Hello, and welcome to Decoder! This is Jake Kastrenakes, executive editor at The Verge. I’m filling in for Nilay for one Thursday episode while he’s settling back into full-time podcast ... read more

In its quest to become the ultimate app for “flexible work,” Uber launched today a new pilot to allow its US drivers and couriers to earn extra money by performing ... read more

"It felt like you were watching the first banner ad being served," quipped long-time digital ad native Adam Broitman, referring to AT&T's "You Will" media buy 31 years ago on HotWired.com. ... read more

According to the company, Brown will continue to contribute to the firm's "long-term vision" while management responsibilities will remain under the leadership of CEO Jamie Posnanski. ... read more

Guillermo del Toro has been thinking about Mary Shelley's novel for a lifetime. He has described Frankenstein as "the quintessential teenage book," and his famous Bleak House in Los Angeles ... read more

The recently-rumored AI partnership between Spotify and the major record labels is now a reality. The streaming service announced today that it’s entering into an agreement with Sony Music Group, ... read more

The internet has long been a source of information and support for transgender people. Now, trans rights and the internet itself are in a moment of crisis. What happens next? ... read more

While oceans of ink paint trans women as a monstrous threat or pitiable curiosity, trans women themselves have often remained locked out of the publishing world as both writers and ... read more

As Microsoft bids farewell to Windows 10 and gets ready to mark the 40-year milestone of its operating system, it’s looking forward to what’s next for Windows. Microsoft might not ... read more

A Waymo autonomous self-driving Jaguar electric vehicle is seen in Tempe, Arizona, on the outskirts of Phoenix, on September 15, 2025. (Photo by CHARLY TRIBALLEAU / AFP) (Photo by CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP via ... read more

It’s Android flagship season in China right now, and today is Oppo’s turn. It has revealed the Find X9 and Find X9 Pro, with industry-leading specs for both the cameras ... read more

Ever wanted a robot lawnmower you can ride? If the answer’s yes, then Honda has something for you. The Japanese company will be debuting its new ProZision series of riding ... read more

As AI sweeps the tech landscape, new startups continue to emerge. Here are seven former ad tech execs' thoughts on best AI practices and starting their own companies. The post 7 Ad Tech Veterans Who ... read more

It has long been understood that brand is advertising’s most powerful driver of growth. Yet, in a marketplace worth more than one trillion dollars, less than 10% of digital campaigns track brand outcomes. This leaves ... read more

Ekko Astral is not a trans band. They may have a trans frontwoman in Jael Holzman. Much of their material may deal with being trans. Plus, they may have grown ... read more

A new music-competition show from America's heartland may be the best reality talent contest since "American Idol" ushered in the modern era of such shows in 2002. ... read more

The Mint’s design for the $1 Steve Jobs commemorative coin. The US Mint has revealed the design for a commemorative $1 coin honoring late Apple co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs.  ... read more

As trade tensions grow between the US and China, Microsoft is reportedly preparing to move the manufacturing of its Surface laptops and tablets out of China. Nikkei reports that Microsoft ... read more

The 25-year-old cosmetics brand Milani is one of the only independent makeup companies to compete in the mass-market retail category. The company combines the old-school retail world with the new world of digital-native marketing. One ... read more

SSPs are looking pretty ripe for acquisition; agencies want real man-on-the-street content from actual human men; and AI slop is taking over the internet. The post Supply In Demand; Like Pigs In Slop appeared first ... read more

For better or worse, AI is changing the industry, which means even influencer marketing and creators are going to have to adapt. Which is why Digiday has charted what influencer marketing is expected to look ... read more

Publishers are increasingly licensing decades of archived reporting to corporate clients’ private LLMs — a potential path to recurring, usage-based revenue that monetizes evergreen content in the zero-click era.  Welcome to LLM deals 2.0. Publishers ... read more

This week’s Media Briefing looks at why some publishers that once blocked all AI bots are reconsidering their stance, as growing traffic from AI platforms is pushing them to weigh potential monetization opportunities against the ... read more

Branded entertainment seems to be making a comeback. Call it marketing déjà vu.  Over the past few weeks, brands like restaurant chain Cava, retail brand Hot Topic and wedding website Zola have each launched episodic ... read more

This story was originally published on Modern Retail. Last month, Pennsylvania-based regional grocery chain Giant Eagle announced a $100 million investment in its products and stores over the next two years. The investment comes alongside ... read more

In remarks at today's DPAA conference, Beaubien noted a downside to autonomous vehicles. "What will people do in autonomous cars? Answer: look at their phones, not billboards." ... read more

Google is making videos created with the AI filmmaking tool Flow even more realistic — and harder to identify as AI-generated at first glance. The company announced Wednesday that users ... read more

Consumers have many worries about AI, Ping Identity reports. ... read more

Don’t let pings spoil the dingers. When my household quit cable four years ago and I lost access to Seattle Mariners games on TV, I started streaming the radio broadcast ... read more

The M5 MacBook Pro, which starts at $1,599, is available for preorder starting today. | Image: Apple Apple recently announced revised 14-inch MacBook Pro and iPad Pro models, each equipped ... read more

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier claims in a new lawsuit that Roku is violating a 2023 state privacy law by allegedly processing childrens' data without parental consent, and adults' and teens' sensitive data without their ... read more

Meta has expanded its partnership with semiconductor design company Arm, a competitor of GPU chip-manufacturer Nvidia. The deal shows Meta making a major investment in the global efficiency of its future AI systems. ... read more

YouTube aims to assist teens with concerns related to mental health on topics including depression, anxiety and ADHD. ... read more

The Apple-designed N1 wireless networking chip brings Thread to the iPad Pro. | Image: Apple Apple’s new M5-powered iPad Pro is the first iPad to officially support the Thread smart ... read more

Instagram has announced its teen accounts will now "be guided by PG-13 movie ratings by default," as the platform begins to implement stricter content settings and parental settings for teen users. ... read more

The path a consumer takes from seeing a product to buying it has never been more convoluted. The decades-old model of “last-click attribution,” which gives all the credit for a sale to the final touchpoint, ... read more

As audiences juggle multiple screens and platforms, advertisers need to rethink how and where they engage, said Jessie Schwartzfarb, executive vice president and head of video investment at Dentsu, in this interview with Beet.TV contributor ... read more

Same device, different packaging. | Image: Amazon Following the debut of Amazon’s $39.99 Fire TV Stick 4K Select, the company told The Verge that a name change was coming to ... read more

(From L) Political commentator Rogan O’Handley, aka DC Draino, TikToker Chaya Raichik, US conservative activist Scott Presler, commentator Liz Wheeler and US conservative political commentator Chad Prather carry binders bearing the seal ... read more

It’s-a-me, Ally-o. | Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge Hey! I'm Sean Hollister, and I've been The Verge's unofficial handheld gaming PC reviewer since 2022, when the Steam Deck ... read more

More than a third of U.S. consumers have canceled at least one streaming service in the past six months, Ipsos found. ... read more

Sundar Pichai at Trump’s inauguration, alongside other Big Tech CEOs. A group of Democratic lawmakers are asking questions about YouTube’s $24.5 million settlement with President Donald Trump. In a letter ... read more

"Cox made a deliberate and egregious decision to elevate its own profits over compliance with the law," Sony Music Entertainment and other companies argue in a brief filed Wednesday with the Supreme Court. ... read more

More than 20 companies including PubMatic, Optable, Scope3, Swivel, Classify, Triton Digital, Magnite, and Yahoo have agreed to support the Ad Context Protocol (AdCP), an open technology protocol launched today to standardize how AI agents ... read more

More than 20 companies including PubMatic, Optable, Scope3, Swivel, Classify, Triton Digital, Magnite, and Yahoo have agreed to support the Ad Context Protocol (AdCP), an open technology protocol launched today to standardize how AI agents ... read more

If you’re looking for a great 360-degree action camera for your next adventure, the Insta360 X5 is an excellent pick that’s on sale in black at Amazon and Best Buy ... read more

Logitech is launching a digital stylus for Apple Vision Pro that makes it easier to write, draw, and manipulate 3D designs. The Logitech Muse is essentially a pen-shaped Vision Pro ... read more

Minternet is an unforgivable portmanteau. Mint Mobile is trying something a bit less “mobile” with its new prepaid 5G home internet plan that goes for as little as $30 a ... read more

The AI advertising agents will need their own trade group eventually. For now though, a bunch of companies are forming the Ad Context Protocol, or AdCP. The consortium of ad tech and AI ad software ... read more

Consumers have the gloomiest view of the economy since 1997 and are looking for new ways to find value. ... read more

And she's an actual Mint Mobile customer, made of flesh and blood, and not AI generated like the "actress" who has made headlines in recent weeks. ... read more

Ad tech has a new acronym, dubbed “AdCP,” and it’s one backed by some of the industry’s OGs. The cynical might quip, “That’s just what we need…” But more forward-thinking readers will appreciate it as ... read more

The ability to add users to group chats via shared links is coming in a future update. Meta is adding group chats to Threads, allowing users to message multiple friends ... read more

Kobo announced an official remote control for its e-readers, allowing you to turn the page easily even when you don’t have the e-reader to hand. While it won’t quite allow ... read more

Nano Banana came to Google Search and NotebookLM this week, with Photos the next step. One analyst believes Google's AI image-editing model spread virally based on word of mouth, with no involvement from Google. Here's ... read more

Have you ever wanted a DJI Osmo Pocket built into your phone? Honor has announced what it’s calling the “Robot Phone,” a concept device with an AI-enabled, gimbal-mounted camera that ... read more

Japan’s government is dialing up the heat on OpenAI, formally asking it to stop ripping off Japanese artwork, according to ITMedia and reported by IGN. The company has been in ... read more

On Wednesday, the largest US group of unions called on employers and policymakers to join in an effort it’s calling the “workers first initiative on AI.” Functionally, the effort by ... read more

Last year’s iPad Pro was a huge redesign. Apple just announced a new model of its best and highest-end tablet, the iPad Pro. The new device comes with a couple ... read more

There’s also a new Dual Knit Strap that can be purchased for $99. | Image: Apple Apple just revealed that the Vision Pro headset is getting upgraded to an M5 ... read more

Apple is refreshing its 14-inch MacBook Pro with a new processor. Announced this morning via press release, the new entry-level MacBook Pro will now feature a new M5 chip, faster ... read more

Roku is updating its voice assistant with AI features that can answer questions about movies, shows, and actors, as well as help you find something to watch next. Now, instead ... read more

What does "Xbox" mean? Some might say it can only refer to a box-shaped Microsoft game machine. Others will argue it's a collection of Xbox-native titles like Halo, Gears, Forza, ... read more

Google is introducing new recovery tools that aim to make it less frustrating to regain access when you’re locked out of your account. Instead of answering security questions or entering ... read more

The Magic 8 Pro’s design hasn’t changed too much from the Magic 7 Pro’s. Honor announced its Magic 8 and Magic 8 Pro flagships at a launch event in China ... read more

Ad-free podcasts are now officially available for Verge subscribers! There are a few steps to follow to set up ad-free feeds, so read on for instructions.  If you’re not yet ... read more

Since we launched our subscription last December, the most highly requested feature from Verge subscribers has been ad-free podcasts (seriously, highly requested). Well… we heard you. (Get it?) Starting today, ... read more

Apple’s new home hub is said to resemble the Amazon Echo Show pictured here. Apple’s long-rumored smart home display hub may finally launch in Spring 2026, according to Bloomberg’s Mark ... read more

For about a year of my life, from late 2019 through the summer of 2020, I was trans only on Reddit. I don’t know why I chose Reddit. I don’t ... read more

In today’s economic climate, every marketing dollar is under scrutiny. CMOs aren’t just required to build brands and grow demand; they’re expected to prove that their budgets drive measurable business value. And no one is ... read more

In 2014, Time announced the “Transgender Tipping Point.” The perilous conditions trans people are facing right now probably weren’t the progress the publication had in mind. In the US, state ... read more

An airplane takes off from Reagan National Airport on the ninth day of the federal government shutdown on October 9th, 2025 in Arlington, Virginia. | Photo by Brendan Smialowski / AFP via ... read more

The Word concepts next to the final icon on the right. Microsoft is busy rolling out new curvy and colorful new Office icons, and now it’s revealing a set of ... read more

Apple TV dropped the Plus because everyone was already doing it, according to Cue. We have some new insight into Apple’s muddled rebrand of Apple TV Plus to Apple TV, ... read more

London’s iconic black cabs could soon face a new rival: Waymo. The Alphabet-owned company said today it intends to launch a fully driverless robotaxi service in London, starting in ... read more

When sustainable advertising startup Scope3 launched in early 2022, the carbon footprint of digital advertising quickly became an ad tech talking point. One of the company’s co-founders, Brian O’Kelley, is often called the “godfather of ... read more

The out-of-home channel has a reputation for being behind the digital times. That reputation often means advertisers treat OOH as a separate channel that’s the domain of specialists, rather than as part of their omnichannel ... read more

Ceci N’est Pas Un Récession It seems like the last quarter treated agency holdcos pretty well – the French ones, anyway.  Take Publicis Groupe, which exceeded analyst forecasts yet again with an organic YoY growth ... read more

This week’s Future of TV Briefing looks at how OpenAI could create a commercial version of Sora’s Cameos feature that could thread the needle between a sponsored product, affiliate commerce and a revenue-sharing program for ... read more

AI. Antitrust. Existential dread, and, oh yeah, innovation… these were just some of the constantly recurring threads of conversation at this year’s Prebid Summit.  This year’s edition of the annual, publisher-focused ad tech conference earlier ... read more

With skepticism growing over AI’s real money-making potential, Publicis Group CEO Arthur Sadoun used the holdco’s latest earnings call to spell out what its investments are actually yielding. He said eight in 10 ad dollars ... read more

Media mix modeling (MMM) had its day in the sun when traditional media ruled the roost — then came the relative instantaneity of digital marketing and media, which turned MMM’s lack of timeliness into a ... read more

This story originally published on sister site, Modern Retail. Retail media is changing the advertising game across all sectors — and that’s why many brands are planning to put more money behind such networks in ... read more

The Trade Desk’s CEO just gave his sharpest take yet on why publishers have become a central focus for the company. Speaking at the Prebid Summit yesterday (Oct. 14), Jeff Green boiled it down to ... read more

Wintour says Weiss has the makings of a great leader. ... read more

OpenAI plans to roll out an age-gated ChatGPT for "erotica" in December to verified adult users, as part of the company's policy to "treat adult users like adults," the company's CEO Sam Altman wrote on ... read more

OpenAI plans to roll out an age-gated ChatGPT for "erotica" in December to verified adult users, as part of the company's policy to "treat adult users like adults," the company's CEO Sam Altman wrote on ... read more

Samsung is finally about to reveal more details about its Project Moohan mixed reality headset. The company just announced a new “Worlds Wide Open” Galaxy event that will take place ... read more

Microsoft's first text-to-image generator designed and developed in-house marks a significant step for the company in developing its own proprietary AI models. Microsoft's image-generation models for products like Copilot and Bing Image Creator previously were ... read more

Microsoft's first text-to-image generator designed and developed in-house marks a significant step for the company in developing its own proprietary AI models. Microsoft's image-generation models for products like Copilot and Bing Image Creator previously were ... read more

Netflix is no longer just a home for TV shows, movies, documentaries, and live WWE matches — soon, you’ll be able to stream video podcasts, too. The streaming giant announced ... read more

Google might have yet another Pixel with a battery problem, and this time, affecting the brand new Pixel 10 Pro Fold. In a video published today, YouTuber JerryRigEverything, aka Zack ... read more

Dave Young, vice president of retail media at Dick’s Sporting Goods, sees the company’s stores as a vital link between traditional advertising and real-world brand experiences. “What we’re doing that’s unique at Dick’s through Dick’s ... read more

Is your next customer a bot? The way consumers shop and discover products is undergoing significant changes, marked by a highly fragmented journey that spans social feeds, e-commerce platforms, retail media, and AI services. Just ... read more

The appeal of traditional journalism to engaged, coveted audiences is still “news” to many major advertisers. But when established publishers try to make that case, marketers cite that brand safety concerns are top of mind. ... read more

Google, Meta Platforms and Apple are petitioning the 9th Circuit to immediately review a lower court decision that allowed gamblers who say they lost money on casino apps to proceed with a lawsuit. ... read more

YouTube is updating the look of the video player to be “cleaner and more immersive” beginning this week. “This includes updated controls and new icons to make the viewing experience ... read more

Meta has removed a Facebook page dedicated to tracking Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) action in Chicago after the Justice Department got involved.  Attorney General Pam Bondi wrote on X ... read more

What can publishers expect from PubDesk, The Trade Desk’s new publisher dashboard? Not world domination, according to Mike O’Sullivan, The Trade Desk’s GM of product. Since 2022, when TTD launched OpenPath, its direct-to-publisher supply connection, ... read more

Apple is teasing the imminent launch of a new MacBook with an M5 chip. In an X post, Apple SVP of worldwide marketing Greg Joswiak wrote that “something powerful is ... read more