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Jess Weatherbed
This website revives Newgrounds animations as a roulette.

“Newgrounds used to get 3,000 flash animations a year, most are forgotten,” Newgrounds Roulette creator Mike Wing said on X. “So I made a site that shuffles through them.”

It’s a fun and nostalgic way to waste a few minutes, but just remember — these randomized animations came from Newgrounds in the 2000s and may not be safe for work.

A screenshot taken of Newgrounds Roulette.
The first few randomizations took me right back to my childhood (when I certainly shouldn’t have been watching at least some of the animations posted on Newgrounds).
Image: @immike_wing
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TikTok
TC Sottek
Xbox parrot alert.

Parrots have legendary intelligence, but perhaps none like this exemplary Halo legend: a Congo African Grey rescue at the Alveus Sanctuary who can mimic Xbox noises. They can also dance to the classic Halo theme song. The sanctuary doesn’t know the bird’s name or gender yet, but may I suggest… “Master Cheep?”

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Sheena Vasani
Prime Day is moving up.

Amazon will hold its annual Prime Day event in June instead of July this year, according to a recent report from Bloomberg. Sources told the outlet the sale will take place in “late June,” though Amazon has yet to confirm the exact timing of its multi-day shopping event.

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Richard Lawler
Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen is stepping down after 18 years.

Narayen told investors today that AI-first products “should be our next billion-dollar business,” and that he will leave the role he’s held since 2007 once the board names a successor. He’s overseen its Creative Cloud rollout, big bets on the future of AI, and its abandoned $20 billion attempt to acquire Figma.

Narayen:

The next era of creativity is being written right now — shaped by AI, by new workflows and by entirely new forms of expression. Adobe has never waited for the future to arrive. We’ve anticipated it. We’ve built it. And we’ve led it.

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Emma Roth
The CBP says it’s making progress on its tariff refund system.

In a court filing, US Customs and Border Protection official Brandon Lord says parts of the agency’s new refund processing system are currently 40 to 80 percent complete. According to Lord, the CBP will begin “performance testing in the next few weeks.”

The CBP previously estimated that the system would be done in April, as its existing tech wasn’t equipped to handle $166 billion in refunds.

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Richard Lawler
Amazon’s “sassy” personality style for Alexa Plus has a lot of warning labels.

Brief, Sweet, and Chill options launched in January for Alexa Plus, and now there’s also Sassy, an “unfiltered personality with razor-sharp wit, playful sarcasm, and occasional censored profanity.”

The clever comebacks-equipped voice is adults-only and requires additional verification checks, but it’s no Microsoft Tay, M3gan, or AIA. Where the Sweet version leads with “I’m radiating pure joy,” this one suggests mayhem and being “ready to wreck some things together.”

Tiles showing the different personality options for Alexa Plus
Image: Alexa
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Terrence O'Brien
Tidal is taking on Bandcamp and allowing artists to sell music directly to fans.

People are tired of not owning anything, iPods are popular again, and Tidal is trying to cash in. You don’t need a subscription to buy songs, and the company is only taking a 10 percent cut, but there’s an extra service fee if you use Apple’s in-app payment system.

If you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement.

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Andrew Liszewski
Ugreen’s crossbody phone strap doubles as a 4-foot long USB-C charging cable.

Crossbody phone straps may become even more popular now that they’re more functional. Ugreen’s alternative to Apple’s iPhone strap doubles as a 47-inch long USB-C charging cable with connectors that use a locking mechanism to securely connect to your phone. It’s currently available from Amazon in Germany for €19.99, or around $23, according to Appgefahren.de.

<em>There are Amazon listings for the lanyard in Italy and France, but </em>The Verge<em> has reached out to Ugreen to confirm US availability.</em>
<em>The cable’s USB-C connectors attach to the lanyard using a twist to lock mechanism to ensure your phone doesn’t fall.</em>
<em>The lanyard includes an adapter to securely connect to smartphones inside protective cases that include a cutout for their charging port.</em>
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There are Amazon listings for the lanyard in Italy and France, but The Verge has reached out to Ugreen to confirm US availability.
Image: Ugreen
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Sean Hollister
‘The era of bargain-priced PCs and tablets is behind us’: PC shipments expected to drop 11 percent.

IDC, Omdia, and Gartner agree: the PC market will shrink because of RAMaggedon. Respectively, they’re forecasting 11 percent, 12 percent, and 10 percent declines in 2026, far bigger than previously predicted.

“The sub-$500 entry-level PC segment will disappear by 2028,” Gartner said in late February. Phones will drop similarly. And these forecasts don’t include the impacts of Trump’s war on Iran.

What it was like to watch grieving parents stare down Mark Zuckerberg in court

Parent advocates were determined to make their presence known to Meta’s CEO.

Lauren Feiner
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Andrew J. Hawkins
Lucid’s next EVs will be named…

Cosmos and Earth. Paging Carl Sagan! The EV company announced the names at its Investor Day in New York City today. Both are expected to be mid-sized crossover SUVs, with an estimated starting price of $50,000. That makes the Lucid Earth and Cosmos incredibly important to the company’s long-term future — sort of similar to the Rivian R2. If Lucid wants to break into the mainstream, it needs to sell more affordable vehicles.

1/2Image: Lucid
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Emma Roth
Tim Cook celebrates Apple’s 50th anniversary.

We’ve spent five decades rethinking what’s possible and putting powerful tools into people’s hands. Through every breakthrough, one idea has guided us — that the world is moved forward by people who think different.

Apple has also launched a new @helloapple Instagram account, which will offer a behind-the-scenes look at its devices and demonstrate how they “continue to inspire creativity around the world,” according to social media consultant Matt Navarra.

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Andrew Webster
How’s this for a string of words:

YouTube performance artist-turned-metal singer Poppy is narrating the English version of an audio-only adaptation of a short story from horror manga master Junji Ito. Oh, and it’ll only be available on vinyl. You can check out the Kickstarter campaign here, and stay tuned for more on this project from me very soon.

A photo of the vinyl record Old Records.
Image: Zero Zero Enterprises
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Andrew Liszewski
Dyson’s new floor scrubber comes with a drying dock that helps control odors.

The company’s skinny PencilVacs come with charging stands, but Dyson’s new Clean+Wash Hygiene includes a dock that uses hot air to dry the cleaner’s microfiber roller after a self-cleaning cycle to help reduce bacteria growth and odors. It’s available now for $499 from Amazon and Dyson’s retail locations and online store.

If you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement.

<em>The Dyson Clean+Wash Hygiene has a 45-minute runtime and a water tank large enough to clean 3,767 square feet of floor.</em>
<em>The cleaner’s included charging dock also features a hot-air mechanism to dry the microfiber roller in about 30 minutes.</em>
<em>The cleaner’s microfiber roller picks up dust, debris, and wet messes and deposits them in a holding tank that can be removed and emptied.</em>
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The Dyson Clean+Wash Hygiene has a 45-minute runtime and a water tank large enough to clean 3,767 square feet of floor.
Image: Dyson
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Jess Weatherbed
UK banking glitch exposed customer transactions.

Some Lloyds Bank, Halifax, and Bank of Scotland app users reported they were briefly able to view charges and payments made by other people on their accounts. Lloyds Banking Group, which owns all three banks, says the issue was “quickly identified and resolved,” and that it’s “reviewing what happened to ensure this cannot occur again.”

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Andrew Liszewski
More details and video of DJI’s first 360-degree drone leak.

If you can’t wait until March 26th for the official reveal, New Camera has shared a leaked video of the DJI Avata 360 showing off its tilting camera module that works in 360-degree and FPV modes. Reliable leaker Igor Bogdanov has also shared some of the drone’s specs, including a 23-minute flight time and a 20km range.

Anthropic doesn’t trust the Pentagon, and neither should you
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Techdirt’s Mike Masnick on the history of the NSA and mass surveillance in America, and why Anthropic’s fight with the Pentagon should worry us.

Nilay Patel
Bespoke AI models are the next big thing in filmmaking

Ben Affleck’s AI startup, recently purchased by Netflix for around $600 million, has a different approach to gen AI.

Charles Pulliam-Moore
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Andrew Liszewski
The MacBook Neo is surprisingly easy to disassemble and repair.

If you needed another reason to consider Apple’s new entry-level laptop, YouTube’s Tech Re-Nu shared a teardown of the MacBook Neo. Inside they found most components secured with just screws, including modular USB-C ports that are easy to replace. The only part that uses glue is the cable connecting the trackpad to the mainboard.

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Andrew J. Hawkins
Uber goes elite.

The ridehail service is launching a new premium offering for anyone who thinks Uber Black is too pedestrian. Uber Elite will be invite-only and feature commercially licensed professional chauffeurs driving new-model luxury vehicles – less than three years old – such as the Cadillac Escalade, Lucid Air and Lincoln Navigator. Each ride includes complimentary ammenities such as chargers, bottled water, mints, and hand-sanitizing towelettes. It’s currently only available in LA and San Francisco, and soon in New York City – with more US and international cities to follow.

Image: Uber
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David Pierce
This is immediately my new favorite way to watch YouTube.

It’s called Channel Surfer, and it presents YouTube as an old-school grid of TV channels, which you can flip though to see what’s on. All the simplicity of watching cable in a hotel room; all the videos you actually want to watch. It’s fun on its own, but it feels like magic as soon as you import your own subscriptions to create personalized channels.