This is The Stepback, a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more on the EV struggle, follow Andrew J. Hawkins. The Stepback arrives in our subscribers’ inboxes at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepback here. How it started Apologies to the Toyota Prius, but the first hybrid vehicle…
A site called PSprices has been tracking prices on Sony’s digital game store and noticed something unusual: some games were being offered at different prices to different users. What’s more, those offers are tracked in the PlayStation API with experiment identifiers like IPT_PILOT and IPT_OPR_TESTING. Dynamic pricing is nothing new and is used across a…
This has been a week to remember here at The Verge. MWC 2026 in Barcelona lead straight into Apple’s week of product announcements. There was truly something for everyone, whether you’ve been wanting a company to make a phone that can start fires, or had your fingers crossed for a brand-new MacBook model that costs…
Walmart bought Vizio in 2024, and now it’s taking the next steps to formally fold the TV maker into itself by phasing out Vizio accounts. Now, when you purchase a new Vizio TV, you’ll be asked to sign in or create a Walmart account. Customers will have the option to merge their Vizio account, if…
There are a lot of games that try to emulate The Legend of Zelda, but few that manage to capture that spirit in such a small, concise package as Ratcheteer DX. The postapocalyptic game only takes a few hours to complete, but over that span it nails the classic Zelda vibe almost perfectly, offering a…
The woman at the door wore a plush lobster headdress. She sat in the front hallway of a multistory event venue in Manhattan, beside a bundle of wristbands. If she granted you one, the world of ClawCon beckoned behind her – full of vibey pink and purple lighting, lobster claw headbands, multicolored name tags, sponsor…
Nintendo of America is suing the US government over President Trump’s tariffs and is demanding a “prompt refund, with interest” of any duties that it has paid, according to a complaint filed in the US Court of International Trade, as reported previously by Aftermath. The Supreme Court ruled last month that Trump’s use of the…
Co-director Daniel Roher. | Image: Focus Features We are in the thick of a massive push to incorporate generative AI into almost every aspect of our lives, but it is still easy to be confused about what it is and how it works. It doesn’t help that many of gen AI’s proponents and detractors both…
In case you missed it, Apple announced a host of new devices this week, including both a new phone and a cheaper laptop. It also unveiled the M4-powered iPad Air, which is already receiving a preorder discount ahead of its March 11th debut. Right now, the 128GB / Wi-Fi model is available at Amazon, Best…
Where’s the Trump phone? We’re going to keep talking about it every week. We’ve reached out, as usual, to ask about the Trump phone’s whereabouts. This time, we tried, and failed, to find it at the world’s biggest mobile trade show. This week Barcelona was taken over by the tech industry as Mobile World Congress…
