The SpaceX-owned AI coding tool says the modified version of Claude Code appeared on its extension marketplace from 5:27AM ET and 4:35PM ET on Thursday. The extension contains malicious code that collects various information, including hostname, username, operating system, home directory path, public IP address, and more.

Android Authority spotted code in a beta version of the Android Google app (v17.71.17) referencing the new mode, with the tagline, “Use Gemini Live without an internet connection.” They say the code doesn’t hint at how the local-only Gemini Live mode would work, though, or whether it would support camera and screen-sharing features.

As part of the acquisition, which was disclosed under the EU’s Digital Markets Act, Apple will “make employment offers to and hire certain employees” at Ascend.io, a startup that specializes in agentic data engineering. An update on Ascend.io’s website says the startup is “winding down operations as we prepare for our next great adventure.”

The company already makes spatial reality displays for professional applications like medical imaging, but its new ELF-MN1 will target consumers when it launches in Japan on December 11th for around $343. Powered by a connected smartphone or PC, the 6-inch, 3,840 x 2,160-pixel display uses eye-tracking to create a convincing stereoscopic image that can be viewed at up to a 25-degree angle off the center of the screen.

The music streaming platform is reportedly aiming to release the feature, which would allow users to prompt AI-generated remixes and covers of participating songs, in the first quarter ​of 2027. This is expected to be a paid add-on for Premium subscribers, with Spotify considering charging an additional $4 to $5 a month.

OpenAI’s latest claimed breakthrough, one of three major results announced Monday, refutes the long-held Exponential Time Hypothesis. Wired captures the excitement and uncertainty among researchers. It’s a familiar story in mathematics, where a barrage of AI-generated discoveries has left researchers scrambling to understand what’s actually been achieved.

That’s the logline for Death Stranding anime Isolations, which just dropped its first short teaser. Produced by Hideo Kojima, the series releases on Disney Plus and Hulu some time in 2027. It’s separate from the live-action Death Stranding film from A24, which is set to start filming next year.

The strange-looking Signature 27 — an Android flagship poised to rival the S26 Ultra, with a Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 chip and Bang & Olufsen speakers — is nearly here. Motorola says it’ll reveal the rest of the phone next week. Will we find out Graphene’s software support plans then too?

The fanworks platform announced yesterday that it could be down for four weeks, and now we know why. Details about the security incident itself haven’t been shared, but no AO3 data has been deleted, and the site runners currently don’t believe that user account information was stolen, but are “unable to rule it out.”

Looks pretty darn easy, based on a video from Austin Evans. The key part starts at 5:33.

If you own Pokémon Legends: Z-A, you’ll soon be able to get a Poké Ball Pattern Vivillon for the first time in a decade. This form of Vivillon has only ever been available via special event distributions, and the last one was in 2016. (The first, in 2014, was only in Paris.) The exact dates of the distribution are still TBA, but it’s on its way, so don’t miss it!

As reported by Business Insider, Instagram offered some YouTube creators $50,000 to post videos to its new “Features” video format, while others received offers up to $500,000. “We’ve been public about the fact that we are funding Features content directly with some creators right now to support them,” a Meta spokesperson tells Business Insider.

The company launched Jules in December 2024, positioning it as a tool that can complete coding jobs “you don’t want to do.” But now, Jules is shutting down, and Google says it will bring its learnings from the tool into its AI coding platform, Antigravity:

Steve Jobs once said touchscreen laptops were a terrible idea. Now Apple is shipping one. The Verge’s Antonio Di Benedetto tells us all about the new MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR, how MacOS is changing for touch, why a laptop user might want a touchscreen, and whether MacBook and iPad are destined to become one.

“Our newer businesses, ranging from Grocery to Pharmacy to Amazon Leo to Zoox are progressing encouragingly,” Amazon CEO Andy Jassy says as part of the company’s Q3 earnings report, which revealed total revenue of $201.9 billion. “There has never been a trillion dollar revenue business, and we may have two of them in the next 5-10 years.”

Polymarket said it paused trading “out of an abundance of caution” after one of its third-party partners was “compromised.” Some users reported that their accounts were drained shortly before the stoppage. “We’ll make this right and are fully reimbursing all affected traders,” Polymarket said.

Three weeks ago, I told you a free mod for a 10-year-old game is one of the best things I’ve ever played in VR. That wasn’t an exaggeration, and now it has multiplayer. Last night, I grappling-hooked and wall-ran and summoned titans from the sky to battle human foes. At 2AM, I still wanted more. Join me?

Would you believe I’ve only got 14 more prize packs to give away? Not 14 prizes, 14 packs, but I started with 31 so we’re more than halfway there. Thing is, I’ve got more items I’ll need to giveaway or drop at charity thrift because The Verge doesn’t keep the gadgets we test. You can enter our giveaway each week — so long as you do before each deadline of 9AM ET Wednesday. Tell a friend!

Fanworks hub Archive of Our Own is no stranger to downtime, but an as-yet-unexplained outage of potentially up to a month — announced on the site’s status page — is going to send a lot of fanfic writers scrambling:

“Starting 2 years from now, we will only allow for Test Labs to be based in the U.S or “Reciprocal Economies,” i.e. those places that are willing to recognize U.S.-based testing,” writes FCC chair Brendan Carr. His stated reasoning makes some sense, but it also omits important context: today’s test labs are concentrated in China because that’s where gadgets are made.

That’s the subject line of a real press release I just got in my email. Glover will “direct, write, executive produce, and star in the series,” according to the announcement. Stephen Glover, his brother, will also be a writer and executive producer. No word on when the series might actually be out.