Lame-duck Congress might actually do something: speed up energy projects
A massive permitting bill that could help energy projects come online much quicker and potentially lower utility bills for Americans is advancing with bipartisan support. And while it could be a catalyst for lots of clean energy, it could also speed up polluting projects and limit oversight of new data centers.
With data centers demanding more electricity for AI, environmental advocates fear that developers could take advantage of the reforms to evade public scrutiny and rely more heavily on fossil fuels. The bill sacrifices caution for speed, limiting environmental reviews and preventing communities from stopping a project from moving forw …
Meta’s Muse AI can create custom ‘spaces’ for the version of the app you need right now
Meta will now allow you to build customized, app-like experiences within its Muse AI assistant. The new feature, called "spaces," allows Muse to build things like a shopping hub, school dashboard, music tracker, trivia game, and more, which you can interact with directly in the app.
If you connect your space to a relevant app, Muse will update pricing, dates, and other information in the background. Meta says you can create a new space by describing it, and continue to tweak it by asking Muse. You can also interact with your spaces by checking things off, adding notes, and making edits.
You can add spaces to the sidebar in the Muse a …
Amazon is now making a Melania Trump TV series
Following the Melania documentary movie that premiered earlier this year, Amazon is now planning to release a two-part Prime Video series focusing on the first lady. The show, Melania: The Series, is set to debut on November 20th.
"MELANIA, The Series reveals never-before-told stories, offering unprecedented insight into Melania Trump's life, including the extraordinary days immediately following the 47th Presidential Inauguration," according to a description in a press release.
Here's what Amazon says the two episodes will be about:
I. Family & Trust:
Melania Trump sets priorities as she prepares to become America's First Lady. B …
Just about anyone can rent access to White House IP addresses
Someone at the White House appears to be running software that could enable outsiders to rent access on the presidential network for just "a few dollars," as reported by Krebs on Security and The Register. That's according to findings from the security firms Layer3 Intel and Synthient, which discovered residential proxy activity on the White House network.
A residential proxy opens up a way for people to rent access to a home IP address and route their internet traffic through it, allowing them to conceal where their activity is actually coming from. Some apps and browser extensions include third-party software development kits (SDKs) that …
Kobo will soon let you upload and sync your own ebooks across devices, for a price
Kobo is launching a new monthly subscription service called Stack that lets you upload your own ebooks and documents to the company's servers where they'll be synced across multiple devices and apps, including your reading progress, highlights, and annotations. Kobo Stack is similar to Amazon's Send to Kindle feature that allows users to upload a wide variety of files to their Kindle libraries for free, but Kobo's version will cost a few dollars each month.
Kobo Stack is being introduced as part of a major 6.0 update to the company's e-reader software, which is available in beta now as an optional upgrade ahead of a wider official release. …
The iPhone Duo has more than 100,000 optimized apps, Apple says
Apple's iPhone Duo has been officially on sale for two weeks, and the company said today that the App Store now has over 100,000 apps that are built for the foldable.
"It's been wonderful to see how quickly developers have embraced iPhone Duo, and we're grateful for their creativity and innovation," Susan Prescott, Apple's VP of Worldwide Developer Relations, says in a statement. "Today there are well over 100,000 apps built for iPhone Duo already live on the App Store, and thousands of optimized apps are being added to the store each day." Prescott adds that "the enthusiasm has been incredible, and we're excited to see the pace of updates …
AI is the new dating dealbreaker
When Irene moved to San Francisco last year, she started using dating apps as a way to meet new people, get to know her new city, and connect with others who care about the things she does. After the 25-year-old analyst downloaded Hinge and started swiping, she noticed a trend.
"Hinge has a prompt where you can say, 'We'll get along if''," she recalls. "Sometimes people will be like, 'Fuck AI.'"
Usually, the people who include this kind of value statement on their profile work in the arts, nursing, maybe graphic design. Within the span of a few minutes of sitting down and swiping, Irene shows me a second profile where this happened once mo …
Meta’s refurbished Quest 3S headset is nearly $100 off right now
If you’re curious about virtual reality, Meta’s Quest 3S is a good entry-level headset for dipping your toes in, especially now it’s on sale in refurbished condition for $255.99 directly from Meta’s eBay storefront through November 8th when you use coupon code SAVE20TECH. For comparison, the headset recently dropped to $300 in new condition as part of Amazon’s fall Prime Day event, and currently retails for $349.99.
According to eBay, the certified refurbished headset is in “like-new” condition and has undergone professional inspection and cleaning by the manufacturer. More importantly, it comes with either original or new accessories — including a power adapter, a glasses spacer, wrist straps, etc. — alongside a two-year Allstate warranty.
The Quest 3S strikes a middle ground between the Quest 3 and Quest 2. Like the pricier Quest 3, it runs on the speedy Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 chip and supports the same library of games. It also comes with the same cameras for full-color passthrough, letting you interact with the world around you while wearing the headset. It comes with Meta’s Touch Plus controllers, though you can also use your hands to navigate menus and interact with some apps. And because it’s a standalone headset, you don’t need a PC or console to play games.
However, its display resolution and optics quality are closer to the Quest 2’s, which, while good, means visuals are narrower and less sharp. Still, as we noted in our review, those trade-offs are easy to overlook given the price, especially if you’re new to VR.
Read our full Meta Quest 3S review.
Three more deals worth a look
- Philips Hue’s 80-inch Gradient Lightstrip is on sale for $83.16 ($115 off) when you buy it directly from Philips’ online storefront with code OUTLET58. The two-meter lightstrip can extend up to 10 meters and display multiple colors simultaneously, while delivering up to 1,800 lumens of brightness with customizable lighting effects. You can also control it via Alexa and Google Assistant, or using either Bluetooth or a Philips Hue Bridge.
- Anker’s new Desktop USB-C Hub is currently available from both Amazon and Anker (with code WSPDV2ONVYED) for $79.99 ($20 off), which is $5 shy of its lowest price to date. The 10-in-1 hub features a built-in screen that not only displays charging speeds, but also doubles as a digital photo frame and customizable timer. It also sports an HDMI port, a DisplayPort connection, four USB ports, an ethernet jack, and SD and microSD card slots, letting you connect multiple accessories and external displays.
- Speaking of gadgets with personality, Orico’s adorable PixCharge Plus is on sale at Amazon in several colors for $29.99 ($50 off), its best price to date. The small, 10,000mAh power bank has a customizable 16-by-16 pixel screen that displays animations, scrolling text, and pixel art using a companion app; it also supports up to 22.5W fast-charging and comes with a built-in USB-C cable that conveniently doubles as a strap.
Big Tech lost big in the 2026 election
On Tuesday, millions of American voters went to the polls and voted overwhelmingly for Democrats and against AI. The fight against Big Tech is about to come roaring back, and the fight over data centers is looking even harder for the folks trying to build them.
On this episode of The Vergecast, Nilay and David discuss what the 2026 midterms mean for the tech industry going forward. They dig into the self-quarantining echo chamber that is X, the congressional energy likely to be pointed at tech CEOs and AI regulation, and whether anything is actually likely to get done in the next two years.
After that, the hosts turn to AI. Specifically, …
How Akai and Moog are embracing vibe-coded mods
inMusic, the parent company of Akai, Moog, Native Instruments, and more, has decided to embrace the modding community. In an interview with The Verge, inMusic CEO Jack O'Donnell said, "We're going to provide a toolbox to the community, we're going to provide the inner workings of, say, an MPC or Sample so that people can do what they want." That "toolbox" includes making the code for devices like the recently teased MPC Sample Key open source, but also offering developers an SDK to make modifications easier and lessen the risk of bricking your beloved sampler.
While Akai is eager to see what the modding community cooks up, and has started s …