Tech | The Verge

OpenAI reportedly disbanded its preparedness team

2026-08-16T17:32:56-04:00

According to the Financial Times, OpenAI disbanded its preparedness team at the end of last month. The job of the preparedness team was to assess if models posed serious risks and develop ways to mitigate those risks. (You know, like the possibility that it could go rogue and hack another company.) According to FT, responsibility has instead been divided up for specific areas like bio and cyber, then moved into existing teams.

This is the latest change at the company, which has been in upheaval as it heads towards what is expected to be a massive IPO. Over the last few years, it's slowly torn down its more reach-led model, dissolving its AG …

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Amazon is trying to crush class-action suits before they get started

2026-08-16T13:35:02-04:00

On Friday, Amazon customers received an email alerting them to an update to the site's terms and conditions. Most notably, it stated that disputes would now be resolved through arbitration and said users agree to a class action waiver.

Amazon framed this as a "fast and efficient" way to resolve issues, but it notably would prevent customers from seeking the involvement of a judge or jury in most circumstances. Customers can still take Amazon to small claims court in certain circumstances, though payouts are often limited to a few thousand dollars.

The relevant sections of Amazon's legal policies page now read:

YOU AND WE AGREE THAT ANY …

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Rogue AI aren’t science fiction anymore

2026-08-14T11:16:22-04:00

This is The Stepback, a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more on AI safety, follow Robert Hart. The Stepback arrives in our subscribers' inboxes at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepback here.

How it started

It all started in July, when one of OpenAI's autonomous AI agents went rogue during a cybersecurity test. The agent escaped its isolated testing environment, accessed the internet, and hacked another company, Hugging Face. A few years ago, that might have sounded like science fiction. But, broadly speaking, that's exactly what happened, and the incident kicked off a wave of concern over what increa …

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Don’t overlook Elektron’s budget electronic music instruments

2026-08-15T13:12:04-04:00

They’re far more powerful and fun than their bargain price suggests. | Photo: Terrence O’Brien / The Verge

When I'm asked what to buy if you want to get into making electronic music, I often recommend Elektron's budget-minded Model:Samples and Model:Cycles grooveboxes. They don't grab headlines the way Teenage Engineering's gear or the Telepathic Instruments Orchid do, and even compared to the company's higher-end and more niche musical offerings like the Digitakt, Octatrack, or Tonverk, they're often overlooked. But as my collection has grown to include fancier and far more expensive instruments, I still find myself coming back to the Model series.

Those looking to get their first groovebox are often drawn to more familiar brand names like Korg …

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I finally found a magnetic phone grip I never want to remove

2026-08-15T10:16:30-04:00

The OhSnap Snap Grip Stand, in black and silver. | Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge

I told myself I wouldn't buy an OhSnap accessory for my phone. Every one I'd tested was nice, but felt overpriced and slightly flawed. After I weighed in on the $40 Snap Grip 5 last year, I wound up sticking with my $25 Syncwire instead. But OhSnap's $50 Snap Grip Stand finally got me. To have a truly useful vertical stand and grip always attached to my phone, ready at a moment's notice? Heck yes.

@verge
My favorite phone grip is the one I never want to take off - because it's a great stand. The $50 OhSnap Snap Grip Stand is the company's best yet, effortlessly propping up phones vertically. It's still got double-sided magnet action and …

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Xteink’s tiny e-readers are getting access to free books through Libby

2026-08-13T11:19:27-04:00

New plugin support for CrossPoint Reader lets Xteink’s devices access DRM-protected ebooks.

One of the big tradeoffs with Xteink's pocket-friendly e-readers is a lack of easy access to ebooks. On a Kindle or Kobo you can download tens of thousands of titles through each device's respective online bookstores, but with Xteink's devices you have to source DRM-free ebooks on your own. That's about to change, as the developers of CrossPoint Reader, a free alternative firmware for the X3, X4, and X4 Pro, are introducing support for third-party plug-ins that will expand the e-readers' capabilities. One of the first from the community will give the devices access to DRM-protected ebooks borrowed through OverDrive's Libby library app, or pu …

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We’re reaching peak camera with the Sony A7R VI

2026-08-14T17:38:48-04:00

Maximum camera. | Photo: Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge

It wasn't long ago that shooting with a super high-resolution camera meant making serious sacrifices for the sake of all those megapixels. Enter the A7R VI.

Sony's latest flagship high-res camera is a 66.8-megapixel spec monster. In addition to its modest bump in resolution from the last-gen A7R V, it uses a new sensor and processor that unlock nearly any kind of shooting - from sports and action to usable 8K video. It's a huge departure from years ago, when high-resolution cameras were slower, noisier, and more specialized as a result of all those megapixels.

The A7R VI's fully stacked sensor and new Bionz XR2 processor allow it to shoot …

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The surprise must-see movie of the summer

2026-08-14T22:30:00-04:00

Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 140, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you're new here, welcome, don't forget to hydrate, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.)

This week, I've been reading about Will Ferrell and Fabrizio Romano and Heather Cox Richardson, scrolling and scrolling through Ordinary Abundance, watching Avatar Aang (which is as good as you said it was), finally getting proficient in CapCut, obsessing over the latest scandal unearthed by PTFO, rewatching Tires now that the third season is out, trying Spark's AI tools for solving my inbox (so far… meh), revisiting …

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When housing is unaffordable, this artist’s device makes pedaling harder

2026-08-14T16:16:35-04:00

Justin Blinder had just been laid off when he first came up with the idea for Ground Truth. It was 2020, two weeks before covid lockdown went into effect, and the Brooklyn-based artist and technologist had no idea what the future would hold. He started working for the food delivery apps, and as he was riding his bike across the city, he began noticing the stark differences between neighborhoods.

"I really started to kind of become a bit more aware of how different neighborhoods, often right next to each other, could feel very economically and psychologically very far apart, even though it's just really within close proximity," he said. "And …

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Samsung has new Galaxy headphones in the works

2026-08-14T15:18:45-04:00

Strings of code in Samsung's Galaxy Wearable app hint at an upcoming pair of over-ear headphones that could compete with the AirPods Max, SamMobile reports. Samsung's reportedly referring to the headphones as the "Galaxy H1," and SamMobile says they could launch sometime in 2027. That would make these the company's first pair of over-ear headphones since the Level On in 2015, which was released well before Samsung acquired Harman and a number of other audio brands.

Connection status icons in the app standard show the design of over-ear, wireless Bluetooth headphones, but not necessarily exactly what these will look like in the end. Samsung …

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