This digest compiles the latest from The Verge.
Today’s The Verge Roundup
Samsung’s Galaxy Buds 4 Pro are the choice — if you have a Galaxy phone
15 Mar 2026, 1:00 pm by John.Higgins
Samsung promised “more than a design refresh” for its new top-end Galaxy Buds – it added upgraded woofers for improved, dual-amped hi-fi sound, a new blade design, clearer call performance, and better noise cancellation. Ultimately, while the $249.99 Galaxy Buds 4 aren’t a huge leap forward over the previous model, they keep what was good about the Buds 3 and improve on most of what wasn’t – as long as you use Samsung Galaxy devices.
That’s because, much like the AirPods Pro 3 with Apple gear, the Buds 4 Pro still work best when paired with another Galaxy device. This unlocks all of the functionality of the Buds 4 Pro, including hi-res audi …
The fast rise and epic fall of Clubhouse
15 Mar 2026, 12:24 pm by David Pierce
In 2020 and 2021, the social media world seemed to be on the verge of complete change. A new app called TikTok was ascendant, bringing a whole new kind of vertical video to phones everywhere. And another app – not as popular, but growing fast, and already hugely influential among the tech set – looked like it might have an entirely new social idea on its hands. It was called Clubhouse, and it was a huge bet that audio might be the future. It was the next big thing, until it wasn’t.
On this episode of Version History, we tell the story of the early days of Clubhouse, and how a simple audio group chat app turned into a booming entertainment a …
Live-service games are a mess
15 Mar 2026, 12:00 pm by Andrew Webster
This is The Stepback, a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more on the slow-motion disaster of live-service games, follow Andrew Webster. The Stepback arrives in our subscribers’ inboxes at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepback here.
How it started
Two years ago, I stood at the top of the iconic red stairs in Times Square to experience the weirdest concert of my life. As glowing butterflies flitted about the various screens, a crowd steadily grew, knowing something was happening, but unsure of what. Then a countdown started, and a minute later one of the screens opened up, revealing Ice Spice and, later, …
The $100,000 fee for H-1Bs is causing all sorts of problems
15 Mar 2026, 11:00 am by Gaby Del Valle
Last fall, President Donald Trump’s executive order raising the fee for H-1B visas to $100,000 – like many of his immigration policies – led to near-immediate chaos. Thousands of workers who had flown overseas to renew their visas ended up stranded abroad. Details about who would be affected only emerged after the fact. Six months later, the disorder from the initial announcement has mostly subsided. The H-1B registration season for the next fiscal year has just begun. With H-1B applications open until March 19th, it’s unclear what effect, if any, the new rules will have on hiring, immigration, and the workforce, but experts are warning the …
End of today’s The Verge roundup.
