Google’s NotebookLM Will Now Do ‘Deep Research’
Google announced that its NotebookLM AI workspace will integrate Gemini’s Deep Research agent, giving all users access within a week. Users can choose a fast or deep research mode, with the deep option delivering in‑depth analysis, source citations, and the ability to add additional references as the report builds. The update also adds support for new file types, including Google Sheets, PDFs via URL, and Microsoft Word .docx files, enabling richer data queries directly in notebooks.
Google Will Let Users Call Stores, Browse Products, and Check Out Using AI
Google is launching a suite of AI‑powered shopping tools for U.S. users ahead of the holiday season, adding conversational product search to Search’s AI Mode, an agentic "Let Google Call" feature that phones local stores on a shopper’s behalf, and...
Spotify’s New Audiobook Recap Feature Uses AI to Remind You of the Story so Far
Spotify is rolling out an AI‑driven "Recaps" feature in its iOS app that automatically generates a spoken summary of the portion of an audiobook a listener has already heard, after 15‑20 minutes of playback. The tool, initially limited to a...
DJI’s Neo 2 Selfie Drone Launches Globally, but Not in the US
DJI is rolling out its Neo 2 selfie drone to a broader set of markets—including Japan, Canada, the UK and other regions—after an exclusive launch in China, but the device will not be sold through DJI’s official channels in the...
Anthropic Will Invest $50 Billion in Building AI Data Centers in the US
Anthropic announced a $50 billion investment to build AI data centers in the United States, partnering with Fluidstack to launch facilities in Texas and New York with additional sites planned. The centers are slated to become operational throughout 2026 and are...
Waymo Is Hitting the Highway — but Can It Handle the Speed?
Waymo announced that its fully driverless robotaxis will begin offering highway routes in Phoenix, Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area, initially to early‑access riders, while extending its Bay Area service to San Jose with 24/7 curbside access at both...
5 Things I Love About Amazon’s New Echo Shows — and 3 Things I Don’t
Amazon unveiled the new Echo Show 8 and Echo Show 11, featuring a sleeker design, faster AZ3 Pro processor, 13‑MP camera, Wi‑Fi 6E, Thread, Matter and Zigbee support, and a fabric‑wrapped speaker system. Both devices run the updated Vega OS with Alexa Plus, delivering more responsive...
Google Relaunches Cameyo to Entice Businesses From Windows to ChromeOS
Google has relaunched the CameyobyGoogle virtual app delivery platform, a revamped version of the Cameyo virtualization software it acquired in 2024, to help Windows‑centric enterprises transition to ChromeOS. The service streams individual Windows applications—such as Excel and AutoCAD—directly in the...
Disney Is Losing over $4 Million a Day in Revenue on the YouTube TV Blackout
Disney is losing an estimated $4.3 million a day – about $30 million a week – after more than 20 of its channels, including ABC and ESPN, were blacked out on YouTube TV following a contract dispute that began on Oct. 30. The standoff...
Google Is Introducing Its Own Version of Apple’s Private AI Cloud Compute
Google announced Private AI Compute, a cloud‑based platform that extends on‑device AI capabilities while preserving user privacy. The service routes demanding AI tasks from Pixel phones, Chromebooks and other devices to a secure, fortified cloud environment where data is accessible...
Pixel Phones Are Getting Notification Summaries
Google is rolling out a December update for Pixel 9 series phones (excluding the 9A) that introduces AI‑powered notification summaries limited to longer chat conversations, aiming to provide concise context and reduce errors. The same update adds automatic sorting and...
ElevenLabs’ New AI Marketplace Lets Brands Use Famous Voices for Ads
ElevenLabs has launched the Iconic Voice Marketplace, an online platform that lets brands license AI‑replicated voices of famous figures—both living celebrities like Michael Caine and historic personalities such as Mark Twain—through a consent‑based, performer‑first model. The service connects advertisers with...
Google Photos Lets iPhone Users Edit Images by Describing Changes
Google is extending its AI‑driven editing features in Google Photos to iPhone users in the United States, adding a conversational "Help me edit" tool that accepts voice or text prompts. The rollout also brings a redesigned editor UI, more precise...
Samsung Brings a Generative AI-Powered Bixby to Its TVs
Samsung is rolling out Vision AI Companion, a generative‑AI‑powered version of its Bixby assistant, across its entire 2025 TV lineup. The feature lets users ask natural‑language questions about on‑screen content—such as actor bios, artwork details, or sports scores—and receive visual...
Siri Shortcuts Now Works with Samsung SmartThings Routines
Samsung’s latest SmartThings update adds Siri Shortcuts support, letting iPhone, HomePod and other Apple devices trigger SmartThings routines via voice. Users can now ask Siri to run automations such as a “Good morning” routine that adjusts lights, starts the coffee...
Paramount Plus Is Getting a Price Hike in Early 2026
Paramount Plus will raise its U.S. subscription fees on Jan. 15, 2026, moving the ad‑supported Essential plan from $7.99 to $8.99 and the ad‑free Premium plan from $12.99 to $13.99. The hike follows a series of annual price increases and comes after the...
Gemini for TV Is Coming to Google TV Streamer Starting Today
Google is rolling out Gemini for TV to Google TV Streamer devices starting today, extending the generative‑AI assistant beyond the limited set of smart TVs that received it in September. The update works on any TV with an HDMI port,...
Patreon Is Adding Tweet-Like Features and More Recommended Content
Patreon announced a suite of new social‑media‑style tools, including "Quips"—short text, photo or video posts that are public by default and open for comments—to showcase content and attract prospective patrons. The platform will also enable creators to collaborate on posts...
IRobot’s Revenue Has Tanked and It’s Almost Out of Cash
iRobot reported a third‑quarter 2025 revenue shortfall and disclosed that cash reserves have fallen below $25 million, leaving the company without immediate sources of additional capital. The decline follows years of competitive pressure from Chinese rivals, a failed Amazon acquisition, large...
Sir Tim Berners-Lee Doesn’t Think AI Will Destroy the Web
Sir Tim Berners‑Lee, the web’s inventor, talks about his new memoir “This Is For Everyone” and his work at Inrupt on the Solid decentralization standard, warning that the web has drifted toward closed, platform‑centric ecosystems. He argues that the original...
Tesla Is Fighting the EV Sales Slump with Short-Term Rentals
Tesla has launched a short‑term rental program for its electric vehicles in two California stores, San Diego and Costa Mesa, with plans to expand to additional locations by year‑end. Rentals run three to seven days, start at $60 per day, include free...
65daysofstatic’s New No Man’s Sky Album Searches for Humanity in an AI-Filled World
British post‑rock band 65daysofstatic have released "Journeys," a 32‑track soundtrack for Hello Games’ No Man’s Sky, marking their first revisit to the game’s music after nine years. The album reworks abstract procedural soundscapes into human‑crafted compositions alongside game audio director Paul Weir,...
The Algorithm Failed Music
Terrence O'Brien argues that music recommendation algorithms, from Pandora’s early Music Genome to Spotify’s sophisticated Discover Weekly, have shifted from helping listeners discover new music to merely keeping them streaming. By favoring “safe” tracks and even creating ghost artists through...
Texas Sues Roblox for Allegedly Failing to Protect Children on Its Platform
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit accusing Roblox of deceptive trade practices and failing to protect children from predators on its platform, alleging the company ignored state and federal safety laws and misled parents about its safeguards. The...
Senators Call on Trump to Continue Banning Nvidia From Selling Its Best Chips in China
A bipartisan group of U.S. senators led by Chris Coons and Tom Cotton urged President Donald Trump to maintain export controls that bar Nvidia from selling its flagship Blackwell AI chips to China. The resolution, co‑sponsored by Amy Klobuchar and...
Google Finance Offers Gemini AI Tools to Stock Traders
Google announced that its Google Finance app will soon include a "Deep Search" feature powered by Gemini AI, delivering fully‑cited, multi‑step research answers and a visible reasoning plan. Users can opt into early access via Google Labs, with usage caps...
Microsoft AI Says It’ll Make Superintelligent AI that Won’t Be Terrible for Humanity
Microsoft AI chief Mustafa Suleyman announced a new team dedicated to building a "humanist superintelligence"—a tightly controlled, limited‑autonomy AI designed solely to serve humanity. The initiative follows Microsoft’s recent launch of its own text, voice and image models and a revised...
Stability AI’s Legal Win over Getty Leaves Copyright Law in Limbo
Stability AI won most of its UK lawsuit against Getty Images, with the High Court rejecting Getty’s claim of secondary copyright infringement and finding only trademark infringement for watermark use. Getty had dropped its core claim that Stability trained on...
The Best Robot Vacuums We’ve Tested for 2025
The Verge’s 2025 robot‑vacuum roundup identifies the Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra as the top‑tier, hands‑free model, boasting 10,000 Pa suction, lidar mapping, AI obstacle detection and a self‑emptying dock at a premium price of $1,799.99. For budget‑conscious shoppers, the Tapo RV30...
Google Has a ‘Moonshot’ Plan for AI Data Centers in Space
Google unveiled Project Suncatcher, a moonshot effort to create space‑based AI data centers by mounting its Tensor Processing Units on solar‑powered satellites. The initiative promises near‑continuous clean energy, with satellite panels projected to be up to eight times more productive...
Deck Your House in Govee’s Smart String Lights, Which Are Cheaper Ahead of the Holidays
Govee’s Christmas Lights 2, a Matter‑compatible smart string‑light system, are on sale ahead of the holidays, with the 66‑foot kit now $69.99 (down from $99.99) and the 99‑foot version $89.99 (down from $129.99). The lights offer over 130 preset effects,...
Tech Companies Don’t Care that Students Use Their AI Agents to Cheat
Tech firms are aggressively marketing AI agents to students, offering free or discounted access and even paying referrals, while downplaying the tools' role in academic cheating. Recent videos show OpenAI’s ChatGPT agent and Perplexity’s AI assistant completing assignments and quizzes...
How a Bunch of Hackers Freed the Kinect From the Xbox
In 2010 a community of hackers reverse‑engineered Microsoft’s Kinect, creating the OpenKinect open‑source drivers that liberated the depth‑camera from the Xbox 360. After Adafruit funded a USB sniffer and released its logs, individual contributors like AlexP, Hector "marcan" Martin and...
‘Eyes-Off Driving’ Is Coming, and We’re so Not Ready
General Motors announced it will launch a Level 3 “eyes‑off” driving system on the Cadillac Escalade IQ by 2028, letting drivers remove both hands and eyes from the road on certain U.S. highways. The move follows similar Level 3 efforts by Ford,...
How One Mountain Town Hopes AI Can Help It Fight Wildfires
Vail, Colorado has become the first U.S. municipality to deploy Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s AI‑driven Smart City solution, built with partners Kamiwaza, Nvidia and others, to automatically detect wildfires from existing camera feeds, drone and satellite imagery. The platform uses real‑time...
LexisNexis CEO Says the AI Law Era Is Already Here
LexisNexis CEO Sean Fitzpatrick announced that the company’s new AI platform, Protégé, is moving beyond research to generate draft legal documents, promising higher accuracy by grounding output in its 160 billion‑document corpus and a built‑in citator to prevent hallucinated citations. The...
ICE Is Building a Social Media Panopticon
Federal immigration enforcement is expanding online surveillance: ICE has paid $5.7 million to contract Zignal Labs’ AI‑driven social media monitoring platform, which the company says can analyze more than 8 billion posts a day in 100+ languages and surface geolocated...
Microsoft Outlook Is Getting an AI Overhaul Under New Leaders
Microsoft has reorganized its Outlook team under Gaurav Sareen to rebuild the email client as an AI‑native assistant integrated with Microsoft 365 Copilot, shifting from incremental add‑ons to ground‑up redesign. Sareen is pushing faster development cycles—weekly experiments and days‑scale prototyping—and...
The Best Doorbell Cameras
The Verge recommends Google’s Nest Doorbell (wired) as the best overall video doorbell, praising its 960×1280 video, 145° field of view, 24/7 recording capability and free smart person/package/vehicle alerts, with a retail price of $179.99. Key caveats: local storage only...
Wyze’s New Solar-Powered Pan-and-Tilt Security Camera Is Less than $80
Wyze launched the Solar Cam Pan, its first battery-powered, solar-charged 2K pan-and-tilt security camera, priced at $79.98—undercutting rivals like Reolink, Tapo and Eufy. The IP65-rated device offers 360° pan, 70° tilt, AI person detection with automatic tracking, IR night recording,...
Kohler’s New Toilet Camera Provides Health Insights Based on Your Bathroom Breaks
Kohler introduced the Dekoda, a clamp-on toilet sensor that uses optical spectroscopy to analyze waste for hydration and gut-health indicators and to discreetly alert users to blood; the device is available for preorder at $599 with shipments starting Oct. 21....
Gmail Now Uses AI to Help You Find Meeting Times
Google has introduced a new AI-powered feature in Gmail called "Help me schedule," which streamlines the process of finding and suggesting meeting times based on users' Google Calendar availability and the context of email exchanges. By utilizing the Gemini AI,...
Slack Is Turning Slackbot Into an AI Assistant
Slack is testing an update for Slackbot that transforms it into an AI assistant. Presently, it operates as a tool for delivering reminders and notifications. With the update, Slackbot can create custom plans tailored to your workspace, sift through a...