Tech

Spotify and Universal Music Group have signed a new multi-year agreement that could result in a tiered subscription approach aimed at providing extra perks for “superfans.” The two didn’t announce any specifics, including the number of years the deal lasts, but UMG says it’s consistent with a “Streaming 2.0” vision it presented to investors last year. UMG chairman and CEO …

Some Slack users are finding that their notifications aren’t showing up on the platform this morning, or that their corresponding messages are harder to find than usual. A few of my colleagues are reporting similar issues on IMR’s Slack channels, and I’ve been receiving repeated notifications for thread messages that I’ve already marked as read. The issues also seem …

Today, I’m talking with Gary Smith, CEO of the networking company Ciena. You probably aren’t familiar with Ciena — the company isn’t really a household name. But every internet user has relied on the company’s products; in fact, every internet user has used its products.  Ciena makes the hardware and software that make the fiber optic cables that connect the …

A chatbot made by Chinese artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek has rocketed to the top of Apple’s App Store charts in the US this week, dethroning OpenAI’s ChatGPT as the most downloaded free app. The eponymous AI assistant is powered by DeepSeek’s open-source models, which the company says can be trained at a fraction of the cost using far fewer chips …

We might have just gotten our best look yet at Apple’s next affordable iPhone SE, shown in both video and photographs of what’s either a real phone or a convincing dummy unit. Despite some reports that the next SE would adopt recent iPhones’ Dynamic Island design, this model appears to stick with the older notch. Leaker Majin Bu shared a …

Retro Remake’s Taki Udon announced last night that preorders had opened for the SuperStation One, a clone of the PS One variant of the original PlayStation. The $149.99 Founders Edition preorders are sold out already, but you can still preorder the standard $225 SuperStation One for $179.99 right now, with shipping expected in “Q4 or Earlier.” While the SuperStation One …

Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 68, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome, hope you’re staying warm and sane, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.)  This week, I’ve been reading about Kieran Culkin and insomnia and the eBay for fancy startup stuff, finally …

Whenever Netflix raises its prices — which seems to happen roughly as often as Ben Affleck falls in love with an A-list celebrity — the company always gives the same reason. It needs the extra money, you see, in order to keep investing in the kind of programming and product its 302 million subscribers demand. That’s how the standard monthly …

Here’s the scene: I’m wearing Meta’s latest Ray-Ban glasses with a new feature called Live AI, which can answer questions about the world around you. I’m preparing for a four-hour road trip to my in-laws for the Christmas holiday. I’m preplanning the next day’s breakfast because I’m 99.9 percent certain I will have no brain cells to concoct an edible …

I stopped buying most games for my Nintendo Switch the day I bought a Steam Deck. My Switch has been a Mario and Zelda machine ever since. It’s simple: the Steam Deck took the Switch’s best trick — pick-up-and-play portability — while offering more games that run better. I can easily resume the ones I started on my desktop PC, …