The Verge·Tuesday, January 13, 2026

The Verge - Tuesday, January 13, 2026

10 stories~15 min

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Stories Covered

The best robot vacuums we’ve tested for 2026

Robot vacuums are impressive devices that will clean your floors well and — thanks to bigger batteries and better robot brains — rarely get tired of doing their job. Over the last few years, these floor-sweeping bots have gone from utilitarian devices to full-fledged home robots that vacuum and mop your home, clean themselves, and trundle off to prepare themselves for the next run. I’ve been testing robot vacuums for over 7 years and have run more than 80 of them throughout my house. This guide

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Fired Rockstar employees’ plea for interim pay denied

A UK employment tribunal rejected a request from fired Rockstar Games employees to receive interim pay while waiting for a full hearing about their dismissal, according to Bloomberg and IGN. After Rockstar fired 34 employees last year - 31 from the UK and three from Canada - the Independent Workers' Union of Great Britain (IWGB) accused the company of "union busting." Rockstar claims that the fired employees were leaking company information in a Discord channel. The hearing took place over two d

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Framework hikes desktop PC prices as RAM shortage drags on

Just weeks after raising the price of its RAM modules, Framework has announced that it's also increasing the price of its desktop PC in response to the global memory shortage. The Framework Desktop with 32GB of RAM and an AMD Ryzen AI Max 385 chip now starts at $1,139, instead of $1,099. "We held off on it for as long as we could, but we had to update our Framework Desktop pricing today to account for the massive increase in LPDDR5x pricing from our suppliers," Framework says in a post on X. "As

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Meta plans to lay off hundreds of metaverse employees this week

Meta's Reality Labs team is expected to lose around 10 percent of its staff, with layoffs concentrated on the division's metaverse employees, as reported by The New York Times. The layoffs are apparently a side effect of Meta's AI ambitions, which are pulling focus away from its virtual reality division. According to the Times, Meta's chief technology officer, Andrew Bosworth, called a meeting for Wednesday that he "urged staff to attend in person," saying it will be the "most important" meetin

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Baseus’ retractable travel adapter is on sale for more than 50 percent off today

If you’re planning on traveling at all this year, the Baseus EnerCore CG11 Universal Travel Adapter is worth a look. The adapter can power up to six devices at once, and now through the end of today, January 12th, it’s on sale for just $34.19 (about $36 off) at Amazon, matching the all-time low price we last saw at the end of November. Baseus EnerCore CG11 Universal Travel Adapter Where to Buy: $69.99 $34.19 at Amazon $69.99 $39.99 at Baseus Baseus’ handy wall adapter supports four differe

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UK pushes up a law criminalizing deepfake nudes in response to Grok

The UK is bringing a law into force that makes creating nonconsensual intimate deepfake images, like the ones that have proliferated on X because of the Grok AI chatbot, a criminal offense, as reported by the BBC. "The Data Act, passed last year, made it a criminal offence to create - or request the creation of - non-consensual intimate images," according to a statement from Liz Kendall, the UK's Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology. "And today, I can announce to the House t

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The Stranger Things behind-the-scenes doc is a lot more boring than a secret episode

It's a weird time in the Stranger Things community. Following a monthslong lead-up to a finale that was so big it screened in theaters, the show's superfans have been spending their time dissecting the fifth season in order to prove that a hidden ninth episode is coming that represents the true ending of Stranger Things. So far that hasn't happened - but that doesn't mean Netflix is done with the series. The streamer just released One Last Adventure: The Making of Stranger Things 5, a two hour-l

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Anthropic wants you to use Claude to ‘Cowork’ in latest AI agent push

Anthropic wants to expand Claude's AI agent capabilities and take advantage of the growing hype around Claude Code - and it's doing it with a brand-new feature released Monday, dubbed "Claude Cowork." "Cowork can take on many of the same tasks that Claude Code can handle, but in a more approachable form for non-coding tasks," Anthropic wrote in a blog post. The company is releasing it as a "research preview" so the team can learn more about how people use it and continue building accordingly. S

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New York wants to regulate Roblox

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is making kids' online safety a cornerstone of her administration, and she's eyeing a platform that has often flown under the radar: Roblox. As progress in Congress has stagnated, states have become the primary drivers of internet reforms meant to protect kids, including age verification laws and new requirements for online platforms. Hochul announced a sweeping plan to expand online parental controls and age verification, which she'll tout at her State of the State on

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These are my favorite Switch 2 accessories

The Nintendo Switch 2 can be enjoyed right out of the box, but it’s even better with the right accessories. Some of these add-ons are more crucial than others, especially if you’re deciding what to buy early on. For example, a case and a screen protector can keep your console safe from scuffs, scratches, and drops, so both are what I’d consider to be essential. If you’re not a fan of how the Joy-Con 2 feel to use, a cheap but good wireless controller wouldn’t hurt, either. On the other hand, a m

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