Skip to main content
The VergeThe Verge logo.
The VergeThe Verge logo.
Oh, you think the government will regulate Kalshi and Polymarket? Wanna bet?

The CFTC insists it’s the sole authority on prediction markets — but can the agency police insider trading?

Elizabeth Lopatto

Today’s Storystream

Feed refreshed 16 seconds ago

Smart home struggles

T.C. Sottek
T.C. Sottek
GoldenEye, she found my weakness.

I never knew I needed a full live concert of the original soundtrack from 1997’s GoldenEye 64, but now I can’t live without it. I wish I had seen Cor64 perform this live at LA’s Pauhaus, but the next best thing is watching it on YouTube:

Jay Peters
Jay Peters
BMW’s new i3 is “more or less the successor of the i4.”

That’s according to BMW SVP Bernd Körber, speaking to Motor1.com. BMW announced the new i3 EV on Wednesday, but it appears that the i4 won’t be around much longer.

Jay Peters
Jay Peters
Tomb Raider developer Crystal Dynamics is laying off staff — again.

The studio, which is working on a remake of the first game and a new title and has announced a few sets of cuts in the past 12 months, is laying off 20 staffers, as reported by Kotaku.

Crystal Dynamics says it “remains fully committed to the future development of our already announced Tomb Raider titles.”

Jay Peters
Jay Peters
Perplexity has released its Comet browser on iOS.

The iOS launch for the AI-powered browser follows an Android release in November.

Why Project Hail Mary’s creators were ‘scared’ about making the sci-fi adaptation

Author Andy Weir and screenwriter Drew Goddard talk about turning the book into a cinematic experience.

Andrew Webster
Charles Pulliam-Moore
Charles Pulliam-Moore
An AI-generated Val Kilmer will star in a new movie.

Though Val Kilmer — who died last December — was too sick to actually shoot any scenes after being cast in writer / director Coerte Voorhees’ upcoming film As Deep As The Grave, Variety reports that Kilmer’s estate has agreed to let an AI-generated facsimile of the actor appear in the movie.

This is not a fly uploaded to a computer

A lot of buzz, but not much evidence.

Robert Hart
Jay Peters
Jay Peters
iOS 26.4 apparently makes the keyboard more accurate when you’re typing fast.

According to 9to5Mac:

iOS 26.4 specifically focuses on fixing a bug where characters on the keyboard appeared as if they were tapped, but were not actually inserted. Those missing characters then affected how Apple’s Auto-Correction feature was able to predict what you actually meant to type.

Apple has released a release candidate of the update, indicating it should launch publicly soon.

The best deals on MacBooks right nowThe best deals on MacBooks right now
Cameron Faulkner and Sheena Vasani
Jay Peters
Jay Peters
Google is trying to make “vibe design” happen.

In a post announcing some updates coming to Stitch, Google’s AI coding tool for UI design, the company is encouraging users to “vibe design,” including with new voice capabilities. I’m so tired of vibing.

Live-service games are a mess

These are not normal video games.

Andrew Webster
Terrence O'Brien
Terrence O'Brien
How can I make my own kalimba of doom?

Experimental musician and YouTuber Hainbach posted a clip on social media using a humble kalimba to create epic sounds that would make Hans Zimmer jealous. Now he’s explained how to recreate the Earth-shaking drones, but fair warning, it calls for some pretty obscure and expensive gear.

If you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement.

MacBook Neo review: the Mac for the masses

9

Verge Score

iPhone chip, no problem.

Antonio G. Di Benedetto
The best AirPods deals you can get right nowThe best AirPods deals you can get right now
Brandon Widder and Sheena Vasani
Jay Peters
Jay Peters
iii III.

The third iteration of the Triple-i Initiative Showcase, a showcase that’s dedicated to indie game news, will air on April 9th at 12PM ET. It will feature “45 minutes of back-to-back trailers.”

Weird Nintendo never went awayWeird Nintendo never went away
Andrew Webster
Emma Roth
Emma Roth
SwiftKey will soon require a Microsoft account to save your typing info.

Starting May 31st, 2026, the Microsoft-owned SwiftKey will stop supporting Google and Apple accounts, according to Windows Central. Though you don’t need an account to use SwiftKey on its own, you’ll need to sign in with Microsoft to continue syncing your most-used words across devices and receive personalized typing suggestions.

Jay Peters
Jay Peters
Xbox has a serious branding problem.

Kiln launches on April 23 for Xbox Series X|S, Xbox on PC, Xbox Cloud, PlayStation 5, Steam, and with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. It will be an Xbox Play Anywhere title, and arrive Handheld Optimized.

Elizabeth Lopatto
Elizabeth Lopatto
Rick Ellis, a TV reporter, says he turned down prediction market money.

Ellis says he was offered money to use a prediction market’s odds to write “a couple of stories each week,” and it was enough money that it was hard to turn down.“Taking money from a Polymarket to hype their gambling odds on a TV show is ethically the same as taking money from a network to write positive things about their programming.,” he wrote.

Jay Peters
Jay Peters
Double Fine’s new pot-breaking party game launches on April 23rd.

The new game, Kiln, will also get an open beta on Steam from April 9th through April 11th, according to an Xbox Wire post. It looks like a smashing good time.

Elizabeth Lopatto
Elizabeth Lopatto
This is just to celebrate a hero of the First Amendment, Afroman.

For those of you not familiar, Afroman was raided by the police and then made two music videos (“Will You Help Me Repair My Door“ and ”Lemon Pound Cake”) about it. The officers sued him for using surveillance footage of their raid in the videos. On cross-examination during the trial, Afroman gave a stirring speech on the importance of the First Amendment. He’s also released another video, “Battle Hymn of the Police Whistleblower.”

If you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement.

Jay Peters
Jay Peters
A tiny tease about Silksong’s big expansion.

Team Cherry released a new patch for Hollow Knight: Silksong this week, and in the update notes, the developers say that it is “intended as the last significant update before Silksong’s upcoming major expansion: Sea of Sorrow.” The free expansion is set to launch sometime in 2026.

Jay Peters
Jay Peters
Seems like the new Xbox boss wants to earn some goodwill.

Microsoft announced some new features in testing for Xbox Insiders today, including settings to manage Quick Resume per game and more groups on the home screen, and newly-appointed Microsoft gaming CEO Asha Sharma says work started on the updates just “two weeks ago.”

Jay Peters
Jay Peters
Saros looks like another showcase game for Sony’s DualSense controller.

Housemarque’s previous game, Returnal, used the DualSense’s haptic feedback and adaptive triggers to great effect, and Saros will take advantage of those features too, as shown in a new trailer. The game is set to launch on April 30th.

Hayden Field
Hayden Field
The Pentagon filed a rebuttal to Anthropic’s lawsuit.

Anthropic filed a lawsuit earlier this month over its “supply chain risk” designation, but the Department of Defense held firm in a new court filing, alleging that the company could ostensibly “attempt to disable its technology or preemptively alter the behavior of its model either before or during ongoing warfighting operations” in the event it felt its red lines were “being crossed.” The filing added that the Pentagon “deemed that an unacceptable risk to national security.”

New court filing

[CourtListener]

Andrew J. Hawkins
Andrew J. Hawkins
Uber’s former head of self-driving almost died using Tesla’s FSD.

Raffi Krikorian, who now serves as Mozilla’s CTO, writes in The Atlantic that he’s rethinking the relationship between humans and machines after a near death experience in his Tesla.

Full Self-Driving works almost all of the time—Tesla’s fleet of cars with the technology logs millions of miles between serious incidents, by the company’s count. And that’s the problem: We are asking humans to supervise systems designed to make supervision feel pointless. A machine that constantly fails keeps you sharp. A machine that works perfectly needs no oversight. But a machine that works almost perfectly? That’s where the danger lies.

Emma Roth
Emma Roth
Wikigacha.

A new digital trading card game called Wikigacha lets you open packs of Wikipedia articles and have them battle each other. (My Pyramid of Neferirkare card lost against the Great Sea Interconnector, in case you were wondering.)

The game isn’t affiliated with the Wikimedia Foundation, but it could be a whole new way to fall down Wikipedia rabbit holes.

Stevie Bonifield
Stevie Bonifield
Meta’s NYC store is here to stay.

The Tardis-blue Meta Lab NYC store on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan is no longer a pop-up shop. Meta announced on Wednesday that the skateboarding-themed glasses store is now a “permanent flagship location,” where it will continue selling its AI smart glasses and Meta Quest headsets.

The interior of Meta’s NYC flagship store
The exterior of Meta’s NYC flagship store
1/2Image: Meta
Follow topics and authors on stories you like to see related articles here. Or try one of these:
* Free to read
Already a Member? Sign In
X
Wait 
 Seconds