The Verge·Saturday, January 3, 2026

The Verge - Saturday, January 3, 2026

10 stories~15 min

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Stories Covered

Meta’s Quest 3S is still $50 off and comes with a $50 gift card

We posted a couple of times about Meta’s Quest 3S during the holidays. The virtual reality headset that typically sold for $299.99 was — and still is — available for $249.99. Better yet, you can get in on a promotion at Amazon that includes a $50 digital account credit with purchase. You can find a similar sale price of $249.99 at other retailers, but it seems like Amazon is the only one that includes a gift card. The Quest 3S is a wonderful device for first-time virtual reality explorers. It bu

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I went to the Stranger Things finale in theaters and the strangest thing happened

The parking lot was packed. That's the first Strange Thing. A little background. Just about every mall is struggling now, but the Neshaminy Mall in Bensalem, Pennsylvania is more or less comatose. As Defector's Dan McQuade, a lifelong Pennsylvanian and mall fan, wrote in his fond remembrance of the shopping center, the once bustling complex is mostly a shuttered ghost town, with half of it set to be demolished. There are only two real reasons to go there: a well-stocked Barnes & Noble and the AM

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This smart home controller is literally a piece of wood

The Mui Board is a minimalist, screen-free interface for controlling tech in your home. One of the fun parts of being a tech journalist for over a decade is that occasionally you get to watch a truly unique gadget go from concept to reality - and, eventually, into your living room. That's the case with the Mui Board, a smart home controller built into a piece of wood. The Mui was first demoed at CES in 2019, and I've seen it at several shows over the years, in various iterations, always with t

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CES 2026: all the news, gadgets, and innovations from the biggest tech show

Hot on the heels of new year’s celebrations, the annual Consumer Electronics Show will get underway in early January 2026. Once again, Las Vegas will host a sprawling sneak peek at the tech that will shape the industry throughout 2026. The Verge will be on the ground at CES 2026 covering the biggest announcements, press conferences, and gadgets and we’ll be sharing hands-on impressions and takeaways of the best new tech making its debut in Vegas. The show floor officially opens on Tuesday, Janua

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Grok is undressing anyone, including minors

xAI's Grok is removing clothing from pictures of people without their consent following this week's rollout of a feature that allows X users to instantly edit any image using the bot without needing the original poster's permission. Not only does the original poster not get notified if their picture was edited, but Grok appears to have few guardrails in place for preventing anything short of full explicit nudity. In the last few days, X has been flooded with imagery of women and children appeari

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Billion-dollar Bitcoin hacker Ilya Lichtenstein thanks Trump for early prison release

Just over a year after being sentenced to five years in prison for the theft of billions of dollars in Bitcoin, hacker Ilya Lichtenstein is free. Lichtenstein announced his release in a post on X, specifically crediting Trump: "Thanks to President Trump's First Step Act, I have been released from prison early. I remain committed to making a positive impact in cybersecurity as soon as I can." Thanks to President Trump's First Step Act, I have been released from prison early. I remain committed

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Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is now blogging about AI slop

Now that Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has appointed a new CEO to run Microsoft's biggest businesses, he has a little more time on his hands for other adventures. Beyond focusing on Microsoft's technical work, Nadella is now turning to the ancient art of blogging to discuss Microsoft's year ahead and why he thinks everyone needs to move "beyond the arguments of [AI] slop vs sophistication." Nadella's first blog entry in "sn scratchpad" is all about Microsoft and other AI companies still needing to

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This smart fridge wants to solve the hassle of grocery shopping

This GE Profile fridge has a patented “Scan-to-List” barcode scanner built in, designed to make it easy to add items to a digital shopping list. Have you always wanted to scan your groceries at home? If so, the newest smart fridge from GE Appliances is for you. There's a barcode scanner built into the water dispenser that works along with an interior camera and an 8-inch tablet to help you keep track of what food you need and add it to your digital shopping list. The GE Profile Smart 4-Door

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Pebble’s round smartwatch is getting a reboot

The Pebble Round 2 (pictured here in rose gold) ditches the OG Time Round’s chunky display bezel. It's time to reboot another OG Pebble smartwatch - specifically, the round-faced Time Round, which is getting a follow-up more than a decade after its original launch. The new Pebble Round 2 improves upon its predecessor with longer battery life and a larger 1.3-inch touchscreen display, ditching the chunky bezel that surrounded the original Time Round's 1-inch screen. The Pebble Round 2 works wit

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Tesla’s fourth quarter sales fell a lot more than expected

Tesla's sales fell in the fourth quarter of 2025, as rising competition and the expiration of the federal EV tax credit continued to sap the company's global ambitions. The sales drop has led to Tesla losing its title as the world's best-selling EV maker to China's BYD, which sold 2.26 million vehicles last year. The disappointing sales report raises the question whether Tesla can reverse its downward fortune and achieve its goals of deploying self-driving cars and humanoid robots, both of whic

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