The Verge What a year, huh? As 2023 draws to a close, it’s time to look back on the year that was. It was a great year for entertainment and a not-so-great year for the people who actually made that entertainment. It was the year Twitter died, and the year Matter mostly failed to launch. Gadgets got gadgety-er, photos got what-is-a-photo-ier, and generative AI was suddenly everywhere. Now through the end of the year, we’ll recap the highs and lows in gadgets, social media, and entertainment, and look ahead at how 2024 is shaping up (spoiler: even more AI). We’ll talk about our favorite movies and TV shows of the year, including the best stuff on Max, Apple TV Plus, Prime, and Disney Plus, and our favorite games on every platform, from... Continue reading…

A Virtual Private Network (VPN) is an essential tool to keep your internet activity private and secure. It can help you browse the web privately, mask your actual location while browsing the web for added privacy, unblock certain geo-restricted websites and content, and more. There's no shortage of VPN providers out there, so there are plenty of options across different platforms. Most of the best VPNs out there charge you a monthly or an annual fee, but you can pick from our selection of the best free VPNs to get started. Almost all these VPNs have an app that you can use on your Android phone, and here's how to set it up.

Only the Pixel 8 Pro gets Video Boost, one of the AI camera features announced at its launch. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge When Google introduced Night Sight on the Pixel 3, it was a revelation. It was as if someone had literally turned on the lights in your low-light photos. Previously impossible shots became possible — no tripod or deer-in-the-headlights flash needed.Five years later and taking photos in the dark is old hat — just about every phone up and down the price spectrum comes with some kind of night mode. Video, though, is a different story. Night modes for still photos capture multiple frames to create one brighter image, and it’s just not possible to copy and paste the mechanics of that feature to video which, by its nature, is already a series of images. The answer, as it seems to be lately, is to call on AI.When the Pixel 8 Pro launched... Continue reading…

The compatibility of VB6 with Windows 10 reassured many developers, and Microsoft's confirmation that the VB6 runtime will be supported in Windows 11 for its lifetime keeps it relevant. Users and developers find solace in this support, ensuring that their legacy applications and developmental skills remain applicable in a modern OS environment. In this guide, we will learn how to install and run the software with compatibility mode in Windows 11.

The Verge / Photo courtesy of Netflix and IMDB With shows like Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, Blue Eye Samurai, and a wild new Castlevania spinoff, Netflix is still holding its own in the streaming wars. Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Apple is banning new sales of the Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 in the US due to a patent dispute — here’s all the latest news. Continue reading…

With superb ANC and dynamic, rich sound, Bose’s latest pair of earbuds are a bonafide hit. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Happy Saturday, dear readers! It’s been an extremely quiet week on the deals front, with the most notable discounts we’ve seen landing on Apple’s 15-inch MacBook Air, GOTY contender Baldur’s Gate 3, and Belkin’s 3-in-1 MagSafe charger. Luckily, despite the lack of new deals, there are some solid holiday discounts still hanging around.For instance, you can still snag the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds on sale at Amazon, Best Buy, and Target starting at $249 ($50 off), which remains the best price we’ve seen on the wireless earbuds since they made their debut earlier in the fall. They’re not all that different from last year’s QC Earbuds II in fit and finish, yet they add a new immersive audio component and improved fins that allow for... Continue reading…

It’s been almost two years since Microsoft added support for Android apps on Windows to the joy of many enthusiasts, taking a big step toward cross-platform compatibility and opening a myriad of possibilities. Slowly but surely, Android apps on Windows have evolved from being a mere novelty to a genuinely useful feature as more apps get supported. Of course, the experience is far from flawless still, as Microsoft continues to push updates to its Windows Subsystem for Android to further improve the experience and add more features.

EA was the king of sports games in the early 2000s, covering nearly every major sport. Cricket was one of the recurring titles in the EA Sports franchise. But, by the end of the decade, EA stopped producing Cricket games, along with numerous other underperforming titles.

Illustration by Samar Haddad for The Verge Happy holidays! Here is The Vergecast’s gift to you: over 90 minutes of audio content dedicated to USB-C.Every holiday season, we think about what consumer technology standard has impacted our gadgets throughout the year — and without a doubt, 2023’s favorite standard has to be USB-C. We saw the iPhone 15 finally switch over to the Type C port, a glimpse of 240W USB-C PD chargers, dongles that can relieve mosquito bites, and whole bunch of high-powered GaN chargers. Though the adoption has been slow since its introduction in 2013, we’re almost at a point where we only need one cable to charge all our gadgets (2024 resolution?). So that’s what this year’s Vergecast Holiday Spec-tacular is all about. The Verge’s Nilay Patel, David... Continue reading…

2024 Chevrolet Blazer EV RS in Galaxy Gray Metallic | Image: GM Our automotive editor was scheduled to test a Blazer EV soon, but it looks like that will have to wait — GM has paused sales of its brand-new Chevy Blazer EV following reports of significant issues. In a statement provided to The Verge, Chevrolet communications executive director Chad Lyons said, “Our team is working quickly to roll out a fix, and owners will be contacted with further information on how to schedule their update.” Chevrolet vice president Scott Bell said, “We’re aware that a limited number of customers have experienced software-related quality issues with their Blazer EV. Customer satisfaction is our priority and as such, we will take a brief pause on new deliveries.” GM did not confirm how many vehicles are affected,... Continue reading…

Image: Bluesky Bluesky remains an invite-only decentralized Twitter alternative, but now, you don’t need to be logged in to be able to see posts on the platform, according to a blog post from Bluesky CEO Jay Graber. You can now see posts from both the web and from the Bluesky app — like this one.If you want to prevent logged-out users from seeing your posts, you can “discourage” that by clicking a toggle in settings. But Bluesky notes that “other apps may not honor this request” and that the toggle doesn’t make your account private.“Bluesky is an open and public network,” Bluesky says in a note under the toggle. “This setting only limits the visibility of your content on the Bluesky app and website, and other apps may not respect this setting.” In... Continue reading…