There aren’t AirPods with cameras yet and I hope it stays that way
September Apple events are always a swirl of information and new, exciting products, and today's was no different. Apple announced its first foldable, the iPhone Duo, alongside the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max; active noise cancellation (ANC) is now on the cheapest AirPods model, the AirPods 5; and a Siri Recap feature comes to the Watch Series 12 and Watch Ultra 4. But missing were the AirPods Pro with cameras that have been rumored throughout the year and, according to Mark Gurman at Bloomberg, are delayed until 2027. I'm happy about that and I hope we never get them.
I have too many concerns about a company - any company - putting cameras a …
The black iPhone Pro returns
Apple has seen reason: It has a black model in the iPhone Pro lineup again.
Last year, Apple went bold with its colors for the iPhone 17 Pro, offering a flashy orange, a shiny silver, and a dark blue. Don't get me wrong, they looked nice. But there was no black (or dark gray) for the first time since the start of the iPhone Pro lineup, which Apple first introduced in September 2019 with the iPhone 11 Pro and Pro Max.
I care about this because I always buy the black phone. I learned my lesson with the iPhone 6: I got it in gold to mix things up and came to regret it. I don't need something flashy - I need a phone that blends into the backg …
The incomplete history of Duo devices
Apple announced the company's first device with a folding screen today, the iPhone Duo, but that's where the firsts end. The Duo is not only far from the first foldable on the market thanks to the efforts of Samsung and Google, but it's also not the first product to be called the Duo.
Former Apple CEO Steve Jobs popularized the saying "good artists copy, great artists steal," but will the iPhone Duo's folding screen, which features a custom nano-texture display material to help minimize the visibility of its crease, be enough to make us forget these other Duos that have come before it? Only time, or how aggressively Apple plans to market i …
Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg placed on leave
Matt Mullenweg, the CEO of WordPress.com owner Automattic, has been placed on a paid leave of absence, as reported earlier by 404 Media. In an internal message by the outlet, Mullenweg claims Automattic chief financial officer Mark Davies "conspired" with board members to place him on leave.
"They voted to put me on a paid leave of absence. I voted against that," Mullenweg wrote, referring to Davies, along with Automattic board members Ann Dunwoody, Toni Schneider, and Sue Decker, 404 Media reports.
Mullenweg, who also co-founded WordPress.org, has headed up Automattic since 2014. In 2024, Mullenweg waged a public pressure campaign agains …
It’s the year of smartphone price hikes
Paying more for a new phone seems almost unavoidable after Apple's event today. The new iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max start at $1,199 and $1,299, respectively - a $100 price hike over their predecessors. You can't dodge the price hike by opting for an older iPhone, either, because Apple raised prices on those by $100, too. And it's not just Apple. This year, the $100 price hike has been a trend across the industry.
Google and Samsung followed the same formula as Apple when they each launched new phones over the past few months. The Pixel 11 starts at $899, up from $799 for last year's Pixel 10. The Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra launched at $2,099, $10 …
Suno releases its first AI music model made with record industry help
Suno's new v6 AI music model is its first made with support from the record industry. Suno's Jack Brody told The Verge that v6 was "trained from the ground up, with a new set of data that does not include the same data that our previous models were trained on." The data includes content licensed from partners Warner Music Group, BMG, and Believe, as well as "user data." It's unclear whether that means v6 training data is completely free of dubiously obtained content.
One of the big changes in v6 is that there are actually three different models: v6, v6-wild, and v6-mini. Mini is the model available for free to all. It's focused on fast, res …
OpenAI’s sly mathematical breakthrough sends a chill through academia
OpenAI's announcement Tuesday that it has solved one of mathematics' legendary Millennium Prize problems should have been a moment of triumph. The result is both an undeniable achievement and a striking demonstration of just how rapidly AI is transforming mathematics. But before it was even formally announced, the breakthrough had been complicated by the unusual circumstances that prompted OpenAI to pursue the problem: After hearing other researchers were making progress, it seems to have thrown its considerable resources into a last-minute effort to beat them to the punch. The ensuing controversy has surfaced allegations of scooping, spying …
Read the Apple document explaining how new listening features still protect your privacy
At Wednesday's iPhone Duo launch event, Apple announced a handful of new Siri AI Audio Intelligence features, including Siri Recap, Live Rewind, Sound Recognition, and Music Recognition. Alongside its announcement, Apple released a document laying out how it plans to balance AI "ambient listening" and users' privacy. It says the raw audio from the new features "is handled within dedicated hardware, is not saved as a file, and is not accessible to the operating system, apps, or Apple."
Apple explains that Audio Intelligence relies on the Secure Exclave in the S11 chip that powers the new Apple Watch Series 12 and Apple Watch Ultra 4:
The …
How the new Apple Watches compare to the last-gen models
Apple rolled out the Apple Watch Series 12 and Apple Watch Ultra 4 at its "Surprise and shine" event. The new watches feature sizable improvements to their health sensors and tracking, plus the ability to create brief audio transcriptions and summaries, plus a ceramic case option for the Series 12. Despite the new features, the watches start at the same base prices as their previous iterations. The Apple Watch Series 12 starts at $399 for the aluminum version without cellular, and the Apple Watch Ultra 4 starts at $799.
The biggest differences between the models are new features powered by the S11 processor. It supports the new Apple Intell …
Verge staffers react to the iPhone Duo: What we love and don’t love
Apple has just announced its first foldable iPhone, the iPhone Duo. The new phone has a 5.4-inch outer screen and a 7.6-inch inner screen, two back cameras, Touch ID for authentication, an IP68 rating, and all sorts of slick software tricks to make iOS feel more at home on the new device. Preorders start on October 16th ahead of availability on October 23rd, and it starts at $1,999 for 256GB of storage.
It's a huge announcement for Apple, and we have many feelings about it. Here's our gut reactions to the phone. And let us know in the comments what you think!
The Duo name is good
I think iPhone Duo is the perfect name for Apple's foldable …