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Apple’s HomeView ad is confusing to everyone except parents

Nothing like a little family togetherness in the morning. | Image: Apple

Apple's ad introducing its new HomeView smart display is a little unusual. It's fast-paced and unruly, depicting a family of five as they rush through the morning routine. There's yelling and mess, misplaced keys and discarded eggshells. Apple's typical vibe is clean, simple, orderly; this commercial is chaos.

But the spot has parents - those with teen children in particular - feeling seen.

I'll admit that it stressed me out the first time I watched it, too. Mornings getting my five-year-old out the door are a special breed of chaos, and usually culminate in us playing whatever ad-libbed game will get him to put his shoes on. But it's not …

Read the full story at The Verge.

OpenAI employee arrested for allegedly planting a bug in a conference room

An OpenAI engineer was arrested after the company said it discovered a "sophisticated recording device" hidden in one of its offices. The employee was identified as Abdulrahman Alfozan, a 35-year-old Saudi national. Alfozan is charged with using or endeavoring to use a device to intercept oral communications, according to a press release from the Department of Justice.

OpenAI's post about the incident says it used its AI models to "understand the device and where it had come from, identifying that a specific employee had planted it a few days earlier."

As noted by the DOJ, OpenAI found the device plugged into a TV's USB port in an executiv …

Read the full story at The Verge.

It looks like Apple Music is getting a new icon

An image from Twitter user @avstorm showing the new and old Apple Music icons after iOS 27.2 beta 4

Apple Music's iconic red app icon has reportedly been replaced with a black-and-white version in the latest iOS 27.2 beta, 9to5Mac reports. The eighth note on the icon also appears to have a slightly sharper angle than the original. A new Apple Music logo was also spotted last month on the Apple Music Hall website, so the company could be refreshing its app icon to match.

According to 9to5Mac, the new icon is a black music note on a white background in light mode, or the opposite in dark mode. The icon's not the only thing that's been drained of color, either - 9to5Mac also says Apple Music widgets now have black backgrounds and the app now …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Shopify opens its catalog up to more AI agents

CANADA - 2025/07/20: In this photo illustration, the Shopify logo is seen displayed on a smartphone screen. (Photo Illustration by Thomas Fuller/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

More AI agents will soon be able to browse and purchase from Shopify listings, marking an expansion of the company's agentic commerce ambitions.

Shopify announced Tuesday it will let shoppers configure their AI agents to purchase products on their behalf, giving more agents access to over a billion listings in Shopify's catalog. (The catalog consists of both items on and off Shopify storefronts.) In September, Shopify announced it was partnering with Meta to allow its Muse agent to browse and purchase items on a human's behalf; now, shoppers can use any agent without a partnership integration.

To set up the feature, customers connect an …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Xbox is officially embracing the chaos of AI-powered game ports

Retro gaming is going through a wild time at the moment, thanks to decompilations and recompilations that are letting gamers port classic titles to new devices, or merge code from two different games into a single new experience. Microsoft has witnessed skateboarding being modded into Call of Duty and Halo being played in a web browser, and the company is now officially embracing the chaos of this new AI-powered era of game modding.

Microsoft is putting together a new Xbox Labs group to explore the rapid emergence of these mods, many of which use AI models to help modders remix games in ways we've rarely seen before. Xbox Labs will be a "sm …

Read the full story at The Verge.

The Nothing Headphone A are half off for the first time

The Nothing Headphone A in white on a wooden desk with the carry bag off to the side and an open laptop behind.
The Headphone A keep the shape and style of Nothing’s over-ear design, but with an opaque instead of transparent case. | Photo by John Higgins / The Verge

One of the best deals we’ve seen today bundles together a great pair of headphones with a solid album. When you add the Nothing Headphone A in black or white and the CD version of the Charli XCX album Music, Fashion, Film to your Amazon cart, you’ll save 33 percent on your order, bringing the total down to $97.52. That’s lower than the best price we’ve seen for the headphones on their own, which retail for $199, and you get a free album to boot. The other colors also qualify for the discount, but have a higher starting price, so the discounted price will be higher as well.

Nothing Headphone A

Nothing’s second over-ear headphones may not offer everything found on the pricier Nothing Headphone 1, but you do get physical controls, good sound, and more than five days of battery life per charge. Their design is also a bit more discreet, for better or worse. Read our review.
The Nothing Headphone A with its carrying bag, 3.5mm cable, and USB-C cable on a wooden desk with an iPhone nearby.

Where to Buy:

We reviewed the Nothing Headphone A when they launched earlier in 2026, and praised them for their physical controls, IP52 dust and water resistance rating, and excellent battery life. They have a more subtle design than other Nothing products, opting for an opaque housing instead of the translucent shells on other Nothing headphones.

Read our Nothing Headphone A review.

Russian bot farms are still trolling, even after Ukraine’s drone strikes on Yandex

UAV Pilot Training In Ukraine

Days after Ukrainian military drones took down several Russian data centers, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy claimed that the campaign had hurt Russia's disinformation efforts. "It suddenly became a little easier to breathe on many social platforms," Zelenskyy said Monday. "There was less hate, less division, and fewer provocations."

Zelenskyy isn't the first to assert that the drone operation, which targeted data centers belonging to the Russian technology company Yandex, has cut down on spam and disinformation campaigns fomented by Russian bot farms. Social media users have claimed they've noticed less traffic on posts by MAGA-affiliated a …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Rivian partner Mind Robotics hires Doug Field as president

Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe's startup Mind Robotics announced the appointment of Doug Field as president in a major coup for the CEO's secretive robotics project.

Field was a VP of special projects at Apple, where he was the de facto head of the company's ultimately unsuccessful Project Titan effort to make an autonomous electric car. He had a previous stint at Apple as VP of Mac hardware engineering, but he left the company in 2013 to become Tesla's chief vehicle engineer, where he helped oversee the Model 3 sedan. He left Tesla in 2018 and rejoined Apple. In 2021, Field was hired by Ford to run the automaker's electric vehicle and software di …

Read the full story at The Verge.

I don’t miss the camera on the Ray-Ban Meta Audio glasses

The other day I whizzed past several people while running in the park, my playlist blasting at full volume. The next morning, I smiled at a barista while ordering a caramel apple-flavored matcha latte. Afterward, I sat on a park bench reading a book, called up a pal to chat about her recent trip to Prague, and then asked my Ray-Ban Meta Audio glasses what meetings were coming up on my calendar. The chipper AI voice said I hadn't connected my Google Calendar yet (I had) and asked if I would like help connecting. I sighed and then asked it to play an upbeat song. It picked Kendrick Lamar's "Not Like Us."

These past few days, dozens of people …

Read the full story at The Verge.

The feds are looking into reports of Tesla’s robotaxis speeding through school zones

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says it's evaluating allegations that Tesla's 1,000 or so robotaxis using its automated driving system are exceeding "posted speed limits in active school zones." Waymo's robotaxis have also faced similar inquiries, including for illegally passing school buses and hitting a child near a California elementary school.

NHTSA:

The Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) received a DP on September 23, 2026, requesting an investigation into model year (MY) 2026 Tesla Robotaxis (Model Y and Cybercab) with the Automated Driving System (ADS) engaged. The Petitioner alleges that the ADS exceeds poste …

Read the full story at The Verge.