3 – Breaking News & Latest Updates 2026
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Sean Hollister
Sean Hollister
Yakuza creator’s game studio is the latest to shut down.

Nagoshi Studio will never get to release its first game Gang of Dragon, because China’s NetEase stopped funding the studio this summer and it couldn’t find the investment to go indie. We’ve lost a lot of game studios this year, not to mention around 11,000 game developer jobs, but a few studios have managed to go indie.

Emma Roth
Emma Roth
Google’s Phone, Messages, and Contacts apps have a new look.

The new icons trade the flat blue look for a gradient style in line with the updates across Google’s other logos.

Image: Google
Richard Lawler
Richard Lawler
Techno music co-creator Juan Atkins has died at 64.

Along with fellow Belleville Three members Kevin Saunderson and Derrick May, he created the Detroit techno sound, releasing music under aliases including Cybotron and Model 500.

Atkins was found unresponsive in his hotel room Saturday ahead of a planned performance in Mexico City, and May said, “He never mentioned how sick he was, for years. He just went out and did his job the best way he could. Respect his legacy. Respect the effort. Respect the work. Respect the accomplishments.” Saunderson wrote, “Juan was the originator of Techno, a true visionary who opened the door for so many of us, myself included.”

Lauren Feiner
Lauren Feiner
Snap settles kids online safety case right before trial.

It was the last defendant in a case brought by two young social media users. Meta, TikTok, and YouTube previously settled their claims, and opening arguments were set to begin this week. But the companies will be back in court soon, with the next bellwether cases scheduled for March 2027.

Jay Peters
Jay Peters
Type “zelda” into Google for a little Easter egg.

As a nod to this week’s Ocarina of Time release, you can click the Master Sword that pops up to be transported back to a classic list of blue links, complete with a retro “Google!” logo. I wish this was an option for every search.

A screenshot of Google’s Ocarina of Time Zelda Easter egg that shows a classic list of links.
Searching “Ocarina of Time” works, too.
Image: Google
Jess Weatherbed
Jess Weatherbed
Anthropic’s updated S-1 has even more eye-popping numbers.

Anthropic updated its IPO prospectus with full third-quarter earnings, reporting $33.24 billion in revenue through September 30th, up 1,200 percent from last year. It also reported a $104 billion net loss during the same period, mostly from accounting charges. For this quarter alone, Anthropic reports roughly $17 billion in revenue with a net loss of $23.29 billion, plus commitments to spend $895.4 billion “mostly on compute and infrastructure.”

Why Peacock is making a huge bet on YouTube
Play

NBCU Media Group chairman Matt Strauss on sports, streaming, and keeping you watching.

Nilay Patel
Stevie Bonifield
Stevie Bonifield
T-Mobile’s new 5 Gig fiber plan has a 10-year price guarantee.

The fastest fiber internet option T-Mobile offers costs $90 per month, excluding taxes and fees, if you use Autopay. It will be available starting November 3rd.

Vivo’s first Pro Max phone proves its Ultra is still in a league of its own0

The X500 Pro Max is great, but it’s a step back from my favorite phone camera.

Dominic Preston
Could data center backlash flip Florida?

Bipartisan outrage has been growing for months — but Republicans’ many advantages could still help them win.

Gaby Del Valle
Jess Weatherbed
Jess Weatherbed
Tonal’s smart weightlifting machine gets a frosty design update.

The Tonal 2 “Glacier” edition is available for $4,795. Aside from being a white colorway of the Tonal 2, it also has a mirror-like display that reflects the room when idle, built-in accessory storage, and some small design tweaks like arm covers and sculptural refinements across the top and bottom caps.

Image: Tonal
Andrew Liszewski
Andrew Liszewski
Birdfy’s smart feeders now identify birds without a subscription.

Starting today, new and existing owners of the company’s smart bird feeders will receive an unlimited number of identifications of over 6,000 different species when a bird lands to feed. Previously, free users were limited to only 10 AI bird recognitions per day. Those wanting more details, including a bird’s sex, age category, and health estimates, can opt for the $79.99-per-year Birdfy Membership Plus subscription or the $149.99-per-year Pro option.

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

Three Birdfy Feeder 2 Duo smart bird feeders mounted in different spots around a backyard.
Image: Birdfy
Andrew Webster
Andrew Webster
A link to the past.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time launches later this week, and in the lead-up Nintendo has put out the first half of a lengthy developer Q&A, covering everything from what changed gameplay-wise, to the new visual style, which was inspired by puppet shows. As art director Aya Shida explains:

Neither puppet shows nor practical effects films reproduce reality exactly as it is. Even so, both create a convincing sense that the characters truly exist within their respective fantasy worlds. We also felt that there was some overlap between these forms of expression and the distinctive nostalgia evoked by the original game.

The center will not hold

The push to build the future of AI in America.

Verge Staff
Dominic Preston
Dominic Preston
Google is testing scrollable tabs in Chrome (again).

Chrome used to support tab scrolling with an experimental flag, but removed it earlier this year. Now it’s coming back in the latest Canary build for Chrome Desktop. It lets you navigate crowded tab bars using the scroll wheel, gestures, or arrow controls.

Dominic Preston
Dominic Preston
WhatsApp is rolling out smarter message actions.

Long-press a message with an email address, phone number, address, or meeting time, and the app will suggest dynamic actions like sending emails, saving contacts, or creating calendar events. It’s rolling out across iOS and Android, though only some Verge team members are seeing the feature on our phones so far.

Screenshot of WhatsApp showing action prompts from an email address
Screenshot: WhatsApp
Dominic Preston
Dominic Preston
Samsung’s smart glasses might stick to the US and South Korea.

That’s according to the Chosun Ilbo, which reports markets including Europe, China, and Japan will have to wait until later for the “intelligent eyewear,” powered by Google, and designed by Gentle Monster and Warby Parker. Chosun also reports the glasses will go on sale in mid-December, a little later than we’d previously heard.

Robert Hart
Robert Hart
Elon Musk appears to have throttled Grok Bot for being “unsustainably” expensive.

Musk hinted at the change in an X post after users complained they were hitting usage limits sooner than expected. The cost of running xAI’s always-on AI agent was “unsustainably high relative to revenue,” he said, without providing details on what has changed.

Jess Weatherbed
Jess Weatherbed
AI is being used to churn out a lot of indie games.

This graph shared by game hosting platform Itch.io doesn’t flag when AI was specifically used in game development, but at a time when so many studios are struggling, its hard to think of another reason why daily game submissions would have doubled in two months.

Jess Weatherbed
Jess Weatherbed
OpenAI says it’s tightening ChatGPT controls around violence.

Teen accounts will have further limits on receiving weapons-related information from the chatbot, “even when a question appears harmless.” Additional restrictions for all users are also being placed on how ChatGPT responds to questions about past mass attacks, sharing fewer details about who carried them about, the weapons used, and how they were obtained.

Terrence O'Brien
Terrence O'Brien
You can get a religious exemption from using AI at work.

The best part: You don’t need to belong to a church or even believe in a god to do it. David Durman recently secured a religious exemption from using AI at work based on non-theist humanist beliefs. According to TechCrunch:

Durman is the first humanist to secure workplace accommodations that allow him to abstain from AI use, and one of the first people to publicly discuss their pursuit of these protections. He was inspired to seek them when he read that Erin Maus, a Unitarian Universalist and software engineer, was able to secure similar protections for herself.

Terrence O'Brien
Terrence O'Brien
Billboards around the globe were hacked to show porn.

LED billboards in Egypt, Malaysia, Brazil, and possibly Iraq and China were hacked to show sexually explicit material. The group Leakers$ claimed responsibility for the attack and said that “anyone with two brain cells” could have done it. According to Gizmodo:

A representative said participants using the pseudonyms Never, 19ylegal, CH, and Nivex identified thousands of exposed systems through an automated random scan lasting roughly two hours. The systems were allegedly accessible via web pages and interfaces that lacked basic security protections.

Terrence O'Brien
Terrence O'Brien
What’s the scariest thing you’ve ever seen on YouTube?

To close out spooky season, I shared some of my favorite creepy clips from YouTube. I tried to avoid series that spanned multiple videos or had the backing of bigger corporate sponsors, like Adult Swim’s infomercials. But let’s toss all qualifiers out the window: What YouTube clip or clips have unsettled you the most?

Terrence O'Brien
Terrence O'Brien
Adam Mosseri tries Instagram’s new long-form Features.

Mosseri opens the video by saying he’s “suspicious anyone actually is interested in” his roughly 6-minute day-in-the-life video. I can’t say anything that follows would lead me to disagree with him. But at least we know he won’t be making any extra money from it.