This digest compiles the latest from The Verge.
Today’s The Verge Roundup
First photos of solar eclipse from Artemis II crew look almost too good to be real
7 Apr 2026, 2:12 pm by Emma Roth
The Artemis II astronauts have already captured some incredible sights of the Earth and Moon during their journey. Now we can add a new visual to that list: a total solar eclipse as seen from deep space. It looks almost too perfect; the Moon has crisp, but uneven edges, while bright stars dot the area around it.
Another photo shared by NASA shows the Earth, a portion of it cloaked in shadows, setting beyond the Moon. It’s meant to resemble the “earthrise” image captured by the astronauts on the Apollo 8 mission nearly six decades ago.
The four-member crew witnessed the eclipse while beyond the Moon, creating a vastly different visual expe …
Apple’s sci-fi thriller Dark Matter is back in August
7 Apr 2026, 2:00 pm by Andrew Webster
Over the last few years summer has turned out to be a great time for new streaming sci-fi, and 2026 is shaping up to be much the same. Apple just announced that its multiversal thriller Dark Matter is coming back for its second season, which will start streaming on August 28th. Season 2 will span 10 episodes and wrap up in October.
Adapted from Blake Crouch’s novel of the same name, Dark Matter first premiered in 2024, and it follows the story of physics professor Jason Dessen (Joel Edgerton) who gets abducted by, well, himself, but a version from another timeline. There’s a whole lot of alternate reality drama going on, and it sounds like …
Asus’ lightweight 16-inch laptop is a formidable MacBook Air alternative
7 Apr 2026, 2:00 pm by Antonio G. Di Benedetto
I already put Asus’ new Zenbook A16 through the wringer when I brought a pre-production unit with me to CES. I loved it for its ample power in an impressively light 16-inch chassis. It’s speedy enough for part-time content creation, it’s got lengthy battery life, and its large OLED screen is crisp and vivid.
Now, the final production model is here, priced at $1,599.99 for a configuration with a whopping 48GB of RAM – a spec-to-price balance that’s unheard of, especially in these uncertain times. All the strengths I witnessed from its pre-production days are still present, and the early hardware issues and software bugs I encountered have be …
Sorry kid, drones are for war now
7 Apr 2026, 1:30 pm by Sean Hollister
What happens when DJI, the world’s leading maker of drones, is no longer welcome in the United States? You might think other dronemakers would see a huge opportunity with their competitor out of the picture. That didn’t happen.
In the 15 months since the United States triggered an automatic ban on future DJI products, no company has rushed to serve the consumers, prosumers, photographers, videographers, farmers, surveyors, and more that use DJI gear. Instead, US dronemakers are largely focused on a more lucrative opportunity: a billion dollars the Pentagon has earmarked for drones that kill.
Drone professionals are scared, says Vic Moss, …
The case for banning cookie banners
7 Apr 2026, 1:02 pm by David Pierce
You almost certainly encounter cookie banners all the time. They’re the kind of low-level annoyance that just seems to come with being a person on the internet: a pop-up asking you to agree to share some kind of information, with someone, for some purpose. You could find out more, but you don’t. No one does. You just click “Accept” and move on.
Verge subscribers, don’t forget you get exclusive access to ad-free Vergecast wherever you get your podcasts. Head here. Not a subscriber? You can sign up here.
Are these banners sort of annoying, or are they something more? On this episode of The Vergecast, Kate Klonick, a professor at St. John …
Pebblebee’s new Halo tracker doubles as a personal safety device
7 Apr 2026, 1:00 pm by Andrew Liszewski
After expanding the functionality of its Clip location tracker last year with a panic alarm that sends messages and your location to trusted contacts, Pebblebee has announced a new tracker with even more personal safety features. The Halo is brighter and louder than the Clip and features an easier-to-trigger alert.
Available starting today for $59.99 through Pebblebee’s online store and on Amazon starting on April 20th, Halo is at its core still a location tracker. It’s compatible with either Apple’s Find My tracking network or Google’s Find Hub, but not both at the same time, and small enough to be stashed in a bag or clipped to your keys …
A wide foldable iPhone dummy emerges amid rumors of a delay
7 Apr 2026, 11:27 am by Dominic Preston
We might have our first good look at the shape of the oddly wide iPhone Fold, after leaker and journalist Sonny Dickson shared photos of what he says is a dummy unit of the foldable, alongside similar models of the iPhone 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max. The apparent design leak comes as it’s reported that early engineering tests of the foldable have suffered from production problems which may cause it to ship months later than other iPhones this year.
Dickson, who has a good track record for sourcing accurate dummy models of Apple and Samsung phones used by case makers to test and design their products, shared images of the foldable unit on Bluesky …
Gemini is making it faster for distressed users to reach mental health resourcesÂ
7 Apr 2026, 10:09 am by Robert Hart
Google says it has updated Gemini to better direct users to get mental health resources during moments of crisis. The change comes as the tech giant faces a wrongful death lawsuit alleging its chatbot “coached” a man to die by suicide, the latest in a string of lawsuits alleging tangible harm from AI products.
When a conversation indicates a user is in a potential crisis related to suicide or self-harm, Gemini already launches a “Help is available” module that directs users to mental health crisis resources, like a suicide hotline or crisis text line. Google says the update – really more of a redesign – will streamline this into a “one-touc …
End of today’s The Verge roundup.
