Stevie Bonifield | The Verge

VSCO launches Studio Pro mobile photo editing app and plans $500 per year subscription

2026-06-17T16:43:28-04:00

VSCO is taking on Adobe with a new Studio Pro editing app rolling out today on iOS and coming to macOS later this year, as Bloomberg reports. At launch, the app offers tools for batch editing, style matching from a reference image, and sharing images through VSCO Galleries. VSCO says more features are coming later, including support for RAW images, advanced export options, and additional advanced editing tools like adjusting image aspect ratios.

A press release says the app is made for managing high-volume editing projects, like “weddings, portraits, events, sports, school photography, and other large-scale photoshoots.”

The $500 per year VSCO One subscription will launch later this month as an alternative to the “fragmented approach” of using disconnected software platforms for photo editing and business operations like contacting customers or delivering the finished images. It’s priced on par with the cost of an annual Adobe Creative Cloud Pro subscription, offering VSCO’s suite of apps including Studio Pro, Capture, Galleries, Workspace, Sites, AI Lab, Canvas, and its Freelance Photographer business mentorship program.

All the latest news on Android 17, Wear OS 7, and Android XR

2026-06-16T16:26:12-04:00

Google’s Android 17 update includes highlights like new floating “Bubble” app windows for easier multitasking, a Screen Reaction recording mode, and a 50/50 split gaming mode for foldable phones. Meanwhile, Wear OS 7 brings Live Updates and better battery life for smart watches, and it prepares connections for new Android XR smart glasses that will launch this fall.

The update is rolling out to Pixel phones first, then other devices, with some features, like Gemini Intelligence, set to debut later this year.

Follow along here for the latest updates.

Google launches Wear OS 7 with Live Updates and a battery life boost

2026-06-16T19:39:08-04:00

Google’s Wear OS 7 update is starting to roll out today for the Pixel Watch 2, 3, and 4, adding a new Live Updates feature that tracks live events from your Android smartwatch. Live Updates will now sync with Wear OS devices, so updates like sports scores or an ongoing meal delivery will show up on both your watch and your phone.

You might also notice your watch lasting a little longer — Google claims Wear OS 7 offers up to 10 percent more battery life than Wear OS 6.

Wear OS 7 will also introduce some new Gemini Intelligence features, but Google says these aren’t launching until “later this year.” They’ll include Create My Widget, which you can use to generate custom Wear OS widgets using natural language prompts. Google says Gemini will also be able to handle multi-step app automation in Wear OS 7, such as making a reservation or placing a restaurant order from your watch. Wear OS 7 will update Gemini with Google’s new “neural expressive” design and add support for Personal Intelligence, which pulls data from connected Google apps to inform suggestions from Gemini.

Controlling media from your watch is also getting easier with a new output switcher, where you can move audio output from one connected device to another, like headphones or a Nest speaker. Google says smart glasses like the ones we saw at I/O last month will be able to connect to Wear OS 7 so you can preview photos taken with the glasses on your watch.

Third-party app developers can also now add Wear OS Widgets that should be easier for them to develop and more dynamic than the custom Tiles that launched in 2019. For devices that don’t get the update, Google says apps can continue to support Tiles too, or the widgets will be displayed as a full-screen tile on Wear OS 4, 5, and 6.

Last but not least, Google’s Emergency Sharing feature can also now automatically call your selected list of emergency contacts in addition to emergency services if your Pixel Watch detects a fall, loss of pulse, or a car crash.

Facebook’s new AI Mode search gets its info from public posts

2026-06-15T17:15:08-04:00

Your public Facebook posts could help inform AI-generated results in Meta’s new AI Mode. When you search on Facebook, the “AI Mode” option will appear alongside the usual search modes like “People” and “Marketplace.” It’s one of several new AI features Meta is rolling out starting today, including photo presets that swap sports jerseys onto fans and suggestions for collage templates.

Instead of “just links,” it gives users AI-generated results that pull from publicly-posted content across Meta’s platforms, like the AI search feature in its new Reddit-like Forum app. Users can also ask Meta’s AI follow-up questions in response to the search results it generates.

Google has similarly pulled from Reddit threads for its search results and AI overviews. Now Meta says its feature “uses Meta AI to give you answers grounded in what people are saying publicly across our apps” and has said that the Muse Spark AI model behind it will “over time unlock new features that cite recommendations and content people share across Instagram, Facebook, and Threads.”

Google Chrome is closing the loopholes that let old ad blockers keep working

2026-06-15T14:06:18-04:00

Google Chrome version 150 and 151, expected in late June and July, respectively, will cut off support for the last remaining workarounds for running older ad blockers, 9to5Google reports. Google phased out support for ad-blocking extensions built for Manifest V2, like uBlock Origin, in 2024. At that point, most Chrome users either switched to newer Manifest V3 ad blockers like uBlock Origin Lite or switched to a different browser.

Google is now removing the final bits of code referencing its previous Manifest V2 extensions platform, so only ad blockers that work on the Manifest V3 platform will work in Chrome version 151 onward.

Google developer Devlin Cronin commented on the Chromium commit calling for the removal of the last references to Manifest V2, explaining:

MV2 extensions are no longer allowed in any supported version of Chrome, and we are removing support for them and the associated functionality. We won’t be able to provide / maintain this functionality indefinitely due to the complexity and tech debt, as well as the security risks it entails (we’ve actually found a number of bugs that are specific to MV2 lately). Of course, other browsers can continue supporting these if they so desire.

Roblox exec says ticking a box for age verification is ‘not enough anymore’

2026-06-15T12:08:29-04:00

Roblox’s vice president of safety product policy, Eliza Jacobs, told NBC News that Roblox is “optimistic” that its new facial age estimation tech will “continue to get better,” saying, “Ticking a box to say you’re 13 or older, it’s not enough anymore.” NBC invited a group of kids to try out Roblox’s new video selfie age check process, but they weren’t able to get around it with a fake mustache. Jacobs claims Roblox’s facial age estimates can typically land “within 1.4 years of a child’s exact age.”

Roblox announced plans in April to begin using its video selfie age estimation tech to sort players into age brackets. Users under 16 and under 9 are now sorted into Roblox Select and Kids accounts, respectively, with restricted access to chat and certain types of games. Players can also use a government ID to verify their age, or parents can manually set their child’s age group.

In April, Roblox reported a drop in daily users after rolling out age checks. However, Jacobs stood by the platform’s age verification measures, saying, “We have a long-term vision of safety and civility on the platform that we’re building towards that we believe in.” She added, “It’s OK if some people are not always happy about that.”

Nothing CEO says phone prices are going to keep going up

2026-06-12T16:02:48-04:00

Nothing Phone 4A Pro | Photo: Dominic Preston / The Verge

If you’re thinking about upgrading your phone, “the best time was yesterday,” according to Nothing CEO and co-founder Carl Pei, echoing a message we heard during MWC. As Android Authority reports, Pei said in a post on X that the RAM shortage has already impacted Nothing’s less expensive mid-range phone: “For Phone 4A , memory costs doubled between when we decided to build the device and when it launched. They’ve doubled again since.” He warned that “Phone prices are going up, and they’ll keep going up into next year.”

Pei says RAM can now account for over 50 percent of the cost of a new phone. Nothing’s just the latest phone maker to warn of looming price hikes — Samsung and Google are both expected to raise prices on their phones as a result of higher memory costs.

Waiting for deals might not help, either, with Pei adding, “This year’s sale season won’t have the discounts people are used to.”

Memory is now the most expensive component in a smartphone. It’s more expensive than the processor, more expensive than the display, and can account for more than 50% of the total hardware bill.

For Phone (4a), memory costs doubled between when we decided to build the device and when it launched. They’ve doubled again since.

I posted about this earlier this year. It’s now playing out, faster than predicted.

Phone prices are going up, and they’ll keep going up into next year. Since February, new phones have been launching up to $100 more expensive than their predecessors. In India, phones above ₹30K have seen price jumps of ₹7,000 or more.

The natural instinct is to buy ahead. It doesn’t work that way. In a shortage, memory is allocated, not bought. You get what you’re given, at the current price.

If you’ve been waiting to upgrade a device, the best time was yesterday. The next best time is now. This year’s sale season won’t have the discounts people are used to.

Elon Musk is the world’s first trillionaire

2026-06-12T12:27:55-04:00

Elon Musk’s net worth has passed the trillion-dollar mark after SpaceX’s IPO. His net worth, which was hovering around $800 billion before the IPO, includes the value of his 4.8 billion shares in SpaceX, along with his wealth from his other companies, like Tesla. Shares of SPCX opened at $150 and have remained well above the $138 benchmark that gives Musk a 13-figure net worth.

SpaceX combined Musk’s rocket, AI, and social media platforms earlier this year, and said in its S-1 that its goal is to “build the systems and technologies necessary to make life multiplanetary, to understand the true nature of the universe, and to extend the light of consciousness to the stars.” It also claims this combination is uniquely positioned to deliver on the concept of “orbital AI compute” by putting AI data center servers in space via reusable rockets.

Musk is now worth, on paper, roughly as much as the next four wealthiest people in the world combined. According to Forbes, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Jeff Bezos, and Larry Ellison, all together, are worth just over $1 trillion. Bezos and Ellison each have less than a fourth of Musk’s net worth. Musk passed the $1 trillion mark 110 years after John D. Rockefeller became the world’s first billionaire in 1916.

SpaceX’s massive IPO: all the latest news

2026-06-16T07:36:52-04:00

SpaceX’s IPO on Friday allows the public to buy shares of the combined rocket, AI, and social media company for the first time, and raised enough money to make Elon Musk the first trillionaire.

He has more wealth, on paper at least, than the economies of nations like Ireland, Sweden, or his home country of South Africa (CNN cites the International Monetary Fund saying only 20 countries have economies larger than $1.1 trillion), now linked to the promise of a business based on launching AI datacenters into space.

Follow along here for the latest updates.

Amazon’s Echo Hub gets a customizable new look and Ring’s AI features

2026-06-12T05:34:41-04:00

Amazon’s rolling out a free software update for Echo Hub devices that gives the homescreen a much-needed update to the interface it launched with in 2024. It had already added Alex Plus AI support, but the new interface has a cleaner, fully customizable layout that fits more smart home info and controls on the screen than the previous version.

The previous homescreen design the Echo Hub launched with in 2024. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge" data-portal-copyright="Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge" />

The Echo Hub is also getting access to Ring AI’s Video Search feature that lets you use natural language to search through your smart home camera footage, as well as Alexa Plus summaries of detected camera events.

These are the five new features Amazon highlighted for the Echo Hub:

Organize by room – Organize your dashboard by room or function (e.g., “Bedroom,” “Downstairs”, “Climate”). Navigate to your existing groups using the bottom bar, select a group and long press to edit. Add or remove devices, drag to reorder them, and control all devices in a group simultaneously with a single tap.

Create groups – Navigate to the “Add group” button along the bottom bar, pick a name and add devices to that group. Your new group is created and will be accessible via voice control and app as well.

Arrange and resize sections and tiles – Easily add, remove and arrange sections with simple drag-and-drop actions, allowing you to create a layout that matches how you use your smart home. You can also resize the device tiles to make commonly used ones bigger.

Access granular device settings – Tap the 3 dots on any connected device to access more detailed controls. Try tapping your lights to access precise dimming (0-100%) and color adjustment or use the color wheel on compatible bulbs to select from a variety of colors. Hit the power button on each tile for instant on/off control.

Quick access to common Routines – Access your most frequently used Routines directly from the homescreen using the automations section or the automations tab and trigger them with a single tap.