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All the news you need to keep up with the latest developments in the tech world, from product announcements and live events to tariffs, policies, and regulations. Tech touches every aspect of daily news, and our experts are here to keep you informed on what happens and how it all affects you.

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Terrence O'Brien
AI has nearly killed Buzzfeed, but its CEO has learned nothing.

Three years ago Buzzfeed embraced AI, using it to generate articles and quiz responses. Turns out, nobody wants that. The company posted a loss of $57.3 million in 2025 and its stock dropped to just $0.70. But CEO Jonah Peretti is still planning to bring “new AI apps” to market. 🤦

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Terrence O'Brien
Amazon’s War of the Worlds wins(?) big at the Razzies.

It was inevitable that, what is widely regarded as one of the worst
films ever made, would walk away with bunch of Golden Raspberries. War of the Worlds didn’t disappoint, taking home five awards for Worst Actor, Worst Picture, Worst Director, Worst Screenplay, and Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-Off or Sequel.

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Mia Sato
Influencers are being hired by a dark money group in a high-profile election.

MS NOW reports that content creators were offered $1,500 to make videos attacking Kat Abughazaleh, a former journalist now running for office in Illinois’s 9th Congressional District. The offer came from a group called Democracy Unmuted, which has since updated its website to attack the MS NOW reporter who broke the story.

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Richard Lawler
Rescuers couldn’t use a critical tornado-tracking tool last weekend after DHS let a contract lapse.

Search-and-rescue operations lacked access to pinpoint data on where tornadoes touched down, because Kristi Noem’s DHS spending policies are holding up approval of a $200k contract, reports CNN:

As the storms spread, officials from several states started contacting FEMA, asking why they couldn’t access the tornado tracking data… As of earlier this week, the tornado mapping contract still had not been renewed, the two sources said.

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Andrew Liszewski
iFixit calls the Neo Apple’s “most repairable MacBook in 14 Years.”

Following Tech Re-Nu’s dissection, iFixit has shared its teardown of the MacBook Neo. While they still score it just a 6 out of 10 on their repairability scale because of soldered RAM and storage plus Apple’s use of pentalobe screws, iFixit was pleased to find they could swap modular components with another Neo without triggering macOS warnings.

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Emma Roth
YouTube thumbnails just got an upgrade.

Creators can now upload video thumbnails up to 50MB instead of just 2MB, according to YouTube CEO Neal Mohan. Bring on the hi-res YouTube Face.

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Cameron Faulkner
You can stop waiting for Xreal’s Switch 2-ready Neo dock because it’s not coming out.

The Xreal Neo video dock-meets-charger has been canceled. The company shared the news on Reddit, stating its decision was based on concerns about its “3rd party dock reliability” and “battery longevity.” Xreal owners hoping to play the Switch 2 through their glasses now have to rely on third-party products, like a battery dock from Viture, a company that Xreal recently sued for patent infringement.

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Emma Roth
What is, a Jeopardy mobile game?

This spring, Peacock is bringing a new Jeopardy! game to its mobile app. It will feature daily trivia rounds straight from the Jeopardy! team, along with shareable scores and streak challenges.

Screenshots of the Jeopardy! mobile game
Image: NBCUniversal / Peacock
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Emma Roth
Canada gives TikTok the green light to continue operating in the country.

The decision reverses a 2024 order for TikTok to shut down its operations in the country, and comes after an agreement that TikTok will implement “enhanced protection” for Canadians’ personal information.

The Canadian Security Intelligence Service, which previously warned against using TikTok, said Canadians should “proceed cautiously” when joining new platforms and “conduct their own research on the type of data being collected,” CTV News reports.

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Jess Weatherbed
A time capsule for a Time Lord.

Two lost episodes from the third series of Doctor Who have been discovered in a private collection by film preservation trust Film is Fabulous! The six-decade-old episodes — titled “Nightmare Begins” and “Devil’s Planet” — have been restored from their original 16mm telerecordings by the BBC, and will be available on iPlayer.

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Robert Hart
Meta’s Avocado AI needs more time to ripen.

The company postponed its next AI model, codenamed Avocado, from this month until at least May, the NYT reports. Performance apparently falls short of rivals like Google.

Meta’s spent billions trying to catch up, and Avocado will be its first major release since hiring Scale’s Alexandr Wang to revamp its efforts.

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Jess Weatherbed
Google Fiber is spinning off into its own company.

The GFiber unit is combining with Astound Broadband to form a new independent fiber provider. Google will hold a minority stake, with the majority owned by investment firm Stonepeak. GFiber CEO Dinni Jain said the partnership “is the next step in our decade-long mission to redefine what customers can expect from their internet provider.”

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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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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.

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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.

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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 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.

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<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