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Tech Follow Follow The latest tech news about the world’s best (and sometimes worst) hardware, apps, and much more. From top companies like Google and Apple to tiny startups vying for your attention, Verge Tech has the latest in what matters in technology daily. There’s a tiny digital camera inside these retro 35mm film rolls Like the Kodak Charmera, the OPT100 Neo Film camera makes up for terrible specs with an adorable design. Andrew Liszewski Feb 13 iRobot’s Roombas have a new Chinese owner, but it says your data will remain in the US iRobot Safe will now handle data for US customers’ Roomba robot vacuum cleaners. Stevie Bonifield Feb 13 Latest In Tech Valve’s Steam Deck OLED will be ‘intermittently’ out of stock because of the RAM crisis Jay Peters 16 minutes ago J External Link Jay Peters Feb 16 Link ChatGPT is getting a Lockdown Mode. Lockdown Mode is “not necessary” for most people and “tightly constrains how ChatGPT can interact with external systems to reduce the risk of prompt injection–based data exfiltration,” according to OpenAI . Introducing Lockdown Mode and Elevated Risk labels in ChatGPT [ OpenAI ] J External Link Jay Peters Feb 16 Link The Apple Vision Pro is getting foveated streaming, which is Valve’s fancy trick for the Steam Frame. I was impressed with foveated streaming on the Steam Frame , which, when you’re interacting with games streamed to the headset, renders what’s right in front of your eyes at the highest fidelity. I hope it’s just as good on the Vision Pro. Apple announced visionOS’s foveated streaming as part of the first developer beta for visionOS 26.4. Foveated Streaming | Apple Developer Documentation [ Apple Developer Documentation ] J External Link Jay Peters Feb 16 Link Apple Music might soon help you find concerts nearby. It’s a new feature showing up in the app as part of the first iOS 26.4 developer beta, as reported by 9to5Mac . The beta also includes a new “Playlist Playground” feature that uses Apple Intelligence to make a playlist from a text prompt. Update : Added Playlist Playground details. Apple Music in iOS 26.4 has new design for albums, playlists, and more - 9to5Mac [ 9to5Mac ] Apple starts testing end-to-end encrypted RCS messages on iPhone Jay Peters Feb 16 Apple’s Podcasts app will let you ‘seamlessly’ switch between audio and video shows Jay Peters Feb 16 J External Link Jess Weatherbed Feb 16 Link AI translations for the Holy Masses. St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican has partnered with Translated, an AI-assisted live-translation service, to make the liturgy available in 60 languages. Vatican visitors can use their smartphones to access audio and text translations via the web by scanning QR codes within the Basilica, no app or special equipment required. The Vatican introduces an AI-assisted live translation service [ Engadget ] Here are 50 Presidents Day deals actually worth shopping for Sheena Vasani and Brandon Widder Feb 16 Apple’s doing something on March 4th Jess Weatherbed Feb 16 Play Let’s talk about Ring, lost dogs, and the surveillance state The security camera maker’s Search Party feature, advertised during the Super Bowl, has sparked a surveillance backlash. Nilay Patel Feb 16 Switch 2 pricing and next PlayStation release could be impacted by memory shortage Jess Weatherbed Feb 16 J TikTok Jess Weatherbed Feb 16 Link Gaze upon this party-sized PC speaker. This project from Florida-based artist Gwak needs to make that horrid beep/buzzing noise when the phone rings for authenticity, but the yellowing and half-peeled sticker is -chef’s kiss-. D Quote Dominic Preston Feb 16 Link The hottest new trend in tech. First came Jmail , then Jikipedia . The Epstein files have yielded a lot so far, but I didn’t expect a whole new tech ecosystem to be among them. alectrem : at this rate they’re going to make a whole platform of web services and IPO before all the files are even released Get the day’s best comment and more in my free newsletter, The Verge Daily . Samsung ad confirms rumors of a useful S26 ‘privacy display’ Dominic Preston Feb 16 After spooking Hollywood, ByteDance will tweak safeguards on new AI model Jess Weatherbed Feb 16 A Star is born One night in the audience of Netflix’s most ambitious live show yet. David Pierce Feb 16 T Quote Thomas Ricker Feb 16 Link Actually, few TikTok USA users defected. A new Sensor Tower report suggests the USDS takeover managed to retain most of its users despite a bumpy start and concerns with the new owners: The average number of TikTok’s daily active users in the US remains around 95% of its usership compared to the week of Jan. 19-25. OpenClaw founder Peter Steinberger is joining OpenAI Terrence O'Brien Feb 15 T Quote Terrence O'Brien Feb 15 Link NPR’s David Greene is suing Google over its AI podcast voice. The former host of Morning Edition and current host of Left, Right & Center claims that Google illegally replicated his voice for its male podcast host in NotebookLM. Google denies this, but Greene (and many of his friends and colleagues) say the resemblance is “uncanny.” As the Washington Post reports: To Greene, the resemblance of the AI voice to his own is uncanny — and the harm is deeper and more personal than just a missed chance to capitalize on his most recognizable asset. “My voice is, like, the most important part of who I am,” Greene said. T External Link Terrence O'Brien Feb 15 Link The Linux kernel is gaining support for Rock Band 4 guitars for some reason. Linux gaming is getting better every day, but I’m not sure that anyone had this on their 2026 bingo card. Support for guitar controllers is being baked directly into the Linux 7.0 kernel , including some licensed models, such as the PDP RiffMaster and CRKD Gibson SG. Linux 7.0 is adding mainline kernel support for... Rock Band 4 guitars [ XDA ] Apple’s first-gen AirTags are still worth buying now that they’re $16 apiece Sheena Vasani Feb 15 Logitech’s new Superstrike is a faster, more customizable gaming mouse Cameron Faulkner Feb 15 T Quote Terrence O'Brien Feb 15 Link Western Digital says it’s “pretty much soldout” for 2026. Enterprise customers, especially AI data centers, have already gobbled up the company’s capacity for 2026. At this point, consumer sales account for just 5 percent of the company’s revenue, so it’s no surprise WD is prioritizing high-capacity drives for data centers. What’s more, theyre also driving up prices . Tan told investors: We’ve pretty much sold out for calendar year 26. We have firm POs with our top seven customers. And we’ve also established LTAs with two of them for calendar year 27 and one of them for calendar year 28. T Terrence O'Brien Feb 14 Link Some users are reporting problems with Gemini. What’s causing the issues or how widespread they are is unclear. We’ve been unable to reproduce the issue here, but DownDetector has seen a spike in reports over the past few hours. Users report that Gemini displays error messages or hangs after a prompt . We’ve reached out to Google for comment. Image: DownDetector Georgia Tech announced the finalists in its wild musical instrument competition Terrence O'Brien Feb 14 My uncanny AI valentines On a frigid February evening, I went on four dates with AI companions at a pop-up dating café. Victoria Song Feb 14 A powerful tool of resistance is already in your hands Lauren Feiner Feb 14 The Pocket Taco is the best way to turn your phone into a Game Boy Andrew Liszewski Feb 14 Ring’s Flock breakup doesn’t fix its real problem Jennifer Pattison Tuohy Feb 14 How to un-Big Tech your online life David Pierce Feb 14 The DJI Romo robovac had security so poor, this man remotely accessed thousands of them Sean Hollister Feb 14 3 Verge Score DJI’s first robovac is an autonomous cleaning drone you can’t trust Romo flies through chores, but a recent security vulnerability makes it difficult to recommend. Thomas Ricker Feb 14 J External Link Jay Peters Feb 14 Link Disney accuses Bytedance’s new AI video model of infringing on its characters. In a cease and desist letter, Disney includes examples of the new Seedance 2.0 model making videos featuring characters like Spider-Man and Darth Vader, according to Axios . “ByteDance is hijacking Disney’s characters by reproducing, distributing, and creating derivative works featuring those characters,” Disney’s attorney said. Scoop: Disney sends cease and desist letter to ByteDance over Seedance 2.0 [ Axios ] E External Link Emma Roth Feb 13 Link The DHS is reportedly pressing social media platforms for info about ICE critics. Google, Reddit, Discord, and Meta have received “hundreds” of subpoenas from the DHS in recent months, according to a report from The New York Times . The agency is reportedly asking the platforms for the names, email addresses, phone numbers, and other information associated with accounts that “track or criticize” ICE. Homeland Security Wants Social Media Sites to Expose Anti-ICE Accounts [ The New York Times ] T Quote Terrence O'Brien Feb 13 Link Polymarket ran a popup ‘free grocery store’ in NYC because it has ‘market’ in its name. Curbed described the scene as “bleak” and noted that many waiting in line for the promised free Tide Pods and milk (which was apparently purchased at an Aldi before being stocked on the popups’ oddly orderly shelves) had never heard of Polymarket and didn’t intend to place bets there. When Curbed asked why: Because of the word market within Polymarket, per Josh Tucker, a company executive. Get it? Daf Orlovsky, a creative director, said it could work — “these ideas that don’t seem possible could be brought to life at tech-market speed,” he said. 4chan’s creator says ‘Epstein had nothing to do’ with creating infamous far-right board /pol/ Richard Lawler Feb 13 The Verge’s 2026 Valentine’s Day gift guide (for him) Brandon Widder and Cameron Faulkner Feb 13 A Youtube Andrew Liszewski Feb 13 Link Stern’s new pinball machines are for Pokémon fans with deep pockets. The machines could be some of the priciest merch released for the franchise’s 30th anniversary. There’s fun details like a Master ball plunger handle and a Meowth balloon that swoops down, but to get all the best features you’ll need to skip the $6,999 Pro and $9,699 Premium machines, and splurge on the $12,999 Limited Edition option. The Beats Studio Buds Plus are on sale for less than $100 for Presidents Day Sheena Vasani Feb 13 A Andrew Liszewski Feb 13 Link You don’t need to be a Pokémon trainer to control this interactive Pikachu. Toymaker Wow! Stuff has announced a new Pikachu puppet featuring blinking eyes, moving ears, and a “first-of-its-kind animated mouth moving feature.” Pikachu also has sensors that respond to touch with light up cheeks and over 100 sound effects. It will be priced at £89.99, or around $122, according to Insider Gaming . The Pikachu Puppetronic by RealFX will be initially released through the online Pokémon Center store later this year, but a few Pokémon fans have already had a chance to see it in action . Screenshot: Instagram Most Popular Most Popular Apple’s doing something on March 4th Why are Epstein’s emails full of equals signs? OpenClaw founder Peter Steinberger is joining OpenAI The Pocket Taco is the best way to turn your phone into a Game Boy Anker’s USB-C cable that lets you charge two gadgets at once is 20 percent off Advertiser Content From This is the title for the native ad