As Marvel pivots back to the Avengers, Wonder Man goes its own way
When Marvel first announced that Avengers: Doomsday would be directed by the Russo Brothers and star Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom, it seemed like the studio might be using the feature as a massive nostalgia play. Though the film will feature a number of characters from more recent projects like Thunderbolts* and The Fantastic Four: First Steps, the studio made a big deal out of revealing that Chris Evans will reprise his role as Steve Rogers. It's not clear whether Doomsday will bring back even more actors from the original Avengers whose characters either died or aged out of the team. But the project feels primed to work as a kind of re …
Intel Panther Lake laptop CPU review: call it a comeback
Intel's been talking the talk for months about its new generation of laptop chips, the first made on its long-anticipated 18A process. 18A is meant to steer Intel back toward bluer waters by making its chips better, and, if possible, attracting chip designers like Qualcomm and Nvidia to use Intel's foundries, not just its rival TSMC's. Last year's Arrow Lake chips received a mixed reception, particularly desktop versions. The mobile-only Lunar Lake chips, on the other hand, were great, showing that the x86 architecture still has plenty of fight in it against a slowly rising tide of Arm-based Windows laptops. But Lunar Lake was a one-off that …
Asus Zenbook Duo (2026) review: twice as nice — for a price
The most helpful thing you can add to any laptop for productivity is a second screen. That's why I love laptops like the Asus Zenbook Duo. Its twin 14-inch OLED displays are attached by a redesigned hinge that now holds them closer together and on a single plane, for a more seamless look than previous models. The Zenbook Duo and its nearest rival look odd at first glance, but having a twin monitor setup available to you anywhere is incredibly handy. And so cool, too. Let them stare.
In addition to the new hinge, the 2026 Zenbook Duo gets Asus' lightly textured Ceraluminum coating (which sounds silly but looks and feels great), a much larger …
Microsoft’s first Windows 11 update of 2026 has been a mess
Microsoft's first update for Windows 11 in 2026 has been a buggy mess, to say the least. After reports of shutdown issues on some machines, Microsoft issued an emergency update to fix its January 2026 Windows 11 update last weekend. Now, exactly a week later, the software maker has been forced to issue a second unusual out-of-band fix to address OneDrive and Dropbox crashes.
Microsoft is also investigating reports of boot failures that could be related to its January 2026 security update.
While the first shutdown bug was limited to machines running Enterprise and IoT editions of Windows 11 version 23H2, the latest out-of-band update fixes …
TikTok USA is broken
TikTok has suffered from extensive problems on its first weekend after completing a transaction that changed the ownership of its US arm. According to Downdetector, the issues initially spiked in the early hours of Sunday morning, but many users, including editors here at The Verge, are still reporting errors.
TikTok has yet to confirm or comment on any issues more than a day after the troubles began, making it difficult to pin down the extent of the problems.
Many in the US have found it impossible to upload videos over the last day or so, which are sitting "under review" indefinitely. One video we uploaded from a US account last night ha …
Creators and communities everywhere take a stand against ICE
It's not surprising when the guy who's been yelling about the horrors of late-stage capitalism on Instagram for the last five years turns his ire toward ICE. But something different has been happening over the week or so, following the most recent shootings of civilians by federal agents - even accounts that stay laser focused on golfing, chopping wood, and playing cats like bongos have started to speak out.
The tenor on social media and Reddit took an even sharper turn yesterday, following the killing of Alex Pretti by ICE. Even the moderator of normally politics-free r/catbongos (a subreddit "Where gentlemen, gentlewomen, and gentlethems …
It doesn’t matter if Alex Pretti had a gun
Shortly after federal agents killed Alex Pretti Saturday morning, the Department of Homeland Security began to run with the story that the dead man had been armed and dangerous. He had a gun, DHS said. (A Bellingcat analysis of the video concludes that Pretti was unarmed when he was shot.) He had approached the agents holding the gun, DHS said. (He was holding a phone, The New York Times reports.) Pretti died on his knees, surrounded by armed Border Patrol agents, with shot after shot unloaded in his direction.
America's Second Amendment is beloved by conservatives. Minnesota allows open carry with a permit. Pretti lived in a city where pe …
Trusting your phone to Abxylute’s mobile controller requires a big leap of faith
As a retro gaming fan, I was thrilled when Apple opened its App Store to emulators in 2024, but I've yet to find a controller that makes me want to fully embrace retro gaming on my phone.
Clamp-on controllers like the Backbone Pro are a bit too bulky, and I don't want to prop my phone up somewhere to use a standalone gamepad. The Abxylute M4 seemed exactly what I was looking for when it debuted a few months ago. It's a compact wireless gamepad that uses a magnetic mount to attach to my iPhone. It's a clever design, but one that's let down by stiff thumbsticks and a magnetic mount that doesn't always feel like it's securely supporting my ph …
Why won’t anyone stop ICE from masking?
Americans do not like masked secret police. There is really no other way to put it. The reasons why are manifold: accountability, trust in law enforcement, and just plain overall vibes. More concretely, not being able to tell who's a cop and who's not is dangerous. An assassin masquerading as law enforcement killed Minnesota legislator Melissa Hortman and her husband last year. How is anyone supposed to tell whether they're being dragged out of their home in their underwear by ICE or by mere amateur thugs?
Last year, California passed the No Secret Police Act, which restricts masking for federal law enforcement, alongside the No Vigilantes …
Sony’s first clip earbuds don’t quite hit the mark
The Sony LinkBuds Clip are the company's first clip earbuds. They follow the innovative donut-hole LinkBuds and LinkBuds Open and, like their predecessors, allow you to listen to music or podcasts, make phone calls, or be active outdoors while still maintaining awareness of your surroundings. The clip design has become more popular over the past couple of years, and while the LinkBuds Clip have a solid design and good sound, there's nothing significant that sets them apart from competitors, especially at their $229.99 price.
Like other open earbuds, the LinkBuds Clip wrap around your ear helix like an ear cuff. The small spherical speaker e …