GOG’s Steam-alternative PC game store is leaving CD Projekt, staying DRM-free
GOG is splitting from CD Projekt, the game company that launched the preservation-focused PC gaming marketplace in 2008. In an update on Monday, GOG announced that its co-founder, Michał Kiciński, has acquired the digital storefront and its online gaming platform GOG Galaxy from CD Projekt - which he also co-founded - for $25.2 million.
The acquisition isn't changing anything about GOG's mission to keep games DRM-free, according to the announcement that says it's "more central to GOG than ever:"
GOG has always been built on strong values and clear principles. When Marcin Iwiński and Michał Kiciński first came up with the idea for GOG in 2 …
Turn your PC into a Super Nintendo with Epilogue’s new USB dock
After announcing and teasing its design well over a year ago, Epilogue's new SN Operator will finally be available for preorder starting tomorrow. Like the company's GB Operator that debuted in early 2021, the SN Operator is a standalone USB cartridge slot that lets you play and archive old Nintendo console games on PCs, Macs, or handhelds like the Steam Deck using their original carts. But where the GB Operator was built for Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and GBA games, the SN Operator instead supports any Super Nintendo and Super Famicom game.
Preorders for the SN Operator will open at 12PM ET on December 30th for $59.99. That's $10 more expen …
How to tweak your online platform algorithms
Love them or hate them, more than half of the world's population interacts with algorithmic recommendations in some way every day. Algorithmic recommendations play an integral role in how users discover new content across platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. It can be nice to be fed a stream of fresh posts, pictures, and videos that are already tailored to our interests instead of manually hunting for content to engage with, but algorithms don't always show you what you actually want to see.
Many online platforms provide features that aim to help you fix this. The algorithms they deploy are, after all, designed to make y …
Beats’ new Powerbeats Fit earbuds are down to $180
It’s almost the new year and time to treat yourself to a new pair of earbuds — especially if one of your resolutions for 2026 is to work out more. If you find yourself reading this and nodding, take a look at the Beats Powerbeats Fit, a recent upgrade of Beats’ Fit Pro earbuds that feature a redesigned wing tip. They are now on sale at Amazon, Best Buy, and B&H for about $179.99, which is $20 off their usual $199.99 price and the lowest they’ve gone so far.
According to the company, the new tips have more flexibility in order to improve comfort while keeping the earbuds more securely anchored in your ears. While these mid-level earbuds still use the H1 chips (the Powerbeats Pro 2 and the AirPods Pro 3 are equipped with Apple’s newer H2 wireless chip), they have most of the features you’d look for, whether you’re using them with an iPhone (hands-free Siri access, Find My tracking, and syncing across Apple devices through iCloud) or an Android phone (one-touch pairing and location tracking through the Beats mobile app, along with customizable controls).
Beats Powerbeats Fit
A new version of the Fit Pro wireless earbuds, which are upgraded with a redesigned wing tip that Beats says is 20 percent more flexible, a smaller case, and other advantages.
Where to Buy:
In addition, they offer active noise cancellation, an IPX4 rating, and seven hours of playback (six hours with ANC turned on). Read our coverage.
Other great deals
- Our reviewer, Victoria Song, named the Pixel Watch 4 the Android watch to beat, and the 41mm model is currently discounted from $349.99 to $299.99 at Amazon, Best Buy, Target, and the Google Store, the lowest it’s been. The watch is definitely something to think about if you’re an Android user: it features stylish hardware and software designs, a bright display, and battery life that can go for at least a day and a half. And if you need to, you can replace the battery or screen yourself, which is something to consider if you like to keep your devices as long as possible. Read our review.
- On the other hand, if you’re in the Apple camp — and especially if you got a new iPad for the holidays — you can get yourself an Apple Pencil Pro for $94.97, down from $129.99, at Amazon. This is an improvement on the Pencil that comes with the iPad and offers pressure sensitivity, double-tap tool switching, gyroscope features, and a squeeze gesture for switching between software functions, just the thing for more sophisticated iPad use. Read our coverage.
- If you’re looking for a low-cost charger that will get your devices going again quickly, Woot is selling a value pack of the Otterbox 30W Premium Pro Fast Charge at $11.99 for two — a single one of these chargers has a suggested retail price of $34.95. Might as well get four, or even six — an extra charger is always useful.
This experimental camera can focus on everything at once
A camera lens, historically, can only focus on one thing at a time, just like the human eye. That could be a thing of the past, though, thanks to a breakthrough lens technology developed by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) that can bring every part of a scene into sharp focus, capturing finer details across the entire image, no matter the distance.
Traditional lenses are limited to sharpening one focal plane (the distance between an object and your camera) at a time, blurring everything behind or in front of that object. That effect can bring a sense of depth to images, but seeing a full picture clearly typically requires you …
The best shows to watch on HBO Max from 2025
With all the drama surrounding Warner Bros. Discovery's plans to sell itself to another company, it's not currently clear how much longer HBO Max will continue to exist in its current form. But for the time being, the streamer is chock full of solid series you might want to consider watching if you find yourself bored, chilly, and firmly planted on your couch this holiday season. Whether it's superhero madness, dark satire, or steamy romance, HBO Max has a little bit of everything. And the streamer has a whole lot more coming down the pipeline, so now's the time to check out some of what it had to offer in 2025.
Heated Rivalry
At a time wh …
Xiaomi’s 17 Ultra Leica edition has a rotatable camera zoom
Xiaomi used the Christmas period to launch its top flagship phone for the year, the 17 Ultra. It drops the extra rear display that's the key selling point of the 17 Pro, but instead adds in the option of a manual zoom ring, built directly into the phone's camera island.
That rotating zoom is only included in the new Leica edition of the phone, which also packs touches like the Leica red dot logo and a textured finish on the phone's sides. The ring can be reprogrammed for exposure or focus if you prefer, and the Leica version has a few custom software touches too, like unique film simulation effects, and physical accessories like a lens cap …
Windows on Arm had another good year
In 2024, Qualcomm's Snapdragon X chips finally made Arm-based Windows laptops viable. Unlike previous Arm laptops that struggled to even run Windows well, this new class offered solid performance and the best battery life on Windows, and they impressed us in Microsoft's own Surface Laptop and Surface Pro offerings. But inconsistent app compatibility remained the biggest hurdle to running Windows on Arm. (It forced me to use the watered-down Adobe Lightroom app instead of Lightroom Classic, and that's a sin.) And playing games, one of Windows' greatest strengths against the walled garden of Apple's Macs, was basically a nonstarter.
Throughou …
I’m The Verge’s Senior Internet Typist, ask me anything while Nilay’s away!
Hello from the dead week of the year, when all sane people have logged off to spend time with their families. This is when I typically write at least one deeply weird post while I'm working over the holiday. One time I got left alone on New Year's Day and posted about cats all day and people got very mad! No one let me run the site alone anymore after that.
I'm supposed to give you some inkling of what I am willing to talk about but even I don't know what my beat is anymore. I am somehow our business reporter, our in-house media critic, our heavy metal expert, our long-running (and long-suffering) Elon Musk personality disorder specialist, …
Google Photos is coming to Samsung TVs in 2026
Google Photos will finally be available on TVs next year, starting with an upcoming integration for Samsung TVs. Samsung announced that the planned integration will "seamlessly bring the photos people capture on their phones to Samsung TVs, where they can appear in a larger, cinematic format," and that it wants Google Photos to be "deeply woven into the TV experience."
There currently isn't a native TV app for Google Photos, even on the company's own Google TV platform, though Samsung's announcement doesn't specify that this new integration will be launching as a dedicated app. Samsung says it's first aiming to bring a Memories feature that …