Mark Zuckerberg bought an Irish castle
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg now owns an actual castle. Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan bought Strancally Castle and its 440-acre estate in Ireland "several weeks ago," according to The Irish Times. While the exact price of the purchase is unclear, the family could have paid "anywhere between €20 million and €30 million" for the 16,000-square-foot castle, which was restored by its previous owners.
"Mark and his family are excited to continue caring for this historic home and look forward to spending time in Ireland, where Meta maintains its international headquarters," a spokesperson tells The Irish Times. The publication says "it is und …
Australia says Roblox hasn’t fixed its child predator problem
Roblox is promising more changes to its child safety features following testing from Australia's online safety regulator, eSafety.
eSafety has been looking into concerns that the company hasn't been in compliance with Australia's Online Safety Act, including "allegedly failing to have sufficient measures in place to prevent contact between adults and children under 16." While Roblox has put some new safety measures in place, eSafety's testing this year found that the platform "continued to put children at risk, including allowing contact between children and adult strangers."
eSafety's testing found that:
adults could send connection req …
FCC officially decides gigabit speeds are too good for you
Another day, another sad thing to report about our compromised Federal Communications Commission. Chairman Brendan Carr has followed through on his 2025 threat to kill long-term broadband speed goals established during the Biden administration, which aimed for eventually getting us to gigabit download and half-gigabit upload speeds. How dare we dream of spreading great download and upload speeds across the country!
It's wild that 13 years after Comcast said Americans don't need gigabit internet we're somehow back in this conversation. Especially since the private sector has delivered, albeit unevenly, on super high speeds in certain areas; …
Framework says it’s addressing a BIOS update that bricked some of its older laptops
Some Framework Laptop 13 owners with last-gen AMD chips have reported that a recent BIOS update is bricking their laptops on both Windows and Linux. The BIOS update causing this issue is version 3.20 for Ryzen 7040-series mainboards, released back in July and still available on Framework's site at the time of this writing. Upon running the update, some users reported their laptops getting stuck on the update screen.
While some users on Framework's community forums reported that the company was sending them replacement mainboards under the one-year warranty, several with out-of-warranty boards said they were told they'd have to buy new ones. …
It’s Greg Brockman’s OpenAI now
OpenAI has had a hell of a year. The company spent months battling former co-founder Elon Musk in a sensational jury trial, was hit with a high-profile trade secrets lawsuit from Apple, and faced widespread scrutiny after an unreleased model hacked another AI company. As it prepares for an IPO, a steady string of executives have departed, including some of the company's biggest names.
Throughout it all, one person has quietly amassed power: Greg Brockman.
Brockman is currently OpenAI's president and co-founder. He's helped lead OpenAI since its inception, described as an "engineering workhorse that pushed to build scaled-up systems that w …
This app makes the Pixel 11’s HiLight feature actually useful
Google's new HiLight notification LED on the Pixel 11 Pro is nearly useless. Out of the box, the only two things it can glow for are when the phone is face down and you're interacting with Gemini, or when you get a call from a favorite contact. And even then, it can only glow one of five colors!
This is a massive wasted opportunity for a feature that used to be so beloved on older Android phones, so developers have wasted no time doing what Google won't.
X user Dhananjay_Tech developed a new app called HiLight Studio, which lets you do practically anything you want with the HiLight LED array. Did you receive a new Slack notification that m …
LG’s 65-inch B6 OLED is $300 lower than its previous best price
Best Buy has a whole host of LG products discounted for today’s Deal of the Day festivities, including laptops, home theater gear, and more. One that stood out is a price cut on LG’s 65-inch B6 OLED TV that’s deeper than I’ve seen before. At Best Buy, it’s $1,399.99 (originally $1,999.99) for the rest of the Thursday, August 20th, which is currently $300 lower than Amazon’s price.
LG B6 OLED TV
Where to Buy:
As someone who typically buys midrange tech, I appreciate that LG’s B-series OLEDs are relatively inexpensive compared to the flagship model, yet it doesn’t skimp on many features. The B6 is actually at the bottom of LG’s OLED tiers, but even the lowest-end LG OLED is going to be very good compared to most other non-OLED TVs. It’s less bright than the C6, but it’ll be plenty bright for most people. Plus, it has contrast-rich 4K picture quality, a capable processor to keep apps running smoothly, and 120Hz refresh rate with variable refresh rate support (Nvidia G-Sync and AMD’s FreeSync Premium). All four of its HDMI ports are version 2.1, supporting the full refresh rate and VRR, along with auto low latency mode. One of the ports has eARC for connecting to a soundbar.
window.HYPE_DESK_CONFIG = { productImageUrl: "https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/03_ninja_creami_16x9.png", productImageAlt: "Ninja NC301 CREAMi Ice Cream Maker", productTitle: "Ninja NC301 CREAMi Ice Cream Maker", shortDescription: "Seven programs, unlimited combinations, one seriously capable kitchen appliance.", longDescription: "The machine that turned homemade frozen desserts into something you actually want to do.The NC301 is not a blender. It is a dedicated frozen treat machine with seven one-touch programs covering ice cream, sorbet, gelato, milkshakes, smoothie bowls, lite ice cream, and mix-ins. You control every ingredient, which means you control every dietary consideration, and the mix-in function lets you fold in whatever you want at the end. Professionally refurbished by Back Market and backed by a one-year warranty and 30-day return policy.", purchaseUrl: "https://www.awin1.com/cread.php?awinmid=18275&awinaffid=173843&campaign=VergeHypeDesk&clickref=AugustArticle4&platform=dl&ued=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.backmarket.com%2Fen-us%2Fp%2Fninja-nc301-blender%2Fd6824dba-3b3b-45f2-908a-7be191fe91a6%3Fl%3D11", purchaseLinkText: "Buy At Back Market" };Other great Verge-approved deals
- DoorDash sells digital video games now. Weird, right? There are plenty of other places to get game downloads, but the delivery service is trying to tempt gamers who subscribe to its premium DashPass membership to give it a shot with a gift card promotion. Through August 31st, you’ll get a $25 DoorDash gift card by purchasing at least $50 in digital games through the “Gaming” section of its site or mobile app. Regular (non-DashPass) members can get a $10 gift card. It’s not a bad incentive if you were already planning on buying games. I’d appreciate if you’d us know how it works out for you in the comments.
- I like pointing readers to deals on the 4K Blu-ray bundle of The Lord of the Rings trilogy whenever possible. While the discs aren’t on sale today, Amazon has all three extended edition films available in a 4K digital bundle for $14.99, which is a tremendous value. I know — not as good as owning them physically. But at least the films are compatible with Movies Anywhere, so you don’t have to view them within the Prime Video app.
- We’re coming up on the final day to snag the 2K Megahits 2026 Bundle at Humble Bundle. The digital Steam game set costs $15 and includes games like BioShock Infinite, The Quarry, Borderlands 3, and a lot more. The sale ends Friday, August 21st, so jump on this sale if you enjoy the likes of replay-worthy first-person shooters, great multiplayer roguelites, and more. Proceeds for the sale will go to Covenant House, which provides food, shelter and crisis care for unhoused and trafficked youth.
Amazon’s drone deliveries are landing in pools and ponds
Amazon's speedy drone delivery service will soon reach 500 cities across the US - but that might just mean there are more pools to drop packages into. On Wednesday, ABC7 News Bay Area shared a video showing an Amazon delivery drone hovering over a customer's pool in Texas, before opening its hatch and plopping the package directly into the water.
This isn't the first time Amazon's drones have delivered soggy packages. A video shared last July shows a Prime Air drone dropping a package right next to a customer's pool in Arizona, but air sent downward by the drone's propellers blew it straight into the water. In an interview with local news o …
Tesla Robotaxis appear to go fully unsupervised in Austin ahead of Cybercab launch
Seven months after Elon Musk announced that Tesla Robotaxis in Austin were operating without human safety monitors onboard, the city's service appears to have finally gone fully driverless.
Over the past two weeks, all 170 Tesla Robotaxi rides in Austin monitored by the crowdsourced Robotaxi Tracker were unsupervised, the site's creator, Ethan McKanna, told The Verge. Those rides involved 54 different cars. McKanna has also seen a sharp increase in unsupervised Robotaxis elsewhere, particularly Dallas and Houston, where roughly 30 driverless Teslas have been operating over the past week.
That's a substantial change from earlier this summe …
Here’s what data Comcast says its motion-detecting routers collect
Comcast announced a new platform this week called Xfinity Shield that includes the option to let customers turn their routers into motion sensors. Many people reacted with fear and anger.
"I am not enabling this. I am also seriously considering replacing my leased gateway with my own equipment, because a device I do not control sitting in my living room measuring the motion of my family is not a feature I asked for," wrote one customer on the r/Comcast subreddit
Some concerns stem from a clause on the support page for the feature, called WiFi Motion, which says Comcast might share motion-sensing data without notifying you if compelled by …