This digest compiles the latest from The Verge.
Today’s The Verge Roundup
Over 200,000 power banks sold on Amazon are being recalled for a fire risk
11 Dec 2025, 3:08 pm by Andrew Liszewski
A company called INIU has issued a recall for its BI-B41 10,000mAh power banks because the lithium-ion batteries they use “can overheat and ignite, posing fire and burn hazards to consumers.” The company has received 15 reports of the power banks overheating resulting in 11 fires causing over $380,000 in property damage and three minor burn injuries, according to the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC).
The recall covers about 210,000 of the power banks that were sold through Amazon between August 2021 and April 2022 for around $18. The recalled power banks can be identified by their blue or black case featuring the INIU company lo …
AT&T’s new home security system is powered by Google Home and Abode
11 Dec 2025, 3:00 pm by Jess Weatherbed
AT&T is launching Connected Life, a new smart home security offering built around Google Home that keeps working during power or internet outages. Connected Life can be self-installed and features smart home cameras from Google Nest and security hardware from Abode, as well as professional monitoring.
This follows Google launching APIs for its smart home platform last year, which are also used by ADT’s newest security system, ADT Plus. The Connected Life service is AT&T’s latest attempt to step into the world of home security after shutting down Digital Life in 2022, a 3G-based home automation and security service that launched in 2013.
Co …
The kid-friendly console that outsold Xbox during Black Friday is $50 off
11 Dec 2025, 2:42 pm by Cameron Faulkner
The Nex Playground is a motion-controlled, cube-shaped console for ages five and up that’s selling like hotcakes. It came in third for home console sales during Black Friday week, according to sales data shared on Bluesky from Mat Piscatella of Circana, falling behind only Nintendo’s Switch 2 and Sony’s PlayStation 5. That’s an impressive feat for Nex, and not a great look for Microsoft’s Xbox consoles, which saw two price hikes this year.
If you missed your chance to pick one up at its 20 percent off sale price, you can do so now through December 14th. Best Buy and Walmart are selling it for $199.99.
Nex Playground
Where to Buy:
The Nex Playground includes the console itself, a remote for navigating its menus, a power supply and HDMI cable, as well as a magnetic privacy cover that snaps onto the Playground’s camera lens. There are a ton of games that you can download to the Playground — all of which are controlled by moving your body — although the console comes with just five to get you started (Fruit Ninja, Starri, Party Fowl, Go Keeper, and Whack-a-Mole Deluxe are all pretty fun).
If you want more, including a bunch of licensed games involving Elmo, Bluey, Care Bears, How to Train Your Dragon, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Peppa Pig, you’ll need a Play Pass to access them. New games are added to the catalog every season, and are automatically downloaded to your Playground.
OpenAI’s billion-dollar Disney deal puts Mickey Mouse and Marvel in Sora
11 Dec 2025, 2:32 pm by Richard Lawler
A new three-year licensing agreement announced between Disney and ChatGPT operator OpenAI will allow the Sora video generator to create “user-prompted social videos” that feature more than 200 characters from Disney, Marvel, Pixar, and Star Wars.
According to OpenAI’s blog post announcing the deal:
Sora will be able to generate short, user-prompted social videos that can be viewed and shared by fans, drawing from a set of more than 200 animated, masked and creature characters from Disney, Marvel, Pixar and Star Wars, including costumes, props, vehicles, and iconic environments. In addition, ChatGPT Images will be able to turn a few words …
The Game Awards are losing their luster
11 Dec 2025, 1:00 pm by Ash Parrish
It’s Game Awards season, y’all. That special time of the year when we gather together to celebrate video games and the people who make them… by watching expensive commercials briefly punctuated by the odd awards speech or musical performance. For better or worse, The Game Awards is the biggest night on the video game event calendar. But with the way things have been going, lately it’s been more “worse” than it has been “better.”
Between host and industry hypeman Geoff Keighley’s two video game vanity projects, The Game Awards is older and ostensibly more mature than Summer Game Fest. Conceived in 2014 as a way to celebrate both the people w …
Adobe sees a bright future as AI bet pays off
11 Dec 2025, 11:06 am by Jess Weatherbed
Entrenching generative AI into Adobe’s creative software ecosystem is paying off, according to the company’s latest earnings. While its share price has fallen by more than 37 percent this year at the time of writing, Adobe is reporting a bump in annual profits driven by record revenue of $23.77 billion for 2025 – an 11 percent increase year-over-year that it’s largely attributing to AI.
“Adobe’s record FY2025 results reflect our growing importance in the global AI ecosystem and the rapid adoption of our AI-driven tools,” said Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen in the press release. The company is now targeting to increase annual recurring revenue ( …
Ayaneo’s first Android phone looks like a return of the Xperia Play
11 Dec 2025, 9:16 am by Dominic Preston
Retro gaming handheld manufacturer Ayaneo has finally revealed the design of its first Android phone, which has been teased since August. Fittingly, it too is a throwback – to 2011’s Sony Ericcson Xperia Play.
The Pocket Play has a screen that slides up to reveal a full set of inset physical controls, including a D-pad, ABXY fact buttons, and two circular touch pads. There are twin sets of shoulder buttons round the back of the phone too, though no sign of a 3.5mm headphone jack.
Unfortunately, that’s all we know. The Pocket Play is only confirmed to launch “soon,” and the Kickstarter campaign page doesn’t reveal a single spec.
It’s actua …
End of today’s The Verge roundup.
