Democratic lawmakers are taking multiple routes to try to revive the Federal Trade Commission's "click-to-cancel" rule after an appeals court blocked it on procedural grounds right before it was set to take effect.Democrats already introduced legislation earlier this month to codify the rule, which would require subscription services to let customers cancel as easily as they signed up, through congressional vote. But now a group of lawmakers are also pressuring Republican FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson to reinstate it.Seven Democrats led by Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) appealed to the chair in a letter shared exclusively with The Verge, urging h …Read the full story at The Verge.

They were Samsung phones with gold stickers on them. The former CEO of the company that marketed the sketchy-looking Escobar Fold 1 and Escobar Fold 2 phones — which you may remember from a 2020 video from Marques Brownlee — has pleaded guilty to fraud and money laundering, according to the US Department of Justice.In a plea agreement, United States attorneys detail how Olof Kyros Gustafsson and Escobar, Inc. took orders for the phones and other products branded with the likeness of the drug lord Pablo Escobar, seeded products with tech reviewers and social media influencers to “in order to attempt to increase demand,” did not deliver the products to customers, and transferred and laundered customer money to “use the funds for their own personal use.” In Brownlee’s video, he unboxed an Escobar Fold 2 phone shipped to him and found that it was just a Samsung Galaxy Fold — a phone that cost nearly $2,000, far more than the $400 Escobar Inc. was selling it for — with a gold sticker on it.Escobar Inc. also sold a $500 “Escobar Flamethrower” that was “modeled after” The Boring Company’s Not-A-Flamethrower, the $500 “Escobar Gold 11 Pro Phone” that was “marketed as a refurbished Apple iPhone 11 Pro,” and Escobar Cash that was “marketed as the world’s first ‘physical cryptocurrency,’” according to the plea agreement.Instead of sending products to paying customers, Gustafsson mailed them a “‘Certificate of Ownership,’ a book, or other Escobar Inc. promotional materials” to create a mailing record, the DOJ says in its press release. Then, when a customer tried to get a refund for something that wasn’t delivered, “Gustafsson fraudulently referred the payment processor to the proof of mailing for the Certificate of Ownership or other material as proof that the product itself was shipped and that the customer had received it so the refund requests would be denied.”A judge has scheduled a sentencing hearing for December 5th, where Gustafsson faces up to 20 years in federal prison for the fraud-related counts and up to 10 for the money laundering-related counts. Gustafsson must also pay as much as $1.3 million in restitution.

You can never have enough storage, which is why when a portable SSD goes on sale, it's always the right time to pick one up. This Team Group model delivers tons of storage space at 2TB, offers a rugged design, and delivers great read and write performance as well.

I've been all-in on Home Assistant for the past year, building out my smart home and seeing many quality-of-life upgrades as a result. From linking my PC's audio interface to my smart lights to custom notifications, it's been great. Plus, I can replace a ton of cloud-based tech with locally-controlled options that are just as powerful, or even more so. I previously used a Google Home Hub and a Google Nest Mini for smart home voice controls, but since picking up the Home Assistant Voice Preview Edition earlier this year, it's allowed me to pack up Google's voice assistant for good.

Apple’s fourth iOS 26 developer beta has reintroduced Apple Intelligence-powered notification summaries for news and entertainment apps, MacRumors reports. The company temporarily switched off the feature earlier this year after botching some headlines and promised they would be available again in a future update.After installing the new beta, your iPhone will show a splash screen where you can choose to have your notifications summarized. On that screen, you can select News & Entertainment as a category to be summarized, though as part of that category, Apple warns in red text that “Summarization may change the meaning of the original headlines. Verify information.” The splash screen also notes that notification summaries are a beta feature and that “summaries may contain errors.”The new beta, which was released on Tuesday, also makes the Liquid Glass design elements a little more liquid, according to 9to5Mac. The company has been messing around with the translucency of Liquid Glass elements as part of its beta updates, and when I initially tried it with the first beta, I thought it was a wild change to my iPhone.Apple is set to launch a public beta of iOS 26 sometime this month. Last week, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman said it would arrive “around the 23rd” of July.

Getting into a car accident, even a fender bender, is stressful on its own, but then comes the argument about who was at fault. A dash cam can give you reliable proof of what happened, and Rove’s R2-4K is currently on sale for $71.99 ($48 off), an all-time low price at Amazon, and $89.99 ($30 off) from Rove. I tested a previous-generation Rove dash cam, and was happy with the quality of its recordings and ease of use. The R2-4K is a significant improvement, capturing higher-quality video and improving the process of getting it onto your phone.Rove R2-4KRove’s R2-4K is a dash cam that can record 4K video, automatically create a clip if it detects an impact, and tag clips with information about your driving speed, location, the time, and date.Where to Buy: $119.99 $71.99 at Amazon $119.99 $89.99 at RoveThe dash cam can record 4K video at 30 frames per second or 1080p at 60fps, and captures a 150-degree field of view, so you’ll get a clear image of what happened in front of you and some of what happened directly to your right and left. Its recordings are tagged with the date, time, location, and your driving speed; they’re stored on a microSD card, which you need to purchase separately. You can view video clips on the R2-4K’s 2.4-inch display, or transfer them to your smartphone over Wi-Fi using Rove’s app.The R2-4K comes with a suction mount and 3M sticky mount, both of which can be installed anywhere on your windshield. The suction mount is easier to move, so we recommend using it to find the dash cam’s permanent place before you decide whether to switch to the sticky mount. The dash cam needs to be connected to its power adapter with a USB-C cable (two are included), so make sure to mount it in an area where the cable won’t dangle and distract you.Under normal circumstances, the R2-4K will take a continuous time lapse recording and overwrite older footage once the microSD card is filled. However, you can push an “Emergency Lock” button to preserve a specific clip. The dash cam’s built-in G-Sensor will detect an impact and automatically lock that section of video. If the dash cam stops recording, it’ll announce that so you can see what’s wrong. Hopefully you’ll never have to use Rove’s R2-4K for anything important, but it’s handy to have just in case.

Apple has launched its online store in Saudi Arabia, according to an announcement on Tuesday. The move, set to be followed by physical retail locations, will let users in the country browse through and purchase Apple products on its site for the first time. As part of its expansion into Saudi Arabia, Apple will offer support and engraving in Arabic on its Saudi Arabian site. Apple is releasing its Store app in Saudi Arabia as well, and also plans on opening its first physical locations in 2026. Though Apple previously offered its App Store in the country, people in Saudi Arabia had to purchase Apple products through authorized resellers.Apple’s store launch aligns with a broader trend of tech companies investing more in Saudi Arabia, despite the country facing numerous human rights issues. During President Donald Trump’s visit to the Middle East in May, Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman announced the formation of Humain, a new AI company owned by the country’s Public Investment Fund. Several US-based tech firms, including Amazon, Google, Nvidia, and AMD, revealed multi-billion-dollar partnerships with the state-backed firm on the same day.

Especially over the last few generations, graphics cards have been boring. There have been standout successes when it comes to value, including the RX 9070 XT and Arc B580, but it seems like we get fewer and fewer crazy GPU ideas each generation. Years ago, that wasn't the case.

There are many cloud-based services that operate powerful language models, but like anything on the cloud, two immediate problems arise: data collection and consistent access. I've always loved experimenting with self-hosted LLMs, and the tech has advanced hugely since it first became possible to run completely free and powerful models on a consumer-grade graphics card. Of course, what you can actually run differs greatly based on your specs, but the truth is that there's a lot out there.

Proxmox is my favorite virtualization platform, and there are plenty of reasons why I adore it more than all its rivals combined. Its low system requirements and built-in LXC support make it perfect for underpowered devices, while its Ceph storage, high-availability provisions, ZFS compatibility, SDN tools, and cutting-edge performance complement high-end servers.

Copilot Vision can scan all of the apps and webpages you have open on your screen. Microsoft is releasing several new AI features for Windows 11, including its Copilot Vision tool that can scan everything on your screen. The features, which are gradually rolling out to everyone now, also include tools that are exclusive to Copilot Plus PCs.For starters, all Windows 11 users can now access Copilot Vision through the Copilot app, which uses AI to analyze the content on your screen. With the tool, you can ask questions aloud about what you’re seeing across multiple apps and webpages that are open on your screen. You can also ask it how to complete specific tasks on your computer, like how to improve the lighting on a photo. Microsoft first began testing a more limited form of this feature last year.Additionally, users with Snapdragon-powered Copilot Plus PCs can access an AI-powered “agent” within the Settings app. This allows you to search for a specific setting with natural language, such as “I want to enable quiet hours” or “connect Bluetooth device.” If the agent is capable of carrying out the task, it will offer to complete it on your behalf.Microsoft is making its AI-powered “Click to Do” preview more useful on Copilot Plus PCs, too. This feature, which surfaces when users hold down the Windows key and left-click on an app, text, website, or other piece of content, is designed to help you quickly complete actions, like summarizing a highlighted paragraph. As part of its update, Microsoft is rolling out several new actions you can perform with Click to Do, including practicing reading fluency and pronunciation with its Reading Coach tool, drafting a document in Microsoft Word using Copilot, and scheduling a Teams meeting.Other features coming only to Copilot Plus PCs include a new AI-powered sticker generator in Paint and an object select tool in the app that lets you separate and edit specific parts of an image. There’s also a new AI lighting option available in Photos for Snapdragon-equipped Copilot Plus PCs, along with a “perfect screenshot” tool within the Snipping Tool that uses AI to “precisely capture content on your screen.”Microsoft is also releasing some features that aren’t related to AI across all Windows 11 PCs, including a handy color picker within the Snipping Tool and a new mechanism that allows PCs to automatically fix issues causing unexpected restarts.Microsoft says it will roll out all of these features “over the next month.” Some of them are already available in Windows’ new non-security preview update and as updates that you can download in the Microsoft Store.

Barbara Krasnoff is officially the reviews editor for The Verge, but although she has done a great deal of reviewing in her time, she doesn’t tend to do a lot of it in her current position. “I was originally hired here to write and edit to-do articles,” she explains. “Now, I spend most of my time editing, overseeing various projects, and coaxing staffers to write about their favorite stuff.”Where did you first hear about the Dell mobile adapter?I didn’t actually hear about it — I saw it at a trade event here in New York City a few years ago. Dell was showing off some of its new products, and one of the accessories was this little puck-looking item with several ports around its periphery. But the neatest thing was that it had its own USB-C connector on a short cable that revealed itself when you spun the base in a clockwise direction. Then, when you spun it counterclockwise, the cable pulled neatly back into the base. It looked both ingenious and useful, and as soon as it was available, I bought one for myself. Why did you want one?My first laptops had lots of ports, but as the computers got thinner, the ports began to disappear. Eventually, most of the laptops I used only had one or two USB-C ports for anything I wanted to physically connect to my device. This little adapter lets me use a variety of different connectors, including some that belong to my older devices.What do you like about it?As I mentioned before, it includes a number of different ports, some of which are no longer in use but I prefer to have on hand. The model I have, the DA300, comes with an ethernet port, a USB-C and USB-A port, an HDMI port, a VGA port, and a DisplayPort. There are other, newer models with a different selection of ports. I also think the whole spin-the-disk-and-the-cable-disappears thing is a lot of fun.Is there anything about it that you dislike, or that you think could be improved?A slot for a microSD card would have been handy. And a color other than black might have been nice. Just FYI: Dell has replaced my model with the DA305, which trades the VGA port for a second USB-A port and switches up the USB from 3.1 to 3.2. Amazon still seems to be carrying the DA300, but I’m not sure how long that’s going to last.Who would you recommend it to?There are a lot of good desk-based adapters out there, but this one is great for popping into your backpack just in case you need it.Dell USB-C Mobile Adapter (DA300)Where to Buy: $60 $55.97 at Amazon $67.99 at Walmart