WSA) is history now. Microsoft caved in and killed the project, which angered a lot of users because it was one of the main highlights of the Windows 11 launch. Microsoft failed to anticipate the demand for running Android apps with Google Play Store support, and the option to only download apps via the Amazon Appstore didn’t appeal to a lot of users. I thought WSA would kill third-party Android emulators on Windows, but WSA didn’t catch up with them.

I went into Claude Code expecting the usual AI coding assistant pitch. Faster boilerplate, fewer dead ends, and a lot of promises about how it could speed up the parts of development that feel repetitive. That use case is there, and I’m not pretending otherwise. What surprised me was that the workflow I liked most had very little to do with asking it to write code for me. The real value showed up when I used it to make sense of everything around the code instead.

Having built tens of PCs over the course of the past few years, I can objectively state that unboxing and installing the GPU is undoubtedly the best part of the process. This is, after all, the part that will power every gaming experience you're about to have.

As a Home Assistant aficionado, I’ve got dozens of apps and integrations set up for my IoT management hub, and that’s before you include all the community offerings I’ve grabbed from HACS. While I consider my dashboards, cards, and device-specific integrations borderlines essential, the AI-specific tools have a special place in my setup. After all, few things can match the convenience of an LLM-controlled Home Assistant.

Under the guidance of consummate bully / chairman Brendan Carr, the FCC is taking steps towards cracking down on children's entertainment that in any way explores the complexities of gender identity.On Wednesday, the FCC's Media Bureau announced that it is soliciting comments from the public about whether the TV ratings system has made sound decisions regarding children's programming with transgender or non-binary characters. In a statement about the commenting period the FCC said that it was soliciting feedback due to an alleged uptick in "significant concerns" about whether "controversial gender identity issues are being included or prom …Read the full story at The Verge.