This digest compiles the latest from The Verge.
Today’s The Verge Roundup
How OpenAI caved to the Pentagon on AI surveillance
2 Mar 2026, 2:22 pm by Hayden Field
On Friday evening, amidst fallout from a standoff between the Department of Defense and Anthropic, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced that his own company had successfully negotiated new terms with the Pentagon. The US government had just moved to blacklist Anthropic for standing firm on two red lines for military use: no mass surveillance of Americans and no lethal autonomous weapons (or AI systems with the power to kill targets without human oversight). Altman, however, implied that he’d found a unique way to keep those same limits in OpenAI’s contract.
“Two of our most important safety principles are prohibitions on domestic mass surveillan …
Apple announces the iPhone 17E
2 Mar 2026, 2:04 pm by Emma Roth
Apple has taken the wraps off the iPhone 17E, its latest entry-level smartphone. The iPhone 17E starts at $599 for 256GB of storage, and is available in black, white, and pink. The company revealed the new device as part of a series of announcements that kicked off this week.
Similar to its 16E predecessor, the iPhone 17E comes with a 6.1-inch display, but with a tougher Ceramic Shield 2 for better scratch resistance and reduced glare. The iPhone 17E adds an upgraded A19 processor and MagSafe charging with Qi2 support, allowing for wireless charging at up to 15W.
It also has a C1X chip, the next-gen version of Apple’s in-house modem, which …
Apple launches a new iPad Air with an upgraded M4 processor
2 Mar 2026, 2:00 pm by Andrew Liszewski
After updating its mid-level tablets last year, Apple has announced a new version of the iPad Air today now powered by the company’s M4 processor. That’s the same processor found in the 7th-generation iPad Pro as well as MacBook Pro and Mac mini models that debuted in 2024.
The new iPad Air with M4 is “up to 30 percent faster than iPad Air with M3,” according to a press release from the company. It also features the Apple-design N1 wireless networking chip upgrading the latest iPad Air with Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6, and Thread connectivity. The cellular versions of the new iPad Air also feature Apple’s C1X modem the company says “offers up to 5 …
Pokémon Pokopia is an expansive adventure disguised as a cozy life sim
2 Mar 2026, 1:00 pm by Charles Pulliam-Moore
Nintendo has a history of fleshing out the larger Pokémon world through spinoffs. What games from the Pokémon Snap and Detective Pikachu series lacked in terms of action, they made up for in the way they made pokémon feel like creatures with rich lives outside of their relationships with trainers. And as the mainline series has evolved over the years, games like Legends: Z-A have begun putting more emphasis on the idea that pokémon might be better off if humans kept their distance.
Pokémon spinoffs have also tended to be relatively boxed-in, both in terms of how much space there is for you to play in and the way their stories are so self-co …
Oh great, here comes 6G
2 Mar 2026, 11:30 am by Allison Johnson
It brings me no pleasure to say this, but friends: The next G cometh.
The standard formally known as 6G is still being established, but it’s going to be a major topic of discussion at Mobile World Congress 2026, which gets started today in Barcelona.
5G arrived back in 2019, but also, did it, entirely? You may have noticed a distinct lack of the robot surgeons and streets dominated by autonomous vehicles that standard was supposed to enable in your daily life. Like the Gs that arrived before, 5G continues to evolve through new “releases” every few years – a case of incremental progress that couldn’t possibly live up to all that hype. Tha …
Tecno’s latest concept phone is lit by neon
2 Mar 2026, 9:00 am by Dominic Preston
After teasing a magnetic, modular smartphone concept the other day, Tecno has followed that up with another two phone designs centered around color-changing finishes: one with E Ink, and the other incorporating neon.
I’m the most taken with the Pova Neon, which the company says includes genuine neon lighting, not just bright colors: it uses “ionized inert gas lighting technology” to create a glowing effect.
By contrast the AI EInk builds color electronic ink into the rear of the phone, allowing you to change the phone’s color on the fly. Perhaps more impressively, you’re able to set the color using the camera, so you could make your phone …
Vivo’s next phone will launch with a professional camera rig
2 Mar 2026, 8:00 am by Dominic Preston
Vivo rarely has a presence at MWC, but this year it bucked that trend in a big way, with the reveal of its next flagship phone, the X300 Ultra, alongside an upgraded telephoto extender lens and professional camera cage. The company isn’t ready to launch the handset just yet – or even reveal very many of its specs – but has confirmed that whenever it does arrive, it will be the first Ultra to go on sale outside China.
The only concrete detail about the X300 Ultra itself Vivo would confirm is that it will have a 200-megapixel telephoto camera. That was true of last year’s X200 Ultra too though, so we’re still waiting to find out what upgrades …
Qualcomm’s new chip is geared toward wearable AI gadgets
2 Mar 2026, 7:00 am by Victoria Song
Like it or not, more AI wearables may be on the horizon – or at least Qualcomm seems to think so. Today the company announced its new Snapdragon Wear Elite chip.
At a press briefing, Qualcomm said it considers the Elite to be a “wrist plus” chip. Meaning, it won’t replace the previous W5 Plus, but exist alongside it. The company said it expects the Elite will appeal to gadget makers looking to create AI wearables such as pendants, pins, and potentially display-free smart glasses. (More powerful smart glasses will likely use its AR chip.)
On top of being upgraded to the 3nm process, the Elite chip will have an eNPU and a Hexagon NPU for A …
The Motorola Razr Fold is shaping up to be pure flagship
2 Mar 2026, 5:00 am by Allison Johnson
Motorola has revealed a little more about its upcoming folding phone, and all signs point toward a premium option – not the budget-friendlier alternative the category could use.
For starters, the Razr Fold will cost €1,999 (about $2,350) bundled with the Moto Pen Ultra. It’ll go on sale first in Europe, with North America to follow “in the coming months.” Motorola hasn’t confirmed how much it will cost without the stylus, or what the price is in US dollars.
The Razr Fold will come with a huge 6,000mAh silicon-carbon battery, making it the first foldable sold in North America to use the technology. It’s not quite the biggest battery on any …
End of today’s The Verge roundup.
