This is Optimizer, a weekly newsletter sent every Friday from Verge senior reviewer Victoria Song that dissects and discusses the latest gizmos and potions that swear they’re going to change your life. Opt in for Optimizer here. In 2017, I was at rock bottom. My dad’s health was rapidly failing; my relationship with my mom […]
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OpenAI has closed another round of funding, totalling $110 billion being newly committed to the maker of ChatGPT, which it says has more than 900 million weekly active users and over 50 million consumer subscribers. Amazon is investing $50 billion and striking a deal that includes plans for custom models and more. Nvidia and SoftBank […]
Zomato co-founder Deepinder Goyal’s new wearable startup Temple has raised $54 million in a friends-and-family round at a post-money valuation of about $190 million.
The new funding consists of a $50 billion investment from Amazon as well as $30 billion each from Nvidia and SoftBank, against a $730 billion valuation.
Since I saw the TCL X11L SQD-Mini LED TV at a pre-CES event in December, I’ve been eager to get a close look at it in my living room. At first glance, the TV impressed me enough that I named it the best TV of CES 2026. From the moment I completed Google TV setup […]
IDC says phone makers will ship only 1.12 billion smartphones as compared to 1.26 billion last year.
It’s that time of year: A whole bunch of Pokémon news is incoming. February 27th is the date the franchise first debuted, and The Pokémon Company uses it as a chance to outline its plans in a Pokémon Presents showcase. Last year’s event included the announcement of Pokémon Champions, and the 2026 edition should be […]
After years of appeals, Google has finally won approval to export high-precision geographic information out of South Korea and provide proper Google Maps services in the country, including walking and real-time driving directions.
The tranche of Jeffrey Epstein emails and files released on January 30th tie the infamous pedophile, sex trafficker, and influence peddler to elite figures across the tech industry. The world of cryptocurrency is no exception. Epstein’s connections are intriguing, disturbing – and worth mapping closely. With his interest first piqued as early as 2011, Epstein […]