By Vlad Savov
By Adrianne Jeffries
A little over a week ago, I and 550,000 others took the train to Tokyo’s Big Sight convention center for the largest comic book-related event in the world. But what’s sold there isn’t back issues of X-Men, or even Shonen Jump for that matter. The three-day Comic Market (shortened to Comiket...
Fan fiction meets indie rock
This episode is dedicated to James Edward Franco. Born April 19th, 1978, the multihyphenate first came to prominence with the 1999 cult classic Freaks and Geeks. He has since been credited over 75 roles as an actor while simultaneously trying his...
iRobot is working on a new design that's on the softer side of the robotic spectrum — an inflatable arm that can lift multiple times its own weight. Dubbed Advanced Inflatable Robot — or AIR for short — the design is actually built off of the company's unmanned ground vehicle project (UGV). The AIR's inflatable arm weighs just half a pound at present, but can manage to lift objects that...
Retail giant Best Buy has suspended its earnings forecast after lackluster second quarter results. The company, which has been struggling to adapt to a market dominated by online sellers, posted revenue of about $10.5 billion, down from $10.9 billion at the same time in 2011. Unlike in March, though, where restructuring costs and a share buyout from Carphone Warehouse led to a $1.7 billion loss, Best Buy saw $12 million in net income this time, still a painful decline from the same time last year, but a less striking one. As before, restructuring costs ate up some of the gross profit.
In the US, Best Buy revealed that it has reduced its "big box" square footage by 4 percent compared to last year, a number that is likely to increase as it continues with its plan to close 50 or more US stores. Domestic and international sales still...
Still declining, but maybe declining less
OnLive, the popular streaming gaming company, has been sold to a "newly-formed" enterprise amid...
Jawbone's popular Jambox speaker already came in a variety of colors, but now you're able to customize your own. When ordering from Jawbone's site you can pick and choose from nine different rubber end caps and thirteen varieties of metal grill for a total of over 100 different color combinations. Jawbone's site will highlight the most popular choices, and you'll also be able to share your own...
Lapka, an iPhone accessory and app combo which tests organic food as well as detecting environmental factors such as radiation, humidity, and electromagnetism, is set to ship before the end of the year. Speaking to The Verge, Creative Director Vadik Marmeladov revealed that the company will publish its app and begin delivering press samples of the device in October before a full consumer release at some point in November — according to Fast Company, it will cost $220. He also provided us with images of some early prototypes.
Cross-platform video chat app Oovoo is bringing its Android and iPhone offerings up to par with its desktop and iPad services today: the two mobile apps now can wrangle up to four video streams at once. Oovoo's apps (including its Facebook offering) have supported 12-way video chat for a while now, but Android and iPhone users to-date were stuck with being able to view just one other user's video stream at a time. With today's update you'll still be able to chat with twelve people at once, but now you'll get to see four of your friends' video streams at a time. We gave the new app for Android a quick spin and opened up a four-way video...
By Dan Seifert
By Dieter Bohn
By Bryan Bishop
"Remember that video of the N64 kids screaming and slapping at the box?" Johnsies, Verge Forums
Samsung is announcing plans to invest another $4 billion in its Austin, Texas factory in order to renovate one of its chip production lines and increase fabrication of the system chips used in smartphones and tablets, reports Reuters. The plant is most notable for being the location of Apple’s...
Everything Everywhere, a joint venture between Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom, will reportedly replace existing Orange and T-Mobile brands in the UK from October onwards. Although the joint venture was formed in 2010, following the merger of Orange UK and T-Mobile UK — both brands...
Japanese manufacturer Panasonic has announced a new Android app for home automation alongside a range of smart appliances, including refrigerators, air conditioners, and healthcare products. Dubbed Panasonic Smart App, the program will build on...
UK telecoms regulator Ofcom has granted final approval for Everything Everywhere's proposed plan to roll out LTE service on its 1800MHz spectrum ahead of the proper UK 4G auction expected next year. The conglomerate, represented by the T-Mobile and Orange brands in the British...
The patent battle continues anew between Apple and Motorola this week with the Google subsidiary filing a fresh patent case with the US International Trade Commission today. Details of the claims aren't yet available, but The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Motorola is alleging that...
HTC wrote off its entire $40 million investment in troubled cloud gaming company OnLive after the company spontaneously dissolved and reformed this weekend, and it now looks like fellow investor BT may do the same. The British telecommunications company, which purchased a 2.6 percent stake in the company in early 2010 and early exclusive access to the UK version of the service, told TechRadar that a write-off was...
BitInstant is reportedly set to launch an international debit card based on the BitCoin virtual currency. That's according to Coding In My Sleep, which has published the transcript of an online chat in which BitInstant co-founder Charlie Shrem...
Matt Webb sips from a cup at Four Barrel Coffee in San Francisco, never blinking. He pauses as his lips near the cup, trains his eyes on me, and says, “there will always be a place for disposable things.” The deceptively simple statements that come from his mouth sound like axioms of design,...
You're probably familiar with ASIMO, Honda's humanoid robot, but you might not be aware of the company's expansive range of lawnmowers. Today the...
While the NASA's Curiosity rover explores the surface of Mars, NASA has another mission planned that will measure the red planet's subterranean geology. NASA's new lander will be named InSight...
You've waited, you've watched, you've sent angry letters to our homes and offices — and now the day is finally here. Yes, The Verge has been unleashed in the App and Play Stores, and you can go...
Earlier this month we heard rumors of the next entries in Sony's NEX line of mirrorless cameras, and now that information has been corroborated by photos purporting to be of the models in question....
Warner Bros. has extended the redemption deadlines that accompany many of the studio's Blu-ray/DVD digital copies until May 2017. First reported by Tech of The Hub, we've been able to confirm that...
Synaptics makes touchpads and touchscreens. You probably knew that. Today, the company's getting into the keyboard market, too, and also building a...
As we await the outcome of the current Apple vs. Samsung trial, there's another Apple vs. Samsung trial that's making its way through the US court system. This second trial is all about the "Universal Search" feature on the Galaxy Nexus, which led Samsung to issue a series of updates to its products to remove the feature. After a temporary injunction that banned the Galaxy Nexus, the case has...
Less than a week after its release, iFixit has already pried open and gutted Samsung's Galaxy Note 10.1, and while we were less than impressed by the tablet's outward-facing performance, the device's internals should at least make for rather painless repairs. The usual suspects of chips, ribbons,...
