The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has approved Skydance’s $8 billion purchase of CBS-owner Paramount after the companies agreed to end diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs but feature a “diversity of viewpoints from across the political and ideological spectrum.”In light of the Trump administration’s critiques of CBS’s alleged anti-conservative bias — including collecting a $16 million settlement over the president’s lawsuit over an allegedly deceptively edited video of then-Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris on 60 Minutes — the companies’ commitment to address bias in the lawsuit likely means featuring more conservative programming. Skydance agreed to employ an ombudsman for at least two years, “who will receive and evaluate any complaints of bias or other concerns involving CBS.” “Americans no longer trust the legacy national news media to report fully, accurately, and fairly. It is time for a change,” Republican FCC Chair Brendan Carr said in a statement announcing the agency’s approval. “That is why I welcome Skydance’s commitment to make significant changes at the once storied CBS broadcast network.” He said the commitments “would enable CBS to operate in the public interest and focus on fair, unbiased, and fact-based coverage,” and mark “another step forward in the FCC’s efforts to eliminate invidious forms of DEI discrimination.” Carr also boasts that Skydance “reaffirms its commitment to localism as a core component of the public interest standard,” and that the approval will “unleash the investment of $1.5 billion into Paramount.”Carr has made no secret of his distaste for news coverage he sees as disproportionately unfavorable to the right and DEI policies he believes contribute to unfair treatment. He’s opened investigations into all three major networks as well as NPR and PBS (NBCUniversal and its owner Comcast are investors in The Verge parent company Vox Media). A week ago, CBS announced it was retiring The Late Show, hosted by Trump critic and comedian Stephen Colbert. The network said it was “purely a financial decision.”The FCC’s only remaining Democratic commissioner, Anna Gomez, dissented, writing that, “In an unprecedented move, this once-independent FCC used its vast power to pressure Paramount to broker a private legal settlement and further erode press freedom … Even more alarming, it is now imposing never-before-seen controls over newsroom decisions and editorial judgment, in direct violation of the First Amendment and the law.” Still, she gave Carr credit for calling a vote on the matter, rather than rubber-stamping the merger through one of the agency’s bureaus, like it did for the Verizon-Frontier merger, which similarly required an end to DEI programs.Gomez warns that this agreement is just the canary in the coal mine. “The Paramount payout and this reckless approval have emboldened those who believe the government can—and should—abuse its power to extract financial and ideological concessions, demand favored treatment, and secure positive media coverage,” she writes. “It is a dark chapter in a long and growing record of abuse that threatens press freedom in this country. But such violations endure only when institutions choose capitulation over courage. It is time for companies, journalists, and citizens alike to stand up and speak out, because unchecked and unquestioned power has no rightful place in America.”

One thing that Raspberry Pis are really good at is squeezing into really small devices. This makes them a potential choice if you want to build a portable device; sure, it may not be as mighty as some other options, but if you don't need something that's super powerful, a Raspberry Pi is both an affordable and easy means to get the job done.

There's always a debate when picking your favorite media streaming server, whether to use Plex or opt for something open-source like Jellyfin. The former raises a few concerns, especially after changing their subscription plans and restricting essential features behind a paywall. There are also qualms about the bloated interface and removal of some core features that made Plex a great media server in its heyday.

Turning your house into a smart home involves the purchasing of connected devices, but did you know there are some hidden costs you should be aware of? I'm talking potential subscriptions, time spent updating hardware, increased utility bills (especially when paired with a home lab), and a more congested wireless network. Depending on what you plan to connect to your LAN and how many smart products you purchased for the home, here are some things to watch out for from personal experience.

Starlink users reported they couldn’t connect to SpaceX’s satellite internet service for a few hours on Thursday afternoon before service was eventually restored. Widespread Starlink outages, like the ones we reported on in 2022 and 2023, have been rare, and this appears to be the first one in 2025. The outage began around 3:15PM ET or so, with users receiving error messages saying there is “no healthy upstream.” Starlink posted a message on X at 4:05PM ET: “Starlink is currently in a network outage and we are actively implementing a solution. We appreciate your patience, we’ll share an update once this issue is resolved.” At 6:23PM ET, Starlink engineering VP Michael Nicolls followed that up with a message saying that after a 2.5-hour outage, the network has “mostly recovered.” “The outage was due to failure of key internal software services that operate the core network,” writes Nicolls, without going into specific detail. According to The Kyiv Independent, the outage affected Ukrainian troops who rely on Starlink terminals, citing a Telegram message from the military saying Starlink is down across the entire front. The military now says its connections are back online after going down for about 150 minutes, “the longest in the war.” T-Mobile just opened its Starlink-powered T-Satellite messaging service to everyone yesterday, but we haven’t seen any updates on its status. During the outage, the global connectivity trackers at NetBlocks reported that overall Starlink connectivity dropped to “16 percent of ordinary levels.”ℹ️ Update: Connectivity has been restored on Starlink (AS14593) after an international outage affecting multiple countries; the operator has not issued an explanation; incident duration ~2h 📈— NetBlocks (@netblocks.org) 2025-07-24T22:34:57.743ZStarlink has now mostly recovered from the network outage, which lasted approximately 2.5 hours.  The outage was due to failure of key internal software services that operate the core network.  We apologize for the temporary disruption in our service; we are deeply committed to… https://t.co/ffFYM1Z7tD— Michael Nicolls (@michaelnicollsx) July 24, 2025Update, July 24th: Added information from the Ukrainian military and NetBlocks, and updated to note that service has been restored.

The Xbox Ultimate Sale, the equivalent of the Xbox Summer Sale, similar to the sales run by Steam and PlayStation this month, is officially live and running through the end of July. While the Xbox ecosystem is dominated by Xbox Game Pass, there are tons of fantastic games that release on Xbox but don't come to Xbox Game Pass. Luckily, many of those games are on sale for relatively cheap, so you can build out your library. If you are planning to get an Xbox Ally X handheld when it releases later this year, check for Play Anywhere in the features' column, which will let you play the game on both console and PC, and the handheld runs PC games. For this list, I put together six deals that include deal discounts on fantastic games across a variety of genres.

We've seen the Asus Vivobook 14 go on sale before, but this has to be the best price we've seen, as it drops to just $300, which is 50% off its original retail price. This laptop is perfect for someone who wants to buy something new, but doesn't want to spend a whole lot. It's got a pretty good set of specifications as well, which means it will be great for school, work, or getting the basics done. Just be sure to grab it while you can because this sale is extremely limited.

I switched from Chrome to Brave around 3–4 years ago due to its popularity as one of the fastest privacy-focused browsers. Plus, I was interested in crypto back then, and getting paid in BAT to watch some ads sounded like a nice incentive for switching to a browser that resembled Chrome a lot (both are Chromium-based). For the last year, however, I've been feeling that Brave isn't as fast as it used to be. The BAT novelty is over for me, and the browser just feels bloated. The built-in VPN, crypto wallet integrations, and "Leo AI" never interested me anyway.

While Microsoft has seemingly been working towards killing off Xbox consoles in favor of turning every device you own into an Xbox, the company has reiterated multiple times that there is a next-gen console coming after the Xbox Series X|S. Microsoft has not even hinted at the potential release window, although it seems possible that the new console could release as early as 2028, based on the length of previous console generations. Since a new Xbox is seemingly on the way, now seems like a great time to put together a wishlist for the new console. For this list, I will be focusing on hardware and not software, although I would like to see Xbox stop canceling games and closing studios.

Despite them being one of the most observed and monitored elements in human history, I still don't know a ton about the stars and the moon cycle. Fortunately, there are plenty of devices and apps that register your location and inform you of what lies above you, which is great when you see something interesting up there and want a quick and easy way of identifying it.

In a story published earlier this week, a site called “NYC Journals” claimed to have a bombshell: that Instagram had suspended the account of New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani for being “too socialist.”The story claimed that Mamdani’s account was down for three hours; it also cited a “leaked memo” from inside Instagram that said his content went against US national interests. The article is surprisingly detailed — it includes quotes attributed to Mamdani himself, as well as a “political communications expert” lamenting the control tech platforms have over political discourse. It would be a huge story in a race that’s already been surprising and contentious. The problem, of course, is that it’s not true.The article has been posted to social media platforms like Bluesky, Reddit, Mastodon, and X, racking up reposts, likes, and comments. But Meta spokesperson Ryan Daniels confirmed that there’s no such memo or restrictions on Mamdani’s account. Mamdani campaign spokesperson Dora Pekec confirmed to The Verge that the article, the statement attributed to Mamdani, and the account suspension are all fake.NYC Journals’ website doesn’t have many details about the outlet, and the fake story is attributed to a general “NYC Journals Staff” byline. Elsewhere on the site it claims that its information is “corroborated with a myriad of sources and fact checked thoroughly.” It’s not clear where or how the story began to spread, but it’s been picked up by a handful of other fly-by-night websites that pop up suddenly and disappear just as fast. NYC Journals did not list a way to contact the site for comment.Though Mamdani is running in a local election, his candidacy has drawn national attention. After Mamdani became the presumptive Democratic nominee in June, Donald Trump seemed to endorse false claims that Mamdani was in the US “illegally.” Other Republicans have called for Mamdani to be deported. Mamdani is a naturalized US citizen. This isn’t the first false story that’s circulated during the race for mayor — and likely won’t be the last.

Obsidian is my favorite note-taking application, bar none, but it has a problem: the graph view, as fun as it is, is practically useless.