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Walmart is finally adding Apple Pay and Google Pay

21 August 2026 at 19:01
A Walmart storefront

Walmart will soon allow you to pay for your items with Google Pay or Apple Pay. In an announcement on Friday, Walmart says it's going to bring tap-to-pay capabilities to "select" Walmart and Sam's Club locations starting August 24th, before rolling out support to all US stores by the end of 2026 and gas stations by mid-2027.

This launch has been a long time coming, as Walmart was one of the last major retailers not to support Apple Pay or Google Pay. The retail giant even backed the launch of the short-lived CurrentC mobile payment service before rolling out Walmart Pay in 2016, which lets you quickly check out with a QR code at its stores. …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Why does it seem like food recalls are out of control this year?

21 August 2026 at 16:45
Eggs on a grocery store shelf

Just weeks after Taylor Farms issued a recall of its iceberg lettuce amid a massive cyclospora outbreak, the Food and Drug Administration recalled more than one million eggs that may be contaminated with salmonella. The eggs, which come from Midwest Poultry Services, were distributed to Kroger and smaller grocery stores across the South and Southwest US. Then, Taylor Farms pulled more than a dozen of its products containing jalapeΓ±os - including guacamole, salsa, taco dip, and more - from store shelves after its supplier, Coast Citrus Distributors, recalled fresh peppers due to salmonella contamination.

The list of major recalls that occurr …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Google Discover is getting an AI chatbot-tuned feed

20 August 2026 at 23:50
A screenshot of Google Discover’s AI feed customization feature

Google will soon allow you to customize your Discover feed by describing what you want to see. The new feature, rolling out to the Google app in the "coming days," will use AI to automatically tweak your feed and "remember" your preferences for future visits.

You'll find the option within the three-dot menu on your Discover feed. As shown in a video shared by Google, tapping the feature will open a chatbot-style interface, where you'll be able to describe your preferences. The chatbot will confirm your choices and lay out the types of content it will prioritize, but you'll also have the option to add more information if it doesn't get it qu …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Amazon’s drone deliveries are landing in pools and ponds

20 August 2026 at 16:59
An Amazon drone over a swimming pool

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 …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Watch Valve set up the Steam Frame in its own leaked videos

19 August 2026 at 20:16
A screenshot from a leaked Steam Frame video

Valve just leaked several new videos showing the Steam Frame's unboxing, setup process, and various accessories. The videos apparently appeared on the ARM Steam client following an update, but they were "quickly pulled after that," according to the Steam Hardware Updates account on X.

The Steam Frame is Valve's virtual-reality headset that can stream games from a PC or play them locally. Valve first took the wraps off the headset last year, and it offers LCD screens with 2160 x 2160 resolution per eye, a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip, and an up to 110-degree field of view. But these leaked videos offer a closer look at what it might be like to un …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Meta AI is getting a Mac app

19 August 2026 at 19:00
A screenshot of Meta AI’s Mac app
Meta AI can create content and make suggestions based on what it β€œsees” on your screen. | Image: Meta

Meta is launching a new Mac app dedicated to its AI chatbot. In an announcement on Wednesday, Meta says you can share your window with its AI chatbot, which can provide suggestions, answer questions, or create content based on what's on your screen. Meta AI on the Mac also supports dictation across all apps.

The launch comes as Meta makes its AI chatbot more like a productivity-focused assistant to better compete with its AI rivals - many of which already have desktop apps. You can share your window with Google's Gemini AI app, while OpenAI's ChatGPT and Anthropic's Claude apps take things a step further by allowing the chatbots to take con …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Amazon Fire TV devices are getting a free Alexa Plus upgrade

19 August 2026 at 17:00
Alexa Plus on a Fire TV

Amazon is bringing Alexa Plus to Fire TV device owners in the US for free. Starting today, users in the US with an Amazon Fire TV Stick, Fire TV Cube, Amazon Ember smart TV, or other TV with Alexa Plus built in, including those from Panasonic and Hisense, will get access to the more conversational AI assistant.

Previously, Amazon made Alexa Plus available to Fire TV customers with a Prime or Alexa Plus subscription. But now, everyone will get access to Alexa Plus, which can provide movie recommendations based on your mood, help you jump to specific scenes, and answer questions about what you're seeing on-screen. It can also connect to your …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Robin Williams’ Instagram account brought back to fight β€˜AI abuse’

18 August 2026 at 21:48
A photo of Robin Williams from 2013

Robin Williams' children are taking over their father's Instagram account after his daughter spoke out against the use of his AI likeness, as reported earlier by The Wrap. In a post on Tuesday, Zak, Zelda, and Cody Williams write that they want the late actor's Instagram profile to be a "safe, trusted place where the stories, photos, videos, and memories shared reflect his legacy with authenticity, warmth, and care."

A story posted to Zelda Williams' own Instagram account expands on the decision to bring back her father's profile, saying that it's meant to help combat "rampant AI abuse," according to The Wrap:

I'm sorry if anyone found Da …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Apple squashes EU beef with new App Store rules

18 August 2026 at 18:48
The Apple logo merged with the European Union flag

Apple is once again overhauling App Store rules in the European Union, which the company says will resolve its "disagreements with the Commission over business terms and alternative distribution." As part of the changes, every developer that distributes apps will be moved to a single set of business terms, and digital transactions for apps distributed outside of the App Store will be subject to a Core Technology Commission fee of 5 percent.

The new terms go into effect on October 1st. They will include a 26 percent commission for App Store apps that use Apple's in-app purchase system, or a 20 percent fee for developers using alternate payme …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Peacock is raising prices by up to $3

18 August 2026 at 16:11
A graphic showing Peacock’s logo in a beige circle surrounded by other colorful circles

Peacock is raising prices across its streaming plans once again, with the company's cheapest ad-supported Select tier going from $7.99 to $8.99 / month, as reported earlier by Variety. The Premium plan with ads is increasing from $10.99 to $12.99 / month, while the ad-free Premium Plus plan is getting the biggest hike, jumping from $16.99 to $19.99 / month.

The price change goes into effect on August 18th for new or returning subscribers, and affects the streamer's annual plans as well. Existing subscribers will see the price change on their next billing date on or after September 17th. Peacock has steadily hiked its prices over the past fe …

Read the full story at The Verge.

ABC sues the FCC over Trump and Carr’s campaign of threats

18 August 2026 at 15:27
An illustration of FCC chairman Brendan Carr

ABC is suing the Federal Communications Commission over claims the agency "waged a retaliatory campaign" against its networks over the content they broadcast. In a lawsuit filed in federal court on Tuesday, ABC and its parent company Disney accuse the FCC of "punishing ABC for its speech" by threatening its broadcast licenses.

It's the latest escalation in the dispute between ABC and the Trump administration, which has been critical of the network's political coverage - especially by late-night host Jimmy Kimmel and The View. The FCC opened an investigation into The View's airtime of political candidates in February and ordered ABC stations …

Read the full story at The Verge.

How I turned my fish tank high tech

18 August 2026 at 13:15
Digital aquarium supplies on a background of fish scales.

When I was a kid, I owned two goldfish that eventually outgrew the size of their tank. At the time, I didn't realize just how much actually goes into having fish and keeping them healthy. I've learned a lot over the past couple of years while keeping nano fish - a group of five celestial pearl danios and four corydoras habrosus - along with some live plants.

After filling up a 10-gallon tank with water and adding a filter, I was eager to add my first fish, but I soon found out that the tank must run without fish for several weeks to establish beneficial bacteria and create a stable underwater environment. But the work doesn't stop there. Ca …

Read the full story at The Verge.

ABC’s livestreamed news show is powered by trending topics

17 August 2026 at 22:59
A graphic showing the ABC News Live β€œSearched” logo

ABC News has officially introduced Searched, a livestreamed show that highlights stories people are discussing on social media and searching on the web, as reported earlier by Variety. Though the network just announced the show now, Searched began airing on the ABC News Live streaming channel in April, which appears on both Disney Plus and Hulu.

In the press release, ABC News says Searched "pulls real-time data from the top search engines and social media platforms to provide topical news for the audience." A recent episode of Searched highlighted an Illinois Powerball winner, NBA star Russell Westbrook's retirement, and Tropical Storm Lala …

Read the full story at The Verge.

YouTube is changing how it counts views to give the numbers a boost

17 August 2026 at 19:13
An image showing the YouTube logo

YouTube will soon count a view as soon as a video starts to play, lining up with the system used by Instagram, TikTok, and its Shorts videos. The update will go into effect on August 24th, "which means creators will likely see their total view counts increase faster moving forward," the platform says.

Instagram and TikTok similarly add a view to a video when it starts to play or replay, while X counts a view when a user watches a video for at least two seconds. YouTube applied Instagram and TikTok's view-counting method to Shorts last year.

YouTube says it's going to keep its original view-counting method under an "engaged views" metric in …

Read the full story at The Verge.

You can now turn off Google Gemini’s visible watermarks

14 August 2026 at 18:39
Vector illustration of the Google Gemini logo

Google will now allow you to remove visible watermarks from the images, videos, and music made with AI tools. With the update, you can toggle off a new "Media watermark" setting in Gemini and Google's AI video generator, Flow.

When toggled off, Google will remove the "sparkle" watermark that appears in the bottom-right corner of content generated with the company's Nano Banana and Omni models. Though visible watermarks are now optional, AI-generated content will have invisible SynthID watermarks and C2PA metadata embedded in the background, according to Josh Woodward, the vice president of Google Labs, Gemini, and AI Studio. That means you …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Microsoft’s Clippy-like Mico character is no longer the face of Copilot

13 August 2026 at 23:42
An image of Mico
Mico is headed to Learn Live. | Image: Microsoft

Microsoft Copilot will no longer show its emotive yellow blob, Mico, when you use the chatbot's voice mode. In a support page, Microsoft says it's going to move Mico to its Learn Live platform, where the avatar will have "more to react to," as reported earlier by GeekWire.

Mico launched in Copilot's voice mode last October, with Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman pitching the avatar as a way to give the chatbot an "identity." The blob would react to what you say in real-time, complete with facial expressions and animations.

Mico joins the long list of virtual helpers that Microsoft has retired over the years, like Clippy, Cortana, and Rover …

Read the full story at The Verge.

The Trump admin will start letting private firms launch international cyberattacks

13 August 2026 at 20:56
A matrix of green binary code flows down in the background of a laptop computer with a green-hued image of the US Capitol building

The Trump administration is launching a new program that will allow private firms to perform cyberattacks against foreign criminals, as reported earlier by Bloomberg. The private firms would operate "under the control and oversight" of the federal government, giving them permission to surveil and disrupt criminal networks, according to a presidential memorandum published on Wednesday.

The Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security will oversee the private firms, which must meet requirements in "technical proficiency, proven performance of cyber operations, facility security," and more. Companies in the program must hold a bon …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Cats and dogs are missing meals after a popular smart feeder went down

12 August 2026 at 23:07
An image of Petlibro’s Granary 2 feeder
Petlibro’s Granary 2 feeder. | Image: Petlibro

A Petlibro outage is preventing its smart pet feeders and other devices from performing scheduled tasks, like dispensing food. The outage began on Tuesday, with users across Reddit reporting that their smart feeders, litter boxes, and water fountains have gone offline.

Though Petlibro maintains that "existing settings and schedules stored locally on your device will continue to operate as programmed," many users say that's not the case. Instead, some users report that Petlibro's RFID and Granary food dispensers are missing scheduled feedings due to the outage - a major problem for pet owners currently away from home. Some users say they've …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Google’s free streaming service now lets you pick shows and movies to watch

11 August 2026 at 20:35
An image of Google TV Freeplay

Google TV Freeplay, the company's free, ad-supported streaming service, now supports video on demand. Instead of tuning into Google TV Freeplay's selection of always-on channels, you can now choose from over 10,000 shows and movies to watch whenever you want.

The update introduces titles like Lady Bird, Seventeen Again, and Hell's Kitchen, according to Google's announcement. The company has also expanded its live TV lineup to include more than 300 channels dedicated to news, sports, reality TV, true crime, and more. Some of these new channels include World of Love Island, Yahoo! Sports Network, Bloomberg TV Plus, and The Martha Stewart Chan …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Made by Google 2026: all the Pixel news and announcements

11 August 2026 at 19:00
A graphic that says β€œMade by Google”

Google is gearing up to reveal a bunch of new Pixel devices on August 12th. A series of leaks leading up to the event suggest that the Pixel 11 lineup will come in an array of colors, with signs pointing to a built-in light coming to Pro models. Teasers from Google also indicate that it will show off a next-gen Pixel Fold alongside a Pixel Watch 5 in four different finishes. There might be a new Pixel Tag tracker as well.

Google may take the wraps off the new devices well ahead of its Made by Google livestream. On Google’s website, the countdown for preorders ends on August 12th at 10AM ET β€” eight hours before its event at 6PM ET. Comedian Trevor Noah will host this year’s show, featuring notable guests like NBA star Stephen Curry, podcaster Alex Cooper, Indian cricketer Shubman Gill, and Japanese actress Ayami Nakajo. We’ll be live blogging the event, so stay tuned!

Follow along for all the latest news about Google’s Pixel devices.

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