A Star is born
A Star is born Two hours before one of the most important live events in Netflix’s history, LA’s sprawling CBS Radford Studio Center is abuzz with the strangest combination of things. As I walk through one cavernous soundstage on a Tuesday afternoon, I hear multiple people warming up their voices to sing. I pass a […]
How to un-Big Tech your online life
How to un-Big Tech your online life Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 116, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome, happy National Ferris Wheel Day to all those who celebrate, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.) This week, […]
YouTube TV’s sports-focused package will cost $64.99 / month
YouTube TV's sports-focused package will cost $64.99 / month YouTube TV has shared more details about the custom channel packages it will start rolling out this week. The new packages are cheaper than YouTube TV’s standard $82.99 / month plan, and will span sports, entertainment, and news. Here’s a breakdown of each package: Sports Plan […]
Super Bowl LX ads: all AI everything
Super Bowl LX ads: all AI everything Super Bowl LX is nearly here, with the Seattle Seahawks taking on the New England Patriots. While Bad Bunny will be the star of the halftime show, AI could be the star of the commercial breaks, much like crypto was a few years ago. Last year’s Super Bowl […]
YouTube Music starts putting lyrics behind a paywall
YouTube Music starts putting lyrics behind a paywall Free YouTube Music accounts are now seeing their access to lyrics limited, according to multiple reports. Google started testing lyrics as an exclusive feature for Premium users in September, but it appears that it’s now receiving a wider rollout. It seems that free users will be limited […]
Republicans attack ‘woke’ Netflix — and ignore YouTube
Republicans attack 'woke' Netflix — and ignore YouTube When Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos entered the Senate office building on Tuesday, he got thrown a curveball. What started as a standard antitrust hearing relating to the Warner Bros. merger quickly devolved into a performative Republican attack about the spread of “woke” ideology on the streaming service. […]
Game consoles built streaming — until it outgrew them
Game consoles built streaming — until it outgrew them This is Lowpass by Janko Roettgers, a newsletter on the ever-evolving intersection of tech and entertainment, syndicated just for The Verge subscribers once a week. It’s been a rough couple of days for gamers who also love to binge their favorite TV shows with their consoles: […]
Apple TV details its 2026 streaming lineup with big list of announcements
Apple TV details its 2026 streaming lineup with big list of announcements Keanu Reeves in Outcome. | Image: Apple For much of its existence, Apple’s streaming service has seemed intent to focus on quality over quantity, offering some great shows but often feeling barren in comparison to competitors like Netflix and Disney. But as Apple […]
Everyone is stealing TV
Everyone is stealing TV Walk the rows of the farmers market in a small, nondescript Texas town about an hour away from Austin, and you might stumble across something unexpected: In between booths selling fresh, local pickles and pies, there’s a table piled high with generic-looking streaming boxes, promising free access to NFL games, UFC […]
Millions of books died so Claude could live
Millions of books died so Claude could live When ChatGPT launched, in November of 2022, it started a race that almost immediately consumed the tech industry. OpenAI didn’t invent the concept of AI, but most of the state-of-the-art technology was confined to research labs at companies and institutions around the world. Then, suddenly, it was […]