Xbox has a new beta software update rolling out today for Insiders in the Alpha Skip-Ahead ring that enables Series X and S systems to support much larger external hard disks. Previously, the Xbox could only support up to 16TB of space on a single USB-connected drive.

With the new update, Xbox systems can now partition hard disks larger than 16TB into segments to use the full physical storage space. A single 24TB hard disk can now be formatted into multiple partitions (the largest still being 16TB) so you can archive more games, apps, and media than ever — if that’s something you’ve wanted to do.

However, if you have already been using a hard disk greater than 16TB with Xbox, the company says you’ll need to erase it first to take full advantage:

Drives greater than 16TB that have already been formatted will be unaffected by this change and would need to be reformatted to take advantage of the updated support for larger drives.

Although you still can’t play current generation games directly off an external drive, it can be useful to back up all of your installs anyway, or games made for older systems. You won’t need to redownload entire titles such as the 300GB-plus Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 using an internet connection when you feel like playing it again after a hiatus, unless they need an equally-sizable update.

Xbox is also releasing an update that enables new network quality indicators for cloud gaming sessions to tell you if your connection is slow and affecting your gameplay. They will appear in red bubbles on the upper right side of the screen, telling you what is happening, such as packet loss or increased ping, which can help you troubleshoot your connection.

One in 10 game developers lost their job in 2024. That’s according to the results of the annual Game Developers Conference state of the video game survey. The survey sampled over 3,000 developers and covered a number of topics including industry layoffs and what kind of games developers are working on.

Prolific layoffs have ravaged the industry over the last two years making the question of their impact on developers one of the most important in the survey. In addition to 10 percent of developers losing their jobs, 41 percent of respondents said they had been impacted by layoffs in some way, either by being laid off directly or seeing coworkers or colleagues in other departments let go. The survey also noted that the number of people impacted is potentially much higher because of the students and graduates who reported having a difficult time simply getting a job in the industry at all.

When asked what reason companies gave for layoffs, 22 percent said restructuring while 18 said declining revenue. 19 percent gave no reason at all. Developers, though, have their own ideas about why layoffs keep happening. In an analysis of responses to what developers think the reason behind layoffs is, the majority were general statements about the industry’s over-expansion during the pandemic. Companies acquired workers and studios in hopes of meeting a level of demand for games that dried up as covid restrictions loosened. However, some developers believe the reason for layoffs is much simpler. Companies like Microsoft and Sony still reported growing revenues despite multiple rounds of layoffs and studio closures. It’s no surprise then that 13 percent of respondents attributed layoffs to corporate greed.

In addition to layoffs, the last few years have also seen the failure of a number of high-profile, big-budget, live-service games. While there has been some success in that area with new games like Marvel Rivals, it’s generally tough to launch a live-service game that can compete with the overbearing likes of Fortnite, Roblox, and Call of Duty. 2024 was also the year that Balatro, Animal Well, and Astro Bot dominated headlines and award lists suggesting a greater appetite for those kinds of smaller-scoped, single-player experiences. It’s interesting, and perhaps concerning then, that according to the survey, over 30 percent of AAA developers are working on a live-service game.

When it asked developers their thoughts on live-service games the survey answered, “One of the biggest issues mentioned was market oversaturation, with many developers noting how tough it is to break through and build a sustainable player base.”

Dozens of popular subreddits are banning links to X after Elon Musk made a gesture that historians and human rights groups have described as a Nazi salute. Communities that have instituted a ban on links to X include r/formula1, r/military, r/nursing, r/TwoXChromosomes, and r/nintendo.

The shift is spreading across Reddit after neo-Nazis celebrated Musk’s speech at a rally on Monday for Donald Trump’s inauguration. During the speech, Musk twice raised his arm in a salute that historians, elected officials, and organizations that support Holocaust survivors have observed as a Nazi salute. During his speech, Musk places his hand on his chest and throws his arm forward at an angle, holding it mid-air for a few moments. “My heart goes out to you,” he says to supporters. Some supporters of Musk have defended him, saying the gesture went along with his words.

Musk has not disavowed the neo-Nazis reading his gesture as a Sieg Heil, and in fact has minimized criticism, writing on X that “The ‘everyone is Hitler’ attack is sooo tired.” Musk has previously amplified racist, antisemitic conspiracy theories like the Great Replacement Theory and is constantly posting anti-immigrant claims not based in reality. After pouring millions of dollars into US politics to elect Trump, Musk has expanded to German politics as well, endorsing the far right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.

Regardless of Musk’s true intentions, extremists are thrilled: as Rolling Stone reported, white supremacists are calling it a “Donald Trump White Power moment” and thanking Musk for “hearing” them.

The subreddits that announced the new rule cover millions of users across geography and interests. Some subreddits have announced they will allow screenshots of content from X but not hyperlinks, and many other large communities like r/nba and r/nfl are discussing following suit. Even setting Musk’s right wing politics aside, viewing X links on Reddit isn’t a great experience: links often don’t unfurl and users need an X account to view the conversation on the platform.

“Reddit has a longstanding commitment to freedom of speech and freedom of association,” said a Reddit spokesperson who asked to remain anonymous citing the sensitivity of the subject. While individual subreddits are able to institute community rules, “Reddit Inc. has no ban on X links — there are still plenty of X links on Reddit,” the spokesperson wrote in an email.

X did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Samsung has its Project Moohan headset on display at Galaxy Unpacked, and we’ve just taken a bunch of pictures of it.

This technically isn’t the first time we’ve seen Project Moohan, but it is the first time we’ve been allowed to photograph it. To me, it looks somewhat similar to Apple’s high-end Vision Pro headset with a hint of Meta’s discontinued Quest Pro.

The headset, which Samsung is developing in partnership with Google, runs Android XR, an OS designed specifically for headsets and smart glasses. My colleague Victoria Song got to try Project Moohan late last year, so if you want to know what it’s like to actually wear and use, go check out her impressions.

Samsung plans to launch Project Moohan for developers first, but it won’t be available right away for consumers.

Here are our photos from the event floor at Unpacked:

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Samsung finally took the wraps off its new Galaxy S25 lineup during its Unpacked event on Wednesday, providing us with our first formal look at the forthcoming Galaxy S25, S25 Plus, and S25 Ultra. Available starting on February 7th, you can already preorder the S25 starting at $799.99, the S25 Plus starting at $999.99, and the S25 Ultra starting at $1,299.99.

On the hardware front, Samsung’s latest phones represent a relatively minor refresh over last year’s S24 series. The new Galaxy S25 phones are all “Qi2 Ready,” meaning they charge at up to 15W on a Qi2 charger using Samsung’s magnetic Qi2 Ready cases. Each phone also features 12GB of RAM by default, along with more processing power thanks to Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy chip.

The new Qualcomm chipset supposedly allows for smarter and occasionally faster AI tools, which, as we noted in our brief hands-on time with the S25 and S25 Plus, are the real changes here. The onboard AI assistant is now based on Google Gemini by default and can control your phone with natural language requests. Other AI features include a video editing tool that can erase unwanted distractions like crowds and wind, as well as daily AI-generated summaries that help you make better sense of your calendar and commute.

We’re still in the process of testing Samsung’s latest phones, but if you want to reserve one ahead of launch, here’s what you need to know.

Where to preorder the Galaxy S25

Starting at $799.99, the Galaxy S25 comes with 12GB of RAM and your choice of either 128GB or 256GB of storage, the latter of which costs $60 more. It’s currently available for preorder from Samsung, Amazon, and Best Buy in navy, light blue, mint, or silver. It’s also available in a few exclusive colors directly from Samsung, including black, red, and rose gold.

At 6.2 inches, the entry-level Galaxy S25 is the smallest phone in the S25 lineup. It’s lighter and thinner than last year’s S24, and, as mentioned before, it now comes with 12GB of RAM. Otherwise, it’s very similar to its predecessor, with a 120Hz refresh rate and the same 50-megapixel main shooter, a 12-megapixel ultrawide, and a 10-megapixel telephoto lens. It also features a 12-megapixel selfie camera on the front.

In terms of deals, Amazon is offering $100 in credit when you preorder the 128GB model for $799.99 or the 256GB model for $859.99. Samsung is also offering a $100 credit when you preorder the 128GB model for $799.99, along with a $50 discount when you buy the 256GB model for $809.99. Best Buy’s promo is similar to Samsung’s, with the retailer throwing in a $50 gift card when you buy the 128GB model for $799.99 or the 256GB model for $859.99.

Where to preorder the Galaxy S25 Plus

The 256GB Samsung Galaxy S25 Plus runs $999.99 and comes with 12GB of RAM, though you can also buy it with 512GB of storage for $1,119.99. Like the Galaxy S25, it’s available for preorder from Samsung, Amazon, and Best Buy in navy, light blue, mint, and silver. If you purchase directly from Samsung, you can also grab it in black, red, or rose gold.

The main difference between the S25 and S25 Plus is that the larger model comes with more storage options and sports a 6.7-inch 120Hz display. It also packs a bigger battery than the S25 (4,900mAh versus 4,000mAh), though it remains to be seen if that translates to longer battery life given the larger display on the S25 Plus. Otherwise, it’s similar to the Galaxy S25 in that it features an identical camera system, IP68 dust and water resistance, and plenty of AI-powered features.

If you’re looking for a deal, Amazon is offering $100 in credit when you preorder the 256GB model for $999.99 or the 512GB model for $1,119.99. Samsung is also offering $150 in credit when you preorder the 256GB model for $999.99, or $50 in credit when you buy the 512GB model for $1,019.99. Lastly, Best Buy is throwing in a $100 gift card when you preorder either the 256GB model or the 512GB model at full price.

Where to preorder the Galaxy S25 Ultra

The S25 Ultra comes with 12GB of RAM and retails for $1,299.99 in the 256GB configuration, $1,419.99 in the 512GB configuration, and $1,659.99 in the 1TB variant. The Ultra is available for preorder from Amazon, Best Buy, and Samsung in blue, silver, gray, or black. (The latter retailer is also selling it in a few exclusive colors, such as rose gold and green.)

At 6.9 inches, the redesigned Galaxy S25 Ultra sports a larger display than both the S25 and S25 Plus. It also comes with an S Pen stylus, as well as an upgraded camera array that features two telephoto cameras and an improved 50-megapixel ultrawide sensor. You also get more storage options and a more durable titanium build, the latter of which features rounded edges for greater comfort.

In terms of promotions, Amazon is offering a $200 gift card when you preorder the 256GB model for $1,299.99 or the 512GB model for $1,419.99. Samsung is also throwing in a $150 credit when you preorder the 256GB model for $1,299.99, a $130 credit when you preorder the 512GB model for $1,299.99 ($120 off), or a $110 credit when you buy the 1TB model for $1,419.99 ($240 off). In addition, Best Buy is throwing in a $200 gift card when you preorder the 256GB model for $1,299.99, the 512GB model for $1,419.99, or the 1TB model for $1,659.99.

Will cracked screens actually become a thing of the past this decade? We’re definitely on an impressive trajectory! Just two years after Samsung’s Galaxy S23 adopted a new Corning Gorilla Glass that can survive waist-high drops of one meter directly onto concrete, the new Samsung S25 Ultra has a ceramic version that can apparently survive head-high drops of 2.2 meters (7.2 feet).

It’s called Corning Gorilla Armor 2, and you should know that neither Samsung nor Corning is promising that your actual phone will survive such a drop — if it’s anything like the 2023 claim, the 2.2-meter drop is simply what a phone-sized, weighted “puck” was able to survive when dropped face down in the lab. All Samsung said onstage today is that the material is better able to resist damage.

But that’s still over twice the height Corning and Samsung touted two generations ago, and the company impressively claims it was able to achieve that without compromising the scratch resistance of the glass — something that Corning has occasionally had to compromise in the past, as developing new forms of glass can come with tradeoffs between different kinds of protection. The new Armor 2 apparently has the same scratch protection as before, with “over four times more scratch resistance than competitive lithium-aluminosilicate cover glasses with an anti-reflective coating,” according to the companies.

And Corning and Samsung say the glass will still “dramatically” cut down on reflections like last year’s Gorilla Armor, a claim we found held up in our Samsung phone testing.

But, like last year, Samsung’s only promising to offer the best glass on its high-end Ultra model, which starts at $1,299, and it’s important to remember that any number of factors can cause a glass screen to crack sooner than you might like. If it lands on a slightly pointier protrusion than tested in the lab, or if the glass has already been slightly scratched, it could break when dropped from a lower height.

Corning has also provided a form of ceramic glass to Apple for its iPhones since 2020 — it calls that product “Ceramic Shield.”

Samsung just teased the Galaxy S25 Edge at the end of its Unpacked event, where it announced its Galaxy S25 lineup. It didn’t offer any details beyond the quick naming of the phone.

Below are some screenshots from Samsung’s presentation. It was brief, but it’s a phone, alright.

The Galaxy S25 Edge will come to the US, according to Android Authority, which cited a Samsung South Africa representative.

The outlet quotes the representative:

So, we will have the Ultra, the Plus, the base model. That’ll be South Africa. There is a Slim model, not initially available here. It’ll be available in select markets.

They added:

What will be announced has not finally been decided yet. But certainly US, Korea will be announced (sic). And then that model might be available as a second (wave) launch.

Like Apple’s rumored iPhone Air, the Galaxy S25 Edge is expected to be a super-skinny version of Samsung’s flagship line, measuring 6.4mm thick, according to recent rumors. That makes it thinner than the company’s other Galaxy phones. Rumors had pointed to three rear cameras, but that rumor doesn’t appear to have been accurate, now that we’ve seen it — the phone Samsung showed today only appears to have two on the back.

Rumors suggest that the phone will be released as soon as May.

A Samsung representative told The Verge the company had nothing further to share other than the tease at Unpacked.

Netflix’s big bet on live events is paying off. New data published by the analytics firm Antenna indicates that Netflix added 1.43 million subscribers in the days surrounding the Mike Tyson vs. Jake Paul boxing match, while 656,000 members signed up around its NFL Christmas Day games.

Those numbers may seem small in a sea of Netflix’s more than 300 million global subscribers, but the streamer has consistently maintained around 50,000 to 70,000 signups per day since it began its password-sharing crackdown in 2023, according to Antenna.

Image: Antenna

Netflix highlighted its record viewership for live events in a letter to investors on Tuesday, noting that it will focus on airing “can’t-miss, special event programming” rather than regular season sports programming.

“Although our live programming will likely be a small percentage of our total view hours and content expense, we think the eventized nature will result in outsized value to both our members and our business,” Netflix said. The company also raised prices across all of its subscriptions as it continues to “invest in programming and deliver more value.”

Aside from Netflix, Paramount Plus drew in the most subscribers around last year’s Super Bowl LVII, with Antenna’s data showing a 3.2 million spike in signups surrounding the big game. Peacock also saw notable growth when it aired its NFL AFC Wild Card Game and in the first days of the Paris Summer Olympics.

Google worked with the Israeli military in the immediate aftermath of its ground invasion of the Gaza Strip, racing to beat out Amazon to provide AI services, according to company documents obtained by the Washington Post.

In the weeks after Hamas’s October 7th attack on Israel, employees at Google’s cloud division worked directly with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) — even as the company told both the public and its own employees that Google only worked with civilian government ministries, the documents reportedly show.

Weeks after the war began, an employee with Google’s cloud division escalated the IDF’s military’s requests for access to Google’s AI technology, according to the Post. In another document, an employee warned that Google needed to quickly respond to the military’s requests, or else Israel would turn to Amazon for its cloud computing needs. In a November 2023 document, an employee thanks a coworker for handling the IDF’s request. Months later, employees requested additional access to AI tools for the IDF.

Amid this, Google was punishing employees for protesting Project Nimbus, Israel’s $1.2 billion contract for Google and Amazon’s cloud computing services. Google fired 28 employees who staged sit-in protests at the company’s offices in New York and California, some of whom were also arrested during the demonstrations.

At the same time, Google denied that it was working with the Israeli military. “We have been very clear that the Nimbus contract is for workloads running on our commercial cloud by Israeli government ministries, who agree to comply with our Terms of Service and Acceptable Use Policy,” Anna Kowalczyk, the external communications manager for Google Cloud, told The Verge in April 2024. “This work is not directed at highly sensitive, classified, or military workloads relevant to weapons or intelligence services,” Kowalczyk said.

Google did not immediately respond to The Verge’s request for comment.

The EV tax credit is still alive and kicking — but for how long? 

Read the full story at The Verge.

Samsung and Google are partnering up to build AR glasses, Samsung’s TM Roh told Bloomberg. But there aren’t many other specifics beyond the fact that they’re in development — there’s not even a specific release timeline, with Roh telling the publication that Samsung and Google “will try to reach the quality and readiness we want as soon as possible.”

The announcement follows Meta’s splashy reveal of Orion, its first augmented reality glasses, last year. Those glasses won’t be sold to consumers, but my colleague Alex Heath called them an “impressive demo.”

The news of the Samsung- and Google-made AR glasses also follows the announcement of the Project Moohan mixed reality headset. The headset runs Android XR, which Google recently announced for headsets and smart glasses (and Bloomberg reports that the AR glasses will “eventually launch as part of the company’s efforts to co-develop the Android XR operating system”).

My colleague Victoria Song got to try the headset and the platform last year, and she described it as a “mix between a Meta Quest 3 and the Vision Pro”:

I’m walked through pinching to select items and how to tap the side to bring up the app launcher. There’s an eye calibration process that feels awfully similar to the Vision Pro’s. If I want, I can retreat into an immersive mode to watch YouTube and Google TV on a distant mountain. I can open apps, resize them, and place them at various points around the room. I’ve done this all before. This just happens to be Google-flavored.

At Unpacked, Samsung also revealed details about the Samsung Galaxy S25 lineup of phones, which includes the Galaxy S25, Galaxy S25 Plus, and Galaxy S25 Ultra.

Ahead of Mickey 17’s debut in a few weeks, Warner Bros. has dropped a new trailer that really makes the film’s vision of terraforming alien planets look like absolute hell — at least for the working class.

Everyone has an important role to play in Mickey 17’s take on a future where humanity is trying to colonize other worlds. But in the new trailer, it’s clear that Mickey Barnes (Robert Pattinson) has no idea what he’s agreeing to when he signs up to be an “expendable” on a ship headed to the desolate ice planet Niflheim.

Mickey doesn’t think there’s anything strange about how, once they make it to Niflheim, his crewmates all stay on their ship while encouraging him to wander outside with his helmet off and take deep breaths of whatever viruses might be hanging out in the atmosphere. And he doesn’t even seem all that concerned once his little excursion seemingly leads to a lethal infection that involves coughing up a lot of blood. It’s awful, but it’s also what Mickey’s colleagues expect for him because it’s his job to be a guinea pig who dies over and over again before being cloned by way of a 3D printer.

Though the new trailer gets increasingly more gruesome, it also leans into the movie’s humor as it spells out how messed-up of a situation Mickey has wandered into. And when Mickey 17 hits theaters on March 7th, it’ll probably leave us all reminded of why it’s important to always read your labor contracts.

Samsung announced today that its connected appliances and smart home devices will soon be able to act as motion and sound sensors for its smart home platform SmartThings. This includes its televisions, Music Frame speaker, Family Hub fridge, and more. The company said the updates are slated for release in 2025 and 2026 but didn’t provide specific timelines.

The move is part of its vision of “AI for All,” using AI to simplify technology in the home. By leveraging sensors in its appliances, Samsung’s new Home AI — an artificial intelligence layer that the company is applying to its connected devices — can gather “insights from everyday life to create personalized experiences to fit your needs, transforming your home into a smarter, more efficient space,” according to a Samsung blog post.

This ambient sensing will use motion and sound sensors in Samsung appliances to suggest automations and experiences based on wellness, security, energy savings, and entertainment. It will enable SmartThings to “recognize you and understand your daily activities like cooking, exercising, sleeping, etc., so your home can create the perfect environment for you,” according to Samsung.

Image: Samsung

While that sounds slightly creepy, there are certainly benefits to having sensors built into devices to make your home react the way you want it to — the simplest being automating your lighting. The alternative to achieving any real home automation is to stick little white plastic sensors everywhere. Samsung says the data from its sensors will be fed to Home AI to create more sophisticated automations that can detect and respond to specific activities.

For example, Samsung says motion sensors in a Samsung TV can “detect what kind of exercise you’re doing, guide you on your form, and provide the optimal exercise time for maximum results.” If you sit down in a chair, SmartThings can automatically turn on the nearby reading lamp and adjust the room to your preferred temperature. Samsung says it can also “identify your miniature pinscher jumping onto the couch, activating the air purifier to remove allergens from the air.” And if you’re drying your hair, a device with a speaker, like the Samsung Music Frame, can hear the hair dryer and tell the Samsung robot vacuum to come vacuum up the hair you’ve shed.

Presumably, these “experiences” will be ones you can choose to set up in the SmartThings app, and the robot vacuum isn’t just going to come at you as soon as you start drying your hair. Samsung says that all data from the sensors used by Home AI is stored locally on your SmartThings hub and does not go to the cloud.

Samsung didn’t state exactly what type of technology it’s using in its sensors, but from the specific motion detections mentioned, it’s likely to be mmWave radar sensing, which is becoming popular in the smart home in devices from Aqara and Meross. That’s the only sensing technology outside of cameras that’s precise enough to react to specific movements rather than just motion in general.

The Verge has reached out to Samsung to find out which of its TVs and appliances are currently equipped with these ambient sensors. We also asked if third-party sensors connected to SmartThings can work with the new technology or if it’s limited to Samsung devices at launch. We’ll update this post as we get any new information.

Image: Samsung

Samsung also announced updates to its Map View feature, a layout view of your home that gives you a visual interface to interact with connected devices from your phone, computer, and TV. Map View will get a generative AI upgrade that Samsung says will give it “a deeper understanding of your home’s unique layout and environment, adding more personalization to your Map View.”

You’ll be able to personalize your map by adding photos of your furniture and other objects, and Samsung says this will help the system respond to your presence more accurately. “For example, the system might adjust your lighting or temperature settings based on your proximity to certain areas or objects.”

All of these updates address a major pain point of the smart home — context. If we want our homes to respond to us without the need for voice commands or pulling out an app, they need data about our activities, movements, and preferences. Beyond having a user input everything manually, sensors are the most effective way to get this data. By turning its appliances into sensors, Samsung is adding a big piece of the smart home puzzle to its ecosystem.

Google’s AI assistant Gemini is now able to carry out tasks across multiple apps in a single interaction, in an update announced today alongside the launch of Samsung’s new Galaxy S25 series. Those phones are also Samsung’s first to feature Gemini as the default on-device assistant, relegating Bixby to the app drawer. Those changes are part of a raft of other updates from Google including improvements to the AI-powered Circle to Search.

With today’s update, Gemini is able to carry out more complex multimodal tasks. You might ask it to find a dog-friendly Italian restaurant and send it to your friend, or pull up your NFL team’s upcoming games and add them to your calendar, all in a single prompt.

Source: Google

The multi-app support is built on top of Gemini’s existing app extensions, which cover a spread of Google apps and limited third-party options including WhatsApp and Spotify. Today’s update adds Samsung’s own apps to that list for S25 users — including Samsung Calendar, Notes, Reminder, and Clock — but other multi-extension prompts are available now to all Gemini users across the web, Android, and iOS.

Source: Google

Gemini Live, the assistant’s voice-based conversational mode, is also getting an upgrade, though this one is currently limited to the Galaxy S25 and S24 phones and Google’s own Pixel 9 series. Owners of those devices will be able to share images, files, and YouTube videos to the chat interface, asking Gemini for feedback and information. Google also says that Project Astra features like screen sharing and live video streaming will come to Gemini on Android in the coming months.

With all those upgrades in tow, Samsung has made Gemini the default virtual assistant on the new S25 phones, finally replacing its own Bixby assistant. You can still access Bixby on the phones — the app is preinstalled — but by default, long-pressing the power button will now open up Gemini instead.

Circle to Search is getting improvements, too. It will be able to automatically recognize phone numbers, email addresses, and URLs so you can interact with them more easily. The AI Overviews in search results have also been expanded to work with more kinds of visual search results, increasing the probability that using Circle to Search on an image of a place, artwork, or object will generate an AI Overview in the results.

Finally, Google also announced changes that should make it easier to pair braille screen readers and hearing aids to Android devices.

Google announced the new features alongside Samsung’s launch of the Galaxy S25, S25 Plus, and S25 Ultra at Galaxy Unpacked today. Two hours earlier, the companies revealed a new Galaxy Watch for Kids mode on Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 7 LTE. It adds kid-friendly apps and watchfaces plus improved parental controls.

The “Ultra” model in Samsung’s Galaxy S lineup is typically the phone crammed full of every feature the company could think of. But this year, the Galaxy S25 Ultra is actually taking a step backward with the S Pen. The motion gestures and useful remote camera shutter function have been removed, and the stylus is back to being just a stylus. You can still wave it around like a magic wand, but the phone won’t do anything.

During a media briefing on the new S25 series last week, Samsung explained that customers rarely ever used the “Air action” gestures. So the company decided to try and cut costs by ditching them entirely. And no, the starting price of the S25 Ultra hasn’t come down as a result. Samsung believes other hardware upgrades are more than enough to maintain the same $1,299.99 price.

I never bothered with the gimmicky gestures more than once or twice. But having a convenient (and subtle) way of taking a photo when the phone was positioned somewhere out of reach was very convenient.

Samsung apparently thinks that the palm gesture — where the phone recognizes someone holding up their hand and automatically triggers the shutter — is a decent substitute. You can also control the S25 Ultra’s camera with a paired Galaxy Watch. But I’d argue neither of those is as simple as pressing a button on the stylus. They’re certainly not as inconspicuous if you’re trying to capture a candid shot. (The S Pen’s button still exists, but it’s mostly there to bring up the Air command shortcuts menu.)

This less capable S Pen marks a surprising regression for Samsung’s do-everything smartphone. However, the company seems hopeful that its Galaxy AI software capabilities will receive greater customer adoption. At least the handy screen-off memo feature isn’t going anywhere.

Photography by Chris Welch / The Verge

The Galaxy S25 Ultra, announced today, sheds more of its Note roots this year with rounded corners and flat edges that align it more with the rest of the S series. It comes with Qualcomm’s latest chipset, an upgraded ultrawide camera, and not much else, hardware-wise. With no price increase over last year’s model — starting at $1,299 — it’s a light refresh of Samsung’s biggest phone, with a major emphasis on One UI 7.0’s AI upgrades.

Something about the shift from curved edges to flat sides makes the S25 Ultra look hefty in photos, like if the Cybertruck were a phone. But it’s actually slightly smaller and lighter than last year’s device, even with a bigger 6.9-inch screen thanks to slimmer bezels. It’s equipped with a Snapdragon 8 Elite processor tuned for Galaxy devices — that’s true for all S25-series phones sold in all regions, which hasn’t been the case recently. And it still comes with one more strong spec: seven years of OS updates and security patches.

Photo: Allison Johnson / The Verge

There are some interesting things not on the Ultra this year, though. Bixby is no longer the default virtual assistant. It’s still present and you can summon it through its own app. But Google Gemini will answer when you long-press the wake button on the side of the phone.

The included S Pen, another holdover from the Note era, gets a bit of a downgrade. It no longer supports Bluetooth, so the air gesture controls that previous versions offered are gone. The S25 Ultra’s included S Pen is just a basic stylus, no magic wand tricks up its sleeve. Bummer.

Camera hardware is largely unchanged from the previous model, except for a new 50-megapixel ultrawide, replacing a 12-megapixel module. Samsung claims that an upgrade to the S25’s algorithmic image processing has improved detail in zoomed images. On the video side, Samsung now offers a Galaxy Log profile along with a custom LUT.

Photo: Allison Johnson / The Verge

The most interesting changes are software-side in One UI 7.0. My colleague Dominic Preston has a good rundown of the new stuff as it also appears on the S25 and S25 Plus models. Unsurprisingly, it all has to do with AI, and much of it we were already familiar with thanks to the One UI 7.0 beta. But a couple of things made me sit up and pay attention.

The first is the ability to use AI across apps to take action, like taking a picture of a flyer and having Gemini add the dates to your calendar and send your spouse an email about it. Maybe this doesn’t sound like much, but some of us have to remember which day is “crazy hair day” at preschool, when conferences are, and the deadline for signing up for this season’s soccer class. A little help would be nice. This will first work across Google Workspace and Samsung native apps, with the addition of WhatsApp and Spotify.

The other thing I’m interested to see in action is suggested routines. In theory, the S25 phones will be able to notice if there are certain settings you tend to use at the same time every day or under certain conditions — like turning Bluetooth on every time you get in the car and turning it off when you get out. When it sees a pattern, it should be able to suggest a routine to take care of those actions for you automatically. You’ll be able to customize the routine parameters to your liking, but you won’t have to go through the tedious work of setting it up from scratch. That could be cool!

The thing is, this stuff isn’t exclusive to the S25 Ultra or even the S25 series. Samsung smartphone product manager Blake Gaiser told me Samsung will bring its new AI features to older devices where possible. The company certainly seems committed to delivering those updates to older phones — but don’t forget that they probably won’t always be free.

We’ll find out soon enough whether this is the AI update that will finally deliver on the promise of AI on our smartphones; the Galaxy S25 Ultra and its S25 siblings ship on February 7th.

If the Galaxy S24 series heralded the triumphant arrival of Galaxy AI, then the S25 and S25 Plus may be a bit of a comedown: they promise more AI that’s smarter and sometimes slightly faster. You’d better like it because that’s pretty much all you’re gonna get.

Samsung changed as little as it could on the Galaxy S25 and S25 Plus, announced today alongside the larger and redesigned Galaxy S25 Ultra. There’s the obligatory jump to a new chipset — in this case, Qualcomm’s custom-tuned Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy, included in phones worldwide this time around — and a welcome decision to offer 12GB of RAM as standard on every S25 phone, pulling the base model in line with the others.

The displays are the same as last year: 6.2 inches on the S25 and 6.7 inches on the S25 Plus, peaking at 2,600 nits of brightness and 120Hz refresh rate. The cameras are identical, too. There’s a 50-megapixel main camera, an ultrawide, and a 3x telephoto, with a familiar 12-megapixel selfie shooter on the front.

If you were to upgrade from last year’s Galaxy S24 Plus to this year’s model, the only spec that would change is the chipset. Well, that and the fact that the new phones are “Qi2 Ready” — they don’t have the magnets that Qi2 certification requires, but they’ll charge at up to 15W on a Qi2 charger when paired with Samsung’s official Qi2 Ready magnet cases.

Perhaps I’m being a little unfair. Samsung hasn’t increased its prices at least — the S25 starts at $799.99 and the Plus model at $999.99, with preorders open now ahead of a full launch on February 7th. It’s also maintaining its promise of seven generations of Android updates and seven years of security support.

Both phones are lighter than their predecessors and almost half a millimeter thinner. That should ease the disappointment of anyone who’s been hoping for the launch of the rumored S25 Slim, which is now tipped not to launch in the US at all. But it’s still hard to avoid the inevitable conclusion: this year is a software update, not a hardware one.

The new Galaxy phones are awash with AI-branded features — which Samsung says remain free to use this year, though its plans are unclear beyond that. Plenty of them have been here since last year, like Google’s Circle to Search or generative photo editing tools that let you draw elements into photographs or remove distracting people and objects. Those now generate better results in less time, helped by improvements in AI models and the move to the Snapdragon 8 Elite, which handles more AI processing on-device, including previously cloud-based tasks like Generative Edit.

Audio Eraser is a built-in tool for video editing that lets you remove or reduce video noise across specific categories — think voices, music, wind, crowds — to focus on whichever sounds you care about. It works well, but it’s only new to Samsung: Google Pixel phones have been able to do the same thing through Audio Magic Eraser since the Pixel 8.

Other AI abilities are just as familiar, but we didn’t always call them AI. Take AI Select, accessed from Samsung’s Edge Panel, which gives “suggested actions” like cropping and sharing screenshots, creating GIFs from videos, or adding events to your calendar. It replaces Smart Select, which did most of that, too, but with a different design.

The S25 phones also offer a daily summary called Now Brief that lets you know what’s on your calendar for the day or how your commute looks, bringing us back full circle to 2012’s Google Now. Meanwhile, the Now Bar is Samsung’s answer to Apple’s Dynamic Island: a lockscreen element that can show sports scores and Google Maps navigation instructions or tell you what song is playing. It sounds useful, but is it AI? Apple didn’t think so.

Some of the new features represent more meaningful progress. The phone’s AI assistant — which is now based on Google Gemini by default, with Samsung’s own Bixby relegated to access through its app — can control your phone with natural language requests. Ask it to make text bigger or find photos from your last holiday, and it should oblige. Gemini can now also work across multiple apps in a single interaction, though this upgrade isn’t exclusive to Samsung. It might look up a good restaurant and share it with your friend or pull up sports fixtures and add them to your calendar.

The problem for me is that most of these features are hard to test in-depth when you’re at a launch event using a phone that isn’t yours, has few apps installed and no accounts signed in, and might have only been set up for the first time that morning. We’ll have a better sense of how effective Samsung’s new AI features are when we can actually use the S25 and S25 Plus for an extended run in our review.

The problem for Samsung is that, until then, it’s not clear what here should tempt anyone into upgrading. Many of these AI and software features are baked into One UI 7 itself and should roll out soon to owners of the S24 and older models. If the hardware’s hardly changing, and the software’s coming to your phone anyway, what’s the incentive to upgrade?

Yesterday, my colleague Allison Johnson wrote that Samsung needs to give us a reason to care about new phones every year. On the strength of the S25 and S25 Plus, I think it’s fair to say that it hasn’t.

Photography by Dominic Preston / The Verge

We’re expecting the Galaxy S25, S25 Plus and S25 Ultra, and new AI features.

Samsung is announcing its new Galaxy S25 phones. We’ll have all of the updates as they come in, but, as you can see below, we had a lot of this embargoed and got an early look.

But there may be some surprises! You can tune in to watch the event in the video below once everything gets started at 1PM ET / 10AM PT.

Expect Samsung to talk about AI. It’s the thing tech companies love to talk about as much as possible. Probably because they’re all spending a lot of money on it. Google, Apple, Microsoft, and others have used similar events to chat about how they’re implementing AI into their software, for example.

Whatever comes up, we’ll have it all here.

The NFL told the New England Patriots to shut down the team’s Bluesky account. Patriots VP of content Fred Kirsch said the team was told that Bluesky is “not an approved social media platform for the NFL yet,” addressing a fan question on a January 16th episode of the Patriots Unfiltered podcast, as spotted by Awful Announcing.

Kirsch said the team “briefly” had a Bluesky account before the league asked it to take the account down. The NFL told Front Office Sports in November it was aware of Bluesky but had no presence there, Awful Announcing notes. The league did not immediately respond to our request for comment.

Football teams are allowed to post on other platforms, including X, which the NFL has a content partnership with that includes the “NFL Portal” that X CEO Linda Yaccarino revealed in October. The league also has a content deal with Reddit and a heavy presence on Threads and other Meta-owned platforms.

Bluesky has been growing steadily, with some occasional recent spikes in signups. The platform is closing in on 29 million users as of this writing, nearly doubling where it was two months ago. Whether that’s enough for the NFL is an open question, but Front Office also reported Bluesky was working to get leagues on board with the platform. The Patriots are “ready to go” whenever it does, Kirsch said on Patriots Unfiltered.

Google Fiber’s next big expansion is underway in Las Vegas, Nevada. After first announcing the expansion last year, Google has confirmed that it has started construction in Las Vegas and Clark County where its fiber internet service will be available “later this year.”

GFiber, as it’s increasingly being branded, is currently available in select cities across 19 states, including California, North Carolina, Texas, Tennesee, and more. The company most recently lit up its services in Pocatello, Idaho; Logan, Utah; and Lakewood, Colorado, and it plans on bringing GFiber to Lawrence, Kansas as well. Like other fiber internet services, GFiber has symmetrical internet speeds, meaning the speeds for uploads and downloads are the same.

Image: Google

On Wednesday, Google also confirmed that it’s piloting simplified, “lifestyle-based” plans in Alabama and Tennesee, which were first spotted last month. The new $70 / month Core 1 Gig, $100 / month Home 3 Gig, and $150 / month Edge 8 Gig plans replace the 1 Gig, 2 Gig, 5 Gig, and 8 Gig plans that GFiber widely offers.

These new plans are also launching in all of the locations where GFiber is currently available in Arizona and North Carolina, GFiber spokesperson Sunny Gettinger tells The Verge. They’re coming to most of GFiber’s remaining cities within the next month, too.