Noam Shazeer spent twenty years at Google before returning in 2024 after the Big G reportedly paid Character.AI — a company co-founded by Shazeer in 2021 — $2.7 billion to bring him and a team of researchers back home.

Three months after Valve’s doozy of an update arrived in preview — the first with support for the Steam Machine and a whole lot more — it’s getting a full stable release. Here’s the changelog. But when will the Steam Machine arrive? Valve’s had quite a few shipments now...

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) gained access to the limited release cybersecurity-focused model last week, Nextgov/FCW reports. It’s just a little late, since the rest of the world has mostly moved onto the drama around the Trump administration’s block of the safeguarded public version of the model, Fable.

Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman says that the next version of Apple’s ultra-slim device could arrive in spring 2027, echoing a previous report from The Information. Apple is reportedly working to improve the iPhone Air’s battery life and may add an ultrawide camera.

Alongside the announcement of an updated experience for scheduling tasks, OpenAI said that Pulse would be going away “in the next 14 days” and suggested using scheduled tasks for a daily briefing instead.

With tickets going on sale today ahead of Spider-Man’s premiere on July 31st, Sony Pictures released a new nearly three-minute trailer to follow the March teaser that quickly racked up a billion views.

AI data center projects are continuing to pop up across the US, with frequent opposition from locals concerned about their impact. Here are a few recent articles about the projects:

Your headphones’ microphone matters. A lot. And yet we never know how we sound to others, or whether we’re clear to our AI assistants! So every once in a while, we like to grab a bunch of headphones and put their microphones through some tough real-world tests. This time, with the help of The Verge’s John Higgins, we discover the best-sounding mic we’ve ever tested. And no, it’s not on a pair of AirPods. Not even close.

The AI design chatbot’s new editor has controls for directly dragging, resizing, and aligning elements, and more options for apps you can export to, including Adobe and Canva. Users can also work on design projects directly from the Claude Code terminal, or hand off software layouts from Design directly to Claude Code, where it picks up exactly where you left off, without a screenshot or a rebuild from scratch.

During the VivaTech 2026 conference in Paris, Samsung announced a new feature for its mobile devices created through a collaboration with the pet health management platform, Lifet. You’ll be able to snap a photo of your dog or cat which will be analyzed by AI to alert you to conditions like periodontal disease and obesity.

The battle simulator is now available on Android and iOS — and it runs a lot better than it did when it was first released on the Switch in April. The mobile release comes alongside a new regulation that’s added more pokémon, including both Mega Raichu forms and the Hoenn starters, plus items like the long-awaited Life Orb.

The new “Collections” feature is included in Mastodon’s 4.6 update, which will also allow you to hide the “Media” or “Featured” tabs on your profile and let people subscribe to your posts via email, even if they don’t have a Mastodon account.

A new dashboard will show a creator’s most popular AI characters, along with metrics including interactions, likes, and discoveries. Character.AI is also launching a feature that will notify followers when a creator launches a new chatbot.

One of Lego’s most iconic themes is back as a functional tabletop pinball machine launching on July 4th for $229.99. The Arcade Pinball Machine doesn’t keep score, but it’s got working flippers, a spring-loaded ball launcher, and an asteroid you can hit that will move an astronaut minifigure closer and closer to rescuing a space baby figure.

What’s left of the shoe company after its pivot to AI (which is mostly its stock listing) has a new name and CEO, Nadia Carlsten. Smartbird also completed the sale of the Allbirds brand as it shifts its focus toward offering access to AI infrastructure and enterprise-focused AI systems.

We’ve had unboxings, hands-ons, and teardowns, but Bloomberg is the first publication to give the T1 Phone a detailed review. It might be kinder than you expect — Verge alumnus Chris Welch admits the specs aren’t bad — but still reaches the obvious conclusion: “It’s easy to find a better phone than this.”

A major case surrounding lookalike products (“dupes”) came to a close this week, in which Deckers, the maker of UGG boots, sued direct-to-consumer brand Quince, alleging it had knocked off its shearling ankle boot. A jury found that Quince’s version was indeed substantially similar to the design patent for the UGG boots — but also that the patent itself was invalid in the first place.

In response to the Stop Destroying Videogames initiative, the European Commission said it can’t propose legislation to keep games playable after they’re removed from sale due to intellectual property rights. Instead, the Commission will work to develop new industry standards for video game shutdowns.

Thread Group and the Broadband Forum are teaming up to help IoT devices and home internet work better together. The Broadband Forum — the organization that develops the standards ISPs use to manage gateways and routers — is adding support for connecting to Thread networks, giving ISPs visibility into both networks.