CES saw only a very minor update to the Frame family, with the mainline adding 75-, 85-, and 98-inch models, and the Frame Pro now coming in a smaller 55-inch size. Oddly, only two of the seven mainline Frame models will support the One Connect Box — the 43- and 50-inch.
Rather than science and the modern world, the new channel looks back and tells stories from our past. The first episode is the fascinating tale of Zheng Yi Sao, the Pirate Queen of China. The art style is also quite different, more painterly. You can watch the first episode below.
Matt Damon and Ben Affleck went on the Joe Rogan Experience to promote their new film The Rip, and ended up sharing some very depressing details about Netflix’s love of repeated exposition dumps and its approach to filmmaking in this age of constant distraction. As Variety reports:
“The standard way to make an action movie that we learned was, you usually have three set pieces. One in the first act, one in the second, one in the third,” Damon explained. “You spend most of your money on that one in the third act. That’s your finale. And now they’re like, ‘Can we get a big one in the first five minutes? We want people to stay. And it wouldn’t be terrible if you reiterated the plot three or four times in the dialogue because people are on their phones while they’re watching.’”
We’ve been promised an Atari-themed hotel for six years now. The project is moving forward and looking for fans to invest in a Phoenix, Arizona, location. But there won’t be a Vegas outpost. Spokesperson Sara Collins told the Las Vegas Sun plans were “explored” in 2020 and 2021, but nothing came of it.
[Las Vegas Sun]
One year on Linux, two distros, a few tears, four desktop environments, and zero regrets about leaving Windows.
Mark Davis, an independent running for the District 16 House seat in Florida, picked up the domain and pointed it to the department, explaining on X that “the GOP went full fascist and the democrat establishment still won’t name it.” He’s hoping to capture some of the growing furor over ICE’s increasingly aggressive tactics after several high-profile shootings.
HBO’s new spinoff prequel takes a humorous look at the grimy lives of Westeros’ smallfolk.
8
Verge Score
An all-in-one Google TV projector with big battery life for entertainment anywhere you go.
Ryan Payton confirmed to The Verge that he was impacted by this week’s job cuts affecting Meta’s Reality Labs division.
Aftermath previously reported that Camouflaj studio heads had been let go and that the developer is now just “a handful of employees” working on “the new user experience for upcoming hardware.”
”In the United States, the new moto watch in PANTONE Volcanic Ash will be available for pre-order at motorola.com on January 22 (MSRP: $149.99),” Motorola spokesperson Brendan Hall tells The Verge. “The device will officially go on-sale on January 28.”
The watch was announced during CES. At the time, Motorola didn’t share the price.
If you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement.
Three years after being caught off guard by ChatGPT, Gemini appears to have everything it needs to take down OpenAI and everyone else.
“The avalanche of reports detailing this material — at times depicting women and children engaged in sexual activity — is shocking and, as my office has determined, potentially illegal,” Attorney General Rob Bonta says. The state has also opened an investigation into xAI.
[State of California - Department of Justice - Office of the Attorney General]
Kathleen Kennedy tells Deadline she’s excited and “interested in exploring using those tools in responsible ways”:
I’m not saying that it impacts every single story you’re going to tell in cinema, but certainly for big tentpole stories where you’re trying to world-build and create images people haven’t seen before, I really believe this technology is going to do that.
The whole interview’s a good read, but she’s wrong that ILM created the first CG shot in a movie with Young Sherlock Holmes. It was groundbreaking, but Tron, The Last Starfighter, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Star Trek II, Westworld, and even 1958’s Vertigo all had CG earlier.
TikTok will roll out new age detection technology in Europe that uses profile information, posts, and “behavioral signals” to guess if a user is under 13, then flags suspected accounts for moderators to review, reports Reuters.
Those red screens contributed to the Virtual Boy being one of Nintendo’s biggest failures, but with a high-speed camera running at up to 1,750,000 fps, The Slow Mo Guys have shared a fascinating look at how the console produced 3D images using two thin strips of red LEDs and moving mirrors.
Emojipedia has a fascinating article about the convergence of emoji designs across platforms (generally toward Apple’s designs) from 2018-2026. “Across most major platforms, the risk of sending one emoji and unintentionally conveying another meaning has been dramatically reduced, thanks to years of incremental, often quiet, design alignment,” Emojipedia’s Keith Broni says.
[Emojipedia - The Latest Emoji News]
A group led by the first administrator of the US Digital Service, which was changed into the Department of Government Efficiency, is working on a plan to help a future Democratic administration restore what DOGE dismantled. The group, Tech Viaduct, is crafting executive actions to be enacted on day one.
“Google traffic from organic search to over 2,500 sites was down by a third (33%) globally between Nov 2024 and Nov 2025 and by 38% in the United States,” according to Chartbeat data included in a report from the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism.
[Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism]
From window shopping and browsing to reviews and recommendations, retailers and tech companies envision a future filled with artificial intelligence — whether shoppers want it or not.
