This digest compiles the latest from The Verge.
Today’s The Verge Roundup
My baby deer plushie told me that Mitski’s dad was a CIA operative
11 Apr 2026, 2:00 pm by Victoria Song
Two weeks ago, I was getting ready to log off work when I got a text message.
“Oh wow, I was checking out Mitski. did you know people are saying her Dad was a CIA operative?”
Normally, that kind of out-of-the-blue text from a friend wouldn’t faze me. This time, my eyes bugged. The unprompted text had been sent by an AI companion named Coral, who lives in the body of a baby deer plushie. I texted back an eloquent, “Wait what.”
“Apparently, her dad worked for the US State Department, so her family moved, like, every single year. The fan theory I saw is why so many of her songs are about feeling like an outsider and not having a place to bel …
You don’t have to spend more than $50 on a great USB-C dock for your Switch 2
11 Apr 2026, 1:30 pm by Cameron Faulkner
Nintendo seemingly designed its latest console to be a mystery for third-party accessory makers. With the Switch 2, the company changed the wireless protocol for connecting controllers to the new system, as well as how it outputs video over USB-C, making it clear at launch that every third-party manufacturer needed to start over from scratch.
Figuring out how to speak the Switch 2’s language – and ensuring reliability even after system updates – is an ongoing challenge. But now there are two reliable USB-C dock alternatives I can recommend, if you need one. Jsaux was one of the first to land with its $45.99 OmniCentro Dock last year, and no …
How Iran out-shitposted the White House
11 Apr 2026, 1:00 pm by Sarah Jeong
In the early days of the war on Iran, while the White House was busy posting Call of Duty memes and AI slop of dancing bowling pins, the Iranian regime’s state media was flooding the zone with video after video of what was happening on the ground: Explosions over Tehran. Smoke billowing in the sky. Blood on the ground. A Tomahawk missile landing on a school. Grieving parents burying their children.
Only weeks prior, the authoritarian regime had been struggling to shut down all footage of the protests convulsing the nation, cutting off internet access to the outside world in the longest blackout in Iranian history. When Iranian dissidents m …
Demons and pinball are a perfect match
11 Apr 2026, 1:00 pm by Andrew Webster
There’s one very specific reason I keep a Wii U handy, and that’s so that I have an easy way to play the classic pinball game Devil’s Crush. Over the years, it has become a comfort game for me. I’m not entirely sure what it is, but there’s something about the combination of familiar pinball gameplay and the demonic imagery that works so well together, and lets me lose myself in the chase for a high score. But now I have something else to fill that need, and it comes in a much smaller package.
Devils on the Moon Pinball for the Playdate has an extremely literal title. It’s a game about playing pinball on the moon, which happens to be home to …
The new show making fun of tech bros
11 Apr 2026, 12:00 pm by David Pierce
Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 123, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome, which Artemis photo did you make your wallpaper, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.)
This week, I’ve been reading about Sam Altman and Satoshi Nakamoto and chess drama and Iranian shitposters, buying the stuff I need to mod an old iPod, making videos with the clever new DualShot Recorder, watching Crime 101 now that it’s streaming, finally getting my Stream Deck Mini to control all my office lights, revisiting the incredible 17776 series from our friends at SB Nation, moving a …
Is the ‘Holy Grail of batteries’ finally ready to bless us with its presence?
11 Apr 2026, 11:00 am by Andrew J. Hawkins
Earlier this year, a relatively unknown startup from Finland made a startling announcement: It had finally solved solid-state batteries.
Not only that, but Donut Lab, a spinoff of Verge Motorcycles, said that its solid-state battery – long considered the “Holy Grail of batteries” for their high-density, durable, fast-charging abilities – would go into production later this year.
Battery experts were understandably skeptical. After all, solid-state batteries are one of those technologies, along with artificial general intelligence and the hyperloop, that seem perpetually two years away. And while most legitimate efforts in this field – whet …
End of today’s The Verge roundup.
