The Verge’s 2025 holiday gift guide for tinkerers
As AI tools continue to rise in popularity, it's easy to forget the satisfaction of using something that doesn't need an update or a prompt to help you get things done. I'm talking about tools. They're simple and rugged, and they don't make things needlessly complicated. And now that the holidays are approaching, these tools can help you tackle projects you didn't finish over the summer (or, let's be real, two summers ago).
If you're shopping for someone who would rather read a repair manual than scroll through a social media feed, you're in the right place. We've rounded up options ranging from a long-lasting cast-iron skillet to a versati …
Lawmakers want to let users sue over harmful social media algorithms
Tech critics' least favorite law is under siege again, this time with a focus on its recommendation algorithms.
On Wednesday Sens. John Curtis (R-UT) and Mark Kelly (D-AZ) introduced the Algorithm Accountability Act, which amends Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act to make platforms responsible for preventing their recommendation systems from causing certain foreseeable harms. Section 230 is the law that shields online platforms - including social media sites, digital forums, blogs with comment sections, and their users - from being held liable for other people's unlawful posts, or for engaging in good faith content moderation. Bu …
Watch how Apple 3D prints Watches by blasting powdered titanium with lasers
If you compare the Apple Watch Ultra 3 with the Ultra 2, you probably wouldn’t be able to tell they were made with drastically different manufacturing processes. The titanium Apple Watch Series 11 and Ultra 3 are not only made with 100 percent recycled titanium powder, but are also 3D-printed, a process that’s pretty impressive at Apple’s scale. 3D printing creates less waste, in this case cutting raw materials usage for the watch cases in half, but introduces new challenges, like balancing speed and precision.
Apple has released more details about its process, which involves blasting titanium dust with a laser. Over 900 layers of material, each 60 microns thick, go into a single watch case (for context, one micron is equal to 0.001 millimeters). The titanium powder used for the cases has to be fine-tuned itself to reduce its oxygen content so it won’t explode when exposed to high heat.
Printing Watch cases, rather than using subtractive manufacturing, has allowed Apple to save an estimated 400 metric tons of raw titanium this year. Apple also applied the same 3D-printing process to the USB-C port on the iPhone Air. While they’re not 3D-printing an entire iPhone chassis yet, it sounds like it’s not out of the question. As Sarah Chandler, Apple’s VP of environment and supply chain innovation, mentions in the press release, “We’re never doing something just to do it once — we’re doing it so it becomes the way the whole system then works.”
Disney loses bid to block Sling TV’s one-day cable passes
A federal judge in New York denied Disney’s request to block Sling TV’s short-term passes, which give viewers the ability to stream live content for as little as one day. In a ruling on Tuesday, US District Judge Arun Subramanian ruled that Disney didn’t prove that Sling TV’s passes caused “irreparable harm” to the entertainment giant, as reported earlier by Cord Cutters.
Disney sued Sling shortly after the live TV streaming service started allowing viewers to purchase temporary access to its library of channels, starting at a single payment of $4.99 for a one-day pass. Several channels included in the package are owned by Disney, including ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN3, and Disney Channel. In its lawsuit, Disney argued that the passes violate an agreement with Sling TV that says the service must give subscribers access to its content through monthly subscriptions.
However, Judge Subramanian argues that this claim isn’t likely to succeed, as the contract doesn’t stipulate a “minimum subscription length,” adding that the agreement’s “broad definition” of a subscriber “clearly covers users of the Passes.” Additionally, the ruling states that Disney failed to show how the passes might harm the company’s reputation or “siphon customers” from its new ESPN Unlimited live sports streaming service.
“Disney hasn’t shown it has lost customers due to the Passes,” Judge Subramanian writes. “The networks are being distributed in the same platform, in the same manner, that they always have, but to a broader array of Sling customers.”
Sling TV is offering its one-day pass at a discounted $1 rate to celebrate the court win, though Disney’s breach-of-contract lawsuit against the streaming service will continue.
“For too long, traditional ‘big media’ companies have intentionally stifled innovation and forced customers to pay for more content than they want or need,” Seth Van Sickel, Sling TV’s senior vice president, says in a press release. “We believe customers deserve the flexibility to stream the content they want, whenever they want it, at a price they can afford. Consumers deserve affordable TV, not bound by long-term contracts or bloated offerings.”
This viral AI pen didn’t help me cheat
A college student recently told me about the latest tech designed to help students cheat - and it wasn't ChatGPT. It was an actual, physical gadget marketed in YouTube ads as the workaround to physical, hardcopy tests, which are back in vogue now as AI tears through higher education like a tornado. (One example is AI agents, which are unstoppable cheating machines for online assignments.)
But if questions printed on physical sheets of paper seem like the calm eye of the storm, think again, because when there's a will, there's a way - or a gadget. In this case, a small wand-like device that looks like a TV remote with a screen and some but …
Demonschool channels Buffy and Persona for delightfully demonic RPG action
In one particularly memorable sequence in Demonschool - the new tactical RPG from Necrosoft that, after a few hiccups, releases on November 19th - I throw a doll at a zombie's head, dispatch it with a roundhouse kick to the jowls as I watch my friends sweep demons off the floor in vortices of blood, and celebrate by returning to town and petting a dog. All in the name of passing a college assignment that I'm juggling alongside deciphering a millennia-old apocalyptic prophecy and making new friends.
For Demonschool's demon-hunting protagonist, Faye, that would all preferably be achieved by kicking the apocalypse, and coursework, into submiss …
Porsche crowns Cayenne Electric ‘most powerful production Porsche of all time’
It’s no surprise that the Porsche Cayenne EV is a beast. Of course the famed German automaker would tout its all-electric SUV as “the most powerful,” the quickest — both off the line and in a charging stall — and record-setting in so many ways. The question remains: how beastly are we talking?
Now, thankfully, the Cayenne Electric is coming more into focus. Today, the new Cayenne is officially joining the existing lineup of gas and hybrid Caynne powertrains to round out what the automaker is calling “a new era for Porsche.”
It makes sense that Porsche would be trying to turn a new page. After all, this is an automaker long touted as the epitome of German engineering prowess that presently finds itself mired in a crisis. US tariffs, plus an unrelenting price war in China, has fueled steep losses at Porsche, including a $1.1 billion operating loss in the third quarter alone. And EV sales, especially in the luxury segment, are looking increasingly fraught in the current environment.
Can the Cayenne Electric help turn things around? The specs alone certainly suggest a paradigm shift may be under way: up to 850kW (1,139hp) of power, 0-60mph in 2.4 seconds, a top speed of 162mph and, under ideal conditions, up to 400kW charging power, for a 10-80 percent state of charge in just 18 minutes. The Cayenne Electric will be the first electric Porsche to support inductive charging. When parked above a floor plate, the EV can charge at speeds of up to 11kW.
At launch, the electric SUV will come in two variants: Cayenne Electric, starting at $111,350 (including destination charge); and the $165,350 Cayenne Turbo Electric. Clearly, these are not the affordable EVs that we were promised, nor do they pretend to be. After all, it’s Porsche.
As such, there’s a lot of go-fast ingenuity built into the Cayenne Electric. In addition to an output of 1,139hp, the dual-motor SUV is capable of 1,106lb-ft of torque when Launch Control is activated. In normal driving mode, up to 630kW (844hp) is available. And with a Push-to-Pass function, an additional 130kW (173hp) can be activated for 10 seconds at the push of a button. The standard model has 300kW (402hp) in normal operation and 325kW (435hp) and 615lb-ft of torque in Launch Control. This version can gallop from 0-60mph in 4.5 seconds with a top track speed of 143mph.
But the Cayenne Electric won’t just be a beast on the track. Porsche is also claiming that the new SUV will be able to tow up to 3.5 tons, or 7,716lbs — when properly equipped. The automaker has been teasing this insane capability for a while now, but it still bears repeating: 3.5 tons. That’s more than a Toyota Tacoma.
The automaker is making a lot of hay of its traction control and suspension system. The Cayenne Electric will be the first SUV to get Active Ride, the hydraulic suspension system found on the Taycan and Panamera. The adaptive air suspension is fitted as standard on both models. And the Turbo trim features Porsche’s torque vectoring limited-slip rear differential.
Thanks to the 800-volt architecture, the Cayenne Electric’s 113kWh battery pack can be replenished at speeds up to 400kW (if you can find a charger that meets that specification). The Cayenne Electric will come equipped with a Tesla Supercharger/NACS fast-charging port on the driver-side rear fender, and a CCS/AC-only charging port on the passenger-side rear fender.
Most Cayenne owners will likely charge at home, and for that, Porsche has a new inductive charging pad for those that prefer to do their charging wirelessly. The charging pad made its debut at IAA Mobility in Munich earlier this year, though Porsche has yet to announce a price. Once the electric Cayenne is parked in the correct position over a plate on the ground, it can accept a charge from another plate underneath its body.
We’ve already covered the Cayenne Electric’s unique interior design. Yes, I’m talking about the bending screen. Porsche calls it the Flow Display, a vertically installed screen that curves toward the bottom. It’s the largest screen ever to be featured in a Porsche and it will run on Porsche’s all new operating system, which the automaker claims will “flow” harmoniously throughout the vehicle’s interior.
Porsche didn’t provide measurements for the Flow Display, but it said that it would be bookended by a 14.25-inch OLED instrument cluster and a 14.9-inch optional passenger display. Considering Porsche is on tap to receive Apple’s newly immersive CarPlay Ultra, one wonders how phone mirroring will work with this massive curved display.
There will also be a heads-up display that simulates an “87-inch display area 10 meters in front of the vehicle.” But before you go complaining about an overreliance on digital controls, Porsche says that frequently used functions, such as HVAC and volume control, are analog. And a hand rest called the “Ferry pad” has been developed to help the driver operate digital and analog controls ergonomically.
Porsche claims the new Cayenne prioritizes driver engagement with a new AI-powered voice assistant, which can “reliably” understand complex instructions and spontaneous follow-up questions without repeating the activation word. The voice assistant controls climate, seat heating, and ambient lighting, while also recognizing addresses, points of interest, and traffic information.
The Cayenne Electric and Turbo Electric are available to order now, with customer deliveries expected in summer 2026.
Photography: Porsche
Adobe to acquire digital marketing platform Semrush for $1.9 billion
Adobe is acquiring the digital marketing platform Semrush for around $1.9 billion. In a press release on Wednesday, Adobe says the deal will allow it and Semrush to give marketers insight into how their brands appear across the web.
The acquisition builds on Adobe’s existing suite of marketing tools that help businesses manage digital campaigns and analyze web traffic. Adobe has begun incorporating AI into its marketing platform as well, as it now allows brands to generate ads using the technology. It also announced that it’s building an AI agent designed to brainstorm social media campaigns last month.
In addition to taking advantage of Semrush’s search engine optimization (SEO) capabilities, Adobe plans on incorporating the company’s tools that help brands appear inside AI-generated search results or responses.
In 2023, Adobe dropped its $20 billion deal to acquire the collaborative design platform Figma after facing pressure from regulators in the UK and the European Union. Adobe’s deal to acquire Semrush is expected to close in the first half of 2026. It’s still subject to the approval of regulators, as well as Semrush stockholders.
Europe’s cookie nightmare is crumbling
The EU’s cookie consent policies have been an annoying and unavoidable part of browsing the web in Europe since their introduction in 2018. But the cookie nightmare is about to crumble thanks to some big proposed changes announced by the European Commission today.
Instead of having to click accept or reject on a cookie pop-up for every website you visit in Europe, the EU is preparing to enforce rules that will allow users to set their preferences for cookies at the browser level. “People can set their privacy preferences centrally — for example via the browser — and websites must respect them,” says the EU. “This will drastically simplify users’ online experience.”
This key change is part of a new Digital Package of proposals to simplify the EU’s digital rules, and will initially see cookie prompts change to be a simplified yes or no single-click prompt ahead of the “technological solutions” eventually coming to browsers. Websites will be required to respect cookie choices for at least six months, and the EU also wants website owners to not use cookie banners for “harmless uses” like counting website visits, to lessen the amount of pop-ups.
The sheer amount of cookie pop-ups across Europe means people often just click any button to get access to a website, simply because of the annoyance instead of worrying about their privacy. “This is not a real choice made by citizens to protect their phones or computers and to choose what happens to their data,” says the European Commission. “Today’s proposal modernizes the ‘cookies rules’, with the same strong protections for devices, allowing citizens to decide what cookies are placed on their connected devices (e.g. phones or computers) and what happens to their data.”
The EU’s latest proposals will now head to the European Parliament. They’ll need to be approved by the EU’s 27 member states during a process that could take some time yet, but Europe’s cookie nightmare looks a big step closer to being over.
TikTok is letting users control how much AI content they see
TikTok is testing a new control that will let users manage how much AI-generated content appears in their video feed on the app. To help make the filter more effective, the app will also soon start adding invisible watermarks to AI content.
The new AI slider will appear along with TikTok’s other content controls under “Manage topics,” which currently allows users to set how much they want to see from content areas including dance, current affairs, and fitness. Just like those sliders, the AI control will allow users to request to see more or less AI material, with two levels in either direction.
An AI slider will only work if TikTok itself knows which content is made with AI, so it’s working on improving detection too. Recognizing that users often remove visual watermarks from AI-generated content, the company will start adding invisible watermarks to content made with its own tools like AI Editor Pro, along with any videos uploaded with C2PA Content Credentials — an industry-wide authentication standard, albeit one that has already shown its limits.
TikTok says both changes are rolling out over “the coming weeks,” though the AI content control is only a test for now.