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OpenAI teases GPT-5 launch event this Thursday

is a news editor covering technology, gaming, and more. He joined The Verge in 2019 after nearly two years at Techmeme. Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. OpenAI is teasing a big announcement on Thursday, and based on a not-so-subtle clue, it seems like the news will be the reveal of its long-awaited GPT-5 AI model. In a post on X, OpenAI announced a “LIVE5TREAM THURSDAY 10AM PT” — notice that the “s” in the word livestream is swapped for a

LLM Inflation

One of the signal achievements of computing is data compression : we take in data, make it smaller while retaining all information (“lossless” compression), transmit it, and then decompress it back to the original at the other end. For many years, compression was an absolute requirement to get things done: storage devices were too small for the data we wanted to store and networks too slow to transmit what we wanted at an acceptable speed. Today compression is less often an absolute requiremen

‘Wednesday’ Season 2 Is a Delightful Mix of Gothic Whimsy and Brutal Horror

Wednesday Addams (Jenna Ortega) is back at Nevermore Academy with a new deadly mystery in Tim Burton’s Wednesday. Season two of the hit Netflix series raises the stakes with bolder teen angst, as well as a surprising body count. Showrunners Alfred Gough and Miles Millar return with exactly what fans loved from season one, amplified by the addition of new creative voices that truly capture the essence of Wednesday Addams. That includes Ortega’s influence as executive producer, and her collaborati

Match Group pops 10% as dating company shows early signs of a turnaround

Match Group shares popped more than 10% on Wednesday after the online dating company issued upbeat guidance and said new products are showing promise as it attempts to turnaround its business. The Dallas-based company said it expected revenues between $910 million and $920 million in the current quarter, beating a $890 million estimate from analysts polled by FactSet. "We are operating like a company that is just getting started, and we believe the best chapters of the category and company are

Google Pixel 10 launch: new phones, foldables and watches at the Made by Google event

After largely focusing Google I/O 2025 on the ways the company wants Gemini to change everything from searching the web to filmmaking, Google is finally ready to launch new hardware. The next Made by Google event is on the books for August 20, and Google has already confirmed what at least one of its new Pixel 10 phones will look like. Google remains as leak-prone as ever, so nearly all the new hardware the company is expected to announce has all ready been reported on in one form or another. W

Topics: 10 google new pixel pro

I tried Perplexity's new reservation feature, and it surprised me with new dining spots to try

Thomas Barwick/Getty Images ZDNET's takeaways Perplexity's new feature lets you make a restaurant reservation straight through OpenTable. The feature uses OpenTable's system, so you don't have to trust the AI to do it for you. Instead of navigating between apps or tabs to find a restaurant and then book a table, Perplexity handles everything. Finding the perfect restaurant and making a reservation just got a whole lot easier thanks to a new feature in Perplexity. The chatbot (which ZDNET's

ESPN’s new streaming service arrives August 21

ESPN’s long-awaited new standalone streaming service will launch on August 21, alongside an overhauled ESPN app that gives users a "more personalized, dynamic viewing experience." Simply (and potentially confusingly) called ESPN, the new platform arrives just ahead of the new NFL season and the US Open tennis competition, as well as a number of other returning sports that ESPN broadcasts. ESPN’s streaming service will be offered with a choice of two plans. The $30 per month ($300 annually) "unl

5 Apple products you definitely shouldn't buy this month (and 7 to get instead)

Elyse Betters Picaro / ZDNET ZDNET's key takeaways New iPhones and Apple Watches are inbound, with the company expected to host an event in September. New AirPods Pro and HomeHub hardware are also rumored. Expect pricing tweaks to offset tariff costs, as well as changes to existing product lines. It's August, and that means we're now in the home stretch to Apple's biggest yearly update. New iPhones are weeks away, and it's likely we'll see new Apple Watches, and possibly new AirPods Pro and

The New Trailer for ‘Him’ Brings Ritual Horror to the Gridiron

Universal Pictures has just given us a new look at its upcoming sports horror film, Him, which points the spotlight squarely at the ritualistic hazing of sports bros. Set to the horror-movie-trailer-ified sound of rapper Tupac’s “Hail Mary,” the new look at Him showcases how the fusion of its horror-meets-sports look will come to life in director Justin Tipping and producer Jordan Peele‘s new joint. In the new trailer, we see The Game‘s Cameron Cade play Tyriq Withers, a rising athlete navigati

Breathwork, Biohacking, and Cryotherapy: New Buzzwords for Modern Business Travelers

Peptide cocktails, plasma exchange therapy, infrared sauna sessions, and methylene blue drips. These are just a few of the biohacks that keep Peter Phillips feeling invincible. For the past three years, the 53-year-old tech executive has worked with doctors at Extension Health, a longevity clinic in New York City, to craft a blueprint to help him combat the declines that come with age. “I’m on the cusp of immortality,” he says. Every six weeks, he pops into the clinic for a full body reboot tha

Welcome to The Stepback, a weekly breakdown of one essential story from across the tech world

is the Senior Tech Editor at The Verge. She previously covered tech, science, and art at Popular Science, Gizmodo, and other places. Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. I’m excited to announce The Stepback, a weekly subscriber-only newsletter that I’ll be editing for The Verge. We’ll be bringing you a new story each Sunday from a rotating cast of writers from every corner of the Verge extended universe. If you’re a regular reader, you know w

Topics: ll new science verge week

iOS 26 upgrades the App Store with these three new features

iOS 26 will bring big feature updates to apps like Wallet, Music, Messages, and more. But there are also several new features coming to the App Store, here’s what’s new in iOS 26. #1: Top Played Games chart iOS 26 adds a brand new Games app to your iPhone’s Home Screen, and to complement the new gaming features, Apple is adding a ‘Top Played Games’ chart to the App Store. When viewing the Games tab in the App Store, you’ll find a new chart showing the current top 25 played games. This data i

Researchers Uncover Hurricane Sandy’s Hidden Death Toll

More than a decade after Hurricane Sandy flooded the East Coast and killed over 200 people, a new study has revealed the storm’s lasting impact on mortality risk among older adults. The researchers linked hurricane flood exposure to a 9% increase in risk of death for people over the age of 65 who continued living in the area after landfall. Experts estimate that Hurricane Sandy caused over $60 billion in damage after it made landfall in 2012. Record-breaking storm surge and catastrophic floodin

Free Movies You Can Stream This August on Tubi, Fawesome and More

If you've grown tired of relentless price hikes from your favorite streaming platforms, it's nice to know that free TV services like Tubi, Fawesome and Pluto TV can be counted on for all kinds of great shows and movies. New films (and TV shows) arrive on these platforms every month, making them great options if you're looking for something cheap but with great options. On Tubi, you can check out new originals that arrive throughout the month, including the thrillers The Ultimate Vendetta, now a

Topics: great month new tubi tv

Hulu Will Go Global and Fully Merge With Disney Plus

More than a year after launching its "Hulu on Disney Plus experience" in the US, Disney announced plans Wednesday to integrate Hulu into its Disney Plus streaming service. Additionally, Hulu will become available internationally once the merger happens next year, the company shared in its third-quarter earnings report. The Hulu tile was added to Disney Plus in March 2024, allowing subscribers who have both services to watch Hulu content within the Disney Plus app. The Walt Disney Co. CEO Bob Ig

Topics: app disney hulu new plus

The Business Traveler of Today Is Changing—and So Is Their Flight Map

“Most of my work starts in Lagos, but it doesn’t stay there for long,” says Anita Ashiru. She’s one of the sole production designers working in Nigeria, where her team builds multi-scale sets and stage designs for the country’s booming Afrobeats industry. Requests often come at a whim for work; Ashiru might be called abroad by the likes of frequent collaborator Davido, a Nigerian-American singer-songwriter who frequently shoots music videos in South Africa. Ashiru’s job is one that largely didn

Could Netflix Have Plans for a ‘Stranger Things’ Spinoff?

Chris Hemsworth talks about his future as Thor and reaction to that recent YouTube video. Get a look at what’s coming on Invasion season 3. Plus, sneak peeks at the next Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. Spoilers, away! Trauma Or, Monsters All According to Variety, director Larry Fessenden has completed filming Trauma Or, Monsters All, a simultaneous sequel to his 1995 vampire movie, Habit, his 2019 Frankenstein movie, Depraved, and his 2023 werewolf movie, Blackout. Said to “place the filmmaker’

Tinder explores a redesign, dating ‘modes,’ and college-specific features to boost engagement

Tinder is still struggling to generate revenue from its users, as it reported a 7% dip in paying users while its parent company, Match Group, saw a 5% dip in Q2 2025 across all dating apps, including Tinder, Hinge, Match.com, and others. To boost engagement and push more people to pay for its product, the company has undertaken multiple new initiatives. During Match’s second-quarter earnings call, Match Group CEO Spencer Raskoff said that Tinder will debut a new feature called “modes,” which wi

Trump tells states they'll lose out on broadband fund if they try to dictate rates

States will lose out on their share of a $42 billion broadband fund if they attempt to dictate rates that internet services providers (ISPs) charge low-income customers, according to a new FAQ from the Trump administration seen by Ars Technica. That means ISPs — which are subsidized by the government in order to provide low-cost plans — will be able to set such rates under the BEAD (Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment) program. The new language appeared in a BEAD Restructuring Policy Notice

Meta introduces new tools to help identify scam messages on WhatsApp

It seems scarcely a week goes by now without receiving at least one job scam message on either iMessage or WhatsApp. Meta has now introduced two new tools to help you identify scams, whether they arrive as individual messages or as posts to group chats … Scams are big business Scamming is big business these days, and it’s common for messages to originate from organized criminal gangs using huge banks of smartphones to send hundreds of thousands of messages per day. Meta has teams of people t

Bring on the Doom and Gloom: When to Watch 'Wednesday' Season 2 This Week

Get those snapping fingers ready because Wednesday and the rest of the Addams Family are back. When it premiered in 2022, the spin-off series broke Netflix's viewership records. It's been three years, and now, after what feels like an eternity of finger-tapping and deadpan looks into the void, season 2 is here. So, basically, Goth summer is upon us. Creators Miles Millar and Alfred Gough previously teased that season 2 will be darker in tone. This new run of episodes "definitely has some momen

Coding Agents 101

Coding Agents 101: The Art of Actually Getting Things Done The year is 2025. Coding agents aren't magic, but they're about the closest thing we have. We've noticed some engineers, in particular at the senior-to-staff level, finding success faster than others. Here we share some top lessons sourced from the experience of our customers and ourselves. About this guide: Product-agnostic We discuss tips that will help you be successful with any coding agent. Tactical We offer our favorite bits of act

The Apple Watch Series 11 rumors I'm most excited about (including a big one for health tracking)

Kerry Wan/ZDNET ZDNET's key takeaways Apple is slated to announce new hardware next month. Notable Apple Watch updates could be coming, according to rumors. Blood pressure monitoring and sleep scores could be on the way. We're a month away from Apple's annual September hardware event, where the tech giant announces its latest releases, from iPhones and iPads to AirPods and, my favorite, Apple Watches. Rumors are swirling about what's to come on the next generation Apple Watch, the Apple Wa

The iOS 26 Beta Just Unveiled New Details About the Apple Watch Ultra 3

Apple may have accidentally tipped its hand with the latest iOS 26 beta: Imagery found within the build display pictures of an Apple Watch Ultra that doesn't match any existing products. The Apple Watch Ultra 3 imagery was discovered by MacRumors, and the resolution of the new Apple Watch's display doesn't match any other product. That might confirm that this model is Apple's new wearable, which is set to release this fall. An Apple representative didn't immediately respond to a request for co

The 48 Best Shows on HBO Max Right Now (August 2025)

HBO Max may not have the shine it once did, but the streaming service (previously just Max) is still home to some of the best TV shows of the past 25 years, from The Sopranos and The Wire to Game of Thrones and The Leftovers. Whether you’re a longtime fan of the “it’s not TV” cable network or a HBO Max newbie trying to figure out where to start, the shows below should give you plenty upon which to feast your eyes. Looking for more recommendations? Head to WIRED’s guide to the best TV shows on

Topics: hbo new season series tv

‘Doctor Who’ Legend Matt Smith Is Joining the Villains of ‘Star Wars: Starfighter’

Those long-forgotten rumors that Matt Smith would pop up in Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker now feel more like a premonition. The Doctor Who and House of the Dragon star is entering the galaxy far, far away with a role in the Ryan Gosling-starring Star Wars: Starfighter, due in 2027 from director Shawn Levy. Deadline got the scoop. According to the trade, there are no character details yet, but “sources say he will play one of the villain roles.” It also relates that director Levy

RIP to the Macintosh HD hard drive icon, 2000–2025

Apple released a new developer beta build of macOS 26 Tahoe today, and it came with another big update for a familiar icon. The old Macintosh HD hard drive icon, for years represented by a facsimile of an old spinning hard drive, has been replaced with something clearly intended to resemble a solid-state drive (the SSD in your Mac actually looks like a handful of chips soldered to a circuit board, but we'll forgive the creative license). The Macintosh HD icon became less visible a few years bac

Topics: apple drive hard icon new

iOS 26 beta adds a cute new low battery animation

Among the many tidbits included in today’s iOS 26 beta release is a new notification style that pops up when the iPhone reaches low battery levels. Here’s what that animation looks like. Today, Apple released iOS 26 beta 5, with a few visual changes such as a new AirDrop icon, and multiple splash screens that come up when you open apps such as Apple Music, or Reminders for the first time. Alongside these changes, there is also a new low battery notification that shows a red circle animation th

Topics: 26 beta ios new today

What's wrong with the JSON gem API?

As I mentioned at the start of my Optimizing Ruby’s JSON series of posts, performance isn’t why I candidated to be the new gem’s maintainer. The actual reason is that the gem has many APIs that I think aren’t very good, and some that are outright dangerous. As a gem user, it’s easy to be annoyed at deprecations and breaking changes. It’s noisy and creates extra work, so I entirely understand that people may suffer from deprecation fatigue. But while it occasionally happens to run into mostly c

Topics: api end json new obj

‘Bluey’ Hopes You Won’t Mind Not Having New Episodes With 4 New Short Series

Bluey is finally back with four new short-form series inspired by the world of the beloved Heeler family from the Ludo Studio show. But if you’ve been waiting for new minisodes or a new season, this is not it. The new release does offer new thematic, family-friendly filler to tide fans over, but it still seems like we’ll have to wait until at least the Bluey movie in 2026 for the adventure to truly continue. Here’s what you need to know about the new series releases, which take some of the imag