The new Siri was supposed to make the iPhone 16 a huge upgrade. It didn’t.
The onrushing AI era was supposed to create boom times for great gadgets. Not long ago, analysts were predicting that Apple Intelligence would start a âsupercycleâ of smartphone upgrades, with tons of new AI features compelling people to buy them. Amazon and Google and others were explaining how their ecosystems of devices would make computing seamless, natural, and personal. Startups were flooding the market with ChatGPT-powered gadgets, so youâd never be out of touch. AI was going to make every gadget great, and every gadget was going to change to embrace the AI world.
Since taking out that loan from the Carlyle Group and facing increasing competition from Chinese manufacturers, iRobot has not found a way to become profitable again and says it expects to incur losses for “the foreseeable future.” With no clear path to paying off the debt, the future looks bleak for the inventor of the robot vacuum.
In its quarterly financial report published March 12, the company, which saw its revenue in the U.S. drop by 47 percent in the fourth quarter, said it had “initiated a formal strategic review to evaluate a broad range of alternatives, including, but not limited to, exploring a potential sale or strategic transaction and refinancing our debt.”
If its new line of products is not a success, which the report notes is entirely possible due to “consumer demand, competition, macroeconomics conditions and tariff policies,” and no other recourse is found to pay off its debt, iRobot says the company may be unable to continue beyond 12 months.
For every memory seared into my brain, there are thousands of others I either canât retain or trust. I spent the last eight months forgetting to fix a homeowner association (HOA) violation despite numerous reminder emails. My cousins and I have been trapped in our own version of Akira Kurosawaâs Rashomon over who said what at grandmaâs funeral. Cursed with the working memory of a goldfish, Iâve apologized dozens of times to everyone for failing to do the things I said I would.
These are the problems that Bee, a $50 AI wearable, aims to solve.
Unlike the Rabbit R1 or the Humane AI Pin, Bee isnât a flashy gizmo designed to replace your smartphone. Instead, it looks like a 2015-era Fitbit and is intended to be your AI âmemory.â You strap it onto your wrist or clip it onto your shirt. Itâll then listen to all your conversations. Those conversations get turned into transcripts, though no audio is saved in the process. Depending on your comfort level, you can permit it to scan through your emails, contacts, location, reminders, photos, and calendar events. Every so often, itâll summarize pertinent takeaways, suggest to-do items, and create a searchable âhistoryâ …
Rivian is pushing a software update to its second-generation vehicles that includes a hands-free highway driving feature, the company said on Tuesday.
It was a notable announcement, considering the company has lagged behind its competitors in introducing partially automated driving features similar to Tesla’s Autopilot and General Motors’ Super Cruise.
The update enables drivers to take their hands off the steering wheel on “compatible highways,” covering 135,000 miles of road in the US and Canada. The company says it’s planning for a “significant” expansion in 2026, including “off-highway roads.”
Rivian said that the new Enhanced Highway Assist feature controls “steering, acceleration, and braking to make driving a less stressful and more comfortable experience—so you arrive at your destination feeling refreshed.” Drivers will need to keep their eyes on the road while using the new hands-free system. An infrared camera embedded in the rearview mirror will track eye movements and monitor driver attention. If the driver’s gaze strays from the road too long, the system will issue a series of warnings before disengaging.
Rivian plans on upgrading its driver-assist system further next year with the addition of a hands-off, eyes-off feature. In certain situations, such as low-speed stop-and-go traffic, drivers would not need to pay attention to the road. This type of driving, which is called Level 3 automation, is still very rare in the auto world, with most companies’ plans constrained by local regulations and liability concerns. Some experts have argued that Level 3 systems can be dangerous given the need for drivers to stay attentive despite the vehicle performing most of the driving tasks.
Like other automakers, Rivian sees partial automation more as a convenience feature than explicitly about safety. To be sure, drivers are adept at skirting the rules that govern driver-assist systems, according to a recent study conducted by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. And when a car is traveling at much higher speeds than before, all it takes is a split second for something to go wrong.
Rivian also announced a new Rally drive mode for dual-motor vehicles. The mode is available when Off-Road Mode is selected and “delivers heightened throttle response and crisper steering on almost any terrain, including ice, mud, dirt, or asphalt,” the company says.
Also for dual-motor Rivian owners, the company is offering an over-the-air performance update for a one-time fee of $5,000. “The Performance Upgrade unlocks 665 horsepower and 829 lb.-ft. of torque, and introduces three new drive modes—Sport, Rally and Soft Sand—in addition to All-Purpose, All-Terrain, and Snow modes,” the company says.
Rivian included a number of lifestyle fixes as part of the update, such as making it easier to swap wheel sizes, sideview mirrors that automatically tilt down when parallel parking, and the ability to close the charge port door from the mobile app.
Niantic Labs has announced that it’s selling its video game division to Saudi Arabia-owned mobile developer Scopely for $3.5 billion after struggling to replicate the success of Pokémon Go across its other AR games. The newly inked agreement includes Niantic’s Pokémon Go, Monster Hunter Now, and Pikmin Bloom mobile gaming titles.
“Niantic games have always been a bridge to connect people and inspire exploration, and I am confident they will continue to do both as part of Scopely,” said Niantic CEO John Hanke. “I firmly believe this partnership is great for our players and is the best way to ensure that our games have the long-term support and investment needed to be ‘forever games’ that will endure for future generations.”
The acquisition is subject to regulatory approval and other closing conditions. Should the deal go through, it will also bring Niantic’s social companion apps for Pokémon Go — Campfire and Wayfarer — under Scopely ownership. Scopely says it will gain “Niantic’s entire team of exceptional gamemakers and category-leading games.” However, the Peridot and Ingress AR gaming titles, the latter of which is also supported by the Wayfarer mapping app, will remain under the ownership and development of Niantic Spatial.
Pokémon Go attracted more than 500 million players in its first year, but its popularity was impacted in 2020 when global covid lockdowns kept people inside their homes. The company has since canceled multiple projects and laid off at least 310 employees between 2022-2023 in an attempt to “weather the current challenges in the market.”
Today’s announcement is Saudi Arabia’s latest attempt to muscle its way into the gaming industry, having used its Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) to acquire stakes in Nintendo, Activision Blizzard, and EA. The PIF was also used to establish Esports and gaming company Savvy Games Group in 2021, which later acquired Monopoly Go! developer Scopely for $4.9 billion in 2023.
The announcement appears to be the 2025 “megadeal” that Scopely’s chief revenue officer Tim O’Brien teased last year, saying during a Q&A that it would involve “a scaled global franchise doing hopefully at least a billion dollars in revenue.” Niantic Labs doesn’t disclose its earnings to the public, but Scopely said in its announcement that Niantic’s gaming business drove $1 billion in revenue last year, and Pokémon Go alone is estimated to have brought in $7.9 billion in revenue since launching in 2016.
Google has now acknowledged the issues and “has been actively working on” a solution to fix them according to a new support page entry. “We’ve recently rolled out updates aimed at significantly improving media receiving performance,” said Google community manager Monika Y. “We’re hoping you’ll see a noticeable difference now. However, we also know that issues can be complex, and we’re committed to getting this right.”
Google hasn’t specified which media issues these Messages updates are addressing, but it’s likely making backend server changes as users aren’t required to download or install anything new. The fix also may not fully resolve the issues for everyone as Google is asking people to submit feedback if they’re “still seeing problems.” At least one impacted user has reportedly “noticed a difference recently in received RCS photos” since the updates started rolling out.
A little over a year after releasing two “open” Gemma AI models built from the same technology behind its Gemini AI, Google is updating the family with Gemma 3. According to the blog post, these models are intended for use by developers creating AI applications capable of running wherever they’re needed, on anything from a phone to a workstation with support for over 35 languages, as well as the ability to analyze text, images, and short videos.
The company claims that it’s the “world’s best single-accelerator model,” outperforming competition from Facebook’s Llama, DeepSeek, and OpenAI for performance on a host with a single GPU, as well as optimized capabilities for running on Nvidia’s GPUs and dedicated AI hardware. Gemma 3’s vision encoder is also upgraded, with support for high-res and non-square images, while the new ShieldGemma 2 image safety classifier is available for use to filter both image input and output for content classified as sexually explicit, dangerous, or violent.
Last year it was unclear how much interest there would be in a model like Gemma, however, the popularity of DeepSeek and others shows there is interest in AI tech with lower hardware requirements. Despite its claims of advanced capabilities, Google also says, “Gemma 3’s enhanced STEM performance prompted specific evaluations focused on its potential for misuse in creating harmful substances; their results indicate a low risk level.”
What exactly constitutes an “open” or “open source” AI model remains a topic of debate, and with Google’s Gemma, that has focused on the company’s license that restricts what people are allowed to use it for, which has not changed with this new release. Google is continuing to promote Gemma with Google Cloud credits, and the Gemma 3 Academic program will allow academic researchers to apply for $10,000 worth of credits to accelerate their research.
PayPal’s Honey browser extension has been lauded for years as an easy way to find coupons online. But some are calling it a “scam” after a deep dive from YouTuber MegaLag, who accused Honey of “stealing money from influencers.”
The video shines a light on Honey’s use of last-click attribution, an approach to online shopping referrals that gives credit for a sale to the owner of the last affiliate cookie in line before checkout. As MegaLag’s video tells it, Honey takes that credit by swapping its tracking cookie in for others’ when you interact with it.
The company has issued statements saying that it follows “industry rules and practices” like last-click attribution. But creators who may have missed out on money because of it aren’t happy. Some YouTube channels Legal Eagle and GamersNexus are now suing.
Below, you’ll find all our coverage of the controversy.
Google has updated its affiliate ads policy for Chrome extensions after creators accused PayPal’s popular Honey browser extension of being a “scam.”
Honey was accused of taking affiliate revenue from the same influencers it paid for promotion by using its Chrome extension to swap in its own affiliate link before you checked out. According to the updated Google policy posted today, this isn’t allowed in most cases:
Affiliate links, codes, or cookies must only be included when the extension provides a direct and transparent user benefit related to the extension’s core functionality. It is not permitted to inject affiliate links without related user action and without providing a tangible benefit to users.
Some common violations include:
Inserting affiliate links when no discount, cashback, or donation is provided.
An extension that continuously injects affiliate links in the background without related user action.
Google and PayPal didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment.
Last month, YouTuber MegaLag, whose video highlighting Honey’s practices has more than 17 million views, said that a “Part 2” to his video was “meant to come out weeks ago” and that “there’s a lot going on behind the scenes, most of which I cannot disclose right now.”
In January, YouTuber Legal Eagle sued PayPal over Honey’s alleged affiliate practices.
The US Department of Justice antitrust division will be led by Gail Slater following a successful Congressional confirmation vote today. Slater will take over multiple antitrust cases against large tech firms, filed under both Donald Trump and Joe Biden — including a high-profile Google search monopoly suit.
The Senate voted to confirm Slater with bipartisan support as Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division. She’ll be joining Trump’s administration for the second time — she worked for the National Economic Council during his first term and was an economic policy advisor and Senate staff member for Vice President JD Vance before the election. She has a long history in antitrust law, joining the Federal Trade Commission to work on merger cases starting in 2004 and later lobbying for anti-monopoly legislation while working for Roku. Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley (R-IA) urged colleagues to confirm Slater by noting her “several years” of private antitrust law practice and a decade-long stint at the FTC.
Slater will join the administration in the middle of US v. Google, an antitrust case that saw Google declared an unlawful monopolist last year. A hearing scheduled next month will decide what remedies to enforce against it, including a potential breakup of the company. She will be replacing Jonathan Kanter, under whom the DOJ won its case against Google.
The new antitrust watchdog hasn’t firmly articulated when and where the DOJ will fight its new battles. When Utah Republican Senator Mike Lee, who leads the antitrust subcommittee, asked about her commitment to see through antitrust enforcement started under Trump, she said, “resources are of course a very important consideration” in taking cases further, adding that antitrust civil litigation is “costly so that will be a consideration.”
Other parts of the Trump administration have used their power to go after political enemies, and Trump’s long-standing antagonism with companies like Google has raised concerns of politically motivated litigation. Minnesota Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar, who has said she had heard good things about Slater, asked during the confirmation hearing whether she would “open an investigation or file a lawsuit for any reason other than legitimate law enforcement purposes.” Slater responded that she doesn’t “anticipate a fact pattern like you described.”
In the new trailer it appears there are two different armies dead set on destroying demon hunter Dante (Johnny Yong Bosch) because of his connections to the supernatural world. Dante already has his hands full with the demon White Rabbit (Hoon Lee) and his goons threatening to raze an entire city if their demands aren’t met.
But to make matters even more complicated, human soldiers like Lady (Scout Taylor-Compton) see Dante as a threat due to the demon blood running through his veins.
Despite Dante’s insistence that he isn’t a monster, all of the high-flying, Studio Mir-produced acrobatics he pulls off definitely make it seem like he’s got some demonic heritage in the mix. And the look on Dante’s face when his twin brother Vergil (Robbie Daymond) shows up makes it pretty clear that he’s hiding something rather explosive about himself. The trailer makes clear that Netflix’s Devil May Cry is going to be feature elements from the franchise’s games like Dante’s Awakening as well as its official manga (where White Rabbit made his first appearance.) And hopefully, that means the series will feel like more than a one-to-one adaptation when it debuts on April 3rd.
Tesla stock plunged 15 percent on Monday, its steepest drop in five years. The price is down over 50 percent since its December highs. Tesla owners, disgusted with Elon Muskâs slash-and-burn tactics for the Trump administration, are selling their vehicles at a big loss. And Tesla showrooms across the country are becoming magnets for large crowds of protesters who want to see the company fail spectacularly.
But at least Musk can still count on one guy to have his back.
âIâm going to buy a brand new Tesla tomorrow morning as a show of confidence and support for Elon Musk, a truly great American,â President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social on Monday. âWhy should he be punished for putting his tremendous skills to work in order to help MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN???â
But it will probably take more than a Cybertruck in the presidential motorcade to make Tesla great again. It will take an actual commitment to more affordable electric vehicles. It will take a more serious and safer approach to driverless cars. And it may take a change of leadership to get the company back on track. Letâs run down the company’s problems.
U.S. President Donald Trump gets out of a Tesla Model S on the South Lawn of the White House on March 11, 2025.
At a White House event where he promised to buy a Tesla, President Donald Trump says he’ll label violence at Tesla locations as domestic terrorism.
Over the past few weeks, protests against Tesla CEO and Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) head Elon Musk have escalated at Tesla locations. There have been reports of situations like gunshots at a Tesla dealership and vandalism aimed at Tesla.
Here’s what Trump said while standing next to Musk:
Questioner, off screen: Mr. President, talk to us about some of the violence that has been going around the country at dealerships. Some say they should be labeled domestic terrorists…
Trump: I will do that. I’ll do it. I’m going to stop them. We catch anybody doing it… because they’re harming a great American company.
“We already know who some of them are, we’re gonna catch them,” Trump said. “And they’re bad guys.”
A Bluesky account representing the Tesla Takedown movement says in response to the comments, “We are a nonviolent grassroots protest movement. We oppose violence and destruction of property. Peaceful protest on public property is not domestic terrorism. They are trying to intimidate us. We will not let them succeed.
The statement also says that “it’s ironic that Donald Trump wants to label our peaceful movement as domestic terrorism. This is the man who sent a violent crowd to Capitol Hill to steal an election he lost, then pardoned more than 1,600 rioters who were found guilty by juries of their peers of serious crimes against the United States of America.”
Here's our statement on Trump's comments this afternoon.#TeslaTakedown
This week, the company that invented the robot vacuum over 20 years ago announced eight new models that are definitely not the Roombas you’re used to. Not only do they look totally different, but they also work differently, thanks to a new-to-Roomba feature: lidar navigation and mapping.
iRobot has started publishing suction power specs for its robots
The new lineup starts at $299 and goes up to $999. It features the entry-level 105 series of vacuums and vacuum mops with the option of an auto-empty dock, the 205 series with a new onboard dust compactor, and the higher-end 405 and 505 models that bring dual spinning mopping pads to the iRobot family for the first time. The new bots come in black and white and will be available to preorder on March 18th at iRobot.com in the US and select European markets.
According to the company, this is the largest product launch in iRobot history. But that’s not the biggest surprise. iRobot finally adding lidar navigation and room mapping — a technology used by most competitors — is a huge change that should bring faster mapping and more features to Roombas. The company is also launching a new iRobot app that adds a real-time cleaning view aided by lidar and it has started publishing suction power specs for its robots.
All the new models feature 7,000Pa and four suction levels, according to iRobot’s product management lead, Warren Fernandez. While he points out it’s not all about suction power, this is significantly lower than the competition. Roborock’s newest model, the Saros 10, has 22,000Pa (but costs $1,600).
Facing increasing competition from Chinese manufacturers, iRobot has gone back to the drawing board with this new line. Featuring a completely new industrial design, the Roombas have been redesigned from the ground up to accommodate the shift from camera-based vSLAM navigation to lidar.
In an interview with The Verge, Fernandez saidthat iRobot made the change now after evaluating the technology for some time because they believe lidar is finally mature enough and affordable enough to fit into their product roadmap.
The main benefit of lidar is smarter mapping for the lower-priced Roombas, including room-specific cleaning and the ability to create clean zones and keep-out zones in the app. For the higher-end models, it should mean faster mapping and more agile navigation.
Also new is an ultrasonic carpet detection sensor on all Roombas, so the robots can intelligently avoid carpets when mopping. The mopping models now all have three levels of water flow and iRobot’s unique SmartScrub option. Previously, most of these features were reserved for higher-end Roombas, which started at $500.
Most models now have a lidar tower on top, and the auto-empty docks have a whole new look. Overall, the new Roombas look a lot more like models from iRobot’s major competitors: Roborock, Dreame, and Ecovacs.
The fanciest model in the new line is the $999 (€799) Roomba Plus 505 Combo Robot Plus AutoWash Dock (yes, the naming has gotten worse). This is the first Roomba with dual spinning mop pads for scrubbing hard floors. It can also extend its right mop outward to clean along edges and lift its mops 10mm to avoid low-pile carpets. Roborock and Dreame have had variations on these features for a while.
The 505 comes with a new multifunction dock that washes and dries the mop pads, refills the mop tank, and empties the bin. It also adds heated drying, something the Combo 10 Max, iRobot’s top-of-the-line robot vacuum / mop that launched last summer, doesn’t have. Like the 10 Max, the 505 has AI-powered obstacle detection, thanks to an onboard camera, so it should recognize and avoid things like cords, socks, and pet waste.
Fernandez says the 10 Max remains the current flagship model, as it has better cleaning power than the 505, but he declined to give suction specs for it. It uses a different mop — a retractable system that puts the mop on top of the bot to avoid carpets. According to Fernandez, the 505 is the only Roomba among the new models that will support the Matter smart home standard, which the 10 Max also does. All the new models will support existing integrations with Amazon Alexa, Apple’s Siri, and Google Home.
The Roomba Plus 405 Combo Robot Plus AutoWash Dock is a step down in price to $799 (€699). It keeps all the same basic functionality — a combo vacuum and mop with spinning mopping pads and a multifunctional dock — but it differs from the 505 in a few ways. It can’t extend its mops, doesn’t have AI-powered obstacle detection (as there’s no camera), and lacks heated mop drying. It also has iRobot’s standard ClearView Lidar navigation, whereas the 505 has a Pro version, which Fernandez says is more accurate and can see smaller objects.
The budget lineup is also getting a big bump up. The new Roomba 105 and 205 series have the same lidar-based mapping, 7,000Pa suction, virtual keep-out zones, automatic carpet detection and avoidance, and object sensing and avoidance capabilities as the 405, all features unavailable on the entry-level Roomba i5 and Combo Essential line.
Both new models come in a vacuum-only or a combo option that adds a removable flat microfiber mopping pad. The 105 works with an auto-empty dock, but the 205 uses the new dust compactor technology. “It’s kind of like a miniaturized version of a trash compactor,” says Fernandez. He says it can last two months before emptying, compared to 75 days on the auto-empty dock. You don’t need to find space for an auto-empty dock, which means you can stick your robot under a couch or bed, and he added that there isn’t a loud emptying noise or a need to buy bin bags.
Both series are priced the same: $449 for the 105 Vac Robot Plus AutoEmpty Dock; $469 (€449) for the 105 Combo Robot Plus AutoEmpty Dock; $449 for the 205 DustCompactor Vac Robot; and $469 (€449) for the 205 DustCompactor Combo Robot. (This is more expensive than Roomba’s Combo Essential line with auto-empty dock, but those don’t have lidar.) If you’re fine with emptying a bin once a week or so, you can go for the 105 Vac Robot for $299 or the 105 Combo Robot for $319 (€299).
There are some innovations here; the dust compactor will appeal to those who don’t like the extra clutter of those big auto-empty docks. I’ve seen something similar on the Narwal Freo X Ultra and found it to be very good. But overall, this lineup represents iRobot capitulating to the competition.
What people really want is spinning mop pads, lidar towers, and suction specs, so that’s what you’re getting
For years, under founder and CEO Colin Angle, the company stood firm in its belief that its superior cleaning ability and smarter robots were just better. It appears that the new CEO, Gary Cohen, took a look at the competitive landscape and decided that what people really want is spinning mop pads, lidar towers, and suction specs, so that’s what you’re getting. “Last year, we reinvented our iRobot Research and Development Labs, and these robots are the result of our world-class engineers’ and designers’ brilliance,” he said in a press release.
This “if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em” approach is clearly designed to save the struggling company. The pricing is competitive, and combined with the Roomba name, it’s a strategy that could work well, assuming the products are as good and as reliable as Roombas have traditionally been.
I’m looking forward to testing the new robots to see how they stack up to the current Roombas, which have long been some of my favorite robot vacuums. But for today, I’m slightly sad to see decades of innovation and enterprise at iRobot get trampled in what looks to be a boring race to the middle.
âBig timeâ confusion has wracked the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) staff since last month, the agencyâs chief operating officer, Adam Martinez, testified before a federal judge in Washington, DC, on Monday.
Martinez’s testimony â which will continue on Tuesday afternoon â is meant to address questions around what’s happening at the financial regulation agency, before a judge decides whether to grant a preliminary injunction to preserve agency data, funds, and staff. It clarified points of disagreement between Martinez and other CFPB staffers, who said in sworn declarations to the court that the agency has become far less operational than Martinez has portrayed, particularly since the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) got involved â with some functions effectively grinding to a halt.
Martinez described the last several weeks as typical for a presidential transition. He says the agency was in flux during DOGE’s first few weeks at the agency, and in a way, that’s not uncommon during a new administration. âDOGE came in with a very hard fist,” Martinez said, but there was “a change in posture” when acting CFPB director Russell Vought, who leads t …
Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) must comply with a request to disclose its internal records. In a ruling on Monday, US District Court Judge Christopher R. Cooper wrote that DOGE is likely covered by the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), adding that “the public would be irreparably harmed by an indefinite delay in unearthing the records.”
The ruling stems from a lawsuit from an ethics watchdog group — the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) — that sued DOGE for failing to hand over documents related to communications between staffers and federal agencies, organizational charts, financial disclosures, and other records.
In his decision, Cooper takes into account the “unusual secrecy” DOGE has operated under, as it hasn’t named its members and reportedly uses the encrypted messaging app Signal for communications. He added that DOGE staffers “are reported to have joined the federal government only recently and, to put it charitably, may not be steeped in its document retention policies.”
Judge Cooper has ordered DOGE and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to produce the documents requested by CREW “on an expedited basis.” He concluded that DOGE is “likely exercising substantial independent authority” compared to other agencies, likely making it subject to FOIA.
“Despite efforts and claims to the contrary, the government cannot hide the actions of the US DOGE Service,” Donald Sherman, CREW’s executive director and chief counsel, said in a response to the ruling. “We look forward to the expedited processing of our requests and making all the DOGE documents public.”
Davey Wreden does not tend to make conventional games. He exploded onto the indie scene in 2013 with The Stanley Parable, a choose-your-own adventure story set in a workplace hall of mirrors. Its follow-up, 2015âs The Beginnerâs Guide was a tour through a series of games created by an untraceable hobbyist developer. Both are undeniably trippy, metafictional titles. Now, after a decade of experimentation and subsequent burnout, comes Wanderstop, a game that dials back the impish impulses that defined the earlier works for something more emotionally upfront.
Wanderstop takes place in an almost impossibly quaint forest clearing. A tea shop sits at the center of this small, ostensibly perfect world where guests arrive in search of a soothing brew. Playing as Alta, a professional fighter on a career-decimating losing streak, itâs your job to make tea while tending to her recovery. Alta is handed a basket to collect tea leaves, shears to cut unruly weeds, and a watering can to tend to plants. The game is part cozy farming simulator, part narrative adventure. Crucially, it never smashes through the fourth wall of its fantasy premise like its predecessors.
Agents are said to be the future of AI, and now OpenAI is trying to help developers build their own. The company is releasing a new Responses API that offers building blocks for developers to create agents capable of searching the web, digging through files, and performing tasks on a computer on their behalf.
“There are some agents that we will be able to build ourselves, like Deep Research and Operator,” Olivier Godement, the head of product for the OpenAI platform, tells The Verge. “But the world is so complex, there are so many industries and use cases… and so we’re super excited to provide those foundations, those building blocks for developers to build the best agents for their use case, their needs.”
The Responses API comes with a web search tool built on the same model ChatGPT uses for search, allowing developers to get real-time information and citations from the web while using GPT-4o and GPT-4o mini. It also has a computer-use feature that similarly uses the company’s Operator model to perform tasks on a user’s behalf. The Responses API also has a tool to search through large volumes of documents, with OpenAI billing it as a way to help customer support agents sift through FAQs or for a legal assistant to locate previous cases.
Along with the Responses API, OpenAI also announced the Agents SDK, which it describes as a way for developers to “orchestrate” the workflow of AI agents. “The Responses API is like this atomic unit of using models and tools to do a particular thing,” Nikunj Handa, a product manager for OpenAI’s API team, tells The Verge. “The Agents SDK is having multiple of those atomic units work together to solve even more complicated tasks.” That should make it easier for developers to manage all of their agents and ensure they work toward a single goal.
The rollout of the Responses API and Agents SDK builds on the existing tools that OpenAI offers to developers, including the Chat Completions API, which lets developers build AI tools that offer a response to users’ queries. OpenAI is also planning to replace its Assistants API with the Responses API in mid-2026. The company says it “incorporated key improvements into the Responses API” using the feedback developers provided about the Assistants API.
You can learn more about OpenAI’s new developer tools from its website.
The nonprofit Media Matters for America filed suit against X this week, accusing Elon Musk’s social media company of “harassment” and Musk of a “globetrotting litigation campaign against Media Matters.”
The media watchdog group says it has spent millions of dollars to defend itself in court, and is suing for damages. It’s also seeking a court order to stop X from initiating litigation in countries outside of the US or from pursuing its pending cases in Ireland and Singapore.
Media Matters now alleges that X breached its own Terms of Service
Media Matter’s complaint cites X’s own policy, which said that “all disputes related to these Terms or the Services will be brought solely in the federal or state courts located in San Francisco County, California, United States.”
X changed its terms of service last year, however, to send disputes to federal court in the Northern District of Texas, Reuters reports. Musk moved the company’s offices from California to Texas last year after taking control of Twitter and rebranding it as X. A federal judge in Texas, who owned Tesla stock, denied a motion last year to toss out X’s lawsuit against Media Matters there — saying it X “properly pled its claims” in the correct venue.
San Francisco, meanwhile, has been a more favorable arena for watchdog groups sued by X. A federal judge there dismissed a similar lawsuit X filed against the Center for Counting Digital Hate (CCDH). In that suit, X accused CCDH of launching “a scare campaign” that allegedly cost it “tens of millions of dollars” in lost ad revenue. “This case is about punishing the Defendants [CCDH] for their speech,” the judge wrote in his decision.
X didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from The Verge. The suit it filed against Media Matters in Texas claims the nonprofit “manipulated the algorithms governing the user experience on X to bypass safeguards and create images of X’s largest advertisers’ paid posts adjacent to racist, incendiary content.”
Media Matters stands by its analysis. “X brought these suits as punishment for Media Matters’ truthful reporting that ads appeared next to white-supremacist content on the X platform,” the organization says in the complaint filed Monday in a US District Court in San Francisco.
Up to five devices can be plugged into Anker’s new travel adapter, but it doesn’t deliver enough power for your laptop. | Image: Anker
Looking to spend some time outside the US? Anker has announced a new travel adapter featuring a relatively slim design that’s less than an inch thick thanks to plugs that can fold down and retract. The Anker Nano Travel Adapter is available now for $25.99, but you’ll need to provide all your own cables and potentially a voltage converter depending on what you’re traveling with.
Travel adapters featuring multiple built-in plugs that disappear for easier storage isn’t an entirely new idea. What Anker’s offering is an improved design that’s not only just 0.98-inches thick, but also incorporates a pair of USB-C ports, a pair of USB-A ports, and a US-style Type A outlet on the front.
That will let you charge five devices from the adapter, minimizing the number of power adapters you need to travel with. But if you’re bringing a laptop, you won’t want to forget its adapter. The maximum power output for Anker’s new travel adapter is 20W – well below what laptops need – and only when you’re using a single USB-C port. With all four USB ports in use they have to share just 15W of power.
It’s also important to note that the Anker Nano Travel Adapter lacks a voltage converter. The US uses a 120V system, but countries like the United Kingdom and Australia use 230V. Many modern devices, like your smartphone, tablet, and laptop, are dual-voltage and will charge in other countries without issue. But devices like electric razors or curling irons often aren’t, so you’ll want to double-check what voltage they’re compatible with before plugging them in to this adapter.
Anker also says its new travel adapter isn’t compatible with devices like hair dryers that draw more than 1,380W of power.
