A24’s reputation is on the line with the SCP Foundation movie
After the success of Backrooms, it looks like A24 is trying to cash in on yet another internet horror craze with a new installment in the V/H/S horror anthology series set in the SCP Foundation universe. But as soon as it was announced, the backlash started, and V/H/S: SCP already appears to be on shaky ground.
SCP is a creepypasta that, like Backrooms, originated on 4chan. The fictional SCP (Special Containment Procedures) Foundation documents, captures, and contains paranormal or supernatural anomalies. It's a sprawling story told primarily through wiki entries that mimic documentation you might file while working at a government agency. …
A great new video game movie
Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 144, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you're new here, welcome, new tech season is here, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.)
This week, I flew out to Los Angeles to try on and write about Snap's Specs. Along the way, I've been marveling at how Apple put the iPhone 18 Pro's Face ID sensor under the display, reading about new Xbox boss Asha Sharma, getting excited for bakes in the new Great British Baking Show trailer, watching Stephen Colbert shave his beard on Jimmy Kimmel, and hanging out at a lot of coffee shop tables to work.
I also ha …
The hidden monopoly behind your TI graphing calculator
The same calculator has been on most kids' back to school shopping list since the early 2000's and the dominance of Texas Instruments' calculator division goes back even farther.
In the next episode of Version History, David Pierce is joined by The Verge's Nilay Patel and Victoria Song to tell the story of TI graphing calculators and how one company managed to take over the market and never let it go.
This is the second episode of the fifth season of Version History where we're heading back to school. We've already talked about the perilous journeys of The Oregon Trail that many students experienced in the computer lab and over the cou …
Humans, not rogue AI, are still the biggest cybersecurity risk to energy systems
Before recent high-profile hacks raised the specter of AI possibly "killing all humans," our energy systems were already disturbingly vulnerable to cyberattack - and the risk is growing.
"We were always prey. We were just kind of surviving at the appetite of our predators," Joshua Corman, executive in residence for public safety and resilience at the Institute for Security and Technology (IST), told me last year. At the time, I was preoccupied with a Department of Homeland Security warning that Iranian actors and sympathizers could target the US with cyberattacks.
Last week, I called Corman up to chat about recent incidents of rogue AI a …
All roads lead to cable
This is The Stepback, a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more on streaming platforms, FAST channels, and the future of entertainment, follow Charles Pulliam-Moore. The Stepback arrives in our subscribers' inboxes at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepback here.
How it started
Before Netflix fully committed to becoming a streaming service and leaving DVDs behind, the company experimented with the idea of giving its subscribers a physical box that could access high-resolution digital copies of movies. Films would have been downloaded to the box in the evening and become available to users the next day. But …
Meta’s Muse is creepy, but maybe not for the reasons you think
Meta's Muse is apparently an effective AI assistant, but one that's a little creepy. Part of that is because of its new Mac app, which can access Messages, Calendar, and Notes. But for all its smarts, Muse doesn't actually know how to describe itself. Jason Aten, a contributing editor at Inc Magazine, posted on Threads screenshots of an interaction he had with Muse in which the assistant asks him some questions about a conversation he was having in Messages.
The problem is that Aten says he didn't give Muse access to his messages. When asked how it knew about the contents of his messages, Muse replied, "I saw the notification previews, not …
Trump treads further on free speech with new journalist bans
On Friday, the president threatened to ban CNN, MS Now, and Politico from the White House. It could have just been another one of his Truth Social fever dreams, but it turns out it's very real. All three publications were turned away from the White House this morning, NPR reports, marking an escalation in the administration's war on the First Amendment.
Politico tried to get to the bottom of it, asking why now? It reports that "many senior [White House] staff were surprised by the directive" (what's new?), and that it was done "while chief of staff Susie Wiles was out of town." Apparently he's been talked down from this kind of sweeping mov …
Gemini went rogue, hacked three companies, and Google hid it
In May, Gemini broke containment and hacked three different companies, but Google didn't disclose the incident until the Wall Street Journal approached the company. The hacks happened during a test of the model's cybersecurity capabilities run by third-party Irregular, which was also involved in similar incidents involving Meta and OpenAI.
According to WSJ, Google didn't disclose the hack because it didn't consider it to be an "example of model misalignment." The company said that it was an instance of "mistaken identity," and once the model realized it had brute-forced its way into a real company by guessing a password, it stopped. "In th …
Anamanaguchi has ‘too goddamn many’ browser tabs open right now
Anamanaguchi, the band consisting of Peter Berkman, James DeVito, Luke Silas, and Ary Warnaar, are most known for their chiptune music. Like me, you might have first heard them in game soundtracks like 2010's Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Game or know of their collaboration with Hatsune Miku (which even made its way into Fortnite). They've gone through different eras of breakneck chiptune beats and dance-y pop songs, but their 2025 album Anyway took an indie rock departure - written at the American Football house and filled with fuzzy guitars.
They're also a band that's terminally online and very plugged into the video game scene as well …
The colorful, unique Hyte X50 PC case is $50 off
The Hyte X50 is a PC case that really stands out from the typical black box design, and it’s $50 off at the company’s site until September 21st, 2026, bringing the price down to $99.99. This attractive case supports motherboards from ITX all the way up to the E-ATX form factors, and GPUs that are up to 430mm long, which should cover even the biggest options available. The standout feature is a massive curved glass panel that spans the left face and top of the case, giving it a unique, eye-catching look. It’s easy to build in, supports a wide variety of components and cooling setups, and has a thoughtful, refined design.
Unlike a lot of cases with big glass panels, the X50 has excellent airflow, with louvered fins along the back for ventilation, a porous mesh front, and plenty of spots for radiators and fans. It comes in a variety of bold colors, too, like the lavender-adjacent “taro milk” and trendy “matcha,” as well as more classic black and white options. If you’d rather opt for something a little more subtle, the X50 Air swaps the glass panel for curved mesh, and is only $79.99 (usually $119.99) from Hyte.