Though the Virtual Boy was both a commercial and critical failure, the console's infamy is part of what has made it such a fascinating piece of Nintendo's history. Original units are still going for hundreds of dollars on bidding sites, and hobbyists have spent years keeping the Virtual Boy alive through emulation and homebrew games. For a long while, it seemed like Nintendo wanted nothing more than for the public to forget that the Virtual Boy ever existed. But over time, the company has become more comfortable acknowledging and even joking about the system through references in games like Super Smash Bros. Melee, Tomodachi Life, and Luigi' …Read the full story at The Verge.

The US Capitol is seen ahead of a possible government shutdown in Washington, DC, January 29, 2026. | AFP via Getty Images Hello and welcome to Regulator, a newsletter for Verge subscribers about the most ambitious crossover event of all time: the infinity war between technology and politics. Not subscribed yet? Come on, do it!Washington might seem slower than Silicon Valley. But that's because it's more turbulent. In order to achieve anything, one has to navigate the sheer amount of chaos that emerges when thousands of federal elected officials, staffers, political appointees, lobbyists, corporations, lawyers, journalists, and influencers are trying to push their interests, often at the same time. For the past 20-odd issues of Regulator, I've written weekly …Read the full story at The Verge.

Learning 3D printing is already a juggling act: slicing profiles, filament quirks, bed leveling drama, and that one spool that squeaks like it’s haunted. CAD adds another layer to that, and it’s usually the layer that makes beginners feel like they accidentally enrolled in an engineering degree. Most people don’t give up 3D printing because the printer is hard; they bounce because making clean models feels like trying to draw with oven mitts. If the goal is to go from “cool idea” to “printable part” without losing a weekend, CAD has to meet you halfway. That’s where Onshape earns its keep.

While it's always exciting when a new, innovative crowdfunding campaign opens its doors for pledges, you really have to temper your expectations. There's zero guarantee that the product will even get made, let alone shipped to your door in the same state as it was promised during the campaign.

Sam Altman responded to Anthropic's new Super Bowl ad in an X post on Wednesday, saying the OpenAI competitor's campaign is "clearly dishonest," and called it "on brand" for Anthropic to "doublespeak." "We would obviously never run ads in the way Anthropic depicts them," he wrote. "We are not stupid and we know our users would reject that." You can read his statement in full, below.Anthropic, founded in 2021 by ex-OpenAI research executives who reportedly left over differences in opinions on AI safety and mission, doesn't mention OpenAI or ChatGPT by name in its Super Bowl Sunday ad campaign. But in contrast to OpenAI's January news that i …Read the full story at The Verge.

For most people, VLC media player is just that orange traffic cone you double-click when Windows Media Player refuses to open a file. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but for me, VLC has graduated from "backup video player" to an absolutely non-negotiable piece of infrastructure on every device years ago.

Google's parent company, Alphabet, has earned more than $400 billion in annual revenue for the first time. The company announced the milestone as part of its Q4 2025 earnings report released on Wednesday, which highlights the 15 percent year-over-year increase as its cloud business and YouTube continue to grow.As noted in the earnings report, Google's Cloud business reached a $70 billion run rate in 2025, while YouTube's annual revenue soared beyond $60 billion across ads and subscriptions. Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai told investors that YouTube remains the "number one streamer," citing data from Nielsen. The company also now has more than …Read the full story at The Verge.

During a two-hour hearing in the US Senate Wednesday, top executives from Waymo and Tesla urged lawmakers to take action on long-stalled legislation to speed the deployment of self-driving cars on public roads. But after two hours of Q&A around a number of hot-button topics, including robotaxi safety, legal liability, remote operation, and China, it was clear that lawmakers were no closer to passing any bill related to autonomous vehicles.Waymo faced questions about its decision to use a Chinese-made vehicle for its next-generation robotaxi, as well as several incidents in which its vehicles failed to stop behind a school bus during studen …Read the full story at The Verge.

For the longest time (and almost as long as I've been alive), "just do a clean install" has been the nuclear option that Windows users recommend for almost everything. If your PC ever feels slower than it did last year, or your games stutter too much, or the Task Manager looks a little too busy for comfort, a clean reinstallation of Windows has been the default answer. Somewhere along the way, reinstalling Windows stopped being a last resort and almost turned into routine maintenance.

When it comes to PC hardware, a BIOS update is as rare as a total solar eclipse. Most users will only consider updating their firmware when they suspect something is broken, or when a shiny new CPU refuses to POST right out of the box.

If you're someone that's juggling so many different digital devices every day, you know how important it is to keep things charged. That's especially the case while you're on the go, which is why power banks can be such vital tools out in the field and potential lifesavers.

I come from Apple's MacBook world, so I'm used to well-built, powerful laptops that, above all, don't take any risks and are boring. If you're a MacBook Pro or MacBook Air user, you know deep down that the above statement is true.