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Google is launching eight featured notebooks to start, with more to come. Google is partnering with authors, researchers, and publications to launch “featured” notebooks within its AI note-taking app, NotebookLM. These notebooks come prefilled with research and let you interact with the app’s tools, including its AI podcast maker, to learn more about each topic. Google has released eight featured notebooks to start, including one focused on longevity from Super Agers author Eric Topol, another centered around parenting advice from Jacqueline Nesi’s Substack newsletter, “Techno Sapiens,” and a notebook on the complete works of Shakespeare. It also partnered with The…

Hi! Welcome to Installer No. 89, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. My name is Jay Peters, and I will be taking care of Installer while David is on parental leave. All of us here at The Verge are very excited for him and his family, and he'll be back later this year. It's a huge honor to be writing this. I look forward to Installer every week to see what awesome things David is obsessed with and what you all are into. (Thanks to everyone who sent over their favorite non-famous apps to get…

GM was the first major US automaker to make the promise to go all-electric by 2035, just four years ago. Those promises have since turned into rough estimates under the second Donald Trump presidency, with the company softening language about its electrification goals. But GM is riding high on EV sales, and as CEO Mary Barra puts it, EVs are still the future - just on a delayed (and very flexible) timeline. "We still believe in an all-electric future," Barra told The Verge in an exclusive interview at the Le Mans race in France. "The regulations were getting in front…

Several days after temporarily shutting down the Grok AI bot that was producing antisemitic posts and praising Hitler in response to user prompts, Elon Musk’s AI company tried to explain why that happened. In a series of posts on X, it said that “…we discovered the root cause was an update to a code path upstream of the @grok bot. This is independent of the underlying language model that powers @grok.” On the same day, Tesla announced a new 2025.26 update rolling out “shortly” to its electric cars, which adds the Grok assistant to vehicles equipped with AMD-powered infotainment systems,…

Amazon’s first four-day Prime Day technically ended yesterday, but a few deals have stuck around a little longer. You won’t see a bright red “Prime Day Deal” tag anymore, which can make these stragglers a little hard to find, so we’ve collected them for you. These deals could end at any time, and we wouldn’t expect them to last very long. Still, if you sat out Prime Day this year, there’s still a chance to get that big-screen TV, a robot vacuum, or a pair of wireless earbuds at a steep discount. Smart home deals Vacuum deals Headphone and earbud…

There’s a new AI in the house. I've waited two years to try out the new Alexa, which was first announced way back in 2023, and this week I finally got access to Alexa Plus. I've now spent 24 hours with Amazon's generative AI-powered voice assistant, and it's not just an improvement on the original; it's an entirely new assistant. Alexa Plus knows more, can do more, and is easier to interact with because it understands more. I can ramble, pause, sigh, cough, change my request mid-sentence, and it can adapt and respond appropriately. No more, "Sorry, I'm not sure…

The Playdate is easy to forget about. It's colorful and weird, but it's also tiny. Like the Game Boy Micro before it, sometimes I toss it in a bag and then can't remember where I put it. But over the past few weeks, the yellow handheld has been in constant rotation in my house, despite being up against big distractions like Mario Kart World and Death Stranding 2, thanks to the Playdate's now-complete second season of games. The seasonal structure is one of the unique aspects of the Playdate. When the handheld first launched in 2022, owners got access to…

Just four years after Rivian began selling its R1T truck, 2025 marks the beginning of the R1T and R1S' second generation. Considering they look essentially the same on the outside, it might be hard to decipher what warrants a new generation. But underneath, it's actually quite easy: all-new electric architecture, a new motor arrangement, retuned suspension, and more. Kicking off at $107,700, here's how all these revisions make the 2025 Rivian R1S Premium Tri-Motor a true frontrunner in the modern EV space. Specs The tri-motor arrangement fits in between the base dual and top-level quad, and was my tester's powertrain…

Here at The Verge, we love physical media, and we know many of you do as well. That’s why it’s our duty to share the news that many great 4K Blu-ray and standard Blu-ray movies, TV shows, and box sets are on sale for Prime Day. Amazon is currently offering a ton of great Blu-ray deals (including a “buy two, get one free” deal), but if you’d rather shop elsewhere, other retailers have an excellent selection of deals, too. Now until tonight at 12AM ET, for example, Target is running a “buy two, get one free” promo. Barnes & Noble,…

Amazon Prime Day’s best deals may not last for much longer, since the sale ends later tonight. This includes a big discount on the 2025 Hisense U7, a midrange TV that’s seeing deep discounts right now. The 65-inch model is available on Amazon for $797.99, which is almost 50 percent off its original. And the 55-inch is under $600. That’s a lot of performance for the money, and I’ll tell you why. Hisense U7QG TV Where to Buy: $899.99 $597.99 at Amazon (55-inch) $1499.99 $797.99 at Amazon (65-inch) $1999.99 $1097.99 at Amazon (75-inch) In previous years, a lower price generally…