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Stevie Bonifield
Stevie Bonifield
Epic Games employee says a native Linux launcher is coming “soon.”

A staff member in the official Epic Games Store community Discord confirmed a Linux app is in the works, but won’t be in the next preview release, VideoCardz reports. Linux users currently have to use third-party tools like the Heroic Games Launcher to run games from the Epic Games Store.

CMF’s clip earbuds hit the balance between cheap and good

7

Verge Score

The CMF Clip Pro are a very comfortable option for those that hate things in their ears.

John Higgins
Dominic Preston
Dominic Preston
Watch the first five minutes of HBO’s Green Lantern show.

We’ve had a couple trailers for Lanterns already, but now you can watch the opening scenes in full on YouTube, including a look at John Stewart’s (Aaron Pierre) unorthodox upbringing. The grounded, True Detective-inspired series premieres on HBO Max this Sunday.

Jess Weatherbed
Jess Weatherbed
Qualcomm’s $300 laptops will be netbooks, not Neo competitors.

Qualcomm has now shared that its Snapdragon C laptop platform is built on a 6nm process, with an 8-core CPU and support for up to 16GB of LPDDR5X memory. The budget laptops are obviously not powerhouses, especially with Qualcomm positioning them against Intel N250 devices instead of Intel’s Core lineup or the MacBook Neo’s A18 Pro chip.

Benchmarks comparing Snapdragon C perfromance against Intel N250.
The Intel N250 is hardly a formidable platform to oppose, but let’s not forget these laptops are prioritizing affordability.
Image: Qualcomm
Jess Weatherbed
Jess Weatherbed
Did your iPhone recieve an ‘Apple Threat Notification’?

You’re not alone — Apple told TechCrunch that it sent the notifications on Thursday to users in 110 countries who it suspects have been targeted by mercenary spyware. Apple has a new support page with guidance on how targets can best protect their devices against such attacks, which have “historically been associated with state actors.”

The Apple Threat Notification alert on iPhone.
This is what the notification looks like.
Image: Apple
Thomas Ricker
Thomas Ricker
Urban Arrow’s longtail electric cargo bike comes to the US.

The very popular Dutch maker of cargo bikes is now selling its Breeze Stateside. You can’t pass a school in Amsterdam without seeing a dozen Urban Arrows with kids frolicking in their front buckets, but longtails seem to sell better in the US of A. Prices start at $6,999.

Richard Lawler
Richard Lawler
Judge orders Kalshi to shut down most of its bets in Washington.

A preliminary injunction issued Wednesday finds the prediction market has likely broken state laws against running an illegal gambling operation.

The order requires Kalshi to stop offering, accepting, or facilitating wagers on sports, elections, politics, entertainment, culture, tech and science, or mentions in Washington. Kalshi must implement an IP address and residency based geofence by August 19 and a multi-source geofencing solution by September 2.

This does not include all the wagers offered on Kalshi, but it includes a substantial part of their business, which in recent years has been increasingly driven by sports wagers.

Richard Lawler
Richard Lawler
Bluesky beta tests better video support.

While recent stats from Similarweb showed a decline in Bluesky’s active users, the app is continuing to build that big tent Toni Schneider talked about and is now testing support for videos that are up to 10 minutes long. It’s also announced Bluesky Protocol Services, which is supposed to make it easier to build apps that connect to its AT Protocol infrastructure.

Jennifer Pattison Tuohy
Jennifer Pattison Tuohy
Today’s Vergecast: Should you let a robot mow your lawn?

Is it time to fire the neighbor kid and hire a robot lawnmower instead? Last year I wrote that “in all but a few scenarios, robot lawnmowers still aren’t worth your money,” but there’s a new class of Roombas with razor blades ready to tackle bumpy terrain and dodge crazy chickens. Realtor and smart home reviewer Brandon Doyle joins me to talk about our reviews of the newest robotic mowers and to let you know if they’re finally worth all that money. Read my review for more and check out Brandon’s video review.

Emma Roth
Emma Roth
Why did it have to be Instagzam?
1/3Image: Instagram
Stevie Bonifield
Stevie Bonifield
Chess.com’s new project is a poker site.

Gambit offers similar features for playing and learning poker online, like bot matches, live play, and tournaments, but without any real gambling. Like Chess.com, it also has an “Elo-style rating system.”

A screenshot from the poker site Gambit
Image: Gambit
I finally found a robot lawnmower I’d trust with my yard

I pitted five automowers against each other to find the best cutter for my challenging garden.

Jennifer Pattison Tuohy
Terrence O'Brien
Terrence O'Brien
Here’s your chance to name a spaceship something prescreened and dull.

Virgin Galactic is running a poll to choose the name for an upcoming member of its fleet. Unfortunately, you’re limited to voting for a preselected group of four finalists: Horizon, Explorer, Ascend, and Apeiron. All appropriately boring names — no Rocket McRocketface here.

Jay Peters
Jay Peters
Gemini Spark is now powered by Google’s upgraded Flash model.

The new Gemini 3.7 Flash makes the Spark AI agent “more efficient for knowledge work with improved tool use for Google Workspace apps, delivering improved accuracy and output quality for complex, multi-skill workflows,” Google says. The AI model itself also offers “substantial” improvements in software engineering and web development workflows, according to the company.

Google still hasn’t launched its long overdue 3.5 Pro model.

Mia Sato
Mia Sato
Luigi Mangione could take a plea deal.

The New York Times reports that Mangione, who is accused of murdering healthcare executive Brian Thompson, may plead guilty on Friday in the federal case against him. Mangione is also facing New York state charges in a trial that is scheduled to start in just a few weeks. His legal team could argue that the New York charges amount to double jeopardy if Mangione takes a plea in the federal case.

nytimes.com

[NYTimes.com]

Jay Peters
Jay Peters
X will let users see if the algorithm buried their posts.

From a new “Under the Hood” page in settings that X is piloting, you will be able to download aggregate stats for the past month on “labels that can affect post visibility in the X algorithm” that are applied to your posts and account, according to a screenshot published by TechCrunch.

A screenshot of X’s “Under the Hood” section.
Image: X
Elizabeth Lopatto
Elizabeth Lopatto
Here’s an estimate of Elon Musk’s death toll.

The end of USAID, which Elon Musk fed “into the wood chipper”, will cause an extra 14 million deaths through 2030, including 4.5 million in children under the age of 5. SpaceX shares are $141.10 as of this writing, above their IPO price of $135.

Correction: A previous version of this post referred to the journal article’s estimates as “new.” It was published in 2025.

TC Sottek
TC Sottek
They’re watching us.

As Flock reckons with a scandal over cops misusing data, Wired reports separately today that CBP personnel have “allegedly used government databases to spy on exes, crushes, and colleagues.” We’ve apparently learned nothing since we found out NSA agents were eavesdropping on love interests in 2013. I wouldn’t be surprised if the next Edward Snowden is being incubated somewhere in the government.

The Corvette Grand Sport X delivers Porsche 911 performance for a fraction of the price

More than just an E-Ray replacement, the GSX adds more power to the Corvette experience.

Lawrence Ulrich
Emma Roth
Emma Roth
Meta has removed over 750,000 underage accounts in Australia.

In the months since Australia’s social media ban, Meta says it has blocked 462,000 Instagram accounts and 294,000 Facebook accounts that appeared to belong to users under 16, according to Bloomberg.

Australia’s prime minister ramped up penalties for social media platforms in June after a study found that four in five teens under 16 in Australia were still using them.

I looked inside an AI generated movie, and the best parts were all human

Higgsfield is using Cully Hill Boys to show you how to prompt up your own movie.

Charles Pulliam-Moore
Emma Roth
Emma Roth
Here we go with the fake Moon pictures again.

A person on Reddit says their friend’s phone added craters to the Sun during yesterday’s solar eclipse. The poster doesn’t say what phone this was captured on, but it’s definitely something we’ve seen before.